Sunday, September 07, 2008

Surprise in the garden: pineapple tomatillos

We planted plenty of new things in the garden this year. Some with wonderful outcomes like chocolate cherry tomatoes, big beautiful heirloom tomatoes, tangerine thyme, and even some producing cucumbers. But we've also planted some duds. Duds=eggplants and zucchini that have just puttered out. Zucchini! Whatevs.

I was about to put the tomatillo plants into the dud category until I saw pineapple tomatillos for sale at the Portland Farmer's Market. They looked just like ours! Tiny! And then AdRi put it together: yes we had planted pineapple tomatillos, and they looked just like the ones for sale at the market. Tiny!
a tiny pineapple tomatillo
What I thought was a failure was actually a success. But even more successful is the taste of these in my mouth. Bracing myself for the tangy taste of tomatillos, I was pleasantly surprised to discover they're sweet, like citrus really, and really mellow and wonderful. And like tomatillos, they come disguised in this papery husk:
pineapple tomatillos in their husks
I love new surprises in the garden. Especially when they're not failures but sweet surprising success.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I tried Pineapple Tomatillos for the first time this year. The nice man at the tomato stand at the farmer's market encouraged me. Whoa! I am so growing these next year.

Jocelyn:McAuliflower said...

whooo and what an intriguing name for them. they sound like gems- I'm sold!

Anonymous said...

Sounds excellent -- maybe I'll give 'em a try next year.

Sarah Bott said...

I would love to try those--growing up in Hawaii, Pineapple is pretty much my State fruit. I haven't heard of them before.

Oh! I had such hopes for gardening before my second dog came along! Now my garden is virtually a dog park. I can't complain, but I do miss musing about the garden, enjoying all the smells and fresh tastes! What to do!

Lylah Ledner said...

sweet....we just planted these today....tiniest little seeds....

Rozanne said...

Yay! You know what? I love the husks! (I am a fan off all things dried out and husk-like.) I'll bet there's some kind of crafty thing you can do with them.

Best Wishes, Marie said...

i have been surging around cuz i tried tomatillo salsa and it was a bit bland. not bad for a first stab. i am thrilled to learn about these pinapple tomatillos. i also saw some purple ones. thought that might interest you.

B @ DesiGrub said...

Your pineapple tomatillos looks really great. Did you grow them in 2009 and 2010? I just tried them this year and here is the report at http://desigrub.com/2010/10/pineapple-tomatillo/ . I would love to hear your comments.

Sweater's Pram said...

Grew some pineapple tomatillos for the first time this year. Just tried the first one. WOW! next year I'll put at least 6 plants in. We got ours from Fullerton Arboretum annual plant sale and I grew these as a novelty.