Wait, do some tomatillos have a flavor similar to prickly pear cactus fruit? 
That makes them sound very appealing – I love the flavor of prickly pear cactus fruit, but I don’t want those glochids in my yard.
Yes! But… there’s a big but! The green tomatillos especially have prickly pear cactus flavor but I strictly mean only the flavor & texture of green cactus pears, not the sweetness of green cactus pears. Both flavor & texture is similar except without the seediness of Cactus Pears (Opuntia ficus-indica). And… I’m only taking about fully ripe Tomatillos (like those nearly over-ripe & near the borderline of going to rot if not eaten soon stage), at that point no sourness remains. Less ripe green tomatillos are definitely sour & mildly acidic.
Here’s the overripe Tomatillo, the texture & flavor are very similar but wayyy less seedy.
Ohhhh . . . (pouts). So we’re not talking about something that would be a perfect replacement for tuna fruits raw. But might it taste similar to tunas if turned into jam?
I’ve never tried Cactus Pear fruit jam or Tomatillo Jam, so I don’t know. I don’t make jam nor do I eat jam normally.
I usually think if the only way to enjoy the fruit is in Jam form with tons of sugar, it’s not a good fruit. Fortunately Tomatillos & Cactus Pears/Tunas are good on their own but I would like to experiment with cooking with them.
(Nods.) I agree, and I wouldn’t plant something on purpose if the fruit was only good for making jam with . . . but I sure am okay with foraging fruits that are best made into jam! 
hmm… what wild fruits do you use for jams? I assume wild red hawthorns is on the list?
Thornless cockspur hawthorn (Crataegus crus-galli var. inermis), for sure. I like to get lots of those. They’re tasty to eat fresh, so I eat them fresh, too; the flavor is mild, but it’s quite pleasant as a little snack.
Same goes for black hawthorn (Crataegus douglasii), but I don’t like collecting those as much because they are thorny.
I’ve eaten firethorn (Pyracantha sp) and eaten Oregon grape (Berberis aquifolium) fresh; I’ve also made jam out of firethorn. I don’t much like harvesting either of those because of prickliness, and firethorn’s taste is so mild that it’s downright insipid, so I won’t bother with that again. I ought to go to the annoyance of harvesting Oregon grape again to make jam with sometime, though, because I’ve heard it’s quite good.
Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster sp) is also very insipid. The taste is fine but almost flavorless raw (I harvested them after many frosts), and the jam is just as almost-flavorless as the fresh berries. They don’t have thorns, so the berries aren’t hard to harvest, but it’s still not really worth the bother of harvesting them.
Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) makes excellent jam. It’s way too astringent to eat fresh, but the flavor is strong and quite pleasant, and it’s fine without sugar.
Black elderberry (Sambucus sp) is so bitter that it’s absolutely vile to eat raw, and it’s mildly poisonous when raw, too. It makes very good jam when you add A LOT of sugar, though. And I mean, a pretty ridiculous amount. That one isn’t a wild bush, it’s my neighbor’s bush that she lets me harvest fruit from most years, so it’s more like gleaning than foraging.
Blue elderberry (Sambucus cerulea) is pretty pleasant to eat raw, and it makes excellent jam that doesn’t need very much added sugar.
Mulberries are great raw, and also make great jam.
Dog rose hips are pretty good raw and make pretty good jam, although removing those little tiny itchy hairs from the middle is a pain. Oddly, they taste a lot like pumpkin or sweet potato. I think they must be high in beta carotine. I bet you could make a great dog rose hip jam that tasted like pumpkin pie if you added dessert spices to it.
Those are the only ones I can think of that I’ve foraged and made jam out of.
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What a great resource! I am growing 3 P. peruviana varieties, one P. grisea, and one P. minima and one unknown physalis volunteer plant this year. I am hoping to get some crossing going. I hope GTS adds ground cherries as a seed listing eventually, I will certainly be sending in seeds at the end of the season! I am happy to swap physalis seeds with anyone!
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I was surprised they didn’t have it as a category! Wouldn’t be surprised if it was in one of the Fukuoka mixes though…
I grew Physalis Peruviana, Physalis Virginiana, Physalis Ixocarpa and Physalis Pruinosa this year. Tried crosses between all of them. None worked.
With Pruinosa(grisea) fertilization was not succesful and fruit did not develop.
Also Tomatillo as the female parent didn’t work for any cross.
Physalis Peruviana was the most compatible with consistent fruit set with Tomatillo and Virginiana pollen(but not Pruinosa).
In the end I got lots of very small, probably embryo aborted seeds for every succesful fruit set except for one seed that was normal sized in Physalis Virginiana x Physalis Peruviana(f) (I will try to germinate it but I doubt it is viable).
I still have 4 fruits that need to ripen(Physalis Ixocarpa x Physalis Virginiana(f)) but I doubt they will contain viable seeds.
P Ixocarpa x P Peruviana(f) fruit
The crosses involving Physalis Peruviana might work if I use a diploid Peruviana. The problem is that there isn’t any info about the variety ‘Schönbrunner Gold’ which is a very early selection of Physalis Peruviana. It might have been diploid which means crosses with Peruviana don’t work either way.
There are still some species I could try(Physalis angulata, Physalis coztomatl…) but this has been a disappointment and I want to focus more on Cucurbits and other projects.
@VeggieSavage
Also, Tomatillos(for me, I grew a genetically diverse mix this year) sometimes taste sweet(depending on the plant) but they have a weird, unpleasant aftertaste so in my experience they are much better used for salsa than eaten fresh. I might start a project sometime in the future where I take the sweetest Tomatillo varieties and let them cross pollinate and keep selecting from the sweetest/ best tasting(no weird fermented aftertaste) plants
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Oh no… 
I think you mean Physalis grisea rather than the true Physalis pruinosa which is a wild mexican species not a garden plant sold in seed shops.
Yikes… did you also try the other way? I also wonder how would scion swap grafting help smooth out these hybridization problems? I bet scion swaping grafting seedlings would have a big effect.
Yes try to germinate that 1 seed that was normal sized, I always like to give it a chance because surprises happen.
I’ve heard this weird flavor is described as cheese-like? and yes definitely go for it, seleciting the best flavored tomatillo with sweet fruits. So far I really enjoy fully ripe P. grisea & P. longifolia fruits, tomatillo is nice too.
I got Tomatillo x Physalis longifolia hybrids through accidental cross pollination(bumblebees)!(Will post updates soon)
hand pollination probably failed because i only tried on one flower in the middle of the heatwave
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Yes, Physalis Grisea. I’m just used to calling it Physalis Pruinosa because ground cherries are almost always sold as Physalis Pruinosa
I made a post about it, and yes we’ve all been collectively misapplying the Physalis pruinosa scientific name ever since.