[carlotta]

Mine are growing quite well and are about 6 inches high no sign of any flowers yet.

[Annen]

I picked a couple of fruits where the paper cover had split



and had a taste







and my first reaction was good.  Firm flesh, sharp lemony taste.  I don't know whether they are ripe though, I'll try leaving them a bit longer to see whether the taste changes.

[New shoot]

They are quite zesty and lemony Annen.  If you leave them the texture changes and they go softer, but I think personally they are better tastewise as you have picked them 

As BacktoBasics said salsa and chutney are good uses for them.  I didn't find them that great to eat raw in salad, but if you like them raw, happy days, as they are very prolific fruiters 

[carlotta]

I have lots of fruit on my plants and they are still flowering away.

I have picked some and quite liked the taste of a raw one. However they seem to be a good addition when making vegtable savoury rice. 

[barbarella]

Just browsing to see if anyone had posted about tomatilloes and found this thread. 

I also grew tomatilloes and cucamelons from James Wong seed  this year and they have both been brilliant.  I planted out the tomatilloes on the allotment as he suggested and have absolutely loads but am wondering whether to wait until they have gone purple or whether you can harvest them green.  I am not sure what to do with the bumper harvest as I don't know how much salsa we can eat!  Any (polite) suggestions would be welcome

The cucamelons have also been fantastic both in the greenhouse and on the allotment but I fancy the flavour of the outdoor ones is a bit better - maybe better light?  They ignored the supports I put up and just scrambled up anything in the vicinity - I am having to hunt for my tomatoes!  Cucamelons are great for finger buffets and hors d'oevres  and they have been a real talking point among friends and fellow allotmenteers and a couple of people have asked me if I can get them a packet of seeds when I put my horticulatural society seed order in (we get a good discount).   I would certainly recommend them as an easy crop and fun for kids to grow (perhaps as a school project?)

[Annen]

I've had quite a few tomatilloes so far, but I think the blurb exaggerated when it said they are far more productive than tomatoes.  Like you I haven't quite known what to do with them as we don't go much for spicy food, which makes salsa verde a bit redundant!


I usually give them to my son as he often does tex-mex.


I am trying to crystallise some with a view to covering them with dark chocolate and giving them as gifts.  But I'm only on the first day so far.

[carlotta]

I had far too many tomatilos to use and have pulled up the plants and composted them 

I am not going to grow them next year as they were just ok... but more of an experiment really.

[Annen]

I had far too many tomatilos to use and have pulled up the plants and composted them 

I am not going to grow them next year as they were just ok... but more of an experiment really.

I agree, an experiment.  Unless these crystallised ones turn out brilliantly, I can't see me growing them again.