by Jason F. Searock
Pennsylvania German Historian and Storyteller
When we look around our homeland in the heart of what was once known as the Dutch Townships, along the Bucks and Montgomery County Lines in Penn’s Proprietorship, it is a bit harder to see that this is part of the largest German Settlement or “Colony” in the history of the world. However, as we look deeper, we see that many of the road names and the signs of family businesses are clearly German names. Pennsylvania was of course not colonized by the German nation, which did not even exist at that time, but rather by our founder William Penn.
In the early 1700s, Penn had agents hang signs in the Rhineland-Palatinate Regions to invite the hardworking Alsatians, Germans and Anabaptist Swiss to populate and cultivate the hinterlands of his Holy Experiment. They brought their language and culture with them. The Pennsylvania German language, which is recognized as an official dialect of the High German Language, used to be very prominent. It was often heard daily at places like Landis Supermarket until as recently as 20 or so years ago.
As the Pennsylvania German dialect died off in this region, it has become increasingly more difficult to see this as the dominant heritage by outsiders, let alone the present generations of Pennsylvania Germans themselves. However, what is one of the most cherished things in almost any heritage or ethnicity that seems to last? What else but FOOD!? What foods people have traditionally eaten over the centuries are often dictated by local geography, such as pork and sauerkraut eaten by Dutchies on New Year’s Day to avoid a lousy year, or seafood dishes for more seafaring cultures.
There are many other Pennsylvania German foods such as scrapple, sausage, apple butter, funny cake or molasses treats like shoofly pie. Dandelions or Loewenzahn (Lion’s tooth in German) may also come to mind. Dandelion is a European plant, used by English and Germans for medicinal purposes, that became a weed due to its aggressive nature in our soils. Some may be familiar that dandelions are eaten as the first greens with hot bacon dressing on Gruendonnerstag or Maundy Thursday. The list of German foods could go on and on, but there is, in my opinion, one very particular berry that is predominantly known only to Pennsylvania German Areas – the Groundcherry or Yudekasche in Pennsylfanische Deitsch. No other fruit seems so connected with German emigration and settlements.
The groundcherry is the almost weed-like yellowish green berry that grows in its own little husk or calyx. It does have mixed reviews by many Pennsylvania Germans, it has been said that you love it or hate it. The uniqueness of the groundcherry sets it aside as one of the lesser known but prolific pie berries.
It invokes many wonderful memories or funny stories of those who never like those “chew cherries.” I have been to certain parts of Pennsylvania where it is relatively unknown versus the almost infamous Shoofly Pie. Considering groundcherries grow like weeds, you may also think that it is native to Penn’s Woods, but is for the most part a transplant like the Dandelion brought by our forebearers. There is a North American native variety, its Latin name calls it the Virginia species. I sought out the oral tradition of the Lenni Lenape who mentioned the husk can be crushed and used as an ointment, but overall there is very little indigenous reference to the groundcherry.
As I mentioned, the groundcherry has mixed reviews. A Mennonite Pastor once told me when he was kid there seemed to be so many around the sweet corn his father sent him out to harvest that he would trample them down because he never liked those strange berries. Then there are others who have cherished memories of their family making groundcherry pie, after their nana or pop had them set the husked berries out on screens or old doors in the attic where they would fully ripen before being used in the harvest pie. Many families from Telford like the Fenstermachers or Musselmans shared how there was always a yudekascheboi or groundcherry pie at their Thanksgiving dessert table.
As a storyteller, I pass on the oral traditions of those things that I have been told or seek out to find such as asking firsthand at a local breakfast counter or today through social media posts that fortunately I am able to make.
I posted to social media and questioned a few locals to find out how well-known the groundcherry is to those outside of Southeastern Pennsylvania. A former Souderton resident who moved to New Hampshire told me that she enjoys groundcherry pie and grows them, but it was completely unknown to her new neighbors in New Hampshire. I determined that it seems to be best-known to places where Germans have settled. It is especially well-known and served at diners in Holmes County Ohio, and the Moravians of Gnadenhuetten, Ohio are also quite used to harvesting groundcherries. Throughout most of Pennsylvania it is common in Mennonite and Amish communities near Lewisburg and of course Lancaster. I personally buy my groundcherries at Ray’s Greenhouse, which is one of the few greenhouses in Eastern Pennsylvania where I have ever seen them sold. I inquired with one of the newer girls there from the Mayville, Lawrence County Area and she stated that she never saw any until arriving in Franconia.
While I have been able to determine that the groundcherry does have a native-to-America cousin called the Virginia physalis, I have not been able to find very much written about it except that the leaves are crumbled from the husk and can be used as a salve on wounds – this seems to be fairly well documented. The ground cherry in Europe, where it became popular with Germans, is known popularly as the Chinese / Japanese Lantern, which is where the German “Lampionblume” originates. It is spoken about in the medieval age of Germany by Hildegard von Bingen. She writes about it in her various essays on the use of herbs and foods in folk remedies. This is what likely popularized it in German areas.
Interestingly, the plant originates somewhere in Peru or the Andes and most likely made its way around by sea travelers, who stopped along the coast of central South America possibly near Suriname where it is called the “chu chuvu” which I find quite close to the term chew chew berry.
The Groundcherry spread throughout the British Empire in places that have deep connections to the Great Awakening movements of John Wesley and the Moravians. When asked on social media, a Hawaiian resident confirmed to me that it is quite well-known there in the former British Colony. It is written that it is found all over the island of Jamaica, still part of the British Commonwealth with heavy Moravian influences. The only place where it was commercially sold was in the Western Cape of South Africa where it was called the Cape Goose Berry, but still the very same groundcherry. The first Christian Mission in the Cape Colony was the Moravian Mission at Genendal in 1738.
You may never have thought that much about this groundcherry, but after countless hours of research online and via social media, I can assure you there may be none more beloved, and at the same time disliked, than the groundcherry! Not surprising, then, that it also has a small bit of controversy.
The Pennsylvania German dialect name, the Yudekasche or Judenkirsche which translates to jewcherry often became corrupted in English as chew cherry, as it was called by my Great Aunt. This started as the dialect began to die off. One may ask why in the world would it be referred to as Yudekasche or Jewish cherry? It was so named because the husk or calyx looks very much like “das Hut” or hat worn by Jewish men of medieval Germany. The name was not meant to be derogatory at all but was simply the name handed down over the ages to our ancestors. That does not mean we can simply ignore the Anti-Semitic feelings that were prevalent in Germany over the ages.
The Pennsylvania German Language is a 17th century Palatinate or Swabian dialect that was used by the common folk in the villages of greater Germany. This “vulgar” language of common folk often used less than acceptable words to describe things due to lack of formal education. An example of this is the verbs used for eating in Deitsch are often the High German words commonly used only for the feeding or eating of farm animals. In the many smaller villages of 17th Century Germany and Switzerland many German folk had little dealings with the thriving Jewish communities of German cities, but may have been familiar with their dress. The name likely originated centuries ago in some medieval German market place when a peddler, or as many in the past knew them locally, a “huckster”, showed up with the Lampionblume for sale.
It is unfortunate that Anti-Semitic references were present in Luther’s Medieval Germany and we cannot change the past, but rather learn from it. Today in the dialect it might best be referred to as the “Huttekasche” or even hat cherry, as that would have a less negative connotation for those who are German readers.
So now when you enjoy a piece of groundcherry pie you can rest assured that you are eating a part of a unique history of the Pennsylvania Germans of this region. And you likely have learned more about it than you ever wanted to know! Be proud of this heritage and what I consider the official berry of the Pennsylvania German, the Groundcherry.
