The Mysterious Gift

Sunny and mild all day. We had a thunderstorm last night much worse than Elsa with gusty wind and heavy rain. Some areas got hail. Up early to put back everything we picked up before Thursday’s tropical storm. Hubby and his Knights did their quarterly trash pick up along a local highway. I worked in the garden and decided to ask the Seek app what this volunteer plant is in my garden. Because of its immature fruit, I thought it was a tomatillo; I was close. According to Seek and my Google search, this is a ground cherry. The picture only shows about 1/4 of the huge plant that is laden with fruit. “Physalis is a berry in the Solanaceae plant family, which includes tomatillos, goldenberries, and ground cherries. It has anti-inflammatory and cancer-fighting properties. Physalis contains steroids called withanolides. Withanolides can help fight inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis, lupus, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).” I feel it was Heaven sent because I have never heard of this plant before. I have Barrett’s esophagus and am unable to take any anti-inflammatory drugs, like Ibuprofen. If the information is true, I can eat ground cherry jam to relieve swelling and intense ache in my knees and other joints after a hard day’s work. What a wonderful gift. We spent many hours researching camp sites and finally settled on one in Chesterfield, VA. We will go for a week around Labor Day. So, we will get to use our camper twice this year-pitiful. We attended 5:00 pm Mass that was celebrated by our temporary additional priest who is 26 years old. We are going to enjoy his 10 week visit. Hopefully, tonight’s dinner will finish up our leftovers. I am ready for wings, steak, chops, pasta, anything new! “He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.” - Thomas Carlyle. Thanks for visiting.