Pichuberries and Red Currants

When you can just look longingly at your Friday evening cheese board because of your Whole30 Adventure, you curse loudly in your head and just eat the fruits. Along with the Cowgirl Creamery's Devil's Gulch cheese and Norwegian Gjetost, I plated slices of regular and gluten-free bread, pichuberries, and red currants.

It's been a long time since I first tried pichuberries, so I'll remind my readers of them. You might see them sold as 'golden berries' or 'Incan ground cherries.'

What is a pichuberry? you ask. It's a Peruvian fruit known as aguaymanto or Inca berry. It looks like a small, golden tomatillo; it's about the size of a large marble. R's assessment: it tastes like a mix between a star fruit and a tomato. He's right.

From my reading...the pichuberry has almost 20 times the vitamin C as an orange and could be known as an anti-diabetic fruit. They reduce sugar levels in the blood and stimulating hormones that secrete insulin in diabetic patients.

At the same market where I found the pichuberries, I also found red currants. I know what they are and I've had dried ones, but I've never tried fresh ones.

They hang in grape-like clusters, like carmine-hued bubbles suspended on a wispy branch. The tiny globe-shaped currants burst in your mouth and release a sweet-tart juice. I loved them! I can't wait to track these oddball fruits down again.

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