Ground cherries in a Vilonia ditch, what else can you forage around here?

Went out to Saddle Creek in Vilonia last fall to see my sister and the whole ditch bank between Palomino and Appaloosa was covered in ground cherries. Still green in late October, I remember because I stopped the car and looked. Husks everywhere. Wondering if anybody's been back to check on them this year.

My mother called them husk tomatoes and made preserves, but she only used the ones that had dropped off the plant and turned yellow. Said the green ones would make you sick and I've always believed her.

Got me thinking what else is out there that's worth picking around Conway and Vilonia. I know persimmons come on in the fall, and my daddy used to find pawpaws down in the bottoms near Beaverfork. Muscadines too. And poke sallet, which my grandmother cooked up in spring, boiled twice, never raw.

Also what to leave alone. I'd like to know what looks like something good but isn't. And I'd worry about a ditch the county might spray, so anybody know if they do that out there?

Not looking to start a fight over anybody's secret spot, just curious what folks know.

Your mom had it right on the ground cherries. Wait for them to drop and the husk to go papery tan, then the fruit is yellow and sweet. Green ones in the husk aren't something you want to eat. I see them at the farmers market some Saturdays, and the vendor always says the same thing, let them fall on their own.

Muscadines should be coming on about now, so keep an eye out along fence rows and the edges of woods. Persimmons after a frost or two. If you bite one too early you'll regret it, it's like chewing a dry sock.

What to leave alone: anything in a ditch that looks like Queen Anne's lace. Water hemlock likes wet ground and looks a lot like it. Black nightshade also gets mistaken for ground cherry plants if you're not sure what you're looking at. And I'd skip anything right along the road, since you don't know what's been sprayed or what ran off the pavement. I don't know if the county does anything out there in Saddle Creek, might be worth a call to the road department.

Take care