I grow them in with tomatoes in the cold greenhouse in Manchester, UK and have been growing them for about 15 years. I train the (branching) stems to wires so I end up with a big bush (I don't side-shoot them like the cordon tomatoes). I grow a few more outside where there is some yield on smaller plants. Tomatillo in Spanish means "little tomato" - in Mexico these are "tomates" while what we can tomatoes are "jitomates". They sell them in the market with the husks off and they grow a good deal bigger than mine (golf ball rather than chestnut sized. In Mexico they are an essential ingredient of salsa verde ("green sauce") made from by stewing chopped tomatillos, coriander leaf, onion, chilli and sugar. Try it on a maize (or if you must wheat) tortilla with a fried egg on top - huevos rancheros. They store on the kitchen worktop in their husks until they are all used, about the end of January, so they are a winter source of vitamin C (I suppose but I don't know how much it deteriorates in storage) - and they save buying imported or tinned tomatoes since they are used in much the same way in sauces, curries etc. But they have their own distinctive taste and texture - once acquired it is irresistible. But it is possible to make a passable salsa verde using gooseberries instead.

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