garden goodness: seed pods

The secret to homemade salsa verde bliss begins with this magical pod.

Each autumn I leave a few dozen of my backyard tomatillos to wither on their vines. The fruits drop, then they begin a transformation. 

By the end of winter, this is what remains: feather-light, intricate and lacy pods...

...each with as many as 50 tiny seeds inside.

Brilliantly engineered, pods on the ground will dry out when the days are warm enough for germination, and each will roll like a tumbleweed with the slightest breeze, distributing the seeds far and wide to ensure the next season's generation of tomatillos.

As for me, I will collect my pods and plant the seeds in containers in early May after any danger of frost has passed here in the Willamette Valley. By late July I should be harvesting my first batch of bright green tomatillos in their charming "paper lantern" husks and will be well on my way to homemade salsa verde bliss.

For more information on growing tomatillos, visit How to Grow Tomatillos on the Backyard Gardening Blog.