Pie #12: Belated Birthday Pie (Ground Cherry Pie)

One year ago I celebrated my birthday with a room of academics who study computer experiments.  We were participating in a conference at Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical  Sciences in Cambridge, UK.  The traditional conference dinner occurred on the evening of my birthday, and (unbeknownst to me) my advisor was informed that it was my special day.  Since he was one of the organizers of the conference, he stood up to make the typical conference organizer 'Thanks for your participation in this conference' speech and at the end asked if anyone having a birthday would make themselves known.  I was the only one - at least the only one who came forward.  Luckily I was quick on my feet and was able to divert my embarrassment with a laugh by thanking everyone for attending my party.

This story yields the perfect set-up for a probability problem:  Say there are 100 computer experimenters in a room; what is the probability that any two of them will share the same birthday?  The short answer (with a few distributional generalizations) is 0.9999997.  If you'd like to see the math at work, see Wikipedia or feel free to set up an office hour with me.  Note that the question above is a very different question than asking 'What is the probability that someone else at the banquet (one of the other 99 people) has the same birthday as myself?'  This answer is a less surprising 0.2378.

Now that our probability lesson is over, let's talk pie.  The conference banquet ended with a dessert decorated with two little small fruits.  Everyone around me made guesses as to what they were: mini tomatoes, tomatilloes, etc.  I knew instantly what they were - ground cherries!  No one sitting near me had heard of a ground cherry before yet there the little fruits lay.  They were still connected to their shell which was peeled back one panel at a time - much fancier than the ground cherries I'd previously encountered.

 

My first memories of ground cherries are connected to my great-grandma Lantz (aka Granny).  I loved to visit her on the farm.  We would drink water from her well using the tin cup that hung outside her shop, gather eggs from the chickens, pick golden raspberries out by the truck-patch, and play with her very shaggy and very matted dog Queenie.  It is Granny's recipe that I used to make my belated birthday pie. 

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Ground Cherry Pie

Ingredients:
1 pie crust (9-inch)

ground cherries
1 c. sugar
3-4 eggs
1 T. flour
1 c. milk

Pie Algorithm:
1. Stir sugar, eggs, and flour.  Add milk.

2. Put ground cherries in unbaked pie shell (1 layer deep) and pour mixture over top.

3. Bake at 400F for 10 minutes then reduce to 350F for 40 more minutes.

*Note: My family often makes this as a raspberry pie instead.  Other berries would probably be just as delightful!

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I want to extend a special thanks to my parents who allowed me to use their ground cherries - which have been growing like the weed that they are.  Also, thanks to Wanda for the lovely pie pictures from Pie #11 and Pie #12!