Another surprise in the garden!

We were cleaning out the flower beds in the front yard when JP discovered these "paper lanterns". I recognized them as part of the gooseberry family because I have grown tomatillos before. I didn't know if they were edible (I didn't even know what they were!) but after a quick search on Google we identified them as ground cherries, a.k.a. cape gooseberries.

I had absolutely NO idea on how they ended up in our front yard flower garden. I know I didn't plant them! While we were harvesting them off the ground, JP noticed that the plant was located beneath the bird bath and came to the conclusion that a bird must have eaten a gooseberry "then pooped the seeds while drinking at our birdbath".

I don't know how they got there (but JP's answer is probably the most feasible!) but I'm glad they found their way into the garden. I'm going to save the seeds from a few of them to plant in the backyard next spring. The rest we'll make into a ground cherry pie.
I'm so excited over this find ('cause I'm nerdy like that!). I'm even more excited that this plant can take harsh conditions and doesn't mind being neglected in the garden. Hopefully by this time next year we'll be make pints and pints of ground cherry jam!

Oh, and in case you were wondering,
ground cherries taste like a mixture of banana and pineapple with the texture of a tomato.