Pawpaw Time

[Leo Schordje]

Nephew with his favorite native North American Fruit, the Pawpaw. By the way, the extra arm is not his, our family isn't a punch line to a Jeff Foxworthy joke, just yet. Thanks for the comment G.

Southern US the pawpaws are about done, for northern IL, WI, MI & OH the pawpaws should be in season until about Oct. 1.

Eat 'em up, yum.

Interesting fruit. They are ripe when soft and fragrant. There is very little color change as it ripens. The thin skin should be peeled off, it tastes bitter. The flesh tastes like a blend of vanilla custard, apricot or peach, a touch of pineapple and is very sweet. There are many big hard seeds that should not be eaten. Pawpaws is a wild fruit, very little has been done to domesticate it. Therefore the quality varies wildly from tree to tree. If you don't like the flavor of the first one you try, just find another tree and try its fruit. When good, they are great. You find them in open forests and at forest edges.
Enjoy.

 

[likespaphs]

groovy!
i think fedco trees may sell some.

 

[NYEric]

I've heard of them but never tasted them. I wonder if they sell them in chinatown?

 

[Paph_LdyMacBeth]

"Pickin' up paw-paws, put 'em in your pockets,
Pickin' up paw-paws, put 'em in your pockets,
Pickin' up paw-paws, put 'em in your pockets,
Way down yonder in the paw-patch."

...someone had to do it!

 

[Leo Schordje]

:rollhappy:

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

HOT DANG! REDNECK FOOD!

You know I lived in paw-paw country for over 20 years never ate one. I guess I missed out!

 

[Leo Schordje]

HOT DANG! REDNECK FOOD!

You know I lived in paw-paw country for over 20 years never ate one. I guess I missed out!

Don't feel bad, pawpaws are easy to miss. This picture was taken in the woods just behind my sister's house in southern IL, the other side of her boundry fence is the Shawnee National Forest. She had been there almost 10 years before we found the pawpaws. And they were less than 100 yards from the house. Because they are green, they are hard to spot. The way we found them the first time was trying to figure out what smelled so sweet. On a humid and still afternoon, you can smell the ripe pawpaws from quite a distance. Here is my technique

1.) walk into the woods into an area where you see a bunch of tall shrubs or small trees with big magnolia-like leaves in the understory.
2.) Sniff the air for a distinctive, sweet, vanilla-peach like fragrance. If you can smell it, there are ripe pawpaws somewhere nearby.
3.) Shake the trees that are over 8 feet tall. Or kick the trunks of trees too big to shake using your hands. If there are any ripe pawpaws in the tree, they will drop with a thud. They can weigh up to a pound each, so watch your head. (deer browse green pawpaws before they are ripe, that is why you have to go for trees that are taller, short ones will never have any fruit because the deer will have gotten there first)
4)pick up da pawpaws 'n put 'em in yer pocket :rollhappy:

They do not keep much beyond a couple days, so only pick what you want to eat or use. They are interesting fresh, or spoon out flesh and add to milk shakes, or use pulp to make an ice cream, or as a substitute for banana pulp in a banana bread recipe.

 

[kentuckiense]

I'm a big fan. Around here they taste like a blend of pineapple and banana.

 

[Leo Schordje]

I'm a big fan. Around here they taste like a blend of pineapple and banana.

That is a good description. it is a really elusive flavor to describe. Some do have a note of peach & banana, some it is more distinctly pineapple & banana. And every now and then you run into one that is more of an industrial aromatic smell that you just end up just tossing out.

Not much has been done yet with domestication, so there is a fair amount of variability in flavor and texture.

 

[SlipperFan]

When I was growing up, there was a Paw Paw tree in the woods near us. I don't know why I never ate the fruit.

 

[Heather]

There is one at NEWFS, but I never saw any fruit on it.
Would like to try it one day!

Great photo, too, Leo!

 

[biothanasis]

I do not think i have ever tasted it!!! It sounds delicious!

 

[PaphMadMan]

A little pawpaw trivia dredged from deep memory...

There are several species, all native to eastern North America.

Asimina triloba is the northernmost and most widely spread species.

Related to tropical fruits cherimoya and soursop, and to the plant that yields the essential oil ylang-ylang.

Higher in protein and fatty acids than most fruit.

Host species for zebra swallowtail butterfly larvae.

Does not strongly attract any specific pollinators, and needs cross-pollination to fruit well, so isolated plants rarely bear fruit.

 

[Candace]

I've never tried one. I guess I'm missing out.

 

[Leo Schordje]

more trivia

A little pawpaw trivia dredged from deep memory...

There are several species, all native to eastern North America.

Asimina triloba is the northernmost and most widely spread species.
Related to tropical fruits cherimoya and soursop, and to the plant that yields the essential oil ylang-ylang.

Host species for zebra swallowtail butterfly larvae.

Does not strongly attract any specific pollinators, and needs cross-pollination to fruit well, so isolated plants rarely bear fruit.

According to Wikipaedia the pawpaw was George Washington's favorite fruit.

Also according to Wikipaedia most of the other members of the genus Asimina are on various endangered species lists. They mainly occur in Florida, and only one or two spread into the adjacent southeastern states.

Flowers are purple-brown and have a carion fragrance that at least to me is hard to detect. Not too strong of an odor.

An apocryphal anectdote from my sister is that some growers hang a peice or two of rotting meat in their pawpaw trees to help attract pollinators. The flowers are short lived, so hanging meat gets the flies around to maximize the number of visits to the flowers during the brief period that they are in bloom. I am not sure about this statement is really true.

Biggest problem is the deer really love the fruit and they like it while it is still green. If you have any deer at all in the area, you will have difficulty getting fruit.

My sister's yard always has a lot of swallowtail butterflies.

Ohio celebrates the pawpaw
http://www.ohiopawpawfest.com/

 

[Leo Schordje]

I've never tried one. I guess I'm missing out.

But Candance, you can grow Cherimoya in your back yard. Its not the same, some might say it is superior. Give one of them a try.

For those who want to try growing paw paws, Nolin River is a good company. I was very happy with my persimon trees from them. They have pawpaws too.
http://www.nolinnursery.com/

For those who want to try select tropical fruit cultivars including sweet sop & sour sop check out Pine Island Nursery, I have never bought from them, but they look good:
http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

In my Florida days pawpaws were a common site in dry pine/oak woods and in true scrub. In central Florida you can see A. obovata dotting the cow pastures with their pretty white flowers. Another commonly seen species is A. parviflora. A. triloba is rare in Florida though, only found in a few panhandle counties near the Alabama border. I saw the fruit many times for sale, I just never ate any! Don't know why...

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

There was a huge pawpaw tree in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden when i was growing up..always had lots of fruit, but they were out of reach, and besides it was illegal to pick them....so I never got to try them. Almost sounds like an odorless durian......Take care, Eric

 

[NYEric]

Now I really want a taste.

 

[Leo Schordje]

Durian ???

There was a huge pawpaw tree in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden when i was growing up..always had lots of fruit, but they were out of reach, and besides it was illegal to pick them....so I never got to try them. Almost sounds like an odorless durian......Take care, Eric

Durian ??? The fruit of the Sultans. Durian smells like an open sewer and tastes sweet as garlic candied in honey and pineapple. Durian is the strangest fruit I ever ate.

Nope, pawpaw is not at all like Durian. Westerners can love a pawpaw at first bite. The flavors are all familiar to anyone who has had peaches or pineapple or mango or carmel flan or bananna. Durian is another matter. It takes a strong stomach or a damaged sense of smell for a western pallet to learn to like Durian.

No insult intended to the Malaysian members of Slippertalk. I found Durian to be a bit too different for my pallet to accept. But I could see that if you were raised with it, you might really like it.