No kidding.My friend Joe asked me tonight had I ever eaten a pawpaw. What the heck is that? I never heard of them in 65 years. They grow all over the eastern US down into the South. I am guessing, different cultivars are different varieties in amounts of fruit a tree may produce, the size of the fruits and, variations in flavors. Also, the amount of seeds inside the fruit. Said to be a easy tree to grow. If I was told correctly, the fruit ripens in Autumn. I am interested in trying a few pawpaw. Have you eaten a pawpaw? How do you like them? They sound delicious.

My Grandfather had a PawPaw tree on the hill beside his house. I loved eating them as a kid.

You've never heard the song Way Down Yonder in The Paw Paw Patch?

quote:

Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:
You've never heard the song Way Down Yonder in The Paw Paw Patch?

First thing that came to my mind, and a frequent earworm.

The "Indiana Banana". Family there has them. Ripening right about now.
Have had them a few times. They are ok, but wouldn't go out of my way to obtain them.
To me kind of a cross between a banana and a mango.

I have to say that the name kinda puts me off. I know it makes no difference. Just me.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I have to say that the name kinda puts me off. I know it makes no difference. Just me.

PawPaw is a fairly common name for grandfathers in parts of the Deep South, so eating PawPaw may sound a bit odd to some on this side of the Mississippi too.


.

We didn’t have a paw paw tree on the farm, but like the others, my first thought was the song from long ago.

Picking up paw-paws, putting’ em in a basket….

PAW PAW's woow I was thinking about these the other day.
Why are there no PAW PAWs in the shops here in SW FL?
I was told by a really knowledgeable grower of fruit trees and shrubs at a local fruit tree nursery;
They have to ripen on the tree, they would go off by the time they would get to the stores.
Other fruit is picked Unrippened and ripens after being picked.
She said.

I just wrote a comment I should have written it here.

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
No kidding.My friend Joe asked me tonight had I ever eaten a pawpaw. What the heck is that? I never heard of them in 65 years. They grow all over the eastern US down into the South. I am guessing, different cultivars are different varieties in amounts of fruit a tree may produce, the size of the fruits and, variations in flavors. Also, the amount of seeds inside the fruit. Said to be an easy tree to grow. If I was told correctly, the fruit ripens in Autumn. I am interested in trying a few pawpaw. Have you eaten a pawpaw? How do you like them? They sound delicious.

Thank you all for the feedback here. And the new, old Ives tune which, I've never heard. Guess if I should run into a pawpaw fruit along the way, I will give it a try.

My in-laws have a tree on their property and they are interesting but never were successful commercially because they ripen too fast and it's too much work to get a small amount of edible pulp from all the seeds.

They have many names, one of them is "custard apple"

It is almost like a combination of very ripe pear and very ripe banana flavor wise.

I gathered up a bunch ONE TIME and spent hours extracting enough pulp to be able to make a few loaves of a banana-bread-like paw-paw bread and never bothered again.

The Custard Apple not heard that in a while either. Yes they ripen very fast.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
My in-laws have a tree on their property and they are interesting but never were successful commercially because they ripen too fast and it's too much work to get a small amount of edible pulp from all the seeds.

They have many names, one of them is "custard apple"

It is almost like a combination of very ripe pear and very ripe banana flavor wise.

I gathered up a bunch ONE TIME and spent hours extracting enough pulp to be able to make a few loaves of a banana-bread-like paw-paw bread and never bothered again.

I've eaten them quite a few times. they are tasty. consistency of a pudding or well ripened banana. the outer skin will start turning black when ripe. I tried making paw paw wine once. Damn stuff foamed over and through the airlock.

Been…40 years probably since I had one. I e heard them called Appalachian bananas and a few other things.

I was born and raised in the South and have never heard of these. How the hell did I miss this??

I’ve tried them a couple times, but they are not for me. They aren’t bad tasting, but I don’t go out of my way to look for them. There are a lot of them growing by the one creek we fish. The farm down the road from me has a yearly festival around them.

Now when you pick a paw-paw or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw, well, next time beware
Don't pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear try to use the claw
But you don't need to use the claw
When you pick a pear of the big paw-paw
Have I given you a clue?

Good One I loved this film as a kid.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Now when you pick a paw-paw or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw, well, next time beware
Don't pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear try to use the claw
But you don't need to use the claw
When you pick a pear of the big paw-paw
Have I given you a clue?

LoL.... I was just talking about PawPaws with a friend last night.

There are a couple of them down the road from me. One always produce fruits the other never.

They are pollenaded by Flys and beetls. The blooms smell yeasty or rotten meat. They will not self-pollenate. There's like 14 species. They are part of the soursop family and actually a tropical tree. Their range is the very southern Ontario Canada to the panhandle of Florida from the east coast into southeast Nebraska to Eastern Texas. They need shady rich bottomlands slops of floodplain.

They taste like banana, mango, and pineapple.

The PawPaw saved the Lewis and Clark expedition in September of 1806 on their return. They had ran out of provisions when they came upon a Grove. They were able to make the 150 mile trip to the closest outpost because of the PawPaw. They are high in vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, manganese, riboflavin, and iron, 1.5gr protein, 80 calories, 1.2gr fat 2.5gr fiber.

Oh yes the PawPaw....

I love them.

They only last about 3 to 4 days after being picked. Usually they rippen from September to early October. They are one of the first trees to turn colors, which is yellow. This is the time of year to look for the PawPaw. Look around and see if you can find a yellow leaves on a tree in floodplain, sloaps around creeks/rivers and that's a good chance that's a PawPaw.



ARman