Using pawpaws

[tomIL]

Scott,

You need to take anti-dxxxxx to stop the "flow"? I'm so cracked up with your "song"!

Tom

[tonyOmahaz5]

Just got another batch of Mango (darker green on the right) and Shenandoah. Overall, the Mango was superior in sweetness, taste, and fruit size.

Tony

[39thparallel]

I was hoping to try a paw paw this year. I went hunting in a spot i had found them before ( i did not know what they where at the time. ) I found some trees that looked like paw paws but no fruit. Many of them were diseased or dead. Too much rain? I did pick and eat some lobster mushrooms

[tomIL]

Tony, Tony! I'm drooling over these "mangoes"!

The wait for my tree to get there is forever!

[mrsg47]

Tony, you are a fantastic grower! You constantly push all boundaries and do so well with your fruit. Oh yum, and so impressive. Just great!

[hambone]

I asked the drying question on a KSU site and got the answer from its director: don't dry pawpaw as it somehow releases or creates something that can make people sick.

Thought I'd pass this along.

[scottfsmith]

Thanks @hambone. I have a big pile of dried pawpaw I have been debating what to do with. Now it looks like I will be throwing it out.

What I don't understand is how any cooked pawpaw recipe can be good, it seems like a process similar to the drying would occur. Lucky's cookies experience shows that as well.

[hambone]

KSU lady (Crabtree?) said KSU does not know what causes the mysterious noxious result after drying pawpaw. She made no mention of cooking. I think it's way too good raw. Sorry Lucky had an unfortunate experience.

I keep telling friends: almost everything about pawpaws is just plain weird (except the taste of course).

[clarkinks]

Hambone,
If you can get additional information I would like to know because we did not know any better than to dry them. Here are additional recipes http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/pawpaw/recipes.htm. We do freeze some of our food after we dry it but not generally.
Btw I dried autumn berries this year and talk about a bad idea that went over like a lead balloon.

[hambone]

Clark- Here is the quote from I believe the Director of Pawpaw program at Kentucky State University from their Facebook page called "KSU Pawpaw":

Pawpaw fruit do not dry well, for some reason I have had reports from numerous people saying dried pawpaw fruit didn't agree with them and made them a little sick to their stomachs. We aren't sure why, if the fatty acids get rancid, or if there is something that gets concentrated when you dry that isn't agreeable to the stomach, but because of that it isn't recommended. Freezing pawpaw fruit is the best way to store it. Remove the skin and seeds, puree the pulp and store in a freezer bag.

[clarkinks]

Scott,
If you decide to throw them out send them to me and I will pay your postage. I love them and have no ill effects whatsoever.

[clarkinks]

Hambone,
Thanks for the additional information.

[scottfsmith]

Sorry Clark they got composted already. It was hard to throw them out, I put a lot of work into it and would have been happy to send them to you.

[clarkinks]

That's to bad Scott thanks anyway. We eat plenty of things I suspect might be on the list of things not to eat. We are foragers aka gatherers, yesterday I ate a tomato, raw okra, my fill of autumn olives, 4 apples, a handful of Aronia's for lunch as I walked the orchard. In spring our diet switches heavy to greens , some of which we cook a special way to prevent poisoning. I've eaten acorns and we use tree saps such as maple and nut trees for syrup. We use roots and barks of trees at times for teas. Some of it could be genetics because processed foods and I don't get a long. My family always ate like I do as long as I can remember. The difference between my family and me is they spent much more time gathering foods than I do. I spend my time growing foods instead because I have less land. Logically what Ksu said about pawpaw could be true because they are different. I've never experienced the symptoms.

[tjasko]

A friend just passed this recipe along to me. The source is "Hillbilly Cookin 2" by Sam Carson and A.W. Vick

[tonyOmahaz5]

I may try that next year. Thanks.

Tony

[Lucky_P]

I tried making some pawpaw fruit leather one time - I used to do it with persimmon all the time - it looked and tasted nasty. Threw it out.

[tomIL]

With 2 teaspoon of salt, I imaging it's quite salty paw paw pie for me.

[markalbob]

Jack Keller has a winemaking site, he has made wine with everything from Chardonnay grapes to sand burrs. He does have link to paw paw wine on his site.

I have tried exactly 2 paw paws thus far, both collected wild in the Saint Louis area, and my thoughts so far are:

1. The taste and texture are promising. They won't be Mangos, or anything else--they are paw paws. At the same time, there isn't much like them I can find in Wisconsin, without visiting the "tropicals" section of my local grocery's produce section

2. Again with a northern Midwest bias, the things (pawpaws) grow some crazy-big, wild-looking leaves......

I would grow the dumb things as an ornamental. Since they fruit, in a fruit I suspect I will very much enjoy given my limited, wild sampling, double-bonus. Looks like they do not dry well, but in addition to just eating out-of-hand I could see them being a great and easy substitute in any recipe that uses bananas or even things like pumpkin...or ferment them.....

I'm a lazy guy, but if I was motivated enough to go evangelical on ANYTHING it would likely be this: You can make wine and cider at home. Folks have for millennia, in things as unsanitary as wooden bowls, stone crocks, and even animal skins or organs....if they could, you can too. So make ye some pawpaw wine. I have not, yet, with all emphasis on "yet," but some of the best wines I have ever made have been with things like crabapples (very nice), wild grapes, etc.....I don't know how a pawpaw wine or pawpaw bread might be, but can't imagine either being bad....

[jessica4b]

If you happen to find some more lobster mushroom this year, please, post a pic!