Pawpaws Picked Today

Don’t forget blueberries, cranberries, elderberries (S. canadensis), sunflowers, modern strawberries (hybrids of the native E. Coast species with a Chilean species).

Cheers!

you betcha! Undoubtedly pure ‘americana’.

I picked one fruit today because it was damaged but its still very hard when i press it so i did not try to eat this fruit, i put it with apples in fridge so i hope in few days it will be ripe and soft :smirk:.

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Matt, what nice flatware you are using for the fruit you foraged :slight_smile:

Seriously, it looks like you got it at the right stage of ripeness.

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I would ripen on the counter, pawpaws ripen very well on the counter and not as well in the fridge.

My pawpaw picking mode these days is to just gather the fruits that had fallen to the ground. Fast and easy :grin: I am surprised at how few of them have bruises from the fall.

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@scottfsmith- Scott do you mulch under your pawpaws so the fruit fall on the mulch? I keep extending my mulch thinking if they fall on hard ground they will get damaged but would be good news to learn otherwise.

The pawpaws are partly mulched so some fruit is falling on mulch and others are falling on grass. The pawpaws are very low and wide due to the weight of fruits bending limbs down, most fruits are currently hanging 4’ from the ground or lower. That might help things.

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I am going to attend this pawpaw festival next weekend.

I wanted to share in case anyone else in the region is interested.

For more information, see:
http://www.ecologiadesign.com

The festival is being hosted by Michael Judd (the guy at the right in this video):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_5_AAeS41sg

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Well, that’s right in yer back yard, Matt. That oughta be fun. To be honest, I can’t say I’ve ever had a paw paw in my life, and that’s sad considering I grew up in the sowth. In a vaguely related matter, me and my sister did call our grandfather “paw paw” all the time.

I’m sure those paw paws you showed on the plate were tasty, but when I first saw that pic, it reminded me of yellow oysters for some reason. One of those “tastes better than it looks” situations.

Matt, I’m definitely interested in the festival as I am considering a 2nd paw paw variety to add to the Sunflower I recently planted. I’ll get in touch.

I have eaten yesterday first pawpaw fruits from this year :wink:
Today ripe fallen fruit was 150 grams and yesterday 2 fruits where small.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOBx7-t0O8A

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We had a great time at the Frederick, MD pawpaw festival. I learned a lot and was able to taste a number of named varieties that I had never had before: Shenendoah, Susquehanna, Overleese, PA Golden #3, Allegheny and maybe one or two others. To be honest, I am still developing a taste for pawpaws. I can tolerate (or even like) the native ones so long as they are not overripe. I find that I start out liking them but then get tired of eating them after eating two or three. The named varieties are definitely better, as I expected they would be. My favorites were PA Golden #3 and Shenendoah. I am wondering if that is because they have the more mild and custardy taste. Perhaps there is some flavor component in the native ones that disagrees with me that is lower in the named varieties, and especially in those two I liked the best. We also had pawpaw homemade ice cream which was fantastic!

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Steve,

I liked Mango and Shenandoah pawpaws the best. I picked them when I squeezed the fruits and they give a little and that is the best time to eat them. I don/t like over ripe pawpaws because of the very strong fragrant and some bitter taste to them.

Tony

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I ate some over ripe a few years ago and felt nausea due to that over bearing sweet fragrance, It was a couple years until I could enjoy one again. It’s not a fruit I can eat large amounts of.

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Took the family on our annual pawpaw hike today. Should have waited longer. We got a good haul, but they aren’t very ripe. I’m keeping them bagged with some apples in the hope that it will soften them up a bit.

This is the first year I have wanted to eat a lot of pawpaws, it took me several years getting used to them. I am eating 3-4 per day now, and still not getting through all of them in spite of making a large batch of ice cream etc. I wished the deer liked pawpaws a little more and apples a little less…

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I was facepainting at the festival with my little family. The Paw Paws were delicious! Love the Judds!

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Donna,

I saw you at the pawpaw festival. You painted a dinosaur face on my little redhead boy.

Did anybody get any pictures or videos of the festival?

Here’s the dino face Donna painted on my boy.

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