Not sure I’ve ever shown a pawpaw to anyone who has recognized it. Talk about forgotten! I’m swimming in a bumper crop of pawpaws this year, worried who will take some before they decay. On a whim I took a big bag of pawpaws tonight to an Italian restaurant in my small town. I gave the bag to the hostess and explained how you eat them. She disappeared in the kitchen and came back a half hour later to say the kitchen staff LOVED them-and- they were all gone- they ate the whole bag. LOL.
Turns out the hostess grew up in S. America so was familiar with the Annona family - custard apply family of fruit.
Usually with my neighbors it’s a hard sell- What IS that?? I don’t think I’ll like it. I don’t want to try it. Etc.
I planted a few last year so it’ll be a few years before I get a harvest. My brother was at waubonsie state park in Iowa, near Nebraska/Missouri border and says there are massive groves of them all around the park. Only managed to find a few fruit and they didn’t look ripe yet.
I have way too many of them, none of my family likes them and I only want a couple a day. So, a lot are just sitting on the ground now. The place where they are planted was completely shady but a big maple died and now its sunny so they are producing a lot more than I had planned on.
If I lived closer to you I’d ask if I could take a ride and pick up what you don’t need! Mine (Shenandoah, KSU-Atwood, and Sunflower) were put in the ground in Spring 2016 and still haven’t fruited. I’ve got an order in for the wild ones that Integration Acres sells and am planning a special trip or two up to Warwick, RI to buy some when Rocky Point Farm sells theirs.
I remember my grandmother talking about them with a sly grin a couple of times but yeah everyone I talk about them have no clue. Wondering when mine are going to start bearing. Next year will be four years in ground and there 6 to 7 foot tall. Two of them had flowers on them one and the other two.
Never heard of them before I moved up here, so never tasted one either. My wife, who’s from here has tho, says they’re like a real ripe banana. Our neighbor has some big trees but haven’t had any fruit to speak of the last couple years.
If I was in your shoes, with just one fruit, I’d bag it or something to deter the raccoons and whatever else might eat it.
BTW, what did you plant for passion fruit? Maypop, or something else? The passion fruit that they grow in and around my wife’s home town in the Philippines is very sweet, one of the reasons I look forward to going. People laugh but I really look forward to going to the wet market with my father in law.
Maybe, but they’ve have had fruit on them before, they’re quite large trees. I think my neighbor said the late freezes might have got to them, although I don’t even know when they bloom, if that’s how they produce, idk. They also didn’t get any gooseberries because of freezes, but we did. We’re up on a hill, whereas they’re down close to the creek, so that makes a difference.
I love that story, Steve. I, too, enjoy taking new fruit to people and letting them try it. I’m always taking my newest fruit to work or to various places for people to try. But yea, people don’t get paw paws at all. Even here in the south where, from what I read, paw paws used to be pretty popular, most people have never heard of them. When I tell people I grow pawpaw, I always get the same reaction…either they tell me about some song about “picking up paw paws” which I’ve still never heard, or they have never even heard the word. Even the few people who have heard of them have never tried them. I recently posted photos on my facebook page and got tons of comments, but very few had heard of them and not one person had actually tasted them.
I must confess that I’m not a huge fan myself even though I have 4 trees. I enjoy one once in a while but that’s enough. But I’m glad I have them and its fun growing things others don’t know about. I put jujubes in the same category-but I like them better.
The people I have given pawpaws to to try seem to either really like them or really hate them (like spitting them out hate). ha
A wet market is an open air market where all sorts of fresh goods are sold. I don’t go to the wet market in the big city, Manila, since (I’m told) it’s more dangerous for a foreigner. The in-laws live in a city up in the north that sort of serves as a collection point for all produce in the northern part of the island. Lowland fruits and vegetables are trucked up daily. Also, some “cold weather” things including passion fruit, strawberries, brassicas, carrots, beets, legumes, lettuce etc are grown near this city since it’s high up in the mountains. People from other parts of the country typically stock up on the “cold weather” produce since it’s either expensive or not available at all where they come from. I go nuts for the fresh produce. My favorites are the passion fruit, mangoes, jackfruit, and soursop. They also have a lot of meat and fish there.
I look forward to going there every year, though we’re planning on skipping the trip this winter and going the year after instead.
I ate my first Paws this year. I saved all the seeds. I’m hoping they they all grow. Think I will plant them in a nature preserve. It’s like their natural habitat. Had Paw Paw ice cream too. Delicious!
