Pawpaw Season

We have pawpaw trees all over our property. When we first moved here, we didn't know what they were. Ron brought in several of the fruit and I was chosen to be the guinea pig to try them. Since the fruit was so sweet, I doubted it was poisonous. Also, most poisonous things in West Virginia come with warnings throughout childhood, and I'd never heard of anyone around here dying from oval-shaped green fruit that grew on trees.

Since then, we make it a point to enjoy our pawpaws during the brief time we have them, and take a couple to anyone new to the area, so they can experience them, as well.

With a shelf life of about an hour (haha!), you will never find pawpaws in the produce section of a grocery store. They are one of those things where you just have to be there, to understand it.

an inside look at a pawpaw

Wikipedia has a lot to say about the humble Pawpaw:

The pawpaw is a large edible berry, 5 to 16 cm long and 3 to 7 cm broad, weighing from 20 to 500 g, with numerous seeds; it is green when unripe, maturing to yellow or brown. It has a flavor somewhat similar to both banana and mango, varying significantly by cultivar, and has more protein than most fruits.

The fruits are quite popular, but the shelf life of the ripe fruit is almost non-existent, for it soon ripens to the point of fermentation. Those who wish to preserve the fruit for the future do so by dehydration, making it into jams or jellies, or pressure canning by using the numerical values for bananas.

In West Virginia, pawpaws are made into a native version of banana nut cake or fruit cake, and baked inside canning jars, the lids heat-sealed to keep the food for at least a year.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition depended and sometimes subsisted on pawpaws during their travels. Chilled pawpaw fruit was a favorite dessert of George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson was certainly familiar with it as he planted it at Monticello.

The seeds also have insecticidal properties. Some Native American tribes dry and powder them and apply the powder to children's heads to control lice; specialized shampoos now use compounds from pawpaw for the same purpose.

Currently, pawpaw extract is being reviewed as an alternative cancer treatment alongside conventional and approved treatments. This is not meant to replace appropriate treatments, but is being examined for acetogenins and ATP production.

Also, this weekend in (where else?) Paw Paw, WV

Paw Paw Festival,

Pawpaw, WV

Fri September, 18th - Sun September, 20th

Festival to honor the pawpaw fruit with local food,music and crafts.

Featuring Half-Lit Bluegrass

Address : 100 Festival Field

Admission Fee : Free

Paige with a pawpaw I picked yesterday from the comfort of my van while going down the driveway.