I found some pawpaws this morning on the edge of a creek never found them around here before,are they safe to eat? I have read skin and seeds are toxic any info would be appreciated. Thanks

You dont want to eat either the skin or seeds anyways, they taste nasty and the seeds would probably hurt coming out the other end. There is a compound in pawpaws that can cause issues if you just gorged yourself on them constantly.

When the fruiting body is slightly soft to mushy, with a slight yellow tinge and black speckles to small patches it's ripe, and the pulp is DELICIOUS! Scoop it out with a spoon and enjoy.

make some paw paw creme pie. use a banana recipe

I have found that pawpaws smell great, but mostly taste fairly bad. They are variable. I had some domestic pawpaws grown in full sun that were good to eat. They are mostly ripe from late August well into September. I sort of what to plant some here, but haven't because there's a lot of fruit that is much better.

The seeds are a natural laxative.

Keith

I think they are delicious. Taste like an extra sweet banana. Have to wait till they are ripe. Soft and mushy

To me they're like eating a rich sweet custard. Taste good, but are so rich that one at a time is all I can handle. BTW, I think paw paws are the only fruit that contain naturally high levels of essential fatty acids. Something we need in our diet.

Fall of 1985 I made a pilgrimage back to the midwest looking for Paw paws (and other great things). I'd heard from a Nafex member (North American Fruit EXplorers) that there was a good patch in a locale in northwestern Missouri. Went driving around and found an old man sitting in a porch rocking chair at a farm house. Asked him about any paw paw patches around the area and he was just tickled pink. Turned me on to a great patch in a creek hollow not far from his place. He told me he had been picking paw paws from the same patch ever since he was a kid. I am certain he was well into his 80's then.

The date was September 30th and the patch was just loaded with fruit. They grew on very large trees in a very shaded hollow. I did notice that the U of Nebraska had a great experimental patch of paw paws in full sunlight and the growth habit was quite different.

If we get cool day and im not working, i gotta go prescout my wild spots and see what production is like this year.

The pawpaws I thought tasted good were in full sunlight and a named variety on my friend Don Greider's farm. They were much bigger than any pawpaws I've ever seen. The trees were short and very wide. Don was a member of several pawpaw groups and associations. He was brilliant. I miss talking to him. He died a few years ago. You would have liked him Carl.

Keith

Thankyou all so much for the info I have to figure out how I’m going to pick them there was one floating in the creek and I brought 6 seeds home from it gonna plant them in my woods and see what happens

Plant the seeds no farther than 10' apart. Except for a few oddball, newly discovered varieties, pawpaws need a tree, that is not a clone from its roots, nearby to produce fruit. The seeds will all be different genetically. It's recommended to have at least 3 varieties in a planting for good fruit production.

I've never had pawpaws cooked in anything, but I know a lot of people like them that way. They may be more palatable that way.

Keith

Plant them right away. According to a tree farmer we cant name on here, you dont want paw paw seeds to dry out. I have never found any growing wild in full sun. Always in areas shaded by larger trees. They are pollinated by flies not bees. Toss a dead animal under them when you see blooms appearing.

We have made paw paw bread; it’s similar to banana bread.

Smoked pawpaw cheesecake is awesome. You just cant eat a lot of it at once sitting because its so rich. Ill probably be bringing one to the OSTA Region C meet this year again

It is like banana bread but better. I’ve wondered if there are male and female trees like persimmons because not all of the trees have fruit.

There are about 8 trees in this grove I only saw fruit on 2 of them , the fruit was growing in clusters of 4 to 5 pieces and they were still green no spots on them yet

Keith, Don Greider was likely an early NAFEX member. There was a NAFEX paw paw group.

Wish we had them here

but -30 to -40 winter's kill many fun ideas

Yep, one must remember that paw paws are actually subtropical fruits that have adapted further north.

Thanks Carl. Don was a brilliant, interesting and eccentric individual. After WWII he was tasked with gathering up the Germany's rocket technology, cataloging it and packing it up for shipment to the US for study. He got to know the German scientists we brought to the US after the war. He came up with a safe way to remove and lower one of Germany's largest rockets from the top of a mountain.

Don had 106 patents in solar energy. He had more patents in the automotive industry. He came up with a lane change alarm in the eighties. None of the automotive companies wanted it, but they took his ideas after his patents expired.

He had an amazing greenhouse that he insulated by blowing styrofoam beads between the glass panels on cold nights. When he turned off the blowers, the beads dropped into storage pits.

Don let me build kennels on his property, to keep my hunting dogs in, when I was still living in town. I had 6 10' by 60' kennel runs on his place.

He brought morel mushrooms from dozens of locations, from a multitude of states and got some of them established on his farm. He did the same with wild plums and persimmons.

He spent his entire life studying and inventing.

Don didn't like most people, because he found them boring and uninteresting. He liked me and I miss him. He was a good friend.

Keith