27 August 2024
I got here up with right now’s barely inaccurate title after I heard WESA’s piece on Pennsylvania’s secret tropical fruit, the pawpaw or “hillbilly mango.” Actually, pawpaws aren’t mangoes — they only style prefer it — and their vary is far wider than Appalachia. Nevertheless it’s true that they ripen in September.
Pawpaws (Asimina triloba) are the quintessential wild fruit for searching animals that eat the one ripe fruit on the department after which transfer on. The fruit tastes like mango and has the consistency of banana. However don’t eat the seeds. They’re toxic.
Pawpaws defy business agriculture.
- The pores and skin is skinny and bruises simply in order that they can’t be shipped.
- Pawpaws don’t ripen all of sudden. You need to come again later for the subsequent batch as a result of …
- In case you pull a tough, unripe fruit from the tree it’ll by no means ripen.
- Pawpaw fruits lose their taste should you warmth them.
- The bark, leaves, fruit and seeds of pawpaw bushes comprise the disabling and probably deadly neurotoxin annonacin so …
- Don’t dry or prepare dinner down the fruit as a result of that concentrates the compound that — luckily — makes you vomit. (see extra within the WESA article).
Nevertheless, the neurotoxin is a profit for zebra swallowtails (Eurytides marcellus) whose solely host plant is the pawpaw tree. Zebra swallowtail caterpillars eat pawpaw leaves, turn out to be poisonous themselves and are shielded from predators.
Pawpaw Festivals in September
If you wish to eat a pawpaw and study extra about them, your finest guess is at an upcoming Pawpaw Competition. The entire schedule of 12 festivals plus further occasions are at Heppy.org: 2024 Pawpaw Festivals and Occasions. Listed below are a couple of near Pittsburgh on the Heppy.org checklist so as of prevalence.
- Ohio Pawpaw Competition in Albany, Ohio, 13-15 Sept
- Paw Paw Competition in Duncansville, PA, 22 Sept, 9a-4p
- West Virginia Pawpaw Competition, Core Arboretum, Morgantown, WV, 28 September
Pittsburgh has two notable pawpaw fanatics:
Andrew Moore wrote the ebook on pawpaws in 2015. Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit. If you wish to find out about pawpaws that is the ebook to learn!
Gabrielle Marsden is restoring zebra swallowtail butterflies to southwestern PA by planting pawpaw bushes and inspiring others to do the identical. Her YouTube channel is right here.
Nonetheless interested in pawpaws? Study extra at this classic weblog.
p.s. Because of John English for stating the WESA article.
