The Indiana Banana

[Alamo]

I grew up in Brown County and knew about pawpaws, but I never knew they were nicknamed "Indiana Bananas" (or saved Lewis & Clark's lunch) until this video was published a couple days ago:

[video=youtube;-b6Ojpeb-oQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b6Ojpeb-oQ[/video]

 

[spencer rifle]

Good stuff. Getting them before the animals do can be an issue. Pick them too early, they can fail to ripen properly. Wait too long and they're gone.

Leaves smell like green peppers (or mangoes as you southern IN people call them), which apparently animals and insects do not like. Leaves are rarely eaten by anything.

 

[455 Beretta]

Very cool, thanks for sharing. Never had one, didn’t know what they were, though I’ve heard of em plenty.

 

[bwframe]

Talked to a buddy yesterday that said this years crop is pretty weak for him. The drought and other weather conditions have been rough on papaws and some berrys.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I remember this song from my childhood but I've never seen nor eaten a paw paw.

[video=youtube;qTexsBoqaCA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTexsBoqaCA[/video]

 

[SarahG]

Haven't had any in a couple of years, but I love them. I wish more people knew about them!

 

[COOPADUP]

Good stuff. Getting them before the animals do can be an issue. Pick them too early, they can fail to ripen properly. Wait too long and they're gone.

Leaves smell like green peppers (or mangoes as you southern IN people call them), which apparently animals and insects do not like. Leaves are rarely eaten by anything.

You gotta be quick to pick them for sure. The critters really are efficient when they are ripe enough to eat.

 

[KokomoDave]

I haven't had one in years. I miss eating persimmon pudding too!

 

[Leadeye]

They make excellent wine, but as has been said earlier staying ahead of the forest critters is tough.

 

[indyjohn]

I've got 'em all over my woods. They always seem to be gone when I go hunting them.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

There was an elderly saint in orange county who used to make quite a small pot selling pureed persimmons. It was hilarious to see her chasing away deer in the morning. Our second grade teacher was a southern Indiana girl, and introduced us to paw paws. Delicious.

 

[KellyinAvon]

I haven't had one in years. I miss eating persimmon pudding too!

Having grown up 15 miles from Mitchell, and my great aunt was the first winner of the persimmon pudding contest, and her recipe is the one Mom uses, and I know deer will go through briar bushes to get good persimmons, I known what you are sayin!

 

[Hkindiana]

If you want your pawpaw trees to produce more fruit, place dead animals underneath the trees in the spring. The flowers of the pawpaw are pollinated by flies, instead of bees. Apparently the flowers of the pawpaw smell like carrion, and the flies attracted to the dead animals will pollinate the flowers. It DOES work (road kill works great)

 

[Spear Dane]

I love Townsends. He teaches my kind of history, how the average folk lived back in the day and he is a Hoosier too.

 

[Vigilant]

Never even heard of paw paws? What do they taste like? If it’s chicken **** it, I hate chicken.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I grew up with about 4 trees on our property. I think in 15 years I ate ONE. They were that hard. When I was in my teens they all developed some kind of blight and either died and rotted, or just stopped producing fruit.

And if you look at the official notes online (wikis, etc) they say they "go as far west as Ohio". Uh.... About that guys...

 

[churchmouse]

They were common when in season in our diet. Delicious as memory serves but it has been years since we had any.

 

[Old Dog]

If you want your pawpaw trees to produce more fruit, place dead animals underneath the trees in the spring. The flowers of the pawpaw are pollinated by flies, instead of bees. Apparently the flowers of the pawpaw smell like carrion, and the flies attracted to the dead animals will pollinate the flowers. It DOES work (road kill works great)

And this may explain why I never saw any Paw-Paws in our woods after they quit grazing cattle in the woods 40 years ago. No cows or dung... fewer flies, no Paw-Paws.

 

[ghuns]

They make excellent wine, but as has been said earlier staying ahead of the forest critters is tough.

Crooked Ewe Brewery in South Bend has beer made from them. A New England style IPA, which ain't bad, and a DIPA that's pretty freakin delicious.

 

[russc2542]

Never even heard of paw paws? What do they taste like? If it’s chicken **** it, I hate chicken.

Sorta strawberry-banana-ish

I grew up with about 4 trees on our property. I think in 15 years I ate ONE. They were that hard. When I was in my teens they all developed some kind of blight and either died and rotted, or just stopped producing fruit.

And if you look at the official notes online (wikis, etc) they say they "go as far west as Ohio". Uh.... About that guys...

odd. They're quite well established at least to Iowa. There's even a town in north central IL named Pawpaw.