Wednesday, October 1, 2014

The Great Falls Pawpaw Patch

Out at Great Falls today I wandered through a grove of pawpaw trees that was loaded with fruit to a degree that I have never before seen. Half an acre of ground was covered with pawpaws -- it looked like a potato field after the mechanical harvesters have come through.

And there were still plenty in the trees -- I literally walked right into one clump, which bopped me on the the forehead. Usually when I go hunting for pawpaws I have to check a dozen trees at least before I find one, and in bad years I have searched acres and acres of trees without finding a single fruit. So this grove just astounded me. Sorry about the pictures, but it was drizzly this morning and very dark in the woods.

2 comments:

pootrsox said...

Have you ever eaten a pawpaw? As a come-here to VA, I don't believe I've ever even seen one-- so I googled and saw that it's somewhat banana-like but a bit cloyingly sweet yet also somewhat tart?? Didn't make a lot of sense to me :)

John said...

Depends on when you eat them. Before they are fully ripe they have a fibrous texture and are somewhat tart, or bitter. When fully ripe they remind me of mushy bananas.