Tiny Life Journal - While on a bike ride back in June I noticed that there were paw paw trees growing along the road. I have no idea why I’d not noticed them before. They were right there! In any case, I kept a lookout for flowers and fruit. I didn’t see any flowers but finally spotted a few fruit recently.
I harvested one a several days ago and I ate it yesterday. Oh my was it delicious. If you’ve never had one, it’s similar to a banana and mango combined, both in consistency and flavor. Also, it’s native to much of North America and is the largest native fruit. That said, they’re hard to come by. They’re usually not sold in stores so you’re most likely to only get the chance if you grow them, discover them or know someone that has them.
You can buy the trees from some mail-order nurseries. I’ve got a couple that I planted from a nursery and not long after I discovered a patch of them that recently started growing just hundreds of feet from my cabin. They’re probably less than 3 years old. The seeds are very large, not wind born so I’m guessing they were transported in via some animal’s poop. Most certainly there are others in the nearby woods I’ve not yet found. I went in search a couple weeks ago and was, not surprisingly, rewarded with a leg full of seed ticks for the effort. No paw paws though.
For now I’ll enjoy the fact that I’ve got a handful growing, I’ve got some seeds and I know there are a few more fruit nearby waiting to be harvested. That’ll have to do.