I gotta give it to mulberries, don’t get enough attention!
The buds of the flower Bauhinia variegata are both cooked amd used for pickles, spectacular stuff.
Someone else mentioned pawpaws but i just want to emphasize pawpaws are the shit. Plus if you live in the Eastern US especially the Midwest pawpaw season is HERE. You have no excuse not to leave your house this moment and find your nearest pawpaw grove.
Not convinced? Congrats you have subscribed to pawpaw facts:
- they are related to the custard apple and were brought this far north in the shit of prehistoric giant sloths
- they taste like somewhere between a mango and a banana, and so our ancestors in all their wisdom gave them names like Indiana banana, Ohio banana, \ banana
- they are a CAPITALIST NIGHTMARE as they have terrible shelf life so can really only be eaten fresh or bought from a farmers market
- foraging for pawpaws is super fun as they grow in groves, have super skinny trunks and branches with large long leaves and surprisingly big fruit. To harvest pawpaws you give the trees a gentle shake and ripe fruit will just fall off. Don’t shake too hard or you might knock down fruit that isn’t ripe! Not cool!
- to enjoy just shake em down, cut it open and eat the fresh fruit inside (not the skin). Do not eat the big ass seeds leave them where you found em so that out beautiful native pawpaw groves FLOURISH
All in all pawpaws are 10/10 if you want to feel like a literal Animal Crossing character shaking down trees for sustenance and having a great time eating fresh fruit outdoors
I’d never heard of pawpaws before! Good to know, I will seek them out if I ever find myself there :D
You seem like you know about pawpaws. I’ve always been curious. I’m in southern Wisconsin, are they this far north or do I need to travel somewhere?
Looking at a map of their range they might be in the very southernmost part maybe near Madison, but just barely. You’d probably had to head towards Illinois or Indiana for a better chance of finding them.
If you use the app iNaturalist you can also find geotagged groves. Taking a quick peek there’s a handful in southern WI like I said, but they really pick up once you move south.
Appalachian area here, and more people need to know about pawpaws for sure.
Planted three paw paw saplings this spring and it looks like they’re going to make it. If all goes well, I’ll have fruit to share in ten years or so!
Apparently they will only fruit if they are pollinated by a different genetic lineage of tree, so you may need to find a different seed/sapling source if those three came from the same place.
I do my part to spread the good word about pawpaw’s here in PA. We’re somewhat towards the northern edge of where they grow, but they’re around if you know where to look, and if you have a good hippie grocery store near you they sometimes get them in (for about a week, their season is very short) this is about the time of year for them around here, maybe even a bit too late, because of work and weather I didn’t get a chance to go searching for the this year.
If/when I have some property I’m hoping to grow some trees, in the meantime I’m just kind of scattering seeds into the treeline behind my house whenever I get my hands on some. HOA can’t really say anything about it, they’re a native plant so they could conceivably just pop up there on their own. If I’m incredibly lucky maybe some trees will pop up and start bearing fruit in a decade or so whether or not I’m still in this house when it happens.
Is there anywhere you can find these to purchase or just to try? I’ve never had one, but apparently they’re rather delicate so they don’t make it to market very well. It seems like the most common option is knowing someone with a pawpaw tree.
They make it to farmers markets occasionally, and the trees are very easy to identify and surprisingly common. If you know what to look for, most wooded areas in their range will have some pawpaw trees. They generally only fruit for a few weeks in late September/early October but the good news is you’re right on time!
Huckleberries are real y’all.
My mom’s tomatoes. They taste like water but my she’s really proud of them and always beams when someone can taste that they’re home grown. So next time you’re at my moms house, make sure to ask for something with tomatoes
Concord grapes. You all know the flavor, because it’s the flavor that artificial grape flavor is based on, but I’ve only seen the real things in farmers’ markets in the Northeast US. They’re only available for a short period, and they’re amazing. A blend of intensely sweet and intensely tart.
