Paw Paw Fruit

We heard about it last year, but got to see it for ourselves a couple of days ago. We were introduced to the paw paw fruit when we took a little trip to Virginia. Along the James River the family owns a stretch of property. And on the property are a bunch of paw paw trees. This time of year is the very short season for them. It appears the fruit is used to make a specialty beer, but it can also be eaten raw, and used for baking. So we had the opportunity to try a couple out. It’s not very large, and the contents need to be scooped out of the “shell.” But before you can eat it, you need to navigate around the fairly large seeds. It has the consistency of custard, or a mushy banana, and has a very interesting taste. It’s also called the hillbilly mango or Quaker delight. Since the paw paw were harvested our daughter in law made bread with it, and used it in a sauce for pork that was later turned in to Cuban sandwiches. It takes a lot of time to prepare the fruit, but it was worth the effort. Now she owns a paw paw picker that looks like an orange picker. Her refrigerator is full of them now but they don’t last very long. I guess that’s what makes them so special.