I found Paw Paw, and you can too

[wirelessdreamer]

I've been on a paw paw kick, wanting to try them for the first time, and looking forward to them coming into season. I brought the wife and kids to a local park to try and locate some to try this year before heading down to the paw paw festival, and met with success.

This info is just to help guide you on your way. Don't try anything unless you reference an authoritative source and are positive what your eating.

Here is a general summary of what helped me find them (not all or always required, but a good way to start):

* Always grow in groves (they require other paw paws for pollination)
* Close to a river (both within prob 50 ft of a river in shady areas).
* The leaves look tropical (teardrop shaped, smooth edges)
* tree's were around 20ft tall.
* each had about 3-4 trees per grove (This is usually the minimum in a grove)
* Bark was smooth-ish and speckled.
* From mid August through much of September fruit will be on the trees
* Fruit grows in bunches
* Its ready to eat once its spotting/falling off the tree (I've read it will upset your stomach if you try it before its ripe )
* Skin color Looks and feels similar to a pear when ripe

The trees were growing with buckeye trees towering over them.

The pictures (I'll be updating that album with more pics once the fruit comes in season, and after the paw paw festival):

http://s1057.photobucket.com/albums/t39 ... aw%20Paws/

Just added some more photo's I went hiking on a trail yesterday and found 100's of paw paw tree's, all probably withing 50ft of a large stream. A few already had ripe fruit, so I ate some paw paw last night, and put some in the freezer to make smoothies out of tonight. Just added the pictures to the above photo album

[adamaki]

Where abouts are you? I don't think I'll be finding any in the UK! I used to live in South Africa and they grew like weeds, but the fruit from the wild ones smelled like vomit and didn't taste much better! I think I'll stick to the cultivated ones!