The Earthy Delights Recipe Blog
Celebrating wild harvested, traditional & artisanal foods
Pickin’ Up Pawpaws, Way Down Yonder in the Pawpaw Patch… Some of us may still remember this song from childhood, but few of us have ever tasted a real pawpaw. Pawpaws have become a curiosity, little known to most of us, even though they have a long history in North America. The largest edible fruit native to the United States, pawpaws are most commonly found near riverbanks and in the understory of the fertile forests of the eastern United States. …
The pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a curious fruit. Until recently, few Americans were even aware of its existence, which is unusual, since it’s the largest fruit native to North America and once was a valued food source for both Native Americans and early European settlers. Of course, the pawpaw never really went away, but continued growing quietly in the background here and there; along riverbanks, near rusty, disused train tracks and on old abandoned homesteads across the eastern U.S., as far …
If you’re a fan of pawpaws, you’ve probably eaten your share of the fresh fruit in season. But what about the rest of the year? Pawpaws are notoriously hard to store for more than two or three weeks in the fridge, and if unrefrigerated, the large, oval fruits ripen quickly and must be eaten within a few days. The answer?Pawpaw curd, another fantastic way to preserve the exotic flavor of pawpaws – practically indefinitely. Fruit curds are a mixture of …