Have you ever had a paw paw tree? What does the fruit taste like?

Answer 1

" the Pawpaw, Asimina triloba. The name of this plant is sometimes spelled Papaw - and in that form is often confused with another fruit that sometimes goes by that name, the Papaya, Carica papaya. (The latter is in a totally different family than our Pawpaw, and can only grow in tropical areas.)

Our Pawpaw, which grows as far north as New York and southern Ontario, out west as far as Nebraska and Texas, and south to Florida, is known by several other names including the American Custard Apple, the West Virginia Banana, and the Indiana Banana. There are about seven other members of the genus Asimina, all growing in the southeastern U.S.

In the book, Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, one finds the Pawpaw fruit called "...a natural custard, too luscious for the relish of most people. The fruit is nutritious and a great resource to the savages." Millspaugh, in American Medicinal Plants, describes the fruit as "soft, sweet and insipid, having a taste somewhat between that of the May-apple and the banana, tending to the former." The Peterson Field Guide mentions that the seeds, along with being an emetic, have narcotic properties.

Note: October, 1997: I found a listing for Paw Paws on the NCSU Poisonous Plants of North Carolina Page. Apparently some individuals cannot eat them without severe stomach and intestinal pain."

Answer 2

I agree with the person from Illinois. They used to grow wild along the Kaskaskia river when I was a child. My father loved these things and they must have had them in Arkansas as that was were he was raised. I did not like them at all. I think they are some variation of the papaya, but not like the ones you can buy at the grocery. The only ones I ever tasted were picked from the plant and I am not sure if it was mature or not. I think maybe they were to picked up off the ground. This thought came from the old childhood song. "picken up paw paws put um in your pocket, way down yonder in the paw paw patch". I said all this to say, try the web for agriculture in some of the southern state and see what they say.

Answer 3

i grow them at my backyard. 2 different types. one tree has small fruits (about 4-5 inches in length) n the other bigger fruits (half-one foot long). the smaller ones tend to be sweeter. both are orangey in colour when they r ripe. they r really delicious (sweet ones) n has a distinctive taste. don't know how to describe.
i like to eat them with a squeeze of lemon/lime juice.
u can try this cool papaya shake
papaya flesh from a small ripe fruit.
some milk (best is evaporated milk)
a little bit sugar
ice cubes.
place all these in a blender n blend til smooth.
very thirst quenching on a hot day.
Can also help with yr bowel movements the next day....

Answer 4

I have a paw paw tree but need a second one as they need a cross pollinator. They are supposed to be good!

Answer 5

They taste like a slippery gooey banana. Not bad, but not something I would search out for eating.

Answer 6

when ripe, they taste a little like banana