Or the prickly pear If you prick a raw paw, next time beware! Don’t pick a prickly pear by the paw, when you pick a pear try to use the claw! But you don’t need to use the paw when you pick a pear of the big pawpaw Have I given you a clue?
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Consider the Pawpaw
31–40 of 69 posts
Re: Consider the Pawpaw
#32Missing mention of pawpaw's annonacin content, which causes Parkinsonism. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22130466/ "Pawpaw fruit contains a high concentration of annonacin, which is toxic to cortical neurons." https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs... "Pawpaw fruit contains high concentrations of annonacin, which is toxic to nerve cells. In addition there have been case reports of possibly rela…
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Re: Consider the Pawpaw
#33I am the proud gardener of seven paw paw trees. I've been tending them for a little more than three years now and am very VERY excited for when (if ever) they produce fruit! I wish there were more places to find other varieties (e.g. not Asimona Triloba) that might help with pollination.
My understanding (and you probably already know) is that PawPaws are pollinated by flies (and not bees). At a medieval/fantasy campground I've planted thousands of trees at, we located the pawpaw trees near the bathrooms and trash cans. Both of which attract flies. Perhaps when (or shortly before) the pawpaws are in bloom, you dump some charnel or other biowaste near the trees to help attract flies?
We used to hang road kill up in our pawpaw trees to get the flies to come to them.
Re: Consider the Pawpaw
#34Missing mention of pawpaw's annonacin content, which causes Parkinsonism. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22130466/ "Pawpaw fruit contains a high concentration of annonacin, which is toxic to cortical neurons." https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs... "Pawpaw fruit contains high concentrations of annonacin, which is toxic to nerve cells. In addition there have been case reports of possibly rela…
In addition to what other commenters have noted about difficulty eating enough quantity, this is not a commercial fruit and thus no standards for what you'll get. There are a variety of on-going breeding programs for commercial pawpaws. This is just one more item on the checklist to successfully selectively breed out. If you see pawpaws in the supermarket its unlikely current studies will apply to it. Breeders understanding how to breed for and against the annonacin content is actually very high on their list of priorities, not for eating, but the high annonacin makes pawpaws an excellent deer and mosquito repellent, and is being studied as a source for chemo-therapy and other drugs. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18598079/ I suspect these will be the first commercial use cases for the pawpaw as they use the trees bark, leaves, and skins of the fruit and not the fragile flesh.
Re: Consider the Pawpaw
#35When I've tried to search what does pawpaw tastes like the two most specific descriptions I could find was "mild pawpaw taste" and "not banana".
A ripe pawpaw is like a banana/mango flavor. Bitter and tough before ripe, but very sweet and soft when fully ripe with almost no bitter or sour. Slightly stringy like a squash.
Re: Consider the Pawpaw
#36If you're in a region where they grow - temperate but with sufficient overwinter chill - you could consider planting some. They're nice looking trees with large leaves, the fruit is tasty, zebra swallowtail butterfly caterpillars feed off of the leaves, and you're helping preserve an endemic American fruit tree.
My Dad's little one-man nursery is a good source of trees. ;)
https://www.blossomnursery.com/
(Some of you may also appreciate the style of his website as reminiscent of the "old web".)
[Edit: grammar.]
Re: Consider the Pawpaw
#37When I've tried to search what does pawpaw tastes like the two most specific descriptions I could find was "mild pawpaw taste" and "not banana".
Banana custard but slightly more strongly flavored; creamy, white to yellow flesh.
Re: Consider the Pawpaw
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably not a huge issue as long as you only eat it every so often. But I wonder about the possibility of producing varieties of pawpaw (or soursop or other related Annonas) that don't produce annonacin. Probably could be done with genetic engineering, or much more slowly with selective breeding. Given that there are places where people consume Annonas very often, and that this may lead to alarmingly high rates of p…
The evidence we have for safety of low-level consumption doesn't look great. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7691614/ "The paucity of adequate studies, particularly related to long‐term use of A. muricata supplements, currently does not allow the establishment of a safe intake level." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10092620/ "Cognitive performance assessed with the MDRS worsens above a cumu…
The bark and leaves are the primary sources of benzyltetrahydroisoquinolines.
Re: Consider the Pawpaw
#39If you're in a region where they grow - temperate but with sufficient overwinter chill - you could consider planting some. They're nice looking trees with large leaves, the fruit is tasty, zebra swallowtail butterfly caterpillars feed off of the leaves, and you're helping preserve an endemic American fruit tree. My Dad's little one-man nursery is a good source of trees. ;) https://www.blossomnursery.com/ (Some of you…
I haven’t been able to find them for a few years now. If I can I will order some.
Re: Consider the Pawpaw
#40David Foster Wallace it ain’t. https://www.columbia.edu/~col8/lobsterarticle.pdf
What a terrible imitation! Uses the format of that classic, but completely butchers it.
DFW did a dark reflection of a travel piece. His anti-social, elitist, nihilistic tone was expertly woven in, and creates tension between the subject and author.
This just... is travel journalism, but using that one's structure? A mirror of a mirror, all meaning lost.