What Do Pawpaws Really Taste Like? We Taste Test Them For Ya

hello this is Angela with progress permaculture I'm here with my eldest kid Ruth and we are going to answer a question that I got repeatedly on a recent video so last week I did a video on pawpaw's a Samina triloba one of my favorite tree crops here in my permaculture Garden so in that video I had recommended that if you want to plant a pot pot in your garden you find someone who is growing it and you taste it first especially if you have limited space and especially with something like a papa where you need two different trees in order to get fruit set and you're taking up even more space in your garden and that tree may not fruit for five seven years it is an investment you don't want to go through all of that and grow something that you don't like to eat at the end so I said if you can find somewhere where you can taste a papa go for it and so I was inundated with folks asking if they could buy paw paws from my trees and unfortunately I'm not gonna have enough available because I've already promised a number of them to friends and family and also we're going to eat a bunch of them ourselves if you can't find someone where you are who is growing them to taste them for yourself I thought that I would honor the request of all of the folks who asked could you taste them on camera and describe it for us so that's what we're gonna do today I'm going to try it we're just going to try it we'll see if we can Wrangle at least one of my other kids and give you our feedback first let's talk about what you don't want in selecting a right paw paw when you pick your Papa's off the tree they should kind of give a little bit like a banana that is yellow in color and they shouldn't be rock hard and it should come very easily off the tree a lot of folks wait until they hit the ground and they just collect them off the ground especially if you're foraging and they're too high to reach yourself without a ladder right Papa's Brews incredibly easily and once they hit the ground they go very fast so let me you can see this one here you don't want to eat it when they look like this bruised and over Brown you want them when they have kind of a yellowish tinge and there may be some black spots to them but they're green with a yellowish tinge the flavor gets more funky the longer they sit on your counter and the more the skin turns yellow and brownish some folks like it super funky and some folks don't kind of like how I enjoy a banana when it is yellow and still green on the ends and my husband enjoys them when they are yellow with brown spots which is just wrong I enjoy them fully green yeah Ruth likes them super green so it's the same thing like the flavor changes there is a reason that the pawpaw is called the Indiana banana and that's because it has a lot of similar characteristics so before we eat it let's let's just tell you what it smells like because it's a very aromatic fruit so I'm gonna smell one Ruth what do you think they smell like oh quite similar to a mango they definitely to me have a very mangoey smell a mix of mango and kind of over ripe banana smell a little bit like there's a little Funk to them I don't know how to pick a better word than Funk but um pick another one here a little bit like a jackfruit almost yeah there is a jackfruit quality to them oh I also want to say if you're selecting Papa's off your tree or in the wild sometimes you'll get little guys like this especially the first few years that your papa produces you may not get the big honking ones do you see the difference so these are still perfectly good to eat they just have less flesh compared to seeds and skin as your Paw Paw matures you'll get a mix of different sizes just because these are smaller they're still perfectly edible okay so smells a little bit like Jackfruit plus funky banana plus mango let's cut into it and show you what it looks like should we flip the camera around real quick yeah okay there's no way to get into a paw paw without like literally cutting through the seeds and and mashing it like there's just no good way to cut into a pup paw because the seeds go through the whole middle of the fruit okay so when you cut into the papa the first thing you'll notice is that there's some very large seeds they're very dark get one out here for you not edible do not eat these they have a very short shelf life and if you want to germinate them you basically need to plant them right away also my varieties are grafted so these will not come true from seed but you will get a Seedling with some surprising characteristics so you don't want to eat the seed it's not good for you you don't want to eat the skin and as with any new fruit you don't eat too much at once right if I've never had peaches before I don't want to sit down and eat four of them I want to eat a little bit and see how my stomach does so we have cut open one Papa Ruth what do you think what is your first reaction once we've cut it open smells a lot stronger once you cut it open definitely that kind of Jackfruit Funk uh almost a little bit like socks um but have you ever had a good fruit yeah it's in a good way um it also kind of has that like strong sharp burns your throat smell like a kiwi almost it does it has a very kind of tropical quality to it and um definitely kind of a smells weird but in an appetizing way quality to it so we're gonna taste this we wrangled B you want to say hi B we wrinkled B hi and she's going to try it with us so um let's see I'll disagree I think it smells like mango you think it smells like mangoes so be aware that eating under ripe Papas eating High beat eating the skin and eating the seeds can give you some serious GI upset so you want to make sure that you will need the edible parts I know folks can have a lot of trepidation when it comes to eating Papas because it's an unknown fruit but just like you you know not to eat the banana peel it's a cultural issue right we don't have paw paws in our normal diet and so we don't necessarily know how to prepare and enjoy them appropriately you can eat it raw make sure you eat it ripe and make sure you don't eat the seeds or the skin B what do you think it smells like green mangoes green mangoes okay you wanna take a bite here oh okay that works too what do you think very very sweet tastes um sorbet yeah it's a lot sweeter than I expected yeah I expect to be a lot more sour so um right off the bat the first thing I think is that has a texture very much like mashed bananas um it's very creamy if you've had other fruit in the custard apple family it's that same creamy quality um it is very sweet right you could help publish off sorry I don't mean to steal the spoon for me that's okay it tastes a lot more like bananas than I was expecting I did expect a much more mango Jackfruit acidic kind of flavor if I was eating this like as dessert I would probably put some lime juice on it for more acidity yeah so there is a way it doesn't taste anything like a fig but there's a way it has that same kind of characteristic of it lacks acidity and so uh much like a banana right it's not an acid fruit it's creamy it's custardy folks say it has a little hint of vanilla to it uh I think very much it has that flavor of a mango and a banana without any of the acidity of a mango and it is very creamy like mashed bananas any other thoughts speed you have any other thoughts before you dash off um I feel like it tastes kind of like like the sorbet like you know there's like islands where Bay is from Costco oh so I will say um some folks say it has a kind of coconutty quality to it or like a a pina colada without the acidity so that pineapple Plus coconut but no acid to it it's very very creamy so one thing I will say is that some varieties have more of an aftertaste than others so kind of that funky smell can get passed along in an aftertaste it almost tastes like starchy like a potato or like a taro food yeah so there is that's very true I do feel like there is kind of like an almost starchy after after quality to it um that's a really good point I hadn't thought about that before um so some of the varieties have more of an aftertaste than others wild pawpaws have a huge variation in the quality of flavor and texture and size all of the Papas on the market for the most part you need two different varieties to cross pollinate to get fruit and I personally really like the improved Peterson varieties they're larger they have a better quality flavor and you can see there's a lot more uh flesh to seed ratio so you get a better ratio between the two of them there is a less pulp in a lot of the wild varieties or some of the other varieties that aren't as good one thing I think it's important to know is that a lot of people like a variety called sunflower because it is self-fertile it will set better fruit with two but I have found that sunflower has more of that kind of not exactly acrid but like a little bit unpleasant aftertaste that the improved Peterson varieties of papas don't have it's that kind of weird aftertaste you can get from The Wild Ones but that the cultivated varieties lack so for me I feel like the flavor is creamy banana with a little tiny bit of vanilla um Ruth was saying mango without the acidity any other last thoughts the aftertaste is almost kind of like a gummy Berry like it kind of has that burn your mouth not quite astringent but um like very noticeable after feeling but without the actual acidity [Music] so I hope that's helpful for you there is nothing like a papa available in the American Consumer market right now if you don't grow them if you don't have someone literally in your neighborhood that grows them because they do not ship the season is only a few short days you can't enjoy them unless you live somewhere where you can forage them in the wild and then the quality can be kind of hit or miss a little bit Papa's freeze really well because they are creamy and banana-like they make great ice cream I made banana bread banana bread with them last winter and I thought it was great my kids were like why does this banana bread taste off so I would just say if you're gonna put it in baked goods if you expect a straight banana flavor you're gonna be maybe disappointed if you can appreciate an unusual fruit for the qualities that it has that are reminiscent of fruits that you love but also set the expectations of your taste buds that this is something unique and I will appreciate it for what it is I think you won't be disappointed I love Papa's I love that they're ephemeral that they're only available for a very short period of time I can't enjoy them unless I grow them they have that tropical creamy lovely quality to them that you cannot get anywhere else in a temperate Garden so thanks for watching today I hope this was helpful I hope that Ruth and B and I helped you maybe get a better idea of what paw paws tastes like and maybe that helps tip the scales one way or the other for whether you want to grow them at home in your own garden I'll be back very soon from outdoors and my permaculture Garden here in Portland Oregon thanks

Channel: Parkrose Permaculture

Views: 22,404

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Id: m3atwTPWQMM

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 11 2022