Gee. This gathering thing is not always so easy to do, is it? I got to thinking that this is about the time paw paws are ripe. Actually, since I rarely see paw paw fruits on their trees, I thougtht a good way to let me know they were ripe was to wait until I saw them being sold at the Columbia Farmer's Market. So, I waited and I waited and then realized that the vendor who brings paw paws was not participating in the market this year. This made me realize that I didn't have a good feeling for when exactly paw paws did ripen. This week I took a hike in the woods and walked by a few paw paw patches. I shook untold trees and came up with . . .one paw paw. Did I miss their season? Were the trees I was finding not mature enough to produce fruits? Hmmm. One paw paw. What's a person supposed to whip up with that?
My luck turned, however, when I asked my coworker if he could collect paw paws if he ran across any while he was out. Can you believe that it just so happens his neighbor has a nice sized paw paw in his back yard that produces 2-3 gallons of fruits per year?! John gathered up a couple dozen of those babies for me. Thank you! These were not large paw paws and it look maybe 12-15 to make a cup of pulp. I froze the pulp until persimmons are ripe for the 4-p cake recipe in the book (pear, paw paw, persimmons and pecans). Paw paws are such a cool looking tropical-like tree. I'm glad to be focusing on them this fall.
2 comments:
My dad always looks for paw paws, but I can't say as I have ever tried one. I made persimmon cookies once when I was a kid...they were tasty, but it was a lot of work getting all that pulp. Maybe I can try it again this year.
Oh, I hope you do try it again this year! You'll have to let us know if you do and how the cookies turned out. Perhaps you might even want to post the recipe! The Cooking Wild in MO book has several persimmon recipes incuding pie, bread pudding, coffee cake, trifle, but I don't think there are any persimmon cookie recipes.
Ann
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