North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>]

I just bought some of these today, from Cornell
University's orchard here in zone 5. They taste a lot
like cherimoyas, but fresher and riper since they're
local. They're so delicious, I can't believe no one's
heard of them. Sure they don't ship well, but neither
do raspberries and that doesn't stop them from being
well known.

I want to plant some of course, but there's not a lot
of info about the few varieties out there. May I
interrupt this list's endless discussion of apples and
ask what pawpaw varieties people recommend for zone 5?
Cornell is doing variety trials now, but they
apparently haven't come to any conclusions yet. The
pawpaws they were selling weren't even labeled by
variety.

Cornell was also selling hardy kiwis, which my family
agreed were even tastier than the standard fuzzy
supermarket kiwis. I don't know if this tastiness was
inherent to the species, or just because they were
ripe and fresh, unlike supermarket kiwis. Same
question: what are the best varieties for zone 5? I
see that there are even some varieties that have red
fruit, but I can see the unappetizing green color
being an advantage when competing with birds.

When I was paying for my purchases, the cashier didn't
know which were the pawpaws and which were the kiwis.

Oh, and thanks to the person who gave me advice on
raspberry plants. This winter will be spent carefully
mapping out all the space in my garden.

Oh, and it's not even the hungry season yet, but the
deer already ripped a hole through my lightweight deer
fence so they could eat my tomato plants (which I
don't really mind at this point) and the leaves off my
strawberry plants (which I do mind, as now the late
berries are bare, and I imagine won't ripen well.) The
lightweight fence was an experiment before I put more
plants in there. I guess I'll be splurging on a
heavier fence.

Melissa

--- "Brungardt, Sam" <Sam.Brungardt@state.mn.us>
wrote:

> Pawpaws: A fruit with a future (from the Columbia
> (Mo.) Missourian)
>  
>
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/10/06/pawpaws/