North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Richard Moyer <ramoyer@gmail.com>]

Great discussion on pawpaws and fruit in general.
More thoughts:
---I remember the NAFEX meeting at Clemson around 1992, when Greg
Reighard promoted pawpaws and a NAFEXer in attendance compared pawpaws
to a 'banana dipped in turpentine'.
Adam Turtle then noted that various pawpaws have the widest range of
flavor of any native fruit (implying good, bad and ugly flavors) and
that we NAFEXers should not be put off by one to few tastes of these,
especially wild ones not selected for better flavor.

---In the taste trials I did with college students and staff in the
1990s, many folks were put off with soft fruit, regardless of the
range of taste and aromas available, as our food cultures offer few to
no ripe fruits with custard-like consistency.

---Another reason to consider pawpaws is their superior nutritional
profile compared to most other fruits we can easily grow.  If I
remember correctly:  protein near 5%, heart and brain healthy fatty
acids similar to those found in avocados and oily fish, starches and
sugars.  So a nutritionally dense fruit to fill up on.

Richard Moyer
SW VA


Message: 16
> Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:20:55 -0400
> From: "David Consolvo" <fruitopia@firstva.com>
> To: erican Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Paw-paw taste, and why bother
> Message-ID: <201103161020.AA209125608@mail.firstva.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> Excellent reminder about differences from year to year and from location to
> location.  It's so obvious with apples, but hard to remember about other
> fruit.
>
> And don't forget the huge difference a few days makes with timing of picking
> pawpaws.  Too early and they're much less pleasant; too late (when they get
> brown)
> and they taste off.  That's one reason they're not shipped commercially.
> ~David Consolvo
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
> From: nottke1 <nottke1@earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: nottke1 <nottke1@earthlink.net>,North American Fruit Explorers
> <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date:  Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:53:54 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
>
>>mIEKAL,
>>To me PA Golden is comparable to other top-ranked pawpaw cultivars in
>> flavor
> and texture.  In a large taste test, a dozen named cultivars will be
> clustered at the
> top, based on participant's preference for
> sweetness/firmness/color/after-taste.
>>See  http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/pawpaw/cvsrc98.htm
>>As with other tree fruit, I find modest year-to-year differences between
>> cultivars,
> depending on the weather.
>>Also, as with other fruit, a pawpaw cultivar's attributes depend somewhat
>> on
> location.
>>Jim