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Ripe pawpaw fruit on the tree
© Ron & Terry Powell/Fox Paw Ridge Farm
Many U.S. states share apples, peaches, and strawberries as the official state fruit; as of January 2009, only Ohio can boast the pawpaw. The pawpaw is the only fruit indigenous to North America, and Ohio’s rolling hills and river valleys are especially ripe growing areas for this native tree.
Pawpaws are often loosely compared to other fruits including mangos and pears, and are nicknamed the "prairie banana." But pawpaws have a unique texture and flavor of their own. The creamy interiors can be scooped and eaten directly from the skin, and the large seeds (about a dozen per fruit) are easily removed. Delicious raw, pawpaws also are a marvelous addition in the kitchen. They add subtle flavor and can be a fat substitute in baked goods, and complement other fruits in frozen smoothies.
Ron Powell, president of the Ohio Pawpaw Grower's Association, touted the fruit’s nutritional benefits. “Nutritionally, pawpaws contain higher amounts of protein and beneficial fats than bananas, apples or oranges. They beat apples and bananas in vitamin C content, and deliver six times more riboflavin than apples and twice as much as oranges," said Ron. "They are also rich in potassium. Pawpaws have one-and-a-half times as much calcium as oranges, and 10 times as much as bananas or apples. The pawpaw is unique in that it is the only fruit that provides all the essential amino acids, and it is high in antioxidants.”
The pawpaw tree itself is resilient and naturally resistant to pests, lending it well to organic growing conditions. The large leaves and compact shape of the foliage overall make it an attractive landscaping tree.
The 11th Annual Ohio Pawpaw Festival will be held September 19th & 20th, 2009 at Lake Snowden in Albany, Ohio.
Comments
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paw paw info
Paw Paw trees grow well in Md, Pa, and other states too. Mmmm
By no means is the paw paw the only fruit native to the US, not even close. How about cranberries, raspberries, loganberries, blueberries, American plum, Canada plum, beach plum, bunchberries, American red raspberries, black raspberries, black cherries, black walnuts, pecans, various persimmons, Concorde grapes (a cultivar of the native fox grapes), many species of blackberries, American hazelnut, Saskatoon berries, salmonberries, several species of strawberries and honeyberries. This is by no means complete list either, there are certainly more human edible fruits but the ones I mentioned above are probably are the most common and widely commercialized. The paw paw is however the largest North American fruit. There actually several paw paw species indigenous to the US but the only northern species is Asimina triloba which grows as far north as Ontario.
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