Pawpaw Fruit • Handling & Cooking

Pawpaw Fruit • Handling & Cooking
Native Fruit Association: nativefruit.org
The Native Fruit Association (NFA) was formed to promote and share knowledge about native fruits of the Midwest that have commercial possibilities. The group has received grants from Iowa Department of Land Stewardship to create demonstration plots and to create informative videos and a website.
NFA has partnered with these organizations to develop a website with a series of professionally produced videos to promote the cultivation and consumption of three native Iowa Fruits: American Persimmon Fruit, Pawpaw Fruit, and Aronia Fruit::
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach • www.extension....
Levi’s Indigenous Fruit Enterprises (“LIFE”) • aronialife.com
Red Fern Farm • www.redfernfarm...
Werner Elmker Audio-Visual Studio • elmker.com
For each of the three fruits, three videos have been developed:
• Short introduction to introduce consumers to the fruit and to get them excited about trying it.
• Video aimed at potential growers, showing planting and cultivation techniques, site selection, production cost estimates, and production profit projections.
• Video showing how to harvest, handle, and prepare the fruit into delicious juices, sauces, jams, pies, smoothies, and ice cream.
Each video is linked to more detailed written information on the NFA website, including several recipes for each fruit, lists of producers and their contact information, and step-by-step instructions for planting and cultivation for each fruit crop.
NFA wants to introduce both consumers and potential growers to these three little-known native Iowa fruits that are both delicious and nutritious. Producers will see how these fruits can be profitably grown as specialty crops that are virtually free of disease and pest problems. They can be grown in a system of continuous living cover, protection soil and water by reducing soil erosion to levels comparable to that of natural prairie and forest.
Playlist with all nine videos:
• Native Fruit Associati...
All nine videos are produced by:
Werner Elmker Audio-Visual Studio
Website - elmker.com
Facebook - / elmker
TH-cam - / wernerelmker

[@WernerElmker]

Pawaw Harvest and Use
• Why Pawpaws?
• Delicious and Nutritious
• Large native fruit
• Beautiful, easy to grow tree
• Harvesting
• Ripeness
• Ripen from mid-August to first hard freeze
• Different ripening times for individual trees or grafted variety
• No big color change as they ripen - yellowish green
• Move fruit back and forth and watch peduncle, if it flexes easily, it is ripe
• If fruit falls off while attempting peduncle test, it is ripe
• Lightly squeeze fruit with fingertips to try and create small dimple. If dimple stays, it is ripe.
• A fully tree ripened fruit will have best developed flavor but also a short shelf life 4 - 7 days refrigerated, and bruise easily
• A fruit picked slightly under ripe will travel better and have a longer shelf life 7 - 14 days but may only taste like good bananas
• Unripe fruit will not develop any flavor and remain hard
• Fruit on ground can be harvested - watch out for insects. Do not eat after other animals
• Store in cool condition in a single layer to avoid bruising
• Eat Fresh
• Do not eat skin or chew seeds
• Cut in half and eat out of skin bowl with a spoon
• Taste and texture is like French custard
• Flesh exposed to air will darken and often develop bitter aftertaste
• Fresh cut fruit is very attractive to flies and wasps
• Do not Dry flesh
• Oxidation will cause bitterness and browning
• Very unpleasant when dried
• Storage
• Freezes Well
• Fruit can be frozen whole or processed and frozen
• Wash all fruit before processing
• Squeeze all air out of bags of pulp before freezing
• Processing
• Cut fruit in half to expose all seeds
• Hold fruit as it hung from the tree
• Picture the equator around the fruit
• Cut into the fruit along the equator, you should hit seeds
• Twist fruit apart
• Seeds can be pulled out and saved for planting later
• Very ripe fruit will not separate easily, but seeds can still be removed
• When all seeds are out, scoop out flesh
• Do not scrape inside of skin or bruised areas
• All pulp goes into plastic bag, seal as soon as desired amount is in bag
• Multiple bags can be stored in quart or gallon size bags and labeled.
• Use within 12 hours if not frozen
• Recipes
• Baking
• Use as banana substitute
• Flavor compounds are very volatile
• Will lose some favor when cooked
• Smoothies
• Excellent substitute for banana
• Adds sweetness and richness
• Will thicken as it oxidizes
• Dose not store well due to oxidation
• Pawpaw Ice cream
• One of easiest recipes for pawpaw
• Good way to share a small amount of pawpaw
• Use 2 cups pulp to 2 quarts vanilla ice cream
• Easiest method is to purchase vanilla ice cream
• Soften slightly in refrigerator
• Mix in smooth pawpaw pulp (use food processor to smooth pulp)
• Refreeze pawpaw ice cream mixture for 2 - 24 hours
• To serve, let soften slightly before scooping
• If you are making homemade ice cream, add pawpaw pulp at the final stage
• Pawpaw Cheesecake
• Pre-bake pastry or graham cracker pie shell or small individual serving dishes
• Mix gelatin and sugar in a small container
• Add hot water to dissolve gelatin
• Let gelatin sit for 5 minutes to completely dissolve, stir occasionally
• In food processor pulse pawpaw and lemon juice till smooth.
• Add softened cheese and vanilla, mix well
• Slowly add liquid gelatin to pawpaw in processor, pulse till mixed
• May start setting up in processor
• Pour into pie shell or dishes
• Garnish with graham cracker crumbs, tiny nut pieces or chocolate bits
• Chill or freeze immediately
• Best eaten once set or within 24 hours
• Freeze if not eating immediately to avoid oxidation

[@jwiheath1928]

Do u sell the seeds I live in North Florida I would love to have some seeds