Paw Paws saved and infected the Lewis and Clark expedition in September 1806 in Missouri.
Pawpaws will be fruitinging soon. Photo by Green Deane
Here in Florida we are past paw paw flowering season. They will be fruiting soon if you can find them before the woodland creatures. Unfortuntely the ripe window is only about 10 days to two weeks. Paw paws grow from Florida to southern Canada. Locally paw paw are small shrubs that remind one of their relatives, the magnolias. In the Carolinas where I hike often paw paws are a common large tree. The fruit look like a cross between a potato and an avocade. Don’t touch the seeds then your eyes, which is perhaps what happened to three men in the expedition.
They were the favored fruit of George Washington and a famous food of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Just before they got back to civilization the expedition ran out of food and for a week or so lived off paw paws. What follows is an 18th century recipe for the paw paw from James Townsend and son, 18th century cooking. The final results resembles a one -crust pumpkin pie.
Remove the pulp of several paw paws. Ripe paw pawa have a custard texture think over ripe mango You want about a cup or more for the pie. We don’t eat the skin or seeds epeially not the seeds. Mash the pulp in a bowl to reduce stringiness and to make sure you have removed all the seeds. add a cup of milk or cream and one egg. whisk to make it as smooth as possible, add spices of choice such as nutmeg and ginger and or cinnamon and a tablespoon of mild molasses. Whisk again to remove most of the lumps. Bake for 80 minutes at 250 F. degrees. Make sure it is Completely cooled off before slicing. I study 18hth century cooking because is like two things… camping cooking inside and cooking with what’s on hand or seasonally with limited kitchen tools. I have a video here.
Blosssom end rot on a Cherokee Purple
if you are new to gardening or like me, you ignored your tomatoes though the winter they can get Blossom End rot. which is the first sign of a calcium deficiency. Calcium (or one of many forms of lime in the water can stop the problem. Other garden plants is the nighshade family can get blossom end rot particularly eggplant. Lye, lime or Dolomite added to the watering can is the solution. A quick inexpensive fix is go to a hispanic market and ask for CAL. Add a tablespoon of CAL to your watering can. You only have to treat your effected plant just once.
If you nixtamalize corn with pickling lime (CAL) you can use that water when it’s time to discard it .
While I am having a calcium issue I am not having predatory bug isssue. To kill off the bugs I fight fire with fire, nicotine. Years ago I used plug tobacco which is too expensive now as is chewing tobacco which used to be 5 cents for a “Plug” the size of a deck of cards. Now what I do i I buy a pack of cheap cigarettes or a cheap all-tobacco cigar and boil either in two cups of water (Boiling kill off any nighshade viruses on the tobacco so you can us the concoction on tomatoes, egg plant and pepper as well as other plants. Strain the cooked tobacco from the water and put the water in a spray bottle add a drop of two of dish soap and spray away. Most commercial plant bug spray contain nicotine as he “active” ingredient. This year I m raising some high nicotine tobacco for the expressed purpose of killing bugs “naturally.”
Picking Creeping cucumber after cutting off the blossom end.
In Ft. Pierce las week we saw a lot of “mouse cucumbers” so I brought home a pocket full and i’m turning them into pickles. Will bring them to a future foraging classs. Fermenting cukes or cabbage or schopped piderwort is easy is easy. The basic recipe rarely varies. One tablespoon of non -iodized salt per cup of water or per pound of material. Spices of your choice (such as poor man’s pepper grass or wild garlic.) The prime mistake people make when fermenting is not assuring the material they are fermenting is kept submerged in the brine. What ever sticks out from the liquid will turn moldy. Rocks. plates glass plugs, chards of pots and baggies full of vinegar or water can be used to hold he fermenting material under the surface. your nose and taste but will tell you when they are ready. If material mole, just remove it the rest under the liquid is fine. You can watch a video about ceeping cucumbers here.
Mulberries resemble over-grown blackberries. Photo by Green Deane
Blackberries and mulberries after coming into season.They are bright red turning dark purple now and will for several weeks. For two fruits in different genera they taste remarkably alike and ripen at about the same time locally — early April to late April. Red Mulberries are native to North America and are the bane of many cities in that the fruit stains sidwalks. To read more about blackberries go here, a video on mulberries here
I was given a vanilla-making kit by Seminole County Master Gardeners… just add vodka. Planning ahead, it should be ready
by Chistmas;Thank you master gardeners. Your local county extension office and master gardeners are the folks to see about any cultivated plant issues you might have such as when to plant and or what bug or fungus is bothering your carefully raised greenery.
Foraging classes this weekend are on the southern part of the state. east side Saturday, west side Sunday same latitude ye different plants in season.
Saturday April 2nd, Dreher Park, West Palm Beach, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405., 9 a.m. to noon. Meet just north of the science museum.
Sunday April 3rd, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon meet at the playgound
Saturday April 9th,Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771, 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion nest to the dog park.
Sunday April 10th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m. to noon Meet at the bathrooms.
Saturday/Sunday May 7th & 8th, Honea Path, South Carolina, classes at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. each day.
For more information, to pre-pay or sign up go here
My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by 171-videos on a 128-GB USB, see left. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy especially if social order falters. The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. Or you can make a $99 donation, which tells me it is for the USB (include a snail-mail address.) I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. I had to stop making them as few programs now will read the ISO files to copy them. Burning a set also took about three hours.
Green Deane Forum
Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Fermenting potatoeswith yogurt, make a water filter, nixtamalization at home, Stale Bread and Cod Liver Oil, Life’s a Grind, Killing Bugs with Tobacco Plugs, Eating weeds: Is it safe? Have they mutated? Not the Eastern Red Bug but the Pink Tabebuia, African Tulip Tree, Asparagus densiflorus, Green Deane’s Book… You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.
This is my weekly newsletter #501. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste.
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