|
Welcome to a few pictures about searching for pawpaws in the
Ozarks. These first fruits are from a backyard patch in Iowa, grown from wild seed. These are ready to pick, and
are easy to see once you get close. Prime pawpaw picking time in Iowa
is about the middle two weeks in Sept. I think it is a little earlier than that in the Ozarks.
This is the same tree, same fruit, same time as the picture
above. There are lots of fruit up there, but they are hard to see. So expect to do a little squinting and peeking and searching
even once you find a tree full.
In the center of this picture is one lone, small pawpaw fruit.
This is just to show you how small many wild ones can be. (This one grown in a front yard along a shady street, from a wild
seed.)
Here is where I think I will find the most pawpaw fruit. I like
to walk along small streams anyway (just to look at fish, etc.) and here the wild trees finally get a little sun. On another
website (link on next page) of a guy who sells pawpaw trees, there was a picture of canoeing down rivers with buckets full
of pawpaw and picking from trees like this along bigger water. That may be the best idea for most people.
It
was hard for me to find a good shot to show you how a bunch of pawpaw trees look (if you are driving around on small back
roads, just looking down into the forest). This was the best (it shows a small tree, so you can see the leaves, in a group
of much bigger trees). There were lots of trees, though, and fairly visible from the roads. The trees were almost always down
by the dry streams at the bottom of hollers.
Not
that I am a lazy hunter and gatherer, but the easiest way to find wild pawpaws may be just cruising through the parks in your
car. The roads do occasionally cross the streams and hollers, and there are trees right next to the roads. This year (2007)
there were no fruit, but in the spring there was a late freeze that may have killed the young fruit. These trees probably
get enough sun because of the roads. If you bring a few tools you can even “help” the pawpaw trees get a little
extra sun.
Picking tools. This picture shows what we do in Hawaii
to pick mangoes. Those grow in very tall trees, and the fruit are quite large and heavy. The easiest mango picker is made
from a large dip net and a bamboo pole. This setup is probably overkill for pawpaws,
and besides you need a surf rack to carry the picker around.
Here are some portable tools that should help. This pole is
pretty deluxe (a paint roller pole, adjustable) and you could just cut a stick instead. In the picture it is set up for a
hook, which can be used to pull a branch into reach. For a net the easiest and cheapest is a large aquarium net, bent a little.
And a roll of straping tape to make the picker when you get lucky and find some fruit.
(If you don’t have a picker a quick shake of the tree will drop the ripe ones and won’t waste too many.)
On to how to grow your own pawpaw trees
Back to the pawpaw page on the Pondermostly site: http://pondermostly.tripod.com/id7.html
|
