You’ve probably never heard of this! Native American Superfood 👍

folks today on the Stony Rich Farm Channel we're taking you in the woods and showing you what a pawpaw is what's a paaw it ain't like a Momo I'll tell you that [Music] hey there folks this is Josh Stony Ridge farmer Welcome Back To Nature Boy day it's a food Friday here on the Stony Ridge Farm and I've got to show you something that's really cool if you don't know about these you need to know about these this is superfood in the forest it's pawpaw time baby let's take you in the woods and we'll show you what a pawpaw is and we'll open one up and taste it really cool right [Music] there all right folks welcome back to the Stony Ridge Farm Channel this is your first time here your 50 millionth time hit that like button subscribe I'd love to have you back it's Nature Boy day this is a fun food Friday here on the Stony Ridge Farm and we are down here by the creek at my pawpaw Grove we're on a farm here in rural North Carolina 150 acre first generation farm and we're down on the creek bottom there is a Grove of paw paaws and if you don't know what a pawpaw is that is a pawpaw we're going to open it up here in just a second but first I think it's important for you to know what it is why it is and why it's important for you so apala is the largest North American Native tropical fruit these are tropical trees they like to grow in a sandy lomy soil so if you're walking down a hiking trail or something like that and you see these kind of trees remember them when you walk by you will see this little fruit hanging in that tree right now it is the last week of September when fall Hits like the first day of fall Hits or you first start seeing little red leaves on the gum tree that's when your pawpaws are starting to get ripe when the leaves start falling off the poppers that's when your pawpaws are starting to get ripe now I've gone in here and there are flags in each one of these trees all spring long I monitor these trees and I see which ones have flowers on now the flowers of the paaw tree there's a male flower and a female flower that helps to pollinate the pawpaw tree never seen a honeybee on them I think maybe they're pollinated by the wind I don't actually know per se but I do know that pawpaws are really good for you there are super food including vitamin C manganese potassium iron magnesium antioxidants protein and acetogenin that is a molecule that has potential anti-cancer effects so really really cool let me show you before we crack into this dude how to get a pawpaw they're either on the ground and they're on only on the ground for just a short period of time if you don't catch them the day they fall and hit the ground a possum a raccoon all the critters of the forest will be over here eating them so let's go over in the woods and we'll show you what a pawpaw tree looks like and how to get the pawpaws off the tree and how not to get green pawpaws come on this is a weeny baby pawpaw tree these trees are everywhere Bam Bam Bam once you find the pawpaw Grove on your hiking trail and these are native to the Eastern United States so if you live out west in a dry climate you're probably not going to find a paa these are the leaves of the pawpaw tree we're just going to sacrifice this little guy looks like a little tropical leaf this is fall so the leaves are starting to turn just a little bit and you'll notice that on several of these there's also an invasive worm that has inundated my pawpaws that's what that is it's a little worm basket I guess you'd call that this is what the pawpaw looks like now we've got some adult pawpaw trees right over here which are flagged this is an adult pawpaw tree the pawpaw tree typically for some reason some of them never put out fruit but they typically don't put out fruit until they're about this big okay about as big as your arm or big as your leg maybe about four Ines around about the size of this guy and the way you find your paw paws and let me just show you real quick they're growing on the creek Banks right here there are pawpaw trees that's one that's fallen down recently this is what you want to look for you look up in the canopy of the tree and you will see this fruit hanging in that canopy you'll also scan the ground and what will we find more paw paaws on the ground now they turn black really quick after they fall now that's the good pawpaw right there that's the yummiest of all so we're going to eat that dude here in just a minute let me show you real quick how we get the pawpaws out of the tree and what to do so you don't get a green one and waste it so when you have a pawpaw tree like this again it's about that big round you want to take the tree and you just want to Jiggle It just like that you'll see things falling right you see leaves falling now if the pawpaw is ripe then it will fall out of the tree it will fall you don't want to do this okay I'm going to show you just for information sake you don't want to do that you want to gently jiggle the pawpaw tree you want to walk through the Grove shake shake shake there 50 paaw trees back in here as you shake you'll hear thump and that thing will thump right on the ground now that is a paaw that's what it's all about and let's show you the difference between one that's almost green and one that's not white green and I actually have my editor here with me have you ever had a pawpaw Josh never never so he's going to try them with us too it's going to be funny so I'm going to let him hold the camera while I open one up um your paw paws are much like a banana in the inside this is this has like an orange fruit it's very high in beta carotene uh this is a good Popa even though it looks nasty it just looks disgusting right check this out you don't want to eat the the skin of the pawpaw and a pawpaw can be mildly irritating I'm going to stick this one in my editor's pocket right here a pawpaw can be a little bit irritating to the stomach so we'll just take and we'll just pinch pinch the skin back it just Falls right off pretty much okay and inside the pawpaw there we go are some seeds you can eat the skin but it's just not very palatable it's kind of gross uh it does look gross trust me but you see how it's got orange fruit in there pretty cool I like to just peel this skin back a little bit this is country living at its best make sure you don't have any cow poop on your fingers cuz you might get sick not to paaw it's so good this is this is a childhood flavor this taste brings back memories here's what the seed looks like it's got a stack of seeds seed seed seed seed seed seed they're all stacked up together the best thing to do let's take your tooth and clean that seed off now we're going to cheuck these seeds back to Mother Nature and the real best way to eat a poaw is just like this like the whole darn thing slided in your mouth it is sloppy it is Ooey it's gooey and it's so delicious it's sweet it has beta cartine so it's like a cantalope kind of flavor to it and it's like a rotten banana almost so if you like a mushy rotten banana I like them that's what makes the best banana pudding and you can make pawpaw pudding too this is a once a year delicacy in the country it's a Native American delicacy it's a superfood it's absolutely delicious and it tastes like something you've never had before in your life so there are no pawpaws left in this tree right here but I did find some pawpaws earlier typically like I said you'll go through and you'll Shake there is another Grove of pawpaw across the creek let's open this guy up um this is the one I think I had in my hand and this is another one a smaller one that's probably ripe too if it's mushy it's ripe okay just like that mm if it's bitter it's not ripe now we're going to give my editor a shot at the pawpaw it's like a banana and an avocado had a baby just going to say exactly the same thing really yep yeah that's what I think too this is going to be my baby for later and now you guys that's mine and that's his now you guys know what a pawpaw is and now you know who does all the hard work with the editing this is my buddy Josh that's silent Josh and I'm talks a lot Josh big Josh guys thank you so much for joining me here on the Stony Ridge Farm today I thought I'd bring you in for a super duper eastern Southeastern delic delicacy a farm delicacy this is something I grew up with I grew up on the Smith River near Martinsville Virginia and as a child I'd roam the forest and I'd pick up paw paaws and we' take a bucket home to Dad he'd be so proud and then they would rot in one day so if you pick a paw paaw you got this for one day that's all you have you can put it in the refrigerator it might keep for two days but it's not like a mango it's not like a banana it's not like anything you've ever had so get in the woods locate yourself a Grove of paw paws and try them yourself thank you guys so much please hit that like button subscribe to the channel we'll see you next time on the Stony Ridge Farm on food Friday be sure if you have any ideas for videos or if you want to know a little B something about what's going on on the farm please post it down there this video was an idea from one of you guys thank you so much I'm going to take this home and Munch on it and we'll see you next time on food Friday on the Stony Ridge take care woo all right guys what is a source of inspiring me you and it tastes like something you've never had before in your life you going to pass out on me what up