So what the heck is a pawpaw?
I recently heard of a drink in secret. Kayakers to paddle in the waters near Washington, DC, told me of a mango fruit that grows along the banks of the Potomac - a familiar mottled skin and hides a tasty treat.
A tropical fruit-like here, really? Yep. It is the only member of a family tree tropical warm. You can not buy in stores from papaya, so that for years the only way to eat from the tree was.
I was intrigued. So I decided to find a single pawpaw.
Matt Cohen DC naturalist guide showed me how to find them.
We take the path of the Billy Goat on the Maryland side of Potomac River. "Wow," was the first word of my mouth when I tasted one that we find our way. It's kind of handle is the banana ... with a little hint of melon.
Although not heard of it, the papaya has a story. Thomas Jefferson at Monticello papayas. And when he was minister of France in 1786, pawpaw seeds were sent to friends. He probably wanted to impress your friends with something exotic in America.
Lewis and Clark wrote in his diaries that were very fond of pawpaw. At one point during his expedition in 1806, relied on other provisions pawpaw when I was running out. And from Michigan to West Virginia, people have called even cities and lakes after the pawpaw.
However, the pawpaw has only recently been marketed. That's one reason I do not see in the grocery store. So far, there are only a few orchards sale to farmers' markets. This progress is largely thanks to the work of the plant scientist Neal Peterson.
He has spent the last 35 years of breeding of the pawpaw to make it look and taste more like a fruit we like to buy. Has been selected and cultivated varieties are bigger, with more meat.
After testing its first wild pawpaw for 35 years, had a eureka moment.
"It was a revelation," he says. Peterson believed that the pawpaw was every bit the rival of a perfect peach or apple - fruit that have had thousands of years of breeding.
Why had not someone who does this with pawpaw? "I just could instantly make the leap of the imagination," he says.
And nearly three decades later, he has a lot to show. Your pawpaw are grown in gardens a few and sold in agricultural markets.
And now moving beyond the novelty. A food scientist at the University of Ohio, Rob Brannan, is interested in studying the nutrients from the pawpaw. So far, he has published a study that found that the antioxidants in fruit account to be quite high.
"This is the same as a blueberry" or a cherry, Brannan says.
If scientists could put a "health halo" at the papaya, Brannan said, would result a commercial boost. It has happened before. Pomegranate juice, anyone?
"Yum - great taste," said Joan Foster, after trying the pawpaw for the first time in the agricultural market Olney recently. She has been waiting a long time to try. They are only available a few weeks off the year - and the season this year, the pawpaw is about to end.
So if you're intrigued, come back again tomorrow for some tips on where to find the beer papaya, pawpaw sorbet ... and recipes for pawpaw.