What do I do with papayas?

“My first bite of wild papaya was the tipping point toward obsession,” says Casey Roe, a marketing consultant for food companies who has become known as The papaya picker“I couldn’t believe the bright yellow flesh, sweet aroma and surprisingly tropical flavor of this wild fruit hiding in plain sight all around us in the woods of North Carolina.”

While papaya’s banana- and mango-like flavor evokes temperate, palm-dotted equatorial environments, this unique fruit is distinctly North American. In fact, it has been growing on the continent for about 100 years. 56 million yearsIf you’re wondering why you’ve tried all kinds of foreign fruits but never heard of papaya, you’re not alone.

“You can get papayas in the Rust Belt states, the mid-Atlantic states, Appalachia, and parts of the South,” says Sara Bir, author of Pawpaw’s Pocket CookbookThat covers a significant swath of the U.S., but neither Bir nor Roe encountered one until adulthood.

“I became interested in native plants and food gathering, and the papaya took on this Bigfoot-like myth,” Bir says. “My parents didn’t grow up with papayas, and I found that to be key: there’s generational continuity.”

Unfortunately, even those with family ties to papayas may not be familiar with them. The fruit was consumed by indigenous peoples across the continent for thousands of years, until European colonization disrupted this practice during the 19th century.

“Today, many Native people don’t know what they are and don’t have access to them,” says Devon Mihesuah, a professor at the University of Kansas, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation and a descendant of the Chickasaw. “Many tribes have been uprooted from their traditional lands and are therefore cut off from the foods their ancestors harvested.”

However, Mihesuah’s grandparents from Muskogee, Oklahoma, taught her how to grow papayas at a young age. She continues to harvest the fruit during its short season each year, which runs from late August to early September, depending on the region and climate.

“Papayas have a very strong aroma, and in the forests you can sometimes smell them before you find them,” Bir says. Like Mihesuah and Roe, she harvests the fruit regularly.

“Papaya skin varies from green to yellow to brown depending on ripeness, and the flesh ranges from light yellow to deep orange,” Roe says. The creamy texture of the flesh, which encases large, hard seeds, is often described as creamy.

But Roe warns: “Be careful not to consume the skin and seeds, as they can cause illness.” She points out to newbies the warning words on the label. USDA website, which states that these parts of the fruit may cause stomach upset or allergic reactions.

Still, Roe considers herself part of a “small but passionate circle of papaya fans across the country.” She, Bir and Mihesuah prefer to enjoy papayas in their natural form, though each has her own way of preparing them, sometimes drawing on both ancient traditions and international influences.

“The Iroquois reportedly crushed [pawpaws] and done [them] “Papaya can be used to make cakes,” says Mihesuah, who follows a similar practice: mixing it into her homemade cornbread. It is also a great addition or substitute for baking banana bread.

Papayas can be substituted for other fruits in a wide variety of recipes. Roe recommends “a peanut butter and jelly version” made with a layer of freshly mashed papaya instead of the usual sweet paste, or adding it to bowls of yogurt with honey.

When it comes to breakfast, Bir loves making papaya lassis. This smooth, rich fruit pairs perfectly with frozen drinks and treats, such as milkshakes, sundaes, and frozen cocktails, as well as desserts, such as Bir’s Papaya Key Lime Tart and Nilla Papaya Wafer Pudding.

“I use a hand blender, add a splash of agave nectar and blend until smooth, then freeze it to make sorbet,” says Mihesuah, who also likes to combine papayas with other native fruits like blueberries, cranberries and persimmons.

As for more savory flavors, papayas work especially well as a condiment. “I make a green tomato and papaya relish that goes great with tortilla chips,” says Bir, who has also developed papaya-centric recipes for mustard, ketchup and barbecue sauce.

As with many fruits, one of the best ways to take advantage of an unexpected papaya harvest is to prepare large batches of preserves or curd.

“From the moment the papaya falls from the tree, it has a very short shelf life,” Roe explains. “This is what makes papaya such a local food and why you don’t find it in the supermarket.” A ripe papaya should be consumed or processed immediately. Even if stored in the refrigerator, it will last only three to five days.

When it comes to finding the fruit in its natural environment, it all depends on who you know. “Foragers can be secretive about the location of local plots,” says Roe, who shares information about sourcing the food with those who subscribe to her site. fact sheet“There are some Facebook groups dedicated to papayas, which are a good place to start. More farms have started growing them, and they are sometimes available seasonally at local farmers markets.”

“If you’re west of the Mississippi, then you’ll have to travel to the papayas or order them online,” Bir says. Forageda community market for pickers and farmers, is one of the only services that ships fruit (in its frozen form) as well as seeds for planting.

Papaya is also slowly making its way onto seasonal restaurant menus, with a notable rise in Durham, North Carolina, thanks in large part to Roe’s work as a local advocate for the fruit. For a few weeks out of the year, you can find papaya ice cream with papaya caramel sauce on Durham’s dessert menu. Mother and children and papaya ice cream sandwiches in DashiFruit fans can also taste it in papaya cider at Botanist and barrela cider house and winery, or the papaya beer called American Promise in Fullsteam Brewery.

But to truly experience papaya, it’s best to follow Mihesuah’s example: “Normally,” she says, “I shake a tree, break them in half, and make a mess while I stand there eating them.”

Elena Valeriote is a writer of stories about food, agriculture, culture and travel that explore the connection between people and place. Her work has appeared in publications such as Gastro Obscura, Modern farmerand Life and Thyme.
Dilek Baykara is a Turkish-American illustrator, print designer, and adventurous foodie living in Brooklyn, New York.