“Way Down Yonder in the Paw-paw Patch”

When I was in second grade, the teacher, Mrs. McCoy, taught us the “Paw-paw Patch” song. Here are the first two verses and the chorus:
 
Where, oh where, oh where is Susie? 
Where, oh where, oh where is Susie? 
Where, oh where, of where is Susie? 
Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.
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Chorus:
Picking up paw-paws; put 'em in a basket. 
Picking up paw-paws; put 'em in a basket. 
Picking up paw-paws;put 'em in a basket. 
Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.

Come along, boys, and let's go find her. 
Come along, boys, and let's go find her. 
Come along, boys, and let's go find her. 
Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch
 
Mrs. McCoy brought paw-paws to school for us to sample. I remember not being impressed by the taste which was like an over-ripe banana. I wasn’t then, nor am I now, fond of over-ripe bananas, unless they’re baked into banana nut bread or muffins. But I liked the catchy little ditty!
 
The paw-paw is a fruit with yellow-green skin and soft, yellow-orange flesh with a creamy, custard-like consistency. The taste has been described as a cross between a banana and a mango, and is very sweet.
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This is a paw-paw not yet ripe. It’s about four inches long and two inches wide.

​Paw-paws also grow in clusters of two or three.

Here are some interesting facts I found while researching the paw-paw:

• It’s the largest edible fruit native to the United States and grows wild in 26 states, including Kansas.
• It’s a member of the tropical custard apple family, the only member not found in the tropics.
• The paw-paw has been nicknamed custard apple, poor man’s banana and Indiana banana.
• The small trees are usually found growing along banks of rivers and streams; however, our paw-paw patch is not near a stream.
• Native Americans and early European settlers enjoyed the custardy sweetness.
• The paw-paw is packed with nutritional value: high in protein, antioxidants, vitamins A and C and several essential minerals. I was surprised about the protein; most fruits aren’t known to have high protein content.

 Paw-paws ripen in late summer or early fall and we start watching for them on our evening walks. Unfortunately, the trees in our patch are short, spindly and don’t bear much fruit because other, taller trees block out sunlight. 

Several years ago when we moved to our current farm, Bill pointed out paw-paw trees to me on one of our evening walks in the fall. The song immediately came back to me. We searched our own little patch but only found a few unripe paw-paws. Bill picked one. We took it back to the house, cut it open and sampled it. Yuck! The taste was pretty bad, even worse than an extremely green banana! We would wait for the others to ripen and try again. But when we checked a few days later they’d disappeared. I blamed the timber critters. They couldn’t climb the spindly trunks, but maybe they shook the trees until the fruit fell in their larcenous little laps!
 
This year, I out-smarted those thieving varmints. I picked two paw-paws still a little green and set them on the kitchen counter, covered by a paper towel, for a couple of days to finish ripening.

Here is the inside of a ripe paw-paw. 

Somehow in my research I missed the part about the seeds. And there weren’t just four; there were nine! 

Now for the big moment: my first taste of ripe paw-paw since I was seven years old…

Wow, was I was surprised! The taste was like a rich mango-banana custard, but the banana was mild and there was none of the overripe taste I remembered from long ago.
 
Our joint consensus was, “Let’s go look for more on our evening walk!” We didn’t expect to find more than a few, if that many, since the season is almost past and our patch is not prolific. But we did find four.

​Now we have another activity to add to our “rites of fall” list:

​“Picking up paw-paws; put 'em in a basket.”