Food As Medicine: Paw Paw Nutritional Profile & Preserving for Winter
Paw Paws from the last harvest and a harvest Ini made this morning. Can't stop wildharvesting! So many Paw Paws!
Paw Paw pulp in ice cube trays to freeze and bag for winter consumption
Paw paw have a rich nutritional profile as well as many medicinal actions.
The growth habit of this wonderful tree may provide some clues to the benefits it bestows. The paw paw does not possess the fibrous roots like many other fruit bearing trees, but instead has a deep tap root. This root bores deep into the Earth and acts as a pump, mobilizing minerals from well below the surface. The tree is rarely ever bothered by pests and this may be linked to some of its medicinal qualities.
Kiss the paw paw! What a wonderful fruit!
The fruit is the edible portion of this tree while the leaves and twigs serve other roles in agricultural and medicinal applications. The fruit is relatively high in protein (containing ALL essential amino acids) and fat, creating a more balanced food than other sweet fruits that lack these macronutrients.
Paw Paw pulp with seeds. The seeds are difficult to separate from the pulp. Watch the video to find out what we're doing with them!
Paw paws score well in the vitamin category as well.
Compared to apples, the paw paw is outstanding.
By weight paw paw boast 3 times the vitamin C when compared to apples, 6 times as much riboflavin and 14 times the niacin. Paw paws for the win!
Breaking open a wonderful Paw Paw!
The mineral content of paw paws is truly remarkable. They have 10 times the calcium as bananas and apples and 100 times the manganese as oranges. This is in part responsible for the benefits related to metabolism and blood sugar regulation.
Get a feel for breaking open a paw paw!
They contain nearly as much potassium as bananas and outscore apples, oranges and bananas in phosphorus, magnesium, iron zinc and copper. Paw paws truly are a mineral rich fruit that simply has not received the attention it deserves. Especially considering we don't have many native fruits that rival this nutritional profile in North America, Paw Paw is severely underserved! We need to see these in every yard!
Processing Paw Paws into pulp!
Extracting Pulp
What's more
... There is a growing body of evidence linking the consumption of paw paw extracts to potent anti-cancer capacities.
Dr. Jerry L. McLaughlin, a professor of pharmacognosy at Purdue University has studied the anti-cancer effects of paw paws for 20 years.
The gorgeous Paw Paw
In researching botanical substances from over 3,500 plant species, he found a type of long-chain fatty acid called acetogenins contained in the paw paw fruit that demonstrates the greatest anti-cancer potential of all the compounds he'd examined. source
We will continue eating this amazing fruit! And plant them all over our homestead!
Would you put one in your yard? They're lauded as a fantastic & attractive landscaping plant!
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Yes! What a glorious mess :D I imagine frozen paw paw would be just as awesome as frozen mango. I’ve never had one like that here though, what I know to be paw paw is maybe what you might call a papaya. Gorgeous luscious gifts from the tree gods.
a glorious mess indeed :D yes! it is similar though not as tangy or high note flavors (more pudding like) than mango.. but delicious in its own unique way! yes i've seen that papaya is often called paw paw and even read some things that say that our native paw paw (asimina triloba) was so called paw paw because the early settlers thought it was like the papaya. either way, yes a gift from the tree gods :) indeed another fruit coming on soon, the persimmon, is named diospyros virginia - the first word meaning food of the gods.. and indeed it is!!
Thank you for the little jewels of knowledge, discovering the origins of the names of these plants can be a slap in the face sometimes as to what they’re good for and what they target. I’d love to know all the botanical names too, or the ancient Latin names. Have only ever tried persimmon once and I was pleasantly raptured by its sweet texture
Woo! Love your post - we've given you a wee upvote and hope it helps you continue to write such amazing posts. Thanks for using the natural medicine tag so we can more easily find you.
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thanks sweet @riverflows xxoo loving blurring the line between food and medicine. food is medicine-- maybe a future @naturalmedicine question of the week? XO
THANKS THIS IS GREAT....
THANK YOU
Love this!!!! Can't wait to visit and enjoy these goodies. You can make an amazing bread with pawpaw as well ;) Pretty exciting that these are all around you! What a blessing! Salute your health!! oxoxo
can't wait for you to visit and try them!! we've put away 3 quart bags of frozen pump (in cubes!) so there will be plenty when you visit ;) would love to have some of the bread! love you mama
What a mess :) Looks like a good project for young kids that want to have fun getting messy. Then the adults can get involved eating for the serious nutritional and medicinal properties. haha
yes, let the "adults" handle it ;)
thanks for your information.very good videos
you are welcome. thanks
Just looking through the photos made me wish I could try a pawpaw! Reading the profile of them makes them sounds incredible. So lucky to be able to grow them there!
hehe i wish you could try one too! i know maryland is having a renaissance of sorts relating to the paw paw-- you're not too far from there, right? although i did read that 15 big ones are going for $50 there so it might be cheaper to plant a paw paw tree this year :) ;)
I am really pretty far from Maryland, in Western Mass. My Zone is 4.
@mountainjewel
This is great, I will start eating this stuff, a friend just died from cancer and another one just got diagnosed,(I guess its normal they are older)...
But if I start eating pawpaw now... And kale is supposed to be anti-cancer too, whats your take on that?
Thanks for sharing!
/FF
yes, i definitely thing Diet has a huge part to play in reducing our chances for cancer!! eat these foods til your heart's content :)
Yeah, I am going to have to. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
/FF
Sometimes cancer just happens, no matter what you eat, is my take. But living a healthy life can help and perhaps prepare you for the struggle..
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Im guessing avoiding things that are proven to cause cancer could be a good idea too, but maybe its just me... =)
Thanks for your input! And stay healthy!
/FF
ha, true dat! Sorry, my Dad is just getting over chemo - he was vegetarian, ate so well, yoga and surfer - and ate lots of good food. Still he got cancer. go figure.
@riverflows
F#ck Im sorry, but he is recovering? Yeah I just lost someone close to cancer... Or actually a few of them... But they where fairly old, but still... Im pretty sure you guys looked into alternative treatments and cancer cures?
/FF
Actually this was a time to put our faith in modern medicine... it was very aggressive and needed aggressive treatment. Not the best of times... hopefully now it's over we will be looking at nurture and support as his body recovers x 🙏💛
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@riverflows
Glad to hear that he recovered!
/FF
Actually this was a time to put our faith in modern medicine... it was very aggressive and needed aggressive treatment. Not the best of times... hopefully now it's over we will be looking at nurture and support as his body recovers x 🙏💛
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I hope all goes well, a swift recovery!
/FF
Geeez I learn something new everyday!
I've been interested in Paw Paw fruit ever since I read that it was George Washington's favorite dessert. Did you buy trees from a nursery?
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hi there, it is certainly a tasty dessert! we bought some cultivars from forrest keeling in missouri and also some wild varieties from a state forest nursery that we will graft cultivars onto once they mature.
I will keep that in mind. We have about 3 acres behind our house that was part of a tree farm. After the trees were cut down, I started [managing it mostly for wildlife habitat.] There is a spot near our garden that is the start of an orchard. It has plenty of room for some Paw Paw.