Early yesterday morning Granny called and told me to come by when I got off work-her and Pap had a surprise for me. It was something I had never seen before-have you ever seen it before? Do you know what the green thing in the photo is?
Tipper
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Heh! Lisa and I used to throw them into the woods and her dad would yell, because every year they would grow more from the seeds we were throwing!
Pawpaws bring back memories…
I am here catching up my friend…
It might have been an alien life-form, for all I knew! I guess these grow a bit farther south. Thanks for the ongoing education Tipper! 🙂
I love pawpaws. My father did, too. He could not wait for them to get ripe every year. This one looks like the ones I remember from my childhood that dad would bring to the house for us. He knew where there was some wild trees growing in a woods and would go to those trees every year to get their fruit. They looked just like this one. Great memories. Thanks for sharing this.
Mh my gosh! It’s a pawpaw. Most of the people here don’t know them either.
My grandmother loved them.
Clearly a pawpaw but Tipper, I ate them off trees in the wild grassy alley ways on my way home from school in small town Kentucky and from yards in Florida. I am surprised you are surprised.
well i have never heard of pawpaws.. except when they call a grandfather that lol .. but it does look like a potato to me.
im anxious as all the others to see what it is..
love these pictures
I have no clue what this is. But, if it is a paw paw, I always wanted to know what one looked like. I remember as a child singing the paw paw song. Pickin’ up paw paws, put ’em in a basket, pickin’ up paw paws put ’em in a basket….
Also enjoying Gloryland Way. Brings back memories as a child singing it in church. Love the old hymns.
I have heard my daddy talk about how good they were and have seen the plant but not the fruit. My guess:
Where, oh where is dear old Tipper?
Where, oh where is dear old Tipper?
Where, oh where is dear old Tipper?
Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.
Come on boys, let’s go find her,
Come on boys, let’s go find her,
Come on boys, let’s go find her,
Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.
My Grandmother sang that song to me. When I first saw the picture, I thought of that song, and here it is.
Dear Mary,
Seems I remember hearing: Way don yonder in the paw-paw patch
Picking up paw-paws putting a basket, picking up paw-paws putting in a basket?
And a merliton has a pucker in one end, so it’s not one of those.
Hmmm…
God bless.
RB
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Hi Sue – Wayyy too smooth for a sugar apple, but could be a paw-paw.
God bless.
RB
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Looks like an unripened papaya, but I think it’s probably not cause that’s too easy and is rather citified. ;o)
God bless.
RB
<><
I think it is a pawpaw. They grow along a creek not far from my house. My wife said that she and her sister made hats out of the leaves.
A type of small gourd.
I think it is a paw-paw. Daddy loved them; they taste like rotten bananas to me. Makes me think of the song “Where, oh where is dear little Susie? Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.”
It isn’t as brown as I remember them!
Tough one! My guess is a gourd.
It’s difficult to tell the size of this thing. At first I wanted to say a nest egg gourd, but it may be too large. I’ve never seen a paw-paw, so I guess I’m stumped!
extra big paw paw .Larry Proffitt
Looks like a CITRON(forerunner to the watermelon) to me.Great for making preserves.
Got one before the coons got to it, huh? If that’s a paw paw, it’s a bigun.
Giant Maypop? But you’ve seen a zillion of them! I have no idea. Looking forward to finding out what it is.
Tipper,
It looks like a Paw paw fruit, but
it appears bigger than I’ve seen.
Also most are bananna shaped.
Sure is a healthy looking fruit,
where in the world did Pap find it? I had two trees a growing and
both got mowed off even with the
ground…Ken
It’s a pawpaw fer sure…got em on my tree in Georgia right now!!!
Robin …Appalachian gurl livin in utah
From here, it looks like a pawpaw. Now, I have some very big Roma tomatoes that, from a particular angle, look like that. Still, it looks much like a pawpaw, except that pawpaws would, by this time of the year, be starting to turn yellow with splotches of black, kind of like a banana gets.
I think it is a paw-paw. I never liked them but it was one of my Dads favorite things! I haven’t seen one in years.
I concur with the Pawpaw group but if it is indeed a Pawpaw it’s a nice’un.
Well, Tipper, I’d throw my guess toward Paw Paw. Right shape. Course it could be a giant green mater or a weird tater, but I’m guessing paw paw.
I’d say it’s a paw-paw fruit. I’ve never seen one in real life.
Tater!
Tipper–I suspect it is a pawpaw, although I’d be much more comfortable in saying that if the photograph had offered additional perspective on size. The bowl in the background helps a bit, but your lens is probably a wide-angle one and that can skew size appreciably when one item is in the foreground and one isn’t (such as making fairly ordinary fish look monstrous). Also, the bowl could be one for cereal or a really big serving bowl.
So I’ll go with pawpaw but have some residual doubts.
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com
P. S. The fact that you mentioned, a few days back, that you had never seen a pawpaw adds to my feeling this is what it is. After all you indicate it was a surprise, as something you had never seen would be.
Unless your granny is funning you, as mine used to, I’d say it’s a wild potato, the vines of which grow everywhere, and thoughtfully so, in wild and beautiful profusion.
It is a green potato. I haven’t the faintest idea what a pawpaw looks like or tastes like.
A sunburned potato.
What a teaser, this is not fair, I can’t wait till you post the answer.
A paw-paw! I love paw-paws!!!
Looks like a Paw-Paw to me. A neighbor growing up had a tree in their front yard. Great tasting fruit but boy howdy do they stick somethin awful when they are rotting. Nasty!
I have NO clue … anxious for the answer.
Tipper,
Looks like a Paw-paw!
As usual great post!
Thanks Tipper,
At first I thought it was a giant spud, then maybe a mango due to its shape. I have to admit I had seen this fruit before, so I did a bit of research after my first two guesses. If I researched correctly, I would say it is a paw paw, not seen very often. I have never tasted one.
It looks like a pawpaw. It sure is a big one! I have lots of pawpaw trees on my farm, but rarely ever get any of them as the squirrels camp out and wait for them to ripen. If they fall on the ground, the deer come running.
I’m gonna say that it’s some kind of potato.
Stacey
Looks like a not quite ripe mango…but the shape seems a little off. If course mangoes don’t grow round here.
Tipper, I don’t have any idea. That’s tow out of three that I didn’t know. That makes me one embarrassed country girl!
Let me pull out my collection of memories. I remember the Merlitons in LA mentioned by Kathryn, but seemed the shape was different. those grew along a fence and were deliciois stuffed. Alligator pear? Nah, Granny was digging taters, and that may be one left out in the sun and turned green. Green taters should not be eaten. But, you would have seen one of those growing up in the country. I give up!
It looks like a pear, green tomato?
no clue at all, a very big potato, a very small watermelon, i read all the comments so it could be anything at all. I have never had a word verification here, but I use google, so maybe it is on something else
Tipper, you cheated. Why didn’t you let us see the stem-end?
This one has me stymied.
I was going to say paw-paw or sugar apple but it looks too big.
Is it a quince?
– – a loufa fruit (becomes a loufa sponge)picked green?
– – a mutated / malformed gourd?
– – a less than ripe spaghetti squash?
This image is ripe (or not so ripe) with possibilities!
Kathryn-there shouldn’t be any word verification-maybe its a temporary glitch-but I’ll check it out : ) Your comments always make it through : )
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
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Tipper it looks like a pawpaw to me.
PS -I never noticed or remember noticing the word verfication before . . . so! I wonder if the word verification is new? otherwise, I wonder how many times I’m commented and thought it “took” and it didn’t because I didn’t do the word verification – oops! lawd! 😀
That’s not a vegetable pear is it? In Louisiana, where I spent many years, they are called “merlitons” – although, that may be too big and too smooth to be one.
Can’t wait to find out!
Have no idea but will be interested in knowing.
It’s a green Irish Potato. Right? But I don’t know what makes them green.