The Paw Paw

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This week we planted a Paw Paw patch.

These plants were potted and we have now had them for over two months waiting to be transplanted. Because these were slated for a section close to our Biodome, we had been waiting to finish the construction of our dome and the cleaning up of the site.

Planting a Paw Paw patch

Why Paw Paws?

I'm not sure where we found out about the Paw Paw. But when we did, we found it intriguing. When we also discovered that a majority of the local folks know nothing about it or have never tasted it, we decided to plant some of these indigenous trees.

Although most folks are not acquainted with the Paw Paw, we were actually told that some wild trees still existed in the region and may be found in certain sites of the Niagara greenbelt.

The Paw Paw is a rather tropical looking plant with a fruit that resembles a Mango. The flesh of the fruit is creamy like that of an Avocado. The fruit also has large black seeds that are easily removed. The fruits were used by Native Americans and settlers alike.

The Paw Paw fruit

The kicker: some people say it tastes like Banana. In fact most recipes for the Paw Paw are Banana recipes.

We hand planted ten trees consisting of three fruit producing varieties....now it's a waiting game. We may have fruit in three years.

On the farming front, we continue to pick the remainder of our Blackberries, but as well our red and golden Raspberries. Although originally planted this Spring as a novelty item, the Golden Raspberry had become one of our favourites. We are now thinking of extending the coverage of this crop next year.

The Golden Raspberry continues to produce and has become a favourite

We have also taken advantage of weather conditions this week to finish some of the land clearing we started earlier this summer. With the help of Alois, we had reclaimed a large tract of farm land which originally had rows of raspberries. This meant cutting down Staghorn Sumac, Black Walnuts, Black Locust and Ash trees. Removing Wild Grapes, Virginia Creepers and Wild Roses.

We kept two mature Mulberry trees (for their fruits) and one mature Black Locust (for its edible flowers).

We are not certain of the raspberry variety that was originally planted on this site, but since they have survived in a rather wild state while still producing a small amount of fruit, we will try to preserve a few shoots.

The original Raspberry plants growing on this site

When we started out we could not walk this part of the land. Now things are starting to look dramatically different.

Cleared farm land that now needs serious cleaning

As a result, much of our work this week has been burning brush. The fair and almost windless weather proved to be a good opportunity to do so.

A week of burning brush

This also means we have had to remove dozens of old metal posts. Some we can re-use, others will go to metal recycling.

On the vegetable gardening front, it has been time to clean some of our raised beds. We took this opportunity to preserve some of our Sunchokes (those given to us a couple of weeks ago).

Chef has been using these for a soup, our intent was to also plant some of these tubers. Technically, these should be planted some 3 to 4 weeks before last frost, however the tubers do not keep well out of the soil. So we decided to use one of our cleaned raised beds to store them (and perhaps grow them next Spring).

We just planted the tubers 6 inches into the ground.

Sunchokes (or Jerusalem Artichokes) ready to go into the ground

With our consistent Tomato production, we continue to can and Chef has also joined the effort.

In fact, this week he has added an Old Fashioned Tomato Catsup to the line.

Chef's Old Fashioned Tomato Catsup

The local community continues to surprise us. We are getting used to people coming to see us, to discuss plants they grow or how to process certain foods. Some drop off their latest finds.

This week, we were surprised to find a bag full of beautiful Quinces at the barn door. We do not know where they came from or rather who dropped them off, but both Chef and I were salivating at the idea of producing Quince jelly.

From an "unknown benefactor", beautiful Quinces

I suspect a local blog reader has done this, so ... a big Thank You! We will definitely put these to good use.

I will finish the blog this week with another find. This one was brought in by our friend Carol.

Since becoming an avid blog reader, Carol keeps bringing in wild and strange fruits with the common question: is this edible?

This week it was an odd apple-sized round fruit with a significant amount of "bumps".

Carol's latest find

It took a while to identify, but it turns out to be Osanje Orange or Hedge Apple (not at all related to these two fruits).

It is actually a drupe. Edible yes....but definitely not tasty.

There is however one good use for this fruit.

In the old days, these were placed beneath the beds as a repellent to spiders and bugs. It turns out that this plant produce a compound which acts as an insect repellent and it is in fact much more effective than Deet!