I gotta give it to mulberries, don’t get enough attention!
The buds of the flower Bauhinia variegata are both cooked amd used for pickles, spectacular stuff.
Someone else mentioned pawpaws but i just want to emphasize pawpaws are the shit. Plus if you live in the Eastern US especially the Midwest pawpaw season is HERE. You have no excuse not to leave your house this moment and find your nearest pawpaw grove.
Not convinced? Congrats you have subscribed to pawpaw facts:
- they are related to the custard apple and were brought this far north in the shit of prehistoric giant sloths
- they taste like somewhere between a mango and a banana, and so our ancestors in all their wisdom gave them names like Indiana banana, Ohio banana, \ banana
- they are a CAPITALIST NIGHTMARE as they have terrible shelf life so can really only be eaten fresh or bought from a farmers market
- foraging for pawpaws is super fun as they grow in groves, have super skinny trunks and branches with large long leaves and surprisingly big fruit. To harvest pawpaws you give the trees a gentle shake and ripe fruit will just fall off. Don’t shake too hard or you might knock down fruit that isn’t ripe! Not cool!
- to enjoy just shake em down, cut it open and eat the fresh fruit inside (not the skin). Do not eat the big ass seeds leave them where you found em so that out beautiful native pawpaw groves FLOURISH
All in all pawpaws are 10/10 if you want to feel like a literal Animal Crossing character shaking down trees for sustenance and having a great time eating fresh fruit outdoors
Thank you for this. These are the pawpaw facts I was looking for.
You seem like you know about pawpaws. I’ve always been curious. I’m in southern Wisconsin, are they this far north or do I need to travel somewhere?
Looking at a map of their range they might be in the very southernmost part maybe near Madison, but just barely. You’d probably had to head towards Illinois or Indiana for a better chance of finding them.
If you use the app iNaturalist you can also find geotagged groves. Taking a quick peek there’s a handful in southern WI like I said, but they really pick up once you move south.
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Kohlrabi is good! I think of it like a broccoli-flavoured potato.
Wild blueberries. They’re smaller, sweeter, and grow on a low bush. The bigger, high bush blueberries may as well be a different fruit.
My parents back yard is just covered in wild blueberry. They used to have a dog that would eat them right off the bush. Man, that was a stupid dog…
I don’t see it mentioned so maybe it’s not lesser known, but jackfruit is amazing. SEA like most amazing fruit but have seen it more often in North America. Fresh, not the prepped and sauced vegan style.
Appalachian area here, and more people need to know about pawpaws for sure.
We have those in southern Illinois too
We also have them in West Tennessee.
Is there anywhere you can find these to purchase or just to try? I’ve never had one, but apparently they’re rather delicate so they don’t make it to market very well. It seems like the most common option is knowing someone with a pawpaw tree.
Rambutan
Pakay! Also called ice cream bean. It’s a giant bean, inside there’s big seeds surrounded in white solid-fluffy stuff. You eat the white stuff. It’s sweet without being overpowering and the consistency is interesting. Delicious
Wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca). Incredibly fragrant and sweet. Regular strawberryies can’t compare.
My lawn is filled with wild strawberry but the birds eat them all and just leave me with the false strawberry.
So not in my area, but I recently discovered cloudberry jam, which is absolutely delicious. It’s like a mix of citrus and strawberry.
In Italy we have the chinotto, which is a fruit from the Citrus family that is too bitter to be eaten by itself, but we make a soft drink out of it that is simply perfect.
Chinotto neri/lurisia(even better) 🔛🔝
San Pellegrino’s is just the next thing Nestlé ruined for me
Do thimbleberries count? Not sure how local they are to me, but they’re so tasty. Think a sweeter, more fragile raspberry. They make an excellent jam! my only complaint I have is how fragile they are, they only last a day or two in the fridge
Where i live, mayapple! But you can’t buy them anywhere, you have to just pick them. Luckily they’re all over the place lol
It’s also important remember that you need to wait until they turn yellow before you pick and eat them
oh yes, i probably should have mentioned that… don’t poison yourself, sorry!
Unfortunately, where I live the deer get to most of them before I do lol
Concord grapes. You all know the flavor, because it’s the flavor that artificial grape flavor is based on, but I’ve only seen the real things in farmers’ markets in the Northeast US. They’re only available for a short period, and they’re amazing. A blend of intensely sweet and intensely tart.
Had nearly half a kg of those today and my throat isnt happy. Love em!
They are insanely good to eat when frozen - it’s like the most amazing popsicle, so crisp and sweet.
Chokecherry These make your mouth feel furry inside if you eat them, but make the best syrup for pancakes
Since huckleberries were already mentioned, I’ll go for salal berries. Taste like flowery blueberries and make an amazing sauce, especially if you mix them with huckleberries.
