Sherry Chandler

13 Comments

• 1. Gin replies at 7th May 2006, 7:22 am :

  Gorgeous photos, Sherry! I don’t think I’ve ever seen pawpaws in bloom. May I ask what are the plants behind the Jack-in-the-pulpit?

• 2. sherry replies at 7th May 2006, 8:33 am :

  I think they’re called “twin leaf” Gin. The Wharton & Barbour Wildflowers book calls them Jeffersonia diphylla, named for Thomas Jefferson. They come up early and bloom briefly, with an 8-petaled white whorl of a bloom at the end of a stalk. It’s kin to the Mayapple — which are also blooming but the ones here are so full of cheat grass I can’t see them.

  Wharton also says they like the limestone and so are more common in the Bluegrass and on the Mississippian plateau, rare in Eastern Ky, which may be why you aren’t familiar with them.

  You can also see a little trout lily leaf down at the bottom right, but they’re dying back now, having bloomed in March.

  Thanks for liking my photos. I thought I was being self-indulgent. I love those little pawpaw blooms, so gorgeous but so unassuming. Unfortunately, you then have to deal with the pawpaws, which are neither gorgeous nor unassuming.

• 3. Gin replies at 7th May 2006, 9:29 am :

  I thought the plants might be twin leaf. And you’re right, I’ve never seen them other than in pictures. Do you have a copy of the Barnes and Frances book that replaced Wharton’s? I used the latter for years and years and swore it was my bible, but I honestly like the Barnes book better now, mainly because it’s divided by season and flower colors. Still, I really do wish someone would come out with a book that shows more foliage. Plants are in bloom for such a short time, and then we’re left with nothing but leaves and maybe a seedpod to use for identification.

  Please don’t tell me you throw the pawpaws away! They’re delicious!

• 4. sherry replies at 7th May 2006, 11:19 am :

  I’ll save the pawpaws for you, Gin. I love the look of the tree, the look of the bloom, even the look of the pawpaw seed, but I’ve never been able to eat more than one or two of the fruit.

  Though Kentucky State has recipes at their pawpaw project: http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/pawpaw/recipes.htm Pawpaw cookies with black walnuts sound good but then you have to get at the black walnuts… Why doesn’t Ky have easy fruit, like pecans?

  And I’ll put the Barnes and Frances on my shopping list.

• 5. Deane replies at 8th May 2006, 2:34 am :

  You really don’t have pecans in your neck of the woods, Sherry? We have wild pecans all over the western part of the state. Our pecan tree is the biggest tree on our farm, and I know of a number of other pecan trees in the rural neighborhood that I visit each autumn after the first frost, and even into the new year in case the squirrels have left any nuts behind!

• 6. sherry replies at 8th May 2006, 10:07 am :

  You all keep making me learn stuff! Not fair.

  We did a lot of nutting when I was a girl and I don’t remember any pecan trees in my part of Northern Kentucky, and we don’t have any on our farm here in the Bluegrass. There are some big old pecans in the part of Lexington that was the Henry Clay estate but that is because he planted them.

  I have learned that the pecan is a kind of hickory, and we had all manner of hickory trees around. I loved hicker nuts, growing up, but they’re even more difficult than black walnuts to get at.

  This distribution map, which seems to come from the forest service, doesn’t show sweet pecans distributing into Kentucky at all: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/carya/illinoesis.htm

  This pdf from the U.S. Geological Survey shows them coming up the Ohio Valley and into western Kentucky a little bit http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/data/atlas/little/caryilli.pdf

  They seem to like river valleys, so that may explain why I’ve never seen ‘em growing wild.

• 7. Ruth replies at 10th May 2006, 7:29 pm :

  Okay, women, now what the heck is a pawpaw?

  Ruth

• 8. Gin replies at 11th May 2006, 7:00 am :

  It’s a Southern thang, Ruth, definitely a Southern thang. Pawpaws are understory trees that bear fruit that ripens in late September and October. The fruit insides are creamy and soft, somewhat like bananas but much richer. Below are links to pictures of some I gathered last fall:

  http://www.ginpetty.com/_temp/pawpaws.jpg

  http://www.ginpetty.com/_temp/pawpaws2.jpg

• 9. sherry replies at 11th May 2006, 7:52 am :

  Do you make pawpaw paper, Gin?

  My old Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs says the common pawpaw is “a northern (ahem) representative of the tropical custard-apple family.” Custard apple is about as apt a description of the fruit as I’ve seen, so if you can wrap your head around that one Ruth you’ve just about got it. It really is a lovely little tree.

  The field guide goes on to say “Fully ripened fruits difficult to find, since they are eaten by opossum, squirrels, raccoon, foxes, etc.” Some one should tell Ursula. She thinks raccoons eat dog food.

  Thanks for the input, Gin. I was hoping you’d do the honors.

• 10. Gin replies at 11th May 2006, 8:19 am :

  I know pawpaw bast will make excellent paper, but I have access to only a few trees, and those I wouldn’t cut because I’d rather have the fruit.

  Last fall I was cutting the back hedge when a man came up from the creek and cut through the property behind us. He stopped and talked a few minutes, then pulled a couple of pawpaws out of a sack he was carrying. “Bet you don’t know what these are.” I grinned and said “pawpaws.” With that, he grinned right back and asked if I wanted them. He didn’t know I am worse than a possum about pawpaws.

• 11. poppysmatus replies at 11th May 2006, 1:21 pm :

  I saw a Possum eating our fallen pawpaws a couple of years ago but suspect Ursula has given him/her a lot of competition recently.

  We have a little grove of Pawpaws sprung from a transplant I brought out here when my mother was still alive in about 1980. We were living in town next to a nursing home and many of the old folks would come over and ask to pick a few pawpaws off the tree in our side yard. I dug up one of its sprouts. They are very hard to get to survive this way–many spring from the roots of the parent tree and will wilt almost immediately after they are severed from the parent root system.

  I culled several of the volunteer trees several years ago after I read that they would stop bearing if they grew up into too thick a grove. The wood is very light and green in color–tried to make several salad sets with it but was a bit skeptical of durability.

  I prefer persimmons–Sherry’s ma has a ’simmon in her back yard which has little gems on it most every fall.

• 12. Gin replies at 12th May 2006, 5:18 am :

  Yes! Persimmons, too, are on my list of fruits to gather in the fall. I have a great recipe for using the fruit in a pinwheel cookie.

  And to get this thread back onto the poetry topic, an article on persimmon haiku:

  OF PERSIMMONS AND BELLS
  http://www.worldhaikureview.org/1-2/shikitr4_8_01.shtml

• 13. Ruth replies at 12th May 2006, 2:17 pm :

  Thank you, ladies. I’ve never seen or tasted one in my life. Wonder why they aren’t marketed here.

  R

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