The Daily Grist: Where oh where is pretty little Susie?
Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch (traditional)
Spring is springing already here in California! And there is no greater delight than watching the trees bloom each spring. Like many others during the COVID era I have been riding my bicycle a lot and I see beautiful blooms that remind me of spring bike rides back in Maryland where I used to live.
Cherry blossoms, pear blossoms, plums. They are all so beautiful! Most of the time I don’t even know what kind of tree blossom I’m looking at and I don’t really care. The blooms will be on the ground soon and the tree will leaf out with those also beautiful pale green shoots and they will produce more fruit, which spring is pretty much all about. Renewal.
Occasionally on my bike journeys through the countryside I see isolated swatches of trees with white blooms that might be pear trees but also remind me of a different tree I often spotted during springtime rides in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. If you spotted such a tree near the Washington metropolitan area it was likely a Bradford pear but if your bike ride took you way out in the boonies it might be this different sort of tree. The white blossoms there make a nice contrast with the blossoms of the red bud or Judas tree which bloom at around the same time.
These other beautiful white blossoms were from the pawpaw. They grow in little clumps all over Appalachia and they are very interesting plants. You probably think that if you want a banana right off the tree you would have to go to central America but the pawpaw produces a fruit which is very similar to the banana. The fruit of the pawpaw tree grows up to ten inches in length and is the largest fruit produced by any tree native to North America.
The American Custard Apple. The West Virginia banana. The fruit is said to be rich in nutrients like magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, iron and vitamin C.
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.
Pickin’ up pawpaws, put ‘em in your pockets
Pickin’ up pawpaws, put ‘em in your pockets
Pickin’ up pawpaws, put ‘em in your pockets
Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch
