#pawpaw

[headspace-hotel]

Tree To Human Communication

Today i was down at the creek and I was walking when suddenly I smelt a whiff of a familiar smell: The Pawpaw Smell

I was like, ????? I checked these trees weeks ago, and there wasn't anything on them except one (1) undersized fruit.

But I sniffed the air and cautiously walked forward until I smelled a STRONG whiff of the Pawpaw Smell, and I turned exactly perpendicular to where I was walking and my eyes met it immediately: A pawpaw tree

So I pushed my way into the bushes and this tree had fruit all over it! Clusters of BIG fruit! I was like What The Hell?

Thing is, pawpaws are basically the same color as the leaves and the leaves are huge and hang down a bit, meaning they're basically very hard to spot with your eyes.

But ripe pawpaws have a fragrance that hits you very abruptly and when you simply...sniff your way towards it, you will unerringly be led straight to a tree full of ripe fruit in a matter of seconds.

It is so direct! I thought, "This tree is COMMUNICATING with me!"

It's just as if you were walking in the woods and a tree suddenly says to you, "Hey, mammalian beast there! You, yes, YOU, punk! Fruit's ripe! You wanna spread my seeds sooooo bad! Limited time only offer!"

[emiko-matsui]

the two ends of the dm spectrum are brian murph murphy (emily jokes that pawpaw takes the dagger for gemma and he stands up and shouts EMILY AXFORD HOW DARE YOU) and brennan lee mulligan (zac pets ox on the middle of the fight and brennan stands up, makes eye contact with the camera and goes I'm gonna kill that dog)

[fesenmoon]

moonshine and company

[hyydraworks]

Wanted to try some opossum friends.

[sideblogdotjpeg]

moonshine and beverly somewhere in the astral plane ... inspired by me thinking about beverly having a balnor-esque mustache when he grows up

[whamber]

It’s Moonshine Cybin, Y’all! (+a cheeky little Moonwon)

[furbishartificer]

Meet PawPurby, the possum Furby! He’s based off of the iconic plot-armored possum pet/attorney at law, PawPaw Gump, from Not Another DnD Podcast.

The pepto pink of his hands/tail/nose are intended to be a nod at his fantasy leanings. He features fully possible tail, 4 freaky little hands, and a sculpted “beak.”

My furby commissions are currently open for a limited time only! DM me for details ;)

[ihavemints]

my gift for @/justaseedguy (on twitter) for the naddpod gift exchange!! fia and pawpaw straight chilling<3 @naddpodgifting

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I finally found a wild pawpaw patch, and they were ripe and delicious.

[thenerdysewist]

My first ever embroidery!

[risunsky]

[headspace-hotel]

The day before yesterday I got to try a ripe pawpaw for the first time.

Someone else was supposed to come in at the center, but I was in the mood to be alone, so I fucked off into the woods at the earliest available opportunity, looking to collect more hickory nuts.

I hiked about two miles down the trail, seeking to find a little-used path as far from the center as I could reasonably make it. I was five or ten minutes down a fork in the path heading down a valley when I unexpectedly smelled something familiar: the scent of ripe pawpaws. I only knew that scent from having come upon a rotten one several days back on the trail.

I had seen pawpaw trees on the way up, but I looked around and saw nothing. I indulged a beast-like impulse: I sniffed. I turned until I was facing the direction of the scent and moved towards it. And I saw, about 50 feet away down the hillside below...a pawpaw grove

Some interesting facts about pawpaws:

The pawpaw is the largest fruit native to North America, known for its "tropical" flavor. Despite being reputed to be delicious, it is not found in grocery stores due to the fruits being far too delicate to ship without spoiling. A few people farm them, but otherwise the only way to get one is to come upon one growing wild, which is rare, because the opossums love them.

Pawpaw trees are hard to grow and take 10-15 years to produce fruit, but you can see wild ones in mature and well managed woods of Kentucky. They are small, barely trees, only about 15-20 feet tall, with trunks only a bit bigger around than a circle you can make with your index finger and thumb. They almost always grow in clonal colonies, groups of many trees that are all clones of each other due to being propagated from the roots of existing trees. They are also strictly understory trees, growing in the shade of much larger trees.

Now, an interesting fact about Eastern Kentucky: At the fringe of Appalachia, and even into parts of the Outer Bluegrass, the terrain frequently turns into very steep rolling hills.

It's hard to notice if you are in more cultivated areas that have been leveled out more, but in wilder parts you can seldom just casually walk in a straight line through the woods. Unless you are following the contour of the hills, you are either sliding and gripping saplings to slow your descent or you are climbing on all fours.

Such was the hill below me, descending at roughly a fifty-degree angle into the pawpaw grove.

I was going to get me some fucking pawpaws.

I climb down the hill by a combination of scooting, sliding, and scrabbling. After a few minutes of struggle I am standing in the pawpaw grove, alone, scanning the branches with my eyes.

The ground is littered everywhere with pawpaws, some very rotten. I see only two or three fruits remaining in the trees, and I walk around giving each tree a good shake, thinking to myself about how this is certainly an experience shared by millions of years' worth of primate ancestors before me.

After nearly ten minutes of (literally) fruitless tree-shaking, I start to eye the fallen pawpaws on the ground around me.

Some of them are perfectly fine-looking. The skin hasn't even been broken into. I pick one up.

It is very soft, but not squishy like something rotten. It is about as long as my index finger (my hands are small) and oblong. Its smooth skin is pale green and spotted with brown like a very ripe banana. I tear the skin back and give the creamy orange insides a test lick.

Friends.

It was transcendent.

Imagine the most perfect ripe mango, but with a flavor that is more banana-like, mellow and creamy and mild instead of tangy. The texture is perfectly smooth and soft unlike any other fruit. You can lick it and it will just melt in your mouth.

I am autistic and a very picky eater due to the difficult textures of many foods, and this fruit has the perfect texture. Mangos are already one of my favorite foods and this is somehow even better. I remember, deliriously, that farmers are seeking to improve pawpaws for possible commercial production, and it seems like the height of foolishness there in the pawpaw grove. There is no possible way wild pawpaws could be improved. All of creation is tainted by the Fall of Man, except for fucking pawpaws, because they are beyond the earthly tier of fruits.

I lick it like a dog going crazy on a Kong full of peanut butter until it falls apart in my hands and start scanning the ground for another.

They are all perfectly ripe and mostly untouched by bugs or creatures. I start just squishing them in my hands and licking the creamy insides. I am just planting my face in these fruits like some kind of animal. My face and hands are covered in pawpaw squish.

I go through like ten of them before returning to my senses. I've been thoughtlessly wiping my hands on my pants, and they are now more soiled than the clothes of the messiest toddler. I feel primal and connected to my ancestors. I have truly earned my Primate Card.

My mom said in the car that I smelled very strongly of something (pawpaws) so it's safe to say that literally every person I passed on the way back down the trail got a good whiff too, and likely connected it to the Pawpaw Squish that was basically all over me.

Regrets: None

[emiko-matsui]

galad rosell, matty big crits, the widow aka lydia stormborn, subway fight, teehee, ol' cobb, horny goats, sticky buns, beverlin kiss, airship, beverly's parents, i'll suck your fucking dick, the boy king, first one big bed, duncan pebblepot, i wanna be sedated montage, pawpaw in shoulder pads, green teen glee team, hubert duncap, thiala plot twist, discarded letters, egwene, walking sticks, nana kindleaf, etc etc etc etc

[haveyoueatenthis]

[thebaltimoreyoudontknow]

Pawpaws - not papayas - the only tropical fruit indigenous to the temperate east coast of America.

At the Baltimore Farmers Market

[sideblogdotjpeg]

ok someone said it was naddpod day and i made this truly so quickly happy naddpod day