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, <insert your state here> 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
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.
Was gonna say this! The texture is light but crunchy. I'd say the flavor is lightly sweet with a little hint of something pleasant. I don't think they taste at all like apples, which frankly I don't understand why anyone would eat.
Macadamia nuts. Not the roasted ones, not the shelled dry ones you can buy in the store. They are garbage compared to the unshelled ones, even if you do need a special device to open them and they can be very frustrating to eat fresh.
When they're freshly opened, they're opaque brighter white, sweet and even a little juicy. It's a completely different experience from the ones you can buy off the shelf. It's honestly a shame Australia doesn't have a bigger market for the fresh ones.
Loquats are sweet, lightly tart and deliciously juicy. A bit like a very firm peach or plum.
Longyan (dragon eyes) are like lychees but smaller and yellow. They're less sweet than lychees (which tbh I often find a little cloying) and maybe a little more flavourful.
Image isn't working for me unfortunately but yeah, they real pretty. I first had some in Taiwan, the owners of a small cafe gave us a branch from their tree.
My mom’s tomatoes. They taste like water but my she’s really proud of them and always beams when someone can taste that they’re home grown. So next time you’re at my moms house, make sure to ask for something with tomatoes
I’ve been meaning to look into planting some Camas bulbs. A kind of tuber crop grown by indigenous people around here. Used to be entire prairies of them before whitey showed up
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