These were all the pawpaws I could find on the homestead this year. Last year I went picking a few times finding many each picking. It's always interesting how some years are great for particular yields and others aren't. In my area it looks like a great year for fruit but the corn/soy farmers are saying it's one of the worst seasons in a long time.
This is one example of how the value diversity principle can provide resilience. Having a diversity of fruit yields and diversity of cultivars amongst those fruits helps to guarantee there will be a good harvest somewhere and the overall harvest is unlikely to be poor.
I also find it amazing, that the more I learn the more food I realized is already growing on the homestead waiting for me to gather it. In addition to these few pawpaws; autumn olive, raspberry, and blackberry are some that come to mind that we have enjoyed this year.
Prolific and delicious wild autumn olive worthy of propagation
Autumn olive is a nitrogen fixing shrub with small edible berries. It's considered a weed for the most part but our sheep love to eat it. Most of the time the berries are small, astringent and sour. Lots of seed not much fruit. I've been tasting all the autumn olive over the years as it appears here on the homestead and never found any worth harvesting. Last season I found this autumn olive shrub loaded with large, sweet, mildly astringent berries. I tried to harvest some and plant the seed without any success. Thankfully this shrub is still prolific and as sweet as ever. I look forward to harvesting all I can as it fully ripens over the next week or so. I will dehydrate some and plant some.
#permaculture #permies #homesteading #grownostr #meshtadel #selfsovereignty #perennial #autumnolive #nitrogenfixer #foraging #wildforaged
#permaculture #permies #homesteading #meshtadel #selfsovereignty #grownostr #foraging #wildforaged #pawpaw