BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 May 06 - 05:11 PM

Uh, that was papaya, not payaya.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 May 06 - 04:41 PM

Well, I am happy to report that the payaya ripened beautifully after a few days with the help of the ripe banana in the bag method. Delicious! Two more of the same have also ripened very nicely. I guess my local store does know what it's doing after all.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Apr 06 - 09:19 PM

The meat tenderizer function is allegedly true, but there is another quality that I tend to think is important. Bed sores are treated with papaya extract. My gut feeling (pun intended) tells me that it has healing properties inside your system.

In Oregon I often bought papaya- for just 69 cents each it was a bargain.

Here in Juneau, Alaska, they are about $2.70 a pound which makes each papaya cost more than $5.00. Unless I am preparing a fruit salad for a party I no longer buy it.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 Apr 06 - 06:50 PM

That does not worry me. ;-D You're right that the birds get the ripe papayas on the tree. I've seen them do it in Trinidad. Those birds aren't stupid.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: GUEST,Richard H
Date: 23 Apr 06 - 05:44 PM

If you ripen papaya on the tree in my part of the world the birds would get it first. Or it would fall like H. Dumpty and all the king's horses...
We just leave them on the kitchen table and they ripen.

Papaya trees, BTW, are male, female or hermaphrodite. Just like many of today's humans.

However, I would stay clear of papaya, L Hawk. It contains papain which is a meat tenderiser. If you have an old cock who's been with you for many years and he gets papain on him, he'll soften up pronto.

This is often not a desirable state of affairs.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Apr 06 - 10:53 PM

You can smoke just about anything if you're stupid enough to...

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Apr 06 - 07:38 AM

I remember an urban myth that you could ge high from smoking paw-paw leaves.

Or was it banana leaves?




I've been told you can smoke bull-dust too....

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 22 Apr 06 - 02:43 AM

I heard an interview on NPR once [Google tells me it was 2001] with a guy who was trying to promote pawpaws as a replacement crop for tobacco. He had all sorts of functions for the fruit and plant, I guess. Don't think he's gotten very far in his campaign... haven't heard anything of it since.

But, Google pawpaw + tobacco and there it is, along with this important tidbit:
Kentucky State U has the only full-time pawpaw research program in the world.

Gosh.

I first googled on paw paw (with a space) and came up with this nominee for an adjunct MOAB nominee:
Our paw paw who art in heaven...

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Apr 06 - 08:40 PM

They are high in the 'yellow' vitamins and flavinoids.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 21 Apr 06 - 02:13 PM

Kaleea - they taste like rather bland cross between avocado and melon - but they're supposed to be very nutritious.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Kaleea
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 10:41 PM

My mother used to sing "Way Down Yonder In The Paw Paw Patch" when I was a kid. She said in there were PawPaws in eastern Oklahoma when she was growing up, but I never saw any. What do they taste like?
   (not chicken, I hope)

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 10:02 PM

Ha! Ha! Ha! And wouldn't I just LOVE to be in Cuba right now...

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 09:56 PM

The absolute best way for a Canadian to ripen a papaya:

1) Wrap papaya tightly in plastic bag.
2) Insert plastic-wrapped papaya into suitcase
3) Fill balance of suitcase with warm-weather clothing
4) Call taxicab
5) Have taxicab take you to airport
6) Purchase round-trip ticket to Cuba
7) Upon arrival in Cuba, find a fruit vendor selling papayas
8) Remove your papaya from suitcase
9) Throw your papaya in nearest trash receptacle
10) Purchase ripe papaya from fruit vendor

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: bobad
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 09:41 PM

Eat it with a squeeze of lime - mighty fine.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 09:40 PM

ooooooooooooooo!

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 09:37 PM

Well, good news. There is some yellow mottling on this papaya. I think that means that it will ripen. I am about to try the banana trick.

















No, NOT the disappearing banana trick! The other one.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Naemanson
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 07:18 PM

Well, it's a long way from where they're grown to where they are sold so they have to pick them early. I agree with whoever suggested you talk to the grocer.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 01:47 AM

Yeah, they're supposed to ripen on the tree...someone should explain that to the importers who sell them to Zehr's groceries! You think I can find a genuine tree-ripened Papaya here? Not likely.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 01:34 AM

In Queensland, pawpaws are supposed to ripen on the tree - they are nowadays packed in an expanded net of soft poly foam inside cardboard boxes to be taken to market.

Almost every family in the 1950-60's had a pawpaw tree in their backyard, or a relative's, so while they were in the shops, it was not till we moved to the city in the 70's and ours died that we started to buy them. We never ate green ones and never tried to cook them, as my grandma told me that you would get a tummy ache (c'mon, when I was 5, she knew everything about the world!). I have since discovered that green ones may be cooked, or even julienned and placed in salads. If one needed to be ripened a bit more, it would be placed on a windowsill or similar where it could sit in the sun for a few days, undisturbed.

The ripe (red - not granny-smith) apple trick we used for bananas - the apple gives off acetylene, confined in a brown paper bag, it used to bring them along nicely.

The seeds of the old non-hybridized ones are easily sprouted, then transplanted, often they would spring up in the (organic, but we didn't call it that then!) rubbush pile.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: JennieG
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 09:41 PM

Pawpaw salve is very good for healing burns, I am wearing some on my arm as we speak, thanks to the oven door recently shutting suddenly onto my arm. Ouch.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: bobad
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 09:28 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: bobad
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 06:48 PM

Hey Nae, the closest we get to papaya in Canada is the pawpaw close but no stogie.

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Naemanson
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 06:37 PM

Here in Guam we just leave it on the tree...

Sorry, I guess Canada isn't the best place to grow Papaya. Let me ask my friends and see what they suggest. I doubt they know how. See the first sentence of the post.

However, I can talk to them about recipes for cooking papaya. I'll bet it involves coconut milk. For that you go out to the tree in the back yard...

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: autolycus
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 06:25 PM

Ask, via your outlet, that next time, the grower should wait the papaya fall,don't pick.


   Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 03:19 PM

Okay, then. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 02:17 PM

We do that a good bit Hawk, but you really ought to try it as Nario said. Try your favorite acorn or butternut squash recipe on a few and you'll have something just a bit different. Baked, it goes well with a pineapple compote.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 02:03 PM

Yeah, I thought something like that might work. Thanks, Mario, I'll try your suggestion(s).

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: MMario
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 01:55 PM

yup - just checked - that's the fastest way - but if the skin isn't already at least a third yellow - chances are you'd be best off going the vegetable route with it.   skin, seed and substitute in any winter squash recipe

Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: MMario
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 01:52 PM

I think they will ripen if you bag them with a ripe banana or apple - but green papaya can be used as a cooked veggie.

Subject: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 01:49 PM

I have a large papaya here, just purchased, still seems a bit green by the feel of it. What's the best way to ripen them? Put them on a windowsill to catch some sun? Just let them sit around at room temperature? Put them in a plastic bag? Any suggestions?