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BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?

19 Apr 06 - 01:49 PM (#1721973)
Subject: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk

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?


19 Apr 06 - 01:52 PM (#1721976)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: MMario

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.


19 Apr 06 - 01:55 PM (#1721977)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: MMario

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


19 Apr 06 - 02:03 PM (#1721982)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk

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


19 Apr 06 - 02:17 PM (#1721997)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: catspaw49

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


19 Apr 06 - 03:19 PM (#1722050)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk

Okay, then. ;-)


19 Apr 06 - 06:25 PM (#1722291)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: autolycus

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


   Ivor


19 Apr 06 - 06:37 PM (#1722302)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Naemanson

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...


19 Apr 06 - 06:48 PM (#1722315)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: bobad

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


19 Apr 06 - 09:28 PM (#1722398)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: bobad


19 Apr 06 - 09:41 PM (#1722407)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: JennieG

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


20 Apr 06 - 01:34 AM (#1722510)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: The Fooles Troupe

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.


20 Apr 06 - 01:47 AM (#1722517)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk

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.


20 Apr 06 - 07:18 PM (#1723276)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Naemanson

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.


20 Apr 06 - 09:37 PM (#1723422)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk

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.


20 Apr 06 - 09:40 PM (#1723425)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: The Fooles Troupe

ooooooooooooooo!


20 Apr 06 - 09:41 PM (#1723426)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: bobad

Eat it with a squeeze of lime - mighty fine.


20 Apr 06 - 09:56 PM (#1723441)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Bee-dubya-ell

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


20 Apr 06 - 10:02 PM (#1723446)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk

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


20 Apr 06 - 10:41 PM (#1723468)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Kaleea

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)


21 Apr 06 - 02:13 PM (#1723994)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: GUEST,DB

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


21 Apr 06 - 08:40 PM (#1724296)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: The Fooles Troupe

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


22 Apr 06 - 02:43 AM (#1724456)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Desert Dancer

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


22 Apr 06 - 07:38 AM (#1724541)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: The Fooles Troupe

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....


22 Apr 06 - 10:53 PM (#1725020)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk

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


23 Apr 06 - 05:44 PM (#1725582)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: GUEST,Richard H

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.


23 Apr 06 - 06:50 PM (#1725616)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk

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.


23 Apr 06 - 09:19 PM (#1725692)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Ebbie

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.


07 May 06 - 04:41 PM (#1734730)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk

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.


07 May 06 - 05:11 PM (#1734755)
Subject: RE: BS: Best way to ripen a papaya?
From: Little Hawk

Uh, that was papaya, not payaya.