Wild Edible

Some of you may remember a couple of years ago while working at Crooked River SP I had a minor mishap while on an edible plants kick. I had been conducting edible plant hikes on a regular basis and decided to try something different - an edible plants brunch. The seasonal naturalist and I gathered and prepared several edible plants from around the park. I led an edible plants hike and then everyone was invited to sample some of the plants at the nature center. It was a success, but somehow I ended up at the emergency room with tachycardia. I gave the ER nurses a list of everything I had consumed and they called poison control. They couldn't figure out what had caused a bad reaction. So they observed me for a while, monitored my heart rate, and gave me a drug that made me giddy. It also made me sleep for about 14 hours. I never did figure out what messed me up that day, and consequently I swore off wild edibles for a while....
Until today. I was at work riding a bike along the towpath when I saw a green fruit slightly longer and more slender than a kiwi. I stopped the bike, hopped off and went back to retrieve the fruit. I held it up to my nose and sniffed - reminiscent of mango. I started looking around beside the trail and found more of these fruits. I was pretty sure they were pawpaws (Asimina triloba) but for identification purposes I pulled a leaf from one of the trees. I gathered up a couple of the fruits and packed them along with the leaf in my bike bag. Back at the visitor center I took out the tree guides and matched the leaf and fruits - pawpaw indeed. So I sliced one in half and carved out some of the fleshy pulp. Hoping for something akin to mango I sampled a small bit. Wow, it was sweet! And with a very thick consistency. No wonder it is in a family of trees called custard-apple. Although I don't think the taste resembles apple, they did get the custard part right. And did I mention that it was sweet! My best description of a pawpaw would be: an over-ripe, sweetened mango custard.
Although I don't think I'll be gathering and devouring pawpaws on my bike rides, I am excited to be sampling wild edibles again - without taking a trip to the ER!