Then you will have to wait till spring. Paw paw seeds germinate a bit different then you expect. From april - july or august the seeds put out a giant tap root. Then they put out a small amount of above ground growth before going dormant for the winter. Its much easier to get seed before it warms up, and plant them outside, or in a pot and toss them in the fridge. Even just a few weeks to strarify because no matter what youre going to wait a good 5 months before you even see any growth.

Interesting that someone should post this -- I was wondering the same thing, more or less. I picked 3/4ths of a bushel of them yesterday. Now, what to do with them all? I found some recipes from Kansas State University. They include a recipe for paw paw preserves, which are canned, but it looks really dubious to me -- I am SURE that paw paws (based only upon my "gut feeling" no research, etc.) are really low acid, and that this could be unsafe. The recipe includes a little bit of lemon, but I don't think it's enough to make it safe. On the Beverly Hillbilies, years ago, Granny used to talk about her pickled paw paws (along with her pickled hawk eggs, yuck!) -- perhaps we should invent something along these lines ourselves, I'll have to fiddle with this. I did invent a recipe tonight, paw paw blondies, with a brown sugar/crumb type topping. Those turned out very nice: 3 large paw paws, peeled, seeded, and pureed. 1.5 cups of flour 1 large egg 1/4 cup oil (neutral flavored, I used canola) 1 cup light brown sugar 1 tablespoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/4 cup of water, if batter is too thick. Just mix it all up, pour into a 6 x 9 pan, spread it out evenly, bake at 350. When about 3/4s done, cover with this mix: 1/3 cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons butter , all creamed together until smooth. I sort of just poured the topping mix over it, and once it melted, smoothed it out. Then, at the very end, I switched to the broiler mode and crisped and browned the topping just a bit under the broiler -- came out crispy and crunchy. It took about 30 minutes total to bake. A word of caution -- I'm not a measurer by nature, I just dump stuff in a bowl, and go by look, feel, taste, texture, etc, so the above measurements are just approximations. Nuts would be nice in these, especially pecans or macadamias. Dennis SE Michigan Here is a link that might be useful: Paw Paw Recipes Link

Connie -- Are you looking for Southern California Black Walnut (Juglans californica) or Northern California Black Walnut (Juglans hindsii)? There are a couple of wild trees near me. I haven't quite figured out which of the two they are, but next time I go walking there, I can bring a leaf sample home and give it a go at IDing it.

I thought I'd add a comment even though it's been three months since the last update. I don't usually look at the TN gardening forum, but I'm not that far away in the SW corner of VA and I visit Oak Ridge from time to time (grew up there). I've been growing several paw paw cultivars for a while now and I agree with everything Brandon says except one. There are people who really don't like the taste. The negative comments have been "tastes like overripe banana" or something to that effect (it doesn't taste anything like banana to me). I have no personal experience with Integration Acres but have seen others comment positively about paw paws bought from them. Otherwise the best bet is to find a paw paw fan and let him/her give you a "certified" good one. Farmer's markets may be hit or miss. I got some good ones many years ago at one after asking around if anyone knew where I could buy some. No one was selling them, but one woman brought me some the next week. I've seen some sold at the farmer's market in Abingdon, VA but they were small and black--ones I'd throw away. Even at the paw paw festival in Winston-Salem, NC last August, one of the vendors was selling way over ripe paw paws and they would be a bad representation of how a good paw paw tastes. By the way, the UT arboretum in Oak Ridge has some paw paw trees that I saw fruit on several years ago but couldn't know if they were any good since it was too early. Most of the wild paw paws I've encountered are small, seedy and are of mediocre flavor or have some bitter aftertaste, but here and there you will find keepers. I should note that most of the commercially available cultivars are selections from the wild or at most one or two generations removed.