Foraging: pawpaws and wild garlic mustard

Went foraging for pawpaws and garlic mustard last weekend with daughter and her fiancée, here's a few pix

Not gonna lie, we missed the peak foraging season for both by about a month, but we did manage to find a few

LOCATION

C&O Towpath, Sharpsburg MD

Parking: Google Maps

We walked east along the towpath for a while, then dropped down into the (dry) canal itself on the way back. There were more finds in the canal than along the edge

WHAT IS A PAWPAW

Asimina triloba, the American papaw, pawpaw, paw paw, or paw-paw, among many regional names, is a small deciduous tree native to the eastern United States and Canada, producing a large, yellowish-green to brown fruit. It belongs to the genus Asimina in the same plant family (the Annonaceae) as the custard-apple, cherimoya, sweetsop, ylang-ylang, and soursop.

Pawpaw fruits are the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States (not counting gourds, which are typically considered vegetables rather than fruit for culinary purposes, although in botany they are classified as fruit).

Pawpaw fruits have a sweet, custard-like flavor somewhat similar to banana, mango, and pineapple, and are commonly eaten raw, but are also used to make ice cream and baked desserts. The bark, leaves, and fruit contain the insecticidal neurotoxin, annonacin.

-- Wikipedia

SOME PIX

Pawpaws hang way up above your head in pawpaw trees. You grab the tree and shake it, and pawpaws rain down upon you. You may sometimes have to reach up and whack them with a long stick to get them to come down.

You cut them open, bury your face in them, chow out all the fruit and seeds, glomp it around in your mouth for a while, then spit out the seeds (you don't chew the seeds). 

"Sweet, custard-like flavor" is correct, they are remarkably delicious

C&O Canal (dry), looking up for pawpaws

WHAT IS GARLIC MUSTARD

Garlic Mustard plants, end of lifecycle

Garlic mustard is an invasive and prolific species of flowering plant. When in bloom, you can pinch off the flower tops and eat them, and they taste mildly like garlic. The larger leaves can be foraged, taken home and added to salads, raw or sautéed. 

Once a garlic mustard plant is past growing and starts drying out and dropping its hundreds of seeds, you can reach down grasp the stem very loosely, pull up around the branches, and if you do it gently enough you have a handful of tiny black seeds plus some chaff in your hand. Drop them in a bag or handkerchief and repeat.

Once home, separate the seeds from the chaff, grind them up thoroughly in a mortar and pestle, add a wee bit of olive oil, vinegar and water, and make a paste. Congratulations, you have made mustard.

I'll admit it doesn't look very appetizing. This late in the season, the seeds were pretty dried out, and the result was pretty bland. When they're in season though, the mustard flavor can get pretty powerful, really lights up your nose. I have made myself a mickle oath not to miss the season next year.

ADDENDUM

I've seen these guys all my life and never looked into what they are, until now. Mostly because I wonder if those berries are edible. They sure look appetizing. All of us fired up our phonecams and various image search thingies and it seems to be Northern Spicebush. Of course I cut a few of them open to investigate. 

The berries aren't really berries; the inside is about 90% inedible black seed, and the remaining "fruit" around the seed is a ghastly looking yellow ooze that Wikipedia reports "has a turpentine-like taste". So I guess they're off the menu for now. Birds love them, though.

I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can about foraging. That's it for now.