This native "super fruit" is one of the largest edible fruits found in the country!

While filming at Chattooga Belle Farm last week, we stumbled upon a tree bearing a fruit you may not have ever encountered … The pawpaw fruit.

Farmer Ed Land told us all about this fruit that the Native Americans once called “the fruit of the gods,” which is the largest edible indigenous fruit to grow in all of North America.

Nutritionists say the pawpaw fruit contains 20 times the magnesium and 70 times the iron content of apples, bananas, and oranges. It is said to contain more vitamin C than oranges and provides an excellent source of amino acids.

So how in the heck do you eat it? The best thing you can do with a perfect, ripe pawpaw is to eat it as-is. Cut it in half, scoop it out and eat it with a spoon. If you’re the creative type, you can puree it and make pawpaw butter or fruit leather – it is also delicious in smoothies, cereal, cobblers, breads, and cocktails.

The pawpaw fruit has inspired people to create delicious derivatives, too. There are pawpaw beers, pawpaw wine, and even pawpaw ice cream.

Also, it’s really pretty.

And because the fruit is native to parts of the South, the pawpaw tree is fairly resistant to harmful pests – and we definitely have our share down here!

Have you tried one? What’s your favorite way to consume a pawpaw? Do you go with the spoon or do you shove your face right in it?

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Also, be sure to check out the advice we got from our friends at Magic City Weekend for finding the perfectly ripe melon and picking out the best peaches. You may think you have your own methodology on lock down, but we got some fresh info here we’d never heard before. And nothing’s better this time of year than fresh fruit!