Sept First/First Pawpaw

I wasn't there this afternoon to see it, but today NJ and W found a pawpaw fallen in the grass at the foot of the KSU-Atwood. NJ thought that it had fallen early, maybe because W jostled the tree while mowing the lawn. But she picked it up and from the smell of it, she knew it was ripe. She smelled it and kept thinking, "It smells like a pawpaw, it smells like a pawpaw," as she later told me. It's normal for a pawpaw to smell like a pawpaw of course, but it's not normal to be smelling a pawpaw here at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

Here it is, as if it knew it was supposed to fall in September, and obediently it waited until September, but once the month began it would wait no longer to fall.

NJ was sure to document the moment before bringing it inside the house

This is an authentic photo, not a reenactment, but the next few photos are reenactments,

When I got home from work, NJ told me to shut my eyes and smell and guess what it wasBut I was so confused when I smell the smell of a pawpaw's smell, since it wasn't a smell I was expecting to smell.

And I was so happy and surprised to open my eyes and see that the first pawpaw was ripe on September 1st!

After dinner with the kids, NJ and I cut it open and shared it (not with the kids). We just thought: There's 71 more where this came from, the kids will get their share later.

Pawpaw halves on a paisley tablecloth

NJ hamming it up as she worked to get the yellow pulp off one of the brown seeds

My hollowed-out half; just as I finished, W walked upstairs and said, "Hey, I wanted some--I had just wanted a little taste." So I scraped some more out and gave it to him. He said, "This tastes really good. I liked it last year, but this tastes really good." I told him, "There's 71 more where that came from--you'll get to eat several this year."