Can you tell me about any lesser-known local fruits or vegetables in your area that you think more people should discover?

Someone else mentioned pawpaws but i just want to emphasize pawpaws are the shit. Plus if you live in the Eastern US especially the Midwest pawpaw season is HERE. You have no excuse not to leave your house this moment and find your nearest pawpaw grove.

Not convinced? Congrats you have subscribed to pawpaw facts:

they are related to the custard apple and were brought this far north in the shit of prehistoric giant sloths
they taste like somewhere between a mango and a banana, and so our ancestors in all their wisdom gave them names like Indiana banana, Ohio banana, \ banana
they are a CAPITALIST NIGHTMARE as they have terrible shelf life so can really only be eaten fresh or bought from a farmers market
foraging for pawpaws is super fun as they grow in groves, have super skinny trunks and branches with large long leaves and surprisingly big fruit. To harvest pawpaws you give the trees a gentle shake and ripe fruit will just fall off. Don’t shake too hard or you might knock down fruit that isn’t ripe! Not cool!
to enjoy just shake em down, cut it open and eat the fresh fruit inside (not the skin). Do not eat the big ass seeds leave them where you found em so that out beautiful native pawpaw groves FLOURISH

All in all pawpaws are 10/10 if you want to feel like a literal Animal Crossing character shaking down trees for sustenance and having a great time eating fresh fruit outdoors

Thank you for this. These are the pawpaw facts I was looking for.
- Just doing my part to spread the good word.
You seem like you know about pawpaws. I've always been curious. I'm in southern Wisconsin, are they this far north or do I need to travel somewhere?
- Looking at a map of their range they might be in the very southernmost part maybe near Madison, but just barely. You’d probably had to head towards Illinois or Indiana for a better chance of finding them.
  
  If you use the app iNaturalist you can also find geotagged groves. Taking a quick peek there’s a handful in southern WI like I said, but they really pick up once you move south.
I'd never heard of pawpaws before! Good to know, I will seek them out if I ever find myself there :D
- Many locals haven’t either! They really are a hidden gem.

Appalachian area here, and more people need to know about pawpaws for sure.

Planted three paw paw saplings this spring and it looks like they're going to make it. If all goes well, I'll have fruit to share in ten years or so!
- Apparently they will only fruit if they are pollinated by a different genetic lineage of tree, so you may need to find a different seed/sapling source if those three came from the same place.
We have those in southern Illinois too
- We also have them in West Tennessee.
I do my part to spread the good word about pawpaw's here in PA. We're somewhat towards the northern edge of where they grow, but they're around if you know where to look, and if you have a good hippie grocery store near you they sometimes get them in (for about a week, their season is very short) this is about the time of year for them around here, maybe even a bit too late, because of work and weather I didn't get a chance to go searching for the this year.

If/when I have some property I'm hoping to grow some trees, in the meantime I'm just kind of scattering seeds into the treeline behind my house whenever I get my hands on some. HOA can't really say anything about it, they're a native plant so they could conceivably just pop up there on their own. If I'm incredibly lucky maybe some trees will pop up and start bearing fruit in a decade or so whether or not I'm still in this house when it happens.
Is there anywhere you can find these to purchase or just to try? I've never had one, but apparently they're rather delicate so they don't make it to market very well. It seems like the most common option is knowing someone with a pawpaw tree.
- They make it to farmers markets occasionally, and the trees are very easy to identify and surprisingly common. If you know what to look for, most wooded areas in their range will have some pawpaw trees. They generally only fruit for a few weeks in late September/early October but the good news is you’re right on time!
Interesting, will definitely want to try at some point too.
We have pawpaws in Australia, but they're a completely different fruit; a variety of papaya that's rounder and yellower and creamier.

Your ones look kind of like custard apples, are they that kind of thing?

Huckleberries are real y'all.

Not willing to compete for food with a grizzly bear man. I'll take your cheapest pack of frozen starwberries pls and thank you.
I had the pleasure of visiting Montana recently and huckleberries are delicious. I basically tried anything I saw that used them (in true tourist fashion).

My mom's tomatoes. They taste like water but my she's really proud of them and always beams when someone can taste that they're home grown. So next time you're at my moms house, make sure to ask for something with tomatoes

Concord grapes. You all know the flavor, because it’s the flavor that artificial grape flavor is based on, but I’ve only seen the real things in farmers’ markets in the Northeast US. They’re only available for a short period, and they’re amazing. A blend of intensely sweet and intensely tart.

They are insanely good to eat when frozen - it's like the most amazing popsicle, so crisp and sweet.
Had nearly half a kg of those today and my throat isnt happy. Love em!
Oh, so that's what they're based on? I'm not sure I'll enjoy that, I now really dislike that particular flavour.

Rambutans. They look like fluffy sea urchins but you crack that shell open and it’s soooo good. Much like leches.

Now lychee I like, so I'd love to try these some day!
- Ha! Oh wow, now that’s a spicy spelling mistake! 🤌
Yes, rambutans are delicious.

Definitely muscadines and persimmons.

Love love LOVE persimmons.
- They’re a vastly underappreciated fruit.
That's exactly what I was going to say, plus scuppernongs! (Which are a type of muscadine, but just saying, I've gotta have some of the purple ones and some green, they really complement each other)

How has no one mentioned saskatoons / juneberries / serviceberries yet? Looks like a blueberry except it grows on a tree.

We absolutely love these. Juneberry jam is a favorite.

While sugar beet is hardly unknown, try Zuckerrübensirup if you're near Germany, a black-ish sirup made from them. You can usually also get it in the Netherlands and sometimes in Denmark at least.

There are similar products in other countries, but they lack the distinct taste the German variant has that makes it such an awesome spread! And no, it has nothing to do with Marmite, which is a good thing.

Mulberries are awesome; they're tasty and they're an excellent source of dietary iron, too.

They have two things going against them, though: as fruits they're pretty fragile, even more so than other berries; and when they're flowering, they're highly allergenic for a lot of people. Lots of cities actually ban growing mulberry trees within city limits because of the allergy problem.

Of stuff that grows right in my neighborhood in the Bay Area, California, I'd point out passionfruit and prickly-pears as somewhat unusual fruit.

Passionfruit vines like to grow on fences; they make trippy-looking flowers that mature into lemon-sized fruits full of tasty gooey arils around their seeds.

Prickly-pears are Opuntia cactus, which seem to do oddly well here in even rough and windy coastal areas. The same species can also be harvested for the young cactus pads, which are nopales in Spanish; skin 'em and fry 'em up and put 'em in vegetarian tacos.

I've been wanting to seek out a prickly pear to try. I love grilled nopales so much

Mirabella plums. Like little miniature plums, they can be quite sweet

I received earth gems in my vege box last week. I had never heard of them before. Apparently a bit like yams or beetroot. Haven't cooked them yet:

In Italy we have the chinotto, which is a fruit from the Citrus family that is too bitter to be eaten by itself, but we make a soft drink out of it that is simply perfect.

Chinotto neri/lurisia(even better) 🔛🔝
- San Pellegrino's is just the next thing Nestlé ruined for me

Loquats are sweet, lightly tart and deliciously juicy. A bit like a very firm peach or plum.

Longyan (dragon eyes) are like lychees but smaller and yellow. They're less sweet than lychees (which tbh I often find a little cloying) and maybe a little more flavourful.

Love longan. Also very photogenic. (Sometimes I buy fruit primarily to photograph.)
- I've been so unlucky finding them. Each time I go to an Asian market they never have any Longan or lychee available lol.
  
  Hopefully I can find some this week
- Image isn't working for me unfortunately but yeah, they real pretty. I first had some in Taiwan, the owners of a small cafe gave us a branch from their tree.

Pomelo. Like grapefruit without the mess.

Love me some pomelo, and as mid-autumn festival is coming I'm sure there's going to be a bunch of them on sale!

Wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca). Incredibly fragrant and sweet. Regular strawberryies can't compare.

My lawn is filled with wild strawberry but the birds eat them all and just leave me with the false strawberry.

Vidalia onions

Now I've heard so much about Vidalia onions and I would love to try em.
- They have a sweetness that comes out when sautéed. Absolutely delicious.
  
  https://www.vidaliaonions.com/

My favourite langsat. It's sweet and sometimes sour, flesh is like rambutan.

Yessss. I'm only just realizing how many foods I don't know english names to lol.
- The english name of langsat is langsat, haha!

Huckleberries. They're the summer ground cover in Colorado subalpine forests. Like a mix between a raspberry and a blueberry. So good when you're just laying in a hammock by a lake smoking doobers and eating berries off the ground.

Macadamia nuts. Not the roasted ones, not the shelled dry ones you can buy in the store. They are garbage compared to the unshelled ones, even if you do need a special device to open them and they can be very frustrating to eat fresh.

When they're freshly opened, they're opaque brighter white, sweet and even a little juicy. It's a completely different experience from the ones you can buy off the shelf. It's honestly a shame Australia doesn't have a bigger market for the fresh ones.

Check out Taro and Cassava. Taro is a root vegetable similar to arrowroot and has now replaced potatoes for me (except for mash), and I don't even know how to explain cassava, but both are absolutely delicious when boiled with coconut milk/cream.

Know em both bc of the podcast gastropod. Check it out if you're into food, great podcast.
- Sounds like it's right up my alley. Thanks for the recommendation.

I went to school in Hawai'i and discovered strawberry guava - the plant is an invasive species that chokes the life out of everything it can, but it bears the most delicious fruit.

Technically not my area, but mangosteen. Mostly grown in South-East Asia, it's a sour sweet fruit with the texture and structure like a soft orange, and one big seed per segment. It is seriously delicious.

I just saw mangosteen in Chinatown Manhattan... First time seeing them in the us!!
I fucking hate the seeds though. It's like, you're getting to this sweet and juicy part of the segment's flesh, and then the seed just stops you cold from enjoying the fruit.
Just googled it and it looks BEAUTIFUL. I want this asap.
Mangosteens are the Best Fruit.

The ones you can get here are golfball-sized and eye-wateringly expensive - when I was in Singapore they were enormous and everywhere.

I want a mangosteen now.
- I hear you. The rare occasion I'm in Singapore I will buy a whole bag and devour them all over a few days.
  
  And when I see them where I am (also often golf ball sized), I message all my SEA friends with the location and price so they can descend like a flock of seagulls.

Where i live, mayapple! But you can't buy them anywhere, you have to just pick them. Luckily they're all over the place lol

It's also important remember that you need to wait until they turn yellow before you pick and eat them
- oh yes, i probably should have mentioned that... don't poison yourself, sorry!

feijoa, a South American fruit that made it to New Zealand - now just about every backyard in NZ has one, or many of them

Salmon berries!

Finger limes. Tastes like lime sorbet but with the texture of roe.

These are a great one. I love me some finger lime.

Wild blueberries. They're smaller, sweeter, and grow on a low bush. The bigger, high bush blueberries may as well be a different fruit.

My parents back yard is just covered in wild blueberry. They used to have a dog that would eat them right off the bush. Man, that was a stupid dog...

Snakefruit!

Just make sure to peel the skin off.

Buah Salak!
- Betul sekali! Enak!

Water apples, or wax apple. Their name is pretty much self-explanatory in terms of the taste. Really refreshing in the tropics.

Was gonna say this! The texture is light but crunchy. I'd say the flavor is lightly sweet with a little hint of something pleasant. I don't think they taste at all like apples, which frankly I don't understand why anyone would eat.

American Wild Plum

Chokecherry These make your mouth feel furry inside if you eat them, but make the best syrup for pancakes

Since huckleberries were already mentioned, I'll go for salal berries. Taste like flowery blueberries and make an amazing sauce, especially if you mix them with huckleberries.

Do thimbleberries count? Not sure how local they are to me, but they're so tasty. Think a sweeter, more fragile raspberry. They make an excellent jam! my only complaint I have is how fragile they are, they only last a day or two in the fridge

I've been meaning to look into planting some Camas bulbs. A kind of tuber crop grown by indigenous people around here. Used to be entire prairies of them before whitey showed up

Boysenberries

Just planted three slips of these yesterday. Excited to see them grow!
💯

Dwarf raspberry/dewberry. My pop used to call it 'gumbo' for some reason.

Its a tiny little raspberry plant that produces one berry per plant, so its hard to get it in any quantity.

The fruit itself is more juicy than a regular raspberry, and tastes more like fake raspberry flavored candy. Its always a treat to find these while hiking.

I'd also like to mention Sapota.

Honorary mention to Grewia asiatica and Syzygium.

Rambutan

I don't see it mentioned so maybe it's not lesser known, but jackfruit is amazing. SEA like most amazing fruit but have seen it more often in North America. Fresh, not the prepped and sauced vegan style.

Pakay! Also called ice cream bean. It's a giant bean, inside there's big seeds surrounded in white solid-fluffy stuff. You eat the white stuff. It's sweet without being overpowering and the consistency is interesting. Delicious

Maypops, which are a north american species of passionfruit. Obviously not a great hand fruit.

0: I have never heard of these! Do they taste the same or?
- I wouldn't say exactly, but a similar profile. Like two different varieties of apple taste the same but different.

Persimmons. Have a full size tree about to drop maybe 40 pounds of them. And I have no idea what to do with that many.

Jujubes. They're like a dryer sweeter small apple. They don't need a lot to grow where I am and there's hundreds per tree.

Had em, unfortunately not the biggest fan. Not the kinda thing I'd go outta my way for.

So not in my area, but I recently discovered cloudberry jam, which is absolutely delicious. It's like a mix of citrus and strawberry.

Loquats! Its like eating a giant sweet grape

Gooseberries are found in several traditional recipes from southern Netherlands, but most supermarkets no longer carry the fruit.

Ground cherries! They grow so well too.

Arum is an incredbibly underrated veg too, with an amazing texture.

fresh figs - they make a tasty snack, and the flavour is mild and pleasant. i can understand some people not enjoying the texture though.

I got my own fig trees!
- awesome! what do you do with them?
  
  i like to munch on them and i love me some preserves, but other than that, i haven't tried much else. do you use them in cooking or baking?

Marian plum. A bit too sour to eat on it's own but a spiced and preserved ones taste pretty damn good.