Mouse Melons

Can you imagine a little mouse picnic?  This would be on their table.  some know them as wild cucumber... and that is why I am going to pop these in my pickle jar.  They grow wild at my house and I let them because I think they are so cute.  They also remind me of Christmas tree decorations as each one hangs on its little thread which is connected to a longer thread with a bunch of other little melons hanging from them.  Little green balls everywhere.

Pickin' up pawpaws... puttin' 'em in my pocket....

we ran into some pawpaws while walking in the woods the other day.  What a find!  If you have never had one, you certainly won't find one in any store... you will either have to plant a couple ( great idea!) or find a friend who has a tree.  They have a very short shelf life so you will never find one in the grocery.  They are delish!  kind of like a mango and banana with the texture of pudding.  You wait till they fall off the tree and are nice and squishy.  We ate several just as they were and then decided they might make a great pudding so we ran the rest through a sieve and used some in the pudding and froze the rest into cubes using a couple of ice trays so that we can use in the future in a smoothie or two.