Asklemmy

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

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

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.

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

Definitely muscadines and persimmons.

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

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.

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.

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.

Vidalia onions

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

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.

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.

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

Snakefruit!

Just make sure to peel the skin off.

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

Pomelo. Like grapefruit without the mess.

I'd also like to mention Sapota.

Honorary mention to Grewia asiatica and Syzygium.

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.

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

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.