Both the Caribs and Arawaks cultivated this fruit throughout the Caribbean Islands. Explorers took papaya seeds to far reaches of the world, including the Philippines and Nepal. In the last hundred years, the papaya has become a choice fruit in many places. Like a coconut palm, papayas grow at the top of a long hollow, branchless trunk and are tucked under a spiral of broad-shaped green leaves. The tree, technically called a shrub by botanists, grows quickly and bears fruit within a year.
Papayas come in a variety of sizes, both long and thin and short and stout.
Individual fruits can range in weight from a lightweight half pound to a ponderous twenty pounder. The most fascinating aspect of the papaya, especially for cooks, is that this fruit can be eaten unripe and ripe. Like a mango, green or unripe papaya must be cooked before eating and yellow-orange or ripe fruit can be eaten uncooked. Unripe papaya can be boiled, saut ed, baked like a summer squash, stuffed with meat or cheese mixtures and added to chutneys or relishes in diced form. Ripe papaya can be eaten out of hand or used in blender milkshakes fruit salads, ice creams and sherbets.