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[59]Forgotten Foods | [60]Food & Drink
The revival of a forgotten American fruit
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(Image credit: krblokhin/Getty Images)
The fruit's texture has been compared to custard, and the flavour is a
combination of banana and mango. (Credit: krblokhin/Getty Images)
By Jonathan Shipley26th April 2022
Across large swaths of North America, an ancient fruit is growing wild
but largely forgotten. However, a community of foodies, farmers and
scientists is eagerly trying to change that.

"Where, oh where, is pretty little Suzie? Where, oh where, is pretty
little Suzie? Where, oh where, is pretty little Suzie?" asks the
traditional folk song. "Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch."
Suzie knows more about pawpaws than most, it seems. North America's
[63]largest native edible fruit grows wild in 26 US states, including
Texas, Ohio, West Virginia, New York and Michigan and all the way up to
Ontario, Canada. Yet most people have never heard of it.

That's because pawpaws have never been sold on a large scale.
Commercial farmers have long shunned them because they need a special
growing environment of low, wet areas and because they spoil only a few
days after harvest - so you won't see the yellow-green fruit next to
the grapes at the grocery store. Nevertheless, a community of avid
pawpaw fans across the US - from festival organisers and chefs to
scientists and independent farmers - is expanding the love for this
forgotten fruit, and they want you to love it too.

"They are so delicious," said Michael Judd, author of [64]For the Love
of Paw Paws: A Mini Manual for Growing and Caring for Paw Paws - From
Seed to Table. During the harvest season (typically a few weeks in late
summer or early autumn), his diet consists mainly of pawpaws taken
right off the branch. "It's a nutrient-rich superfood," he added,
listing off the pawpaw's many attributes: antioxidants, all the amino
acids, magnesium, copper, zinc, iron, potassium, phosphorus, vitamin C.

To help get the word out, Judd will be hosting his seventh annual
[65]pawpaw festival this September, on his farm in Frederick, Maryland,
which includes tastings, jam making, pawpaw ice cream, music, lectures
and more.
Michael Judd is the author of For the Love of Paw Paws: A Mini Manual
for Growing and Caring for Paw Paws - From Seed to Table. (Credit:
Christine Ashburn/Michael Judd)

Michael Judd is the author of For the Love of Paw Paws: A Mini Manual
for Growing and Caring for Paw Paws - From Seed to Table. (Credit:
Christine Ashburn/Michael Judd)

An even larger festival in Ohio has been drawing fans since 1999. "Last
year we had close to 10,000 visitors," said Chris Chmiel, co-owner of
[66]Integration Acres in Albany, Ohio, where he grows pawpaws, ships
pawpaw products and helps organise the village's annual festival.
"People attend every year, and it has become a family tradition to
many. We also host a pawpaw cook-off, best pawpaw competition and a
pawpaw eating competition. The pawpaw beer has been a huge success for
the festival!"

Chmiel stumbled on the pawpaw as a college student, and it influenced
the course of his studies and his career in sustainable agriculture. He
even has a tattoo of the fruit on his arm. "It's a tropical fruit
growing right here in Appalachia... it's sort of the king of the native
plants around here," he said in a 2018 [67]TEDx Talk.

The pawpaw is in the same family as the custard apple, cherimoya,
sweetsop, soursop and ylang-ylang. It's a subtropical fruit that
migrated north from Central America, and it is atypical; the only
member of the family not confined to the tropics.

The earliest fossil evidence of pawpaws originated in the Miocene
Epoch, about 23 to 5.3 million years ago in what is now Colorado. Over
time, the climate has had warming periods, expanding the range of
tropical areas north and, by extension, the pawpaw. Additionally,
scientists have hypothesised that pawpaws were dispersed northward by
megafauna, like mastodons, mammoths and sloths, sabre-toothed cats and
giant beavers.

There is evidence that humans played a role in pawpaw dispersal as
well. "Natives in the eastern half of the country have always used
pawpaws," said [68]Dr Devon Mihesuah, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation
who holds the Cora Lee Beers Price professorship in International
Cultural Understanding at the University of Kansas. "Iroquois
reportedly mashed pawpaws and made the flesh into cakes and then dried
them in the sun. They were used as a travel food or mixed with water
into cornbread."

In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto took note of Native
Americans cultivating it east of the Mississippi River. George
Washington wrote in his diary in 1785: "Planted all my cedars, all my
pawpaw, and two honey locust trees." (Though there's no historical
documentation, it is said chilled pawpaw was Washington's favourite
dessert.) In 1786, when Thomas Jefferson was minister to France, he had
pawpaw seeds and plants shipped from Virginia to friends in Europe. A
journal entry from the explorers Lewis and Clark dated 18 September
1806 recorded that the men were "entirely out of provisions" but
"appear perfectly contented", living "very well on the pappaws."

The fruit's texture has been compared to custard, and the flavour is "a
blend of banana and mango, with undertones of vanilla, caramel,
pineapple, coconut and melon, depending on the cultivar", said Sheri
Crabtree, a horticulture and research extension associate at Kentucky
State University's pawpaw research programme.
The pawpaw is in the same family as the custard apple, cherimoya,
sweetsop, soursop and ylang-ylang. (Credit: db_beyer/Getty Images)

The pawpaw is in the same family as the custard apple, cherimoya,
sweetsop, soursop and ylang-ylang. (Credit: db_beyer/Getty Images)

Many an aficionado will tell you that the mango-shaped orbs -
yellow-green on the outside with gold-orange flesh, and 7 to 13cm long
with a weight of up to half a kilogram - are best enjoyed hand-picked
off the tree. But for now, it's nearly impossible to find them at a
local grocery store; instead, farmers sell the fresh fruit or its
frozen pulp online direct to consumers or at local farmer's markets.
Pawpaw trees are also sold by nurseries.

Scientists are at work, though, learning more about the pawpaw and
finding ways to make it more economically viable. Iowa State University
is developing a pawpaw variety with a longer shelf life and a larger
fruit with fewer seeds.

Kentucky State University has a pawpaw programme too. "We're interested
in pawpaw from an ecological standpoint as a native plant that is
losing habitat, and from a horticultural standpoint as a unique
high-value fruit crop that can be grown sustainably since it's well
suited for the climate," said Crabtree. She noted that over the past 20
years she's seen awareness of the fruit grow, driven by the shift
toward sustainable and local food production and the [69]Slow Food
movement. Some of that attention is also driven by efforts to honour
indigenous foods. As Mihesuah pointed out, "Tribes are attempting to
protect and revitalise their traditional food sources, and pawpaws are
an important part."

Chefs and brewers in the food and beverage world are also raising
awareness. Taylor Knapp is the chef behind [70]PAWPAW, a pop-up
restaurant dedicated to showcasing ingredients farmed, fished and
foraged on the North Fork of Long Island in New York. His frequently
changing menu has included dishes like local duck breast with pawpaw
sauce, a pawpaw sundae with black walnut caramel and burnt orange
meringue, and pawpaw and white chocolate bon bons. Clearly Knapp, like
many others, is a devotee.

"Pawpaws are an incredible native fruit that rivals the most
sought-after exotic specimens we ship in from around the world," he
said.
At PAWPAW on New York's Long Island, chef Taylor Knapp uses the fruit
in dishes like a pawpaw sundae with black walnut caramel and burnt
orange meringue. (Credit: Taylor Knapp)

At PAWPAW on New York's Long Island, chef Taylor Knapp uses the fruit
in dishes like a pawpaw sundae with black walnut caramel and burnt
orange meringue. (Credit: Taylor Knapp)

Indeed, it seems that pawpaws are becoming more and more fashionable.
Tim Luscher of [71]Sig Luscher Brewery in Frankfort, Kentucky, crafts
pawpaw beer. Alicia Burton of [72]Jeptha Creed Distillery in
Shelbyville, Kentucky, makes pawpaw brandy. Chef and culinary educator
Sara Bir recently wrote [73]The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook. "At their best,
pawpaws are custardy. Therefore, I love them in baked custards and
chilled, dairy-based desserts," she said. "They also do well in
tropically inspired savoury foods - a pawpaw beurre blanc spiked with
habanero pepper to serve with shrimp, say." And Minnesota-based chef
Alan Bergo, a noted forager and hunter of obscure wild foods, has taken
a shine to the fruit, sharing recipes for pawpaw [74]panna cotta and
pawpaw [75]cheesecake on his website.

It's an enthusiastic collection of hard-working individuals eager to
put the pawpaw on a bigger stage. George Washington would be pleased.

BBC Travel's [76]Forgotten Foods offers hope for the world's "lost"
foods through chefs and purveyors who are bringing them back to life
through cooking and cultivation.

---

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