THE
PERSEVERING PAWPAW:
A
NATIVE FRUIT REGAINS POPULARITY
Michelle
Gorman
Albany,
Ohio
Asimina triloba,
commonly known as the pawpaw, produces North America’s largest native edible
tree fruit. Once considered a lowly understory tree with little commercial
worth, the pawpaw is making a comeback as a top landscape tree with edible and
medicinal value.
Named the ‘Landscape
Tree of the Year’ in 2000 by Better Homes
& Gardens
magazine, the pawpaw is currently enjoying unprecedented
respect and attention from horticulturalists and gardeners. Compounds in its
twigs and barks show promise in cancer treatment as well as in an organic
pesticide, intriguing scientists.
And the
nutritious fruit has proven quite
viable by specialty food producers in Ohio and West Virginia
.
So what’s a pawpaw?
The tree, whose
creamy, fleshy fruit has earned aliases like ‘the poor man’s banana’ and
musical tributes like ‘Way Down Yonder in the Pawpaw Patch,’ is indigenous to
the temperate woodlands of the eastern United States. It grows wild in 25
states east of the Mississippi River, and thanks to its rising popularity, is
becoming commonplace in suburban yards and urban landscapes.
The tree itself
typically reaches 20 to 30 feet in height, and its green droopy leaves are some
of the largest in the eastern forests. In the spring, pawpaws bear a striking
deep purple flower that attracts flies and beetles, the tree’s chief
pollinators. Pawpaw fruits are soft and
delicate, bruise easily and have a short shelf life. They typically are eaten
immediately after picking, and are only ripe and on the tree from late August
through mid-October (in Ohio).
Pawpaws through time
Native Americans
likely were the first to glean the benefits of the pawpaw tree and its hearty
fruit. In an 1806 journal entry, Lewis and Clark documented their subsistence
on the fruit during a time when they had run out of other provisions. But the
early 20th century saw a more widespread interest in the tree as
orchards were planted and wild fruits were harvested.
In 1916, the American
Genetic Association sponsored a national contest to locate superior pawpaw
fruit. The results, published in the Journal
of Heredity, outlined the characteristics of a good fruit and detailed the
top submissions. Of 230 samples, the best fruit was received from Ironton,
Ohio, more specifically in Fayette Township in Lawrence County. Of the other
top six entries, two hailed from Ohio, including fruit from Gallia County and
Springfield.
Despite this interest
in the pawpaw fruit, its commercial viability languished. According to the Journal, storage and shipping were
difficult due to the delicate nature of the fruit’s skin. The wild fruit’s
inconsistent flavor, low tree yields and plentiful seeds also made it a tough
sell.
Pawpaws today
Fortunately for the
tree (and its fruit), pawpaw aficionados thrive today. West Virginia scientist
Neal Peterson has studied the pawpaw since the early 1970s, making him a
leading expert in hand-pollination and grafting techniques. As the founder of
the PawPaw Foundation, Peterson has paved the way for continued research and
development into the tree and its uses.
Kentucky State
University, upon recognizing a void in scientific research on Asimina triloba, planted an orchard to
learn more about successful cultivation techniques. The university has also
produced a pawpaw-planting guide that outlines the tree’s needs, including
soils and habitat, seed propagation, pollination and overall care.
For southeastern
Ohioan Chris Chmiel, the pawpaw has become more than just a passion; its
cultivation has become the basis for his small yet growing business,
Integration Acres. Chmiel began
dabbling in pawpaws about five years ago when he picked and processed some wild
fruit and whipped it into a frozen pulp. What started as an experiment has
evolved into a full-time job for Chmiel, who asserts he has the “world’s supply
of frozen pawpaw pulp.”
From mid-August
through early October, Chmiel scurries around the hills near his home south of
Albany, Ohio in Athens County, picking choice fruits and buying quality pawpaws
from other local pickers. He ships thousands of pounds of fresh pawpaws to a
specialty food broker on the East Coast, which helps the native-yet-exotic
fruit to reach markets that otherwise may never see such a fruit. He also
processes the fruit into a frozen pulp that is shipped to the average consumer
as well as to professional chefs. By late fall, Chmiel is working at the
Community Kitchen Incubator in Athens, Ohio, making case after case of pawpaw
products, including a spicy jam, a peppery chutney and a sweet-and-sour simmer
sauce.
Though Chmiel’s main
interest lies in bringing the pawpaw directly to the consumer in the form of a
palatable specialty food item, he also has worked on several scientific
research projects. Through a grant from the United States Department of
Agriculture to Understory, Inc., Chmiel helped to conduct an economic
feasibility study of non-timber forest products such as mushrooms, ginseng and
goldenseal and pawpaws. He currently is working on another project—Improving
Wild Stands of Pawpaws- funded by the USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research
and Education program. Through that research grant, Chmiel has conducted a
grafting and pollination workshop as well as applied traditional orchard-style
techniques to numerous wild pawpaw stands in the Albany area. He has also received a grant from the same
program to study the integration of animals in the management of pawpaw stands.
For those
interested in cooking or baking with pawpaw, try these two recipes. Expect
fruit to begin ripening sometime in mid to late August, depending on location.
Spicy Autumn Pawpaw Cake with a Pawpaw Cream Cheese Frosting
Winner of ‘Best
Dessert’ at the1999 Ohio Pawpaw Festival. Created by Nicole Crist.
(In addition to the
pawpaw, the recipe uses another indigenous ingredient, the dried berries of the
spicebush, known as Appalachian allspice. Regular allspice can be substituted.)
Cake
2 sticks (1 cup)
butter
1 cup granulated
sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed
brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons
baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground
cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground
cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground
nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground
allspice or spicebush berries
3 cups pawpaw pulp
1/4 cup freshly
squeezed lemon juice
3/4 cup chopped
walnuts
1/2 cup sunflower
seeds
1 cup raisins
Frosting
5 tablespoons butter
1 pkg. (8 ounces)
cream cheese
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 1/2 cups
confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground
nutmeg or spicebush berries
1/2 cup pawpaw pulp
Directions
·
Heat oven to 350.
Butter a 13x9- inch or two 8-inch round cake pans.
·
In a large bowl, beat
softened butter for 30 seconds with a mixer. Gradually add the sugars. Mix 3
minutes.
·
Add eggs and blend
for a few more minutes, until the mixture lightens slightly in color.
·
Into a separate bowl,
sift together the flour, salt and soda. Mix in the spices. In a third bowl,
stir together the pawpaw pulp and lemon juice.
·
Alternate mixing the
dry and wet ingredients into the butter mixture. Start and end with the dry
ingredients.
·
Stir in the nuts and
raisins. Spread evenly into pan(s). Bake round pans 25 minutes, a rectangular
pan, 40-45 minutes.
·
To make Frosting: Mix
the butter, cream cheese and vanilla. Sift together the confectioners' sugar
and spice. Alternate mixing the sugar
mixture and pawpaw pulp into the butter mixture, adjusting the amount of sugar
for the desired consistency. Spread on cake.
Pawpaw
Lassi
Winner of ‘Best
Drink’ at the 1999 Ohio Pawpaw Festival. Made by Casa Nueva restaurant in
Athens, Ohio.
1/2 cup water
4 cups plain yogurt
2/3 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup pawpaw pulp
1/2 teaspoon ground
cinnamon
Mix all ingredients
in a blender until smooth. Makes about 6 cups.
To discover more about pawpaws, visit www.ohiopawpaw.org.