Featured Ingredient: Pawpaws
Beloved for its naturally custardy texture and tropical flavor, (think, banana + mango + maybe pineapple?), pawpaws are one of the only, if not the only, native fruits sold at the farmers market. Like tomatoes, pawpaws are harvested when they are fully ripe and quite soft, so it is unlikely you will find them in your average grocery store. One of the only places to purchase this hyperlocal fruit is at your neighborhood farmers market.
Pawpaws are members of the custard-apple family, (Annonaceae), which also includes custard-apple, sugar-apple, and soursop. Part of the order Magnoliales, the magnolia tree is a close cousin. The pawpaw is native to North America, growing mostly east of the Mississippi River. They are beloved in the mountainous south, where fruits can grow between 5 and 16oz, making it the largest tree fruit in North America. Pawpaw has been a source of food for a long, loooong time. It is an ancient plant that is thought to have emerged when the planet was much warmer, and whose fruits were enjoyed by megafauna like giant ground sloths or mastodons, well before humans came on the scene.
Though we think pawpaws are an amazing treat, not everyone agrees, including the common deer. According to a study by the National Park Service, this has had significant impacts on forests in the US. Because deer have few natural predators these days, exploding populations feast on tree saplings in forest undergrowth. Pawpaw plants, however, are not to their liking, and have become the most common species of sapling in many of the areas monitored by the Park Service. This can effect forest canopy. Pawpaws are not unbelievably large for a tree, growing only about 40 feet tall. In some circles, pawpaws are considered a tall shrub, and are much shorter than common tree species like red maple, American beech, white oak, and others, which can grow to be 100 feet tall or more. With fewer saplings of tall tree species surviving in the understory, North American forest canopies may become much shorter over time as pawpaws flourish.
Farmed pawpaws are delicious, and you can try one for yourself at Mair Farm- Taki! They are also grown by Tonnemaker Orchards.