A pawpaw expert on the dos and definite don’ts of Pennsylvania’s ‘secret tropical fruit’

Pennsylvania’s fleeting pawpaw season has arrived and the “hillbilly mango” is ripe for the picking, assuming you can find one.

by Colin Deppen of Spotlight PA

01kc 9e6k 13ft jsy9

Pawpaw fruits and seeds on a table. Virginia State Parks / Flickr

This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.

Editor’s note: This interview first appeared in Spotlight PA’s PA Local newsletter on Sept. 9, 2022.

Pennsylvania’s fleeting pawpaw season has arrived, and for the next few weeks the commonwealth’s native tropical fruit — nicknamed the “hillbilly mango” — is ripe for the picking, assuming you can find one.

We talked to Ohio chef, culinary educator, and author Sara Bir about The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook, which includes an introduction by forager Alexis Nikole Nelson and recipes for everything from pawpaw cornbread to pawpaw ketchup.

Our conversation — touching on the do’s and definite don’ts of the fruit and why Bir says she’s yet to meet a bad person who likes them — has been edited for clarity and length.

Spotlight PA: Can you describe the taste of a pawpaw for anyone who hasn’t tried one?

Sara Bir: I like to say that it is most like a mango and a banana and yet something completely unfamiliar <laughs>. It has a lot of tropical flavors. It is in the custard apple family. It’s the most northerly member of that fruit family. Its relatives are all down in the tropics.

What about texture?

When pawpaws are ripe they are very soft. They’re like baby food.

What’s your favorite pawpaw recipe? I thought your pawpaw lassi idea was genius.

That is my favorite. I use buttermilk instead of yogurt, but you could certainly use yogurt. And I garnish it with a little nutmeg or cumin on top, which is really the only authentic part of this lassi. (Find the full recipe in Columbus Monthly.)

What can’t a pawpaw do?

They don’t do well when heated. It has a lot of volatile flavor compounds that are destroyed when you heat them, leaving a bit of a funky aftertaste.

Got it. So best served cold. What about dried pawpaw?

Oh, Colin, that’s an excellent question. It does not work. When you dehydrate a pawpaw or cook it down enough, it will concentrate a naturally occurring compound that is the same thing that is found in ipecac syrup, which is used to induce vomiting.

So pawpaw lassi for my friends and fruit leather for my enemies. On that note: You once said, “I have yet to meet a person who is drawn to pawpaws who is not a good person.” What did you mean by that?

Sure. I think anybody who even hears about pawpaws is somebody who has their feelers out for something that’s outside of their daily existence. They’re people who are open-minded.

Does the pawpaw have a type?

When I go to the Ohio Pawpaw Festival you see people with all kinds of backgrounds — religious backgrounds, political beliefs, lifestyles — but the thing they have in common is this affinity for an atypical fruit. (Editor’s note: York County, Pennsylvania has a pawpaw festival happening in September too.)

Is the pawpaw countercultural? Or is that going too far?

I don’t think it’s going too far. It’s both countercultural and very, very traditional. It’s a seasonal thing that was passed down through generations by the people who settled in these areas. I’d almost say it’s an underground thing. This whole slow-burning pawpaw phenomenon has been from the ground up, and it had to be because you can’t get them in stores.

Will that change?

There is pawpaw ice cream, gelato, and beer. But the reason you don’t see the fresh fruit in stores is because the fruits ripen at different times on the same tree. You can’t just pick them and have them ripen off the tree. If you bring a hard pawpaw home, it’s gonna stay hard.

It would take years and years of [selective] breeding, and while plant people have been working on it, nobody’s been throwing money behind it.

What’s the best way to find them fresh then?

I mean this sounds ridiculous, but once you are identified as a pawpaw-curious person, there is somebody who’s eventually going to come up to you in person or on social media and be like, ‘Oh, hey, there’s a pawpaw tree growing on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’

And that’s what’s so cool about the whole thing: This has happened not because some marketer thought it was a great idea. It’s not because an influencer is really into pawpaws and making smoothies that make your hair and skin beautiful. It’s just people talking to people about stuff they think is cool.

BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.

SpotlightPA black circle 01
+ posts

Spotlight PA is dedicated to producing non­partisan investigative journalism about Pennsylvania government and urgent statewide issues. We are an independent watchdog unafraid to dig deep, fight for the truth and take on the powerful to expose wrongdoing and spur meaningful reform. We connect Pennsylvanians to their state, and to each other, through public service journalism that matters to their lives and is creatively told in the many modern, digital ways they consume their news.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
9 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Guinivere
Guinivere
4 months ago

Thank you so very much for the texture info! I had bought some pawpaw over the internet from a site that grows and sells them, and when they arrived they ranged from soft to mushy soft, so I was worried I had gotten bad ones and was almost afraid to try them. However, seeing your description of their texture as soft like baby food, I was relieved, and on cutting them open, found them very tasty! Thank you so much, that was most important information!

Mike Reidy
Mike Reidy
5 months ago

I live in San Diego, and I have a cherimoya tree, relative of the paw paw. I have to hand pollinate it, but it gives me 70-100 fruits a year. Just delicious.

Tony Christopher
5 months ago

I didn’t know what they where and I was clearing the land to build and my wife cousin was here from Kentucky and he told me

Tony Christopher
5 months ago

I have a bunch on my property in Michigan

Andrea Theisson
5 months ago

I had two paw-paw trees at my first owned home in Hanover, planted by Hungarian immigrants, organic gardeners- they were great shade trees and just the right spacing for a hammock. Otherwise, a big mess- but we did discover that the ripe fruit could be mashed and baked into a quick bread, like zucchini or bananas, same spices, method, etc. Tasted like a pumpkin bread, and color was similar. A friend’s mother, from the South, told us how to use these prolific trees.

Dickson
Dickson
5 months ago

I ordered two paw paw trees and they arrived early spring this year bare root one- feet high. I planted both trees in a two gallon container each. The trees made some growth improvements in their containers. I really will like to know when will be the best time to transplant the trees into the ground. I reside in a very heavy clay soil area in Pennsylvania. Thank you

Ed Kirby
Ed Kirby
5 months ago

Is there a specific area in the United States that Papa grows I can say I’ve never come across it in Eastern Pennsylvania thank you

Kevin
Kevin
5 months ago
Reply to  Ed Kirby

They like to grow near streams & rivers. They are common along the Susquehanna.

Vernon Burch
Vernon Burch
5 months ago

I have two pawpaw trees growing right by my back porch swing they’ve been there for 20 years and bore at least 100 pawpaws this year

IMG_4433
9
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x