When the summer heat subsides, Southeast Ohio’s farmers inspect the progress of their crops. Rather than seeking the more traditional apples or pumpkins, they are looking for a fleshy green fruit that is celebrated in this neck of the woods.
Athens is all about the pawpaw.
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Native Americans east of the Mississippi River first harvested the tropical-esque fruit, using the tree’s bark to make ropes and fishing nets. Centuries later, during the Lewis and Clark Expedition, William Clark wrote in his journal that pawpaws saved him from starvation.
The pawpaw’s taste and texture are unlike anything found in the Kroger produce section, combining a banana’s texture with a mango’s taste. Even though the fruit trees wind through the temperate forest from southern Michigan to the Carolinas, they thrive in Southeast Ohio.
“It’s really one of those hidden things of Athens and the region,” said Paul Wiehl, Athens mayor, who has several pawpaw trees of his own. “They are an asset to our local economy and culture.”
In 1918, Southeast Ohio pawpaws took the top three spots in an East Coast taste test held by the American Genetic Association. Five of the top 10 entries in that contest were Ohio-grown.
The region’s fascination with the fruit became official with the start of the annual festival at Lake Snowden in 1999. In addition to embracing the pawpaw, the festival celebrates the culture of sustainability that surrounds the fruit.
“Every (pawpaw farmer) I know grows them organically because they don’t need any extra nutrition,” said Arthur Trese, associate professor of plant biology at Ohio University, who also has pawpaw trees.
The pawpaw was recognized by Ohio in 2009 when it was named the state’s native fruit. Since then, the number of pawpaw products at the Athens Farmer’s Market and on restaurant menus throughout the county has soared.
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Athens’ locavores sport pawpaw bumper stickers and smother their toast with pawpaw jam. Salsa, beer and popsicles also have become popular mediums for the local flavor.
Only in the past 20 years have farmers started selectively breeding trees to grow bigger pawpaws, Trese said. As a result of the pawpaw’s development, local harvesters now fancy grafted plants instead of the free seeds abundant in the woods of Strouds Run State Park and The Ridges.
Albany’s Integration Acres, which is owned by Chris Chmiel, the Pawpaw Festival’s founder, is the nation’s largest pawpaw distributor. Since 1996, Chmiel has been packing his fresh pawpaws away every fall and sending them throughout the U.S., and his preserved products are a hit in the off-season.
Thousands of pounds of pawpaws are picked and consumed in Athens each year, far more than any other county in the nation. From its hundreds of trees, Integration Acres froze 6,000 pounds of pawpaw pulp last year to send to grocery stores and make pawpaw beer for the festival.
“We are in the pawpaw capital of the world,” Chmiel said. “Southern Ohio has been blessed with pawpaws.”
In its first year, about 100 people attended the Pawpaw Festival, which was then a one-day, free event. In the last 13 years, the festival has grown into a three-day celebration, drawing in 6,000 pawpaw connoisseurs last year.
“The (local) interest has grown,” Chmiel said. “I think it is mostly due to the fact that pawpaw products are available year-round.”
Unlike bananas, pawpaws do not ripen after being picked and have a shelf life of about two days, which forbids them from landing in the fresh produce section. Instead, pawpaws, which are made up mostly of seeds, are more often found in frozen or packaged products.
“It’s a difficult fruit to transport, and right now, it’s not very mainstream,” Wiehl said. “But acceptance of the pawpaw needs to grow and we need to learn ways to make them more economically viable.”
There are about 20 people growing pawpaws in Athens County today. Athens needs more growers, Chmiel said, in order to find pawpaws a spot on grocery shelves.
LONG LIVE THE PAWPAW …
… and all of its tasty productions. The Pawpaw Festival and other local events provide people an opportunity to learn about cultivating and distributing the local specialty.
“Educating people about harvesting is the biggest roadblock,” Wiehl said, “followed by transportation. There is an assumption that products can easily stretch from here to China, but that’s not reality.”
The future of this oversized fruit remains promising because innovators are still working on new ways to grow, harvest and utilize the plant.
“The first person to figure out how to grow a seedless pawpaw will make a lot of money from it,” Trese said.
With Southeast Ohio’s profusion of pawpaws, these kinds of advancements would be profitable for Athenian growers and the local food scene.
“There’s not a huge demand for them right now,” Trese said. “But there is a potential niche market for the pawpaw’s flavor and novelty.”
oy311909@ohiou.edu
