What Are Pawpaws? Discover the Tropical Fruit Growing Wild in Indiana
Richard Owens had his first taste of a pawpaw while squirrel hunting in the woods with his dad in Johnson County, south of Indianapolis, when he was about 4 years old. The pair found a tree bearing fruit and decided to try one. “I had an open palate at that point,” recalls Owens.
That was some 50 years ago, and Owens as a child would never have imagined that he’d one day be growing this unusual fruit for a living – under the clever moniker Hoosier Pawpaw, no less. A former IT professional at Indiana University Bloomington, he retired in the summer of 2019 to focus full time on his orchard, which consists of about 250 pawpaw trees. “I ask myself, how did I get here?” he says. “I don’t know really, but I’m very glad and grateful to work where I’m at.”
So what is a pawpaw, exactly? It’s a kind of tropical fruit that’s indigenous to Indiana (believe it or not!), along with most of the eastern part of the United States, says Bruce Bordelon, a professor of viticulture at Purdue University. Pawpaws have been around a long time, he says; many older varieties of the fruit were discovered in the wild in Indiana and propagated.
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What Pawpaws Taste Like
The flavor of a pawpaw is comparable to a blend of banana and pineapple, with a hint of melon and mango. “A lot of people call it the ‘Indiana Banana,’ which has a nice ring to it,” Owens says. While this fruit certainly sounds delicious, it takes some effort to prepare it for eating. First, you have to remove the skin; you can use a knife or a potato peeler, or simply cut off one end and squish out the fruit. But before taking a bite, you must also remove the large brown seeds which run through the center.
A pawpaw is a little like a green tomato, Owens says, in that if you pick one off the vine before it’s started to ripen, it will never ripen correctly (and you don’t want to eat one that’s hard – it won’t taste right). When its texture resembles a ripe peach or avocado, with a little give when you press lightly, that means it’s ready to eat.
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The tree itself looks like it might belong somewhere closer to the Equator, with large, tropical-looking leaves. While wild trees grow to about 30 feet tall, a cultivated orchard will have shorter trees – and each orchard is as unique as a fingerprint, Owens says. Since pawpaws are not self-pollinating, growers must plant a different genetic cultivar every other tree to guarantee production. That’s why you may see a large pawpaw patch in the forest without any fruit, as there’s likely only one genetic strain present.
Why Pawpaws Are so Niche
Rumor has it that pawpaws were George Washington’s favorite fruit, Owens says, and that native Americans consumed them for nourishment for many years. They never really made it into grocery stores for the mass market, however. Unlike fruits such as apples and peaches, which are both lucrative crops in Indiana, pawpaws have a niche following. Those who love them, love them – but there’s also a population that feels strongly the other way.
“There’s a little bit of hesitation” around eating pawpaws, Bordelon says, with one reason for this being the prevalence of allergies to tropical fruits. Pawpaws contain bioactive compounds in their skins and seeds, and at one time, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company even used pawpaw extract to make ipecac syrup (a medicine used to induce vomiting after poisoning that’s rarely recommended now). And because the harvest window is so short, as is the post-harvest shelf life, pawpaws just simply don’t have the commercial potential of other fruits.
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Where to Find Pawpaws
That said, farmers have still found a coterie who enjoys them. After selling pawpaws intermittently to restaurants in the past, Owens now has just one customer: His entire pawpaw crop, which amounted to more than 4 tons last year, goes to Upland Brewing Co. in Bloomington.
Upland launched its first batch of pawpaw sour ale in 2013 with an experimental 5 gallons, and now, customers can’t get enough. This year, the company expects to produce about 1,800 gallons of the ale. Eli Trinkle, lead sour brewer, uses a high fruit rate, which comes through in the finished beer; after fermentation, the fruit is left on the beer for an additional two months. “Most people are blown away by the flavor you get from the fruit and cannot believe it grows naturally in Indiana,” Trinkle says.
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Pawpaw sour ale is available seasonally at Upland and at a handful of bars around the country, and if you happen to be in Indiana during the fruit’s short harvest period in September, you can probably pick up a fresh pawpaw at a farmer’s market, too. Enjoy one while you can, as its unique flavor and appearance is fleeting.
“They’re fun to try,” Bordelon says, “but you won’t be seeing them in Whole Foods anytime soon.”
35 Comments
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No PawPaws available in NYC. Google searches are wrong.
Where does a Hoosier go to find paw paws in their original state? And what time of the year?
I’m from Illinois and we have a lot of Paw Paw trees around the north central part of the state. They’re probably elsewhere in the state, like the southern part as well. I love them. To me it’s like eating natural banana pudding. I’m 60 years old and have been eating them since I was 4 or 5 years old. My dad turned me on to them.
Hi there, I have been trying to find wild paw paw trees to forage some fruit so that I can try it once. Would you be able to tell me which forest preserves in Illinois should I visit to look for Paw Paw trees?
Forest preserves don’t usually allow foraging but some state parks do. You have to check and see on an individual basis.
Fern Clyffe
Hi I’m up here in Northern Indiana, on the border of Michigan. I am in Southern Indiana a lot. I just want to know if anyone would know if Paw Paws could be grown up here. We do get some harsh winters and get the lake effect snow from Lake Michigan (about 45 minutes away)
Yes they grow up here. There is a park in Elkhart County that has them growing wild
Yes. I live in SW Michigan and we have Paw Paw trees that have naturally grown on our property. They bear fruit each year.
pawpaws grow in pawpaw, michigan about 45 min. north of indiana border
Everybody fall we harvest Pawpaws in Valparaiso.
I absolutely love paw paw fruits!
I’ve been curious if you can use the fruit to make any face/skin masks but haven’t been able to find much information online regarding it.
I had those when i was growing up in eastern KY. My dad would go squirrel hunting and bring back a bunch for us.
We have had our property since 2014, but last summer we noticed we have Pawpaw right here on our property in Southern Indiana. We kept some seeds. It was really cool to have them here.
Have had them in central Illinois. Years ago my mother-in-law would make pies like you would for banana pies. Very good
I have one paw paw tree on my property in west va…planning on planting a few more for pollination
WANTING to plant some paw paw trees do you plant them like any other fruit tree
I knows paws paws all so grows in Ohio to ..I like them .. they taste like a over ripe banana
At 65, I found aoawpaw tree while camping in the western pan handle of Florida. I was very excited and so I opened them up and tasted them. I’m sorry but I found them extremely unpleasant. They did smell if bananas but their taste was not at all a pleasant experience. I was so disappointed. No one in my group liked them, 5 of us. I don’t understand all the hype.
They obviously were not ripe. They are basically ripe when they fall off the tree. The problem is getting to them before the foxes and coyote do. I was lucky enough to get one last week. I now have a new favorite fruit.
I live in Northwest Arkansas, and have two pawpaw in my yard, plus numerous seedlings that I can usually find homes for. They grow happily all over the state but prefer part shade, they don’t respond well to intense heat. I’m not a huge fan of the fruit but have friends who love them so little of each crop goes to waste. I wish I’d known about the sour alecthe last time I was in Bloomington!
Christine Myers, if you have any paw paw trees for sake I would be glad to purchace a couple. I have 3 trees now. 2 are from one area and the other is from Amazon. I would like a few from other areas for pollination. I’m in western KY.
You can fb message me if you like. Thank you.
Several pawpaw trees in southern Ohio. I probably have 12 or so on my property. My dad and hubby love them.
I’ve been patiently monitoring the pawpaw trees inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near me. The colony of trees on my little parcel don’t produce fruit. Friends have promised that they have a pawpaw ice cream recipe if I bring them some. I can legally harvest a small amount from the Park.
Sounds like if you plant seedlings from a different location, they will mix and pollinate )or however that works). That might produce fruit
I am growing pawpaw in my yard..
My son planted several paw paw trees in his back yard (he got in the woods here in Indiana). He makes a paw paw cake every year. I remember eating them in my childhood.. We love them.
Pawpaws are also the host plant of the beautiful zebra swallowtail butterfly.
Paw Paw West Virginia has
We have trees in Tipton, In. I just trimmed back the tree last week and have been picking up the fallen fruits & sharing them or tossing the rotting ones into the composting pit so the seeds will not seed all over the grounds they fall on. We had a crazy overgrowth a few years ago from neglect. I’ve forwarded seeds. My parents have owned this house for 47 yrs & these trees have been here for a long time ..
When I was very young mu father and I was walking across a field In Arkansas. We were going fishing. We came across a little bush ,not more than 13 inches tall, he said it was a pawpaw .We ate it, it was quite good. I seen pawpaw trees at a local nursery but the price was 249.00 way more than I could pay. Now that I know that I would need 2 I guess I will never have my pawpaw tree. I am 65 so it would take to much time to start produce fruit from seed or even a start. I think people think I’m out of my mind,I want to grow every berry and fruit I can on my 3.5 acres even though only about one third is cleared.
I live in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. We have quite a few growers in the state now, the variety of trees seem to do well. I’ll be 70 next year and have 4 I’ve started this year. If I’m around when they produce, bonus for me, if not I find joy in knowing others will enjoy them. 😊
As a child I loved pawpaws but was allergic to them cause my face to swell so my mom would give me a banana when they had pawpaws
I’m age 70 now I just wonder if I ate one now would have same reaction so afraid to try.
We had a tree in our backyard in town. It produced fruit every year. To my knowledge there was not another tree anywhere around. Sometimes the fruit would get an insect inside which produced a blackish look and bitter taste. Other than that, we would eat a few, but let the rest go to waste. I always wished I had some sort of recipe to utilize the bounty of fruit.
Anyone know the song? I’m 66 yrs old and grew up with the family always singing it! Never knew it was a real thing till 5 years ago. You can keep it going on and on with names!
🎼🎼🎼Where or where is sweet little Jimmy? Where or where is sweet little Jimmy?
Way down yonder in the paw paw patch!
Picking up paw paws putting em in his pocket. Picking up paw paws putting em in his pocket.
Come on girls, let’s go get him. Come on girls let’s go get him.
Way down yonder in the paw paw patch! 🎼🎼🎼