The Paw Paw: Delicious and Nutritious!

Fall is a special time of year, when people love to pick apples, visit pumpkin patches, and savor some ripe paw paws.  Say what?!!  I’ll bet you’re familiar with apples and pumpkins, but you might wonder what a paw paw is.  You’re not alone.  I wouldn’t have known about them, either, except that a friend of mine named Michael Judd grows them in nearby Frederick, MD.

Creating an Edible Landscape for Your Home

Michael promotes the unusual idea of using our yards to grow more than just grass.  Sure, that lush, green lawn in front of your house might make your home look grand — but that patch of grass is an ecological desert. It doesn’t feed the wildlife in your yard and certainly doesn’t feed any people.  Imagine, instead, that your yard contained a cornucopia of food for bees, butterflies, birds — and for you, too.  Seems way more sustainable, if you ask me.

Michael understands that our yards can be “food forests,” containing a carefully-woven tapestry of fruit trees, berry bushes, flowers, and herbs.  All of the plants in this kind of multi-level food forest live in harmony with each other.  It’s a symbiotic relationship that is totally unlike a lonely fruit tree that’s been planted in a wide expanse of grass.  Through Michael’s consulting business, called Ecologia Design, he teaches homeowners how to surround that lonely fruit tree with companion plantings that will support the tree by providing mulch, fixing nitrogen, and attracting pollinators.  This strategy creates what Michael calls a “patch,” and you can expand your food forest from there.  Learn all about creating your own food forest by reading Michael’s book,  Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist.

So if you’d like to find out still more about these fascinating food forests, and you don’t mind traveling to a remote location, you can visit the nonprofit farm that Michael founded in Nicaragua.  Founded in 2001, the farm is called Project Bona Fide, and it’s located on the slopes of Volcan Maderas on Ometepe Island.  I traveled there in 2011 to see the farm where my daughter Holly had volunteered for a couple of months.  It was a spectacularly beautiful location, with vibrant flowers, stunning sunsets, and the nightly serenade of howler monkeys.  But… it’s a bit far away, and another option would be to visit Michael’s demonstration garden, called Long Creek Nursery, located in Maryland.  And that is exactly where I went to learn about paw paws a few weeks ago.

All About the Paw Paw

My husband and I joined about 14 other people for a mid-September tour of Michael’s nursery.  After serving us a sample of the delectable fruit, Michael told us all about the paw paw.  I was surprised to learn that paw paws grow wild in the woods of the eastern U.S.  (I’m going to have to pay more attention to the trees when I go out hiking!)  The paw paw is North America’s largest indigenous fruit, and in good conditions (plenty of sun and the right amount of moisture) the fruit can be as large as a mango.   A cultivated paw paw fruit can even weigh as much as two pounds, although the fruit that grows in the wild is usually much smaller.  The paw paw is actually a tropical fruit tree that migrated northward as the glaciers receded following the last ice age.  It’s a highly adaptive plant, and it produces a green-skinned, kidney-shaped fruit that contains a rich, yellow flesh embedded with several large, dark brown seeds.  The fruit is deliciously sweet and tastes a bit like a mixture of banana, mango, and pineapple.

Michael showed us a grove of paw paws that he’s planted and nurtured.  He says that paw paws are relatively easy to grow directly from seed, although you will need to be patient.  The paw paw seed sends down a taproot which will grow to 9 inches before the plant even sends up a shoot.  A better option might be to buy an established plant from Michael’s nursery!  But if you’d like to produce paw paws in your yard, you will need to plant two trees so that they can cross pollinate.  A mature tree will be nicely shaped like a pyramid and can produce 35 to 50 pounds of fruit each year.  The paw paw can be grown from seed and will begin to produce fruit when it reaches about 6 ft in height.

Nutritious as Well as Delicious

Paw paws are not often carried in grocery stores, so you have to look hard to find them.   But it’s worth the effort.  You can eat the flesh directly from the fruit using a spoon, or you can add it to recipes.  I made some tasty mini tarts with a few of the paw paws that we bought from Michael.  But note that the fruit will be easier to handle if you freeze it first.  Then you can cut it with a knife and scoop out the flesh and the seeds.

Happily, the paw paw fruit is packed with nutrients, so it’s a great choice when you’re in the mood for something sweet.  According to Michael, the paw paw has a nearly perfect amino acid profile.  It’s also a great source of valuable vitamins (like vitamin C) and essential minerals (including potassium, iron, and magnesium).

Plan to Attend the Paw Paw Fest

Each year when the paw paws are ripe in Maryland, Michael and his family welcome visitors to their Long Creek Homestead for the Paw Paw Fest.  As Michael says, it’s a celebration of “all things paw paw.”  You can enjoy food (including paw paws, of course), music, and garden tours.  Click here to check out photos and a video of this year’s festival.  And then make plans to attend next September.  I can guarantee that it will be a sweet treat!