STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
There's a fruit that grows on farms in 40 states. It is native to much of the eastern U.S., and it has its own song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WAY DOWN YONDER IN THE PAW PAW PATCH")
BURL IVES: (Singing) Picking up pawpaws, put them in your pocket. Picking up pawpaws, put them in your pocket. Picking up pawpaws, put them in your pocket, way down yonder in the pawpaw patch.
INSKEEP: And yet you won't find pawpaws in too many grocery stores. Harvest Public Media's Kate Grumke reports on the push to popularize the pawpaw.
KATE GRUMKE, BYLINE: The pawpaw trees here at Ferguson, Mo.'s EarthDance Organic Farm School are covered in bunches of fruit. The school first harvested pawpaws in 2018. That was also the first time Jena Hood tasted the fruit.
JENA HOOD: It was so tasty. People described it as a cross between a mango and a banana. And I think that that is just - that's spot on, really.
GRUMKE: Hood is the director of agriculture and education at EarthDance. This year, Hood says they'll produce about 800 pounds of pawpaws. That won't keep up with demand.
HOOD: People call wanting to know, do we have pawpaws? We always sell out.
GRUMKE: The pawpaw is shaped kind of like an avocado, except it's got smooth lime-green skin. Sometimes harvesting is as easy as collecting fruit that's already fallen from the tree. Or there's another way. Assistant farm manager Will Delacey grabs a trunk and shakes it.
(SOUNDBITE OF TREE SHAKING)
WILL DELACEY: Honestly, like, my favorite part is when you shake it and you hear doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo. Like, all right.
GRUMKE: The pawpaw is the largest fruit native to North America. It was domesticated by Native Americans, and for a long time, people ate wild pawpaws straight out of the woods. Now people are growing them on farms in most states in the U.S. There's also an effort to cultivate more marketable varieties. Adam D'Angelo is the founder of Project PawPaw, which is a crowdfunded breeding and research program.
ADAM D'ANGELO: There's so much variation that with a bit of properly directed traditional plant breeding, we could make massive improvements and really just end up with a fantastic crop that's easy to grow, fun to eat and profitable for the small farmer.
GRUMKE: D'Angelo says because the tree is native, it's low maintenance. That means less need for expensive and environmentally harmful fertilizers and pesticides. But there's one big thing holding pawpaws back from a mass market - they don't keep very long.
D'ANGELO: The chief limitation is the almost ephemeral nature of the fruit.
GRUMKE: Pawpaw expert Chris Chmiel says festivals are a way to take advantage of that short shelf life.
CHRIS CHMIEL: Instead of that being a limitation, you kind of turn it into an asset by having an event.
GRUMKE: Chmiel founded what was likely the first pawpaw festival in the U.S.
CHMIEL: So over the last 26 years, you know, things have dramatically changed.
GRUMKE: Hi annual festival in Albany, Ohio, now draws about 10,000 visitors. Chmiel says similar festivals are popping up all over the country.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GRUMKE: At the first annual festival for Ferguson, farmers are selling the fruit to a line of people. For a lot of people, this fruit is totally new. Tamra Berger cuts into a pawpaw and picks out the soft pulp.
TAMRA BERGER: Oh, it's very - like, I get the custardy - yeah, it kind of tastes like pudding (laughter). I'm into it.
GRUMKE: Growers hope more people will take their first bite of pawpaw soon.
For NPR News, I'm Kate Grumke in Ferguson, Mo. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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