Praising Pawpaws: Fruit prized by early Indians and Colonial Americans is poised to make a comeback

One morning, a volunteer and I were standing transfixed at Reynolda Gardens. We were watching a butterfly perform an aerial ballet. Feasting on apricot-colored zinnias, this zebra swallowtail swooped from blossom to blossom, its long tail trailing through the wavelike motion of its flight.

If the emotions of joy and delight can be assigned to a butterfly, this one seemed to embody them. It was fully engaged in the bliss of flight.

When it came to rest it revealed the black-and-white barring of its wings, accented with a single sweep of scarlet and dots of deep sapphire. Its long, trailing tail was reminiscent of a rare rain-forest bird, perhaps a quetzal or scissor-tailed hummingbird. It continued to amuse us with swoops and spirals until the volunteer brought out her cell-phone camera, the universal signal for all rare things to disappear.

When I got home, I looked in my butterfly guide and was reminded that the larval food of the zebra swallowtail is the pawpaw tree, Asimina triloba, a genus of mostly tropical trees that thrives in the floodplain forests of eastern North America.

Besides its relation with one of our most beautiful butterflies, everything else about the pawpaw seems exotic. The flowers are liver-red triangles with a slight carrion scent. They are pollinated by flies and beetles. The fruit of the pawpaw has been described as tasting like banana, mango, melon and custard. There are multiple variations and combinations of these flavors, as well as honey and berry. These flavors hint only at the diversity found in a sampling of pawpaws -- some of which are truly awful.

You can decide for yourself by attending a pawpaw festival from 10 a.m. to noon today at the Dixie Classic Farmers Market.

Jim Nottke, the treasurer of the Carolina Butterfly Society, was also led to the pawpaw tree by the zebra butterfly.

"My interest was in learning about the life cycles of various local butterflies. The more I learned, the more amazing and interesting the subject became," Nottke said.

Along the way, he became interested in the fruit of the pawpaw and its long and colorful history.

"Pawpaws were the largest and most important tree fruit to the Native Americans and the early European settlers. The Indians cultivated pawpaw trees. Hernando De Soto made the first European report in 1541. Lewis & Clark subsisted on the fruit on their trip. Jefferson planted pawpaws at Monticello," Nottke said.

Nottke said that for him, the flavor is like many tropical fruits that he has tasted in Asia, Australia and Central America.

"It is closest to the custard apple, but the pawpaw is a little less sweet and acidic. It has a smooth, custardlike consistency when properly ripe, with a mild flavor with hints of mango and banana."

Derek Morris, an agent for the N.C. Agricultural Extension, has 33 pawpaw trees growing on less than an acre.

"I have 30 of about 40 known varieties," he said.

Morris' interest started when he came across a pawpaw tree in Old Salem.

"It shocked me that something so good was just lying there wasting on the ground," he said.

The flavor, Morris said, varies with the different varieties and with the stage of ripeness. Of his 30 varieties, only about 12 have reached bearing age.

His favorite variety, so far, is the Overleese. He described it as "caramel and butterscotch -- rich, sweet and with the texture of a baked sweet potato. It improves with age, even when the fruit turns black."

Turning black is one of the obstacles the pawpaw faces on the road to wider acceptance. Breeders are working to develop varieties with a longer shelf life, smaller seeds, and less bitterness and astringency than is found in many of the wild trees.

In the last 20 years, there has been a great deal of interest in the developing the pawpaw as a commercial crop. The center for research into pawpaw production is Kentucky State University, which has had a comprehensive program since 1990. Ohio has crowned the pawpaw as its official state fruit. Ohio has its own pawpaw growers' association, and has held an annual pawpaw festival since 2000.

Michael Williams, a local grower, is in the process of planting what will eventually be 200 trees on 11/4 acres near Mocksville. By fall, he will have planted 46 trees of six varieties, and he hopes to add three more varieties next year. Williams intends to market the fruit through local farmers markets as well as to restaurants and local food producers who have expressed an interest in pawpaws but have not been able to find a source for the fruit.

I spoke to three growers. They all believe that there is a strong market for pawpaws in food production, particularly in ice-cream manufacturing. "Even people who don't like pawpaws like pawpaw ice cream," Morris said.

Pawpaws thrive in deep, humus-rich soil in a spot that receives some protection from direct afternoon sun. The pawpaw makes a beautiful, pyramidal-shaped ornamental tree with large, paddle-shaped leaves that turn a clear yellow in fall. It takes two trees to develop fruit. Planted from seed, pawpaw fruit will exhibit the wide variation that the wild fruit does. The preferred method is to plant named varieties that are grafted onto a rootstock.

■ A pawpaw festival will be held from 10 to 12 today at the Dixie Classic Fair Farmers. There will be cookies, cake, bread and ice cream all made with pawpaws and free for sampling. A small number of trees will be available, and there may be ripe fruit for sampling. Williams, Nottke and Morris are among the scheduled speakers.

Question of the week

Hello David: I have raspberries, and I love them. I also have wild blackberries, and I would love to get rid of them. They are growing in the same area and I can't tell them apart until the berries are ripe. By then, they are too tangled to separate. For the last couple of years, I've tried mowing the whole thing down. My hope was that as they emerge again, I'd be able to tell them apart, but I can't. Can you give me any advice? -- Helen Etters

Dear Helen: This can be a confusing problem. Blackberries are generally more aggressive than raspberries, growing on thicker canes with curved thorns. Raspberries are generally more bristly than thorny. I would wait until the canes fruit, then tie them with a string to identify them. Trace these canes back to the crown in late fall or very early spring and dig them up and plant elsewhere. Raspberries are best planted on a system of wires. Raspberries fruit when the canes are in their second year. Second-year, fruited canes are pruned out at the end of their season, and the new canes that were produced in the current year are tied into their place to fruit in the following year. By using this system, old canes are constantly removed and the bramble does not become a tangled mess.

You could also start over with everbearing raspberries. These bear on the first-year canes and can be cut down annually after the fall crop is harvested.

■ If you have a gardening question or story idea, write to David Bare in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-3159, or send e-mail to his attention to gardening@wsjournal.com.