Here a Paw Paw, There a Paw Paw, Everywhere...

The 10th Annual Paw Paw Festival in Albany, Ohio! Why else would you drive six hours across the country? Funny thing is that once we got there we had a very hard time actually finding a Paw Paw. We found Paw Paw jam (bought some with Spice Berry) and Paw Paw ice cream (sold out by the time we got to them). This small fruit, the only tropical fruit indigenous to the United States, was eluding us. 

Some vendors told us it was a bad season, others told us it was too early for the crop. But we finally found them from a distributor who had bought 500 pounds and getting down to his final boxes. 

The season is very short, only a few weeks of premium Paw Paws. They taste like a cross between mango and pear, have a creamy, custardy consistency and several large seeds (technically edible, as is the whole fruit, but we tried it and wouldn't recommend it). 

There is a growing movement to bring the Paw Paw to market as the next great fruit the way the kiwi took the supermarket by storm in the early 80s. Given its short season and extreme fragility, this may not be practical. Still, there are plenty of devoted followers who await the fruit every year. There are even studies focused on its medicinal qualities.

We took a meager four away with us so we could eat them before they spoiled. It's strange to be sitting in the middle of America while tasting something so exotic. Close your eyes and find some sand to dig your toes into and you would swear you were in a tropical port.