Marc Boone cultivates hundreds of pawpaw trees in Michigan

Modern mead makers are enhancing this ancient beverage with spices and local herbs and fruit. Raspberries, pears, fresh thyme and rhubarb and even the little-known pawpaw can be found in Bløm’s meads so we stopped by Marc Boone’s farm to learn a bit more about this native fruit.

Pawpaws are native to North America, growing from Missouri to Alabama to the Eastern seaboard and up into Michigan, which is the northern edge of the tree’s current range. The fruit is not commercially viable, which is why most of us have never heard of it before. It’s ugly — and the uglier the better in terms of the fruit’s flavor. If the fruit is mottled and soft, it’s ripe. The seeds a large, dark and smooth, tucked in rows inside the fruit’s creamy flesh, which ranges from a creamy white to a custardy yellow. The texture of a pawpaw is luxurious. No acid. Just creamy, sweet fruit with a tropical aroma and a mango-banana-pineapple flavor.

If you live in the tree’s range, you very well might have one growing in your neighborhood, but if not, you should be able to track down someone like Marc Boone who grows them. You might be lucky enough to have a farmer at your local farmers’ market offering them up during their short season, which is August to October, depending on where you live.

Take a stroll through Marc Boone’s orchard with Lauren Bloom in the slideshow below: