By Emily Saladino for Food Network Kitchen

Emily Saladino is a Culinary Editor at Food Network.

North America is home to a massive tree fruit that’s loaded with nutrients, history and riotous flavors, but few of us have ever tasted it. Pawpaws are the largest native edible fruit on the continent, and their footprint predates apples or peaches by millennia. They were cultivated by Native communities, helped to sustain enslaved African people, and made appearances in texts from 1806 Lewis and Clark expeditions. Modern pawpaw fans in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and beyond celebrate the fruit in festivals and conferences. And yet, you’re unlikely to spot pawpaws on the shelves of any U.S. grocery store. So, what are pawpaws, exactly? And why are they so difficult for some of us to find?

What Are Pawpaws?

Pawpaws are a deciduous tree fruit native to North America that have a creamy texture and tropical flavors akin to banana, pineapple and mango.

Indigenous to 26 states in the United States, pawpaws grow in clusters atop trees from Florida to Kentucky to the Great Lakes, and in parts of Ontario, Canada. They ripen in late fall and vary in size but are typically three to six inches long. Their soft skin can be green, yellow or a blend of both. Some pawpaws have creases or black markings that become more pronounced as they ripen, much like bananas. When ripe, their pale interiors have a custard-like consistency that surrounds shiny black seeds.

The United States Department of Agriculture doesn't provide nutritional information for pawpaws, but academic researchers find they are rich in nutrients and minerals. “Like most fruits, pawpaws contain some vitamin C—about 1/3 of the daily requirement—and the same amount of potassium as a small banana,” says Dana Angelo White, MS RD ATC, a Food Network contributor and owner of Dana White Nutrition, Inc. “Pawpaws contain impressive amounts of iron and magnesium. [One 3.5-ounce pawpaw] has 7 milligrams of iron, about 40% of the daily recommendation, and 113 milligrams of magnesium, which is more than most fruits and 27% of the daily recommendation.”

As with any foraged fruit or vegetable, it’s important to get yours from a trusted source. Many pawpaw fans say the best way to enjoy the fruit is by eating it raw immediately after it’s picked. Simply peel back the skin, slurp up the pulpy fruit and spit out the seeds. Pawpaws also be separated from their skins and seeds, then frozen into a longer-lasting pulp that can be used to make sorbets, smoothies or in place of banana in baked goods.

What Does a Pawpaw Taste Like?

Pawpaws have bright, tropical flavors that might remind you of bananas, pineapples, mangos or a combination of all three. Some people notice an almost bready aftertaste reminiscent of a fruited wheat beer, like the last sip of a Hefeweizen with an orange wheel in it.

“They’re incredibly sweet. It’s hard to describe because pawpaws taste like pawpaws to me, but I get mostly mango and some pineapple,” says Elizabeth Higley, the head winemaker at Windsor Run Cellars. She first encountered pawpaws as a craft beer ingredient when she moved to North Carolina in 2017 and currently forages them in the wild. “The texture is my favorite part. It’s very custardy, almost as if it’s already a pannacotta. When you find one, it's the best day ever.”

Why Is It So Hard to Find Pawpaws?

If you happen to live near an orchard, you might spot pawpaws either in trees or at farmstands in late August and September, when the fruits ripen. It’s unlikely you’ll find them at a supermarket, however, because pawpaws are more fragile and have a shorter shelf life than apples, peaches or other commercially available produce. That makes them “a difficult candidate for large-scale commercial shipping,” explains Desmond R. Layne, Ph.D, the head of and professor in the department of horticulture at Auburn University.

“Most of the fruits or vegetables that end up in a chain store have to be handled very carefully in order to get to market in good condition,” he adds. For instance, to get a Florida-grown orange to a Michigan supermarket, workers might need to pick it before it’s ripe, put it in cold storage, sort it to keep it with other oranges of similar sizes and at stages of ripeness, and then pack them in paper-lined crates to ship across the U.S. This sort of process would be difficult to apply to delicate pawpaws, which have variable sizes and continue to ripen after harvest.

“When it’s picked off a tree, if it’s not kept cold, it deteriorates very quickly. If you pick it at a really firm stage where it could handle long distance shipping, it may not ripen properly afterward, or have the same quality as if you picked it right off a tree or went to a local market where they picked it at a more mature stage ... You kind of have to be near the orchard to benefit from the full extent of the fruit,” says Layne.

Higley agrees. Despite her enthusiasm for and proximity to wild-growing pawpaws, she has never seen one in a grocery store or supermarket. “They’re really hard to come by because their shelf life is super short. Even if you find one ripe in the wild, by the next morning, it’s starting to turn brown.”

Scientists also haven’t yet created pawpaw-specific pesticides that enable other fruits and vegetables to survive the rigors of commercial production and shipping. “Because pawpaws are such a small crop, there’s nothing registered to control the pests or problems that would also be there for an apple tree, a pear tree, a peach tree,” says Layne.

For many people, the limited availability of pawpaws is part of their appeal. “Even if it was possible to scale production and ship the fruit nationwide, doing so would be at odds with the urge for local, sustainable food that fueled the pawpaw boom in the first place,” Yasmin Tayag writes in “Why Is the Most American Fruit So Hard to Buy?,” an October 2022 article in The Atlantic. After several weeks of searching for pawpaws online and at New York City farmers markets, Tayag finally finds one and likens its taste to a fruit she’d eaten as a child in the Philippines. “What was more intriguing than the pawpaw’s flavor was the novelty of being whisked away to the tropics by a wild American fruit that I had hunted down for a week. Would it have been as good if I’d bought it from a stack at Trader Joe’s?”

How to Find Pawpaws

If you’re eager to taste pawpaws but possess neither Higley’s foraging prowess nor access to a private pawpaw orchard, you have options. Those in the Eastern, Southeastern, Mid-Atlantic or Midwestern United States can ask vendors at nearby farmers’ markets if they or anyone they know grows or forages pawpaws. People who are passionate about local food systems will be delighted to connect you.

Pawpaw trees are also relatively easy to grow, says Layne, who has planted a few in his garden in Alabama. He suggests finding a commercial nursery that has pawpaws growing in containers and purchasing two, 2-3-foot tall trees to enable cross-pollination. “If they were grafted trees, you might have fruit on them within 2-3 years ... They require very little pest control because they’re native, and they can grow in the shade or the sun.”

Alternatively, search online for “pawpaws near me” or “where to find pawpaws in [your state].” Foraging groups often post about pawpaw sightings and other tips for finding ripe ones in the wild, and some local newspapers publish seasonal stories about pawpaw availability. Select farms also sell processed pawpaws, or frozen and sealed pulp, by mail order so you can fill your freezer with the ripe taste of North America’s indigenous bounty.

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