CONSTELLATIONS // PAWPAWS
The Susquehanna Banana
Pawpaws make good witch repellent, beer, and a damn fine pudding
by Diana Lu
EXCERPT //
“Its texture is a wonderful gold orange custard. And, my god, that fragrance … I can’t do justice with words … I would say mouthwatering,” gushes Dale Hendricks, founder of the Green Light Plants nursery in Landenberg, Pennsylvania, who has been growing several pawpaw varieties since the ’90s.
Wicks, who is also the lead orchard volunteer for the Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) food forest at the Wissahickon Environmental Center, describes a “blend between banana and mango with a good dollop of pineapple—a citrus tone that’s not quite an equal third part.” Yet it thrives in temperate climates. “It’s a tropical fruit that got lost here in the north,” jokes Hendricks.
Delicious all on its own, pawpaw recipes abound in Appalachian cookbooks and history sites—one is a Pennsylvania Dutch sweet corn and pawpaw pudding, Siesskann un Baaboi Budding. You can use it as a replacement in most banana recipes, such as banana bread, pies, and puddings.
Pawpaw’s ephemeral window, at every stage, also makes it difficult to commercialize. Its short season lasts a few weeks, from late August through September. “Pawpaws fell out of favor just because they’re not good crops to take to market. They need to ripen on the tree, they bruise easily, and you have to eat really soon,” Wicks explains. “Basically, if you’re gonna have a decent pawpaw you have to be really closely connected to the tree.”
For full text and images, consider reading RQ in print, on a Sunday afternoon, sun streaming through your window, coffee in hand, and nary a phone alert within sight or in earshot… just fine words, fine design, and the opportunity to make a stitch in time. // Subscribe or buy a single issue today. // Print is dead. Long live print. //