Of the four Foraging Series projects, Golden Pawpaw proved to be my bugaboo.
This was the third straight summer that I traversed the trails along the James River, in search of pawpaws. Two years ago, I learned to identify the trees; last year, I honed in on the harvest season; this year, I finally got my paws on some pawpaws.
Trained to spot a pawpaw tree, it’s all I see now when I’m riverside. Skinny trunks, massive oval leaves, and fruit that looks kind of like green potatoes. Trouble is, they tend to grow high off the ground, so it’s difficult to tell by touch whether they’re ripe. The ones that are ripe will fall off the tree if shaken, but the drop to the gravel walkways along the James is perilous and typically results in damage to the fruit. And then the insects come…
I was fortunate to discover some low-hanging fruit, but also some areas near a creek where the pawpaws could fall and land softly. I filled several bags with fruit and returned to the cidery, where we scooped the flesh away from the skin and removed the seeds before co-fermenting the pawpaw with Gold Rush apple cider… in a barrel provided to us by Vasen Brewing, who had previous used the barrel to age a grapefruit tripel.
Got all that?
One of my favorite aspects of the Foraging Series is giving (relatively) unknown fruit a little moment in the sun. I was not familiar with pawpaws until I moved back to Virginia six years ago, even though I grew up in Ohio – a state with pawpaws aplenty. Now I know that pawpaws are North America’s largest edible indigenous fruit, and were a favorite treat of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (just like the Hewe’s Crab apples that we grow and ferment into cider). The texture is creamy and custard-like, with a flavor akin to tropical fruits such as mango and banana.
Golden Pawpaw will be released on Saturday, March 30, exclusively on draft at Blue Bee Cider.
-Brian Ahnmark
