By the time Andra Nus arrived at the North Carolina State Pawpaw Field Day at 9 a.m., people had already lined up to help her unload her truck. The festival didn’t start until 10 a.m, but the eager volunteers hoped to catch her early — so they can get first dibs on her pawpaw trees.

This year, she said that she expected to sell out of all her products within 2 hours — the seeds, fruit, trees, and even her homemade pawpaw cream cheese.  

People just can’t get enough of pawpaws. But you won’t find them in most grocery store aisles, and you may not even recognize the name — much less have tasted the fruit. Pawpaws have soft golden flesh that is almost custard-like, and the taste is described as a cross between a banana, pineapple and mango. 

But despite its tropical flavors, it’s native to North America. William Clark — of Lewis and Clark fame — even wrote about pawpaws in a diary entry from Sept. 18, 1806. Apparently, the duo had run out of provisions during their westward travels and were subsisting on pawpaws.

The pawpaw craze 

Despite pawpaw's rich history, Nus said the industry is young and still developing. She's the owner and propagator for Sleepy Gap Pawpaws, a nursery and orchard in Arden, North Carolina. 

“But pawpaw has really had a huge resurgence in the last five years. Not that people haven’t been growing it for, you know, hundreds of years, but it’s gotten really popular in the last five years,” said Nus. 

She’s witnessed the craze firsthand. This year, she sold out of her tree supply within three days. But she reserved some for that North Carolina State Pawpaw Field Day — knowing she’d be flooded with buyers.  

And she makes good money. She sells the trees for $45 apiece. For now, her nursery and orchard are a side hustle, but with the money she makes off pawpaws, it could be a full-time gig. She said it’s the curiosity that keeps people buying — even if it’s expensive.  

But truthfully, her trees are priced on the lower end. Kirk Pomper is a professor of Horticulture at Kentucky State University, where he leads the only full-time pawpaw research program in the world. Pomper said some of the pawpaw varieties are selling anywhere from $30 to $100 per tree. 

He has worked at the pawpaw research laboratory for over twenty years. He first saw pawpaws catch on in the 1990s — but they have become even more popular. He’s seen the pawpaw obsession on social media. But another indicator of their growing celebrity was the 2022 Census of Agriculture. It was the first year pawpaws were actually listed as a crop.

And yet, pawpaws remain scarce. 

Breeding a better pawpaw

The main reason you can’t buy pawpaws at your local grocery store is because they’re delicate.

“They're also very perishable, like the fruit I harvested today, if I had left it out on the counter, it would spoil within two days. So, you really have to consume it quickly. It does not travel well,” said Nus.  

It’s hard to get fresh, ripe pawpaws to consumers. When you pack and ship the fruits, they bruise easily and the tissue degrades, leading to some off-tasting flavors, according to Pomper. 

So, there’s a basic problem here. Demand is high. People are desperate to get their hands on pawpaws. But there’s just not enough fruit actually getting on shelves. 

Pomper’s research may change things. He studies how to best propagate pawpaw and store it for sale. 

Using selective breeding, Pomper picks the best traits for new pawpaw varieties. His main focus is on firmness, which will make them easier to transport. That will mean more pawpaws for the consumer. 

To help the farmers, he’s looking for something called a color break. Normally, pawpaws remain green, even as they ripen. So, it’s difficult to tell when they’re ready to be picked.

“That means I have to go around to every one of my trees and feel the fruit to see if it's ready to harvest,” Nus said. 

But with a color break variety, the fruit would turn yellow, indicating when the fruit has ripened.

Pomper is screening for that color breaking characteristic.

“That would really help us in terms of saving labor, if we could go in and actually harvest by color and not by hand touch,” said Pomper. 

Nus also works as a plant breeder at North Carolina State University. One of the objectives of her pawpaw research is to create a seedless fruit. The process of removing the seeds from the flesh is time consuming. But if Nus’ research could speed up that process, it might help create the pawpaw products of the future.  

After the pawpaw pulp is separated from the seeds, it’s usually frozen, and more shelf stable. 

“And then you see people extracting frozen pulp and selling that, using it in ice cream. Ice cream is a great product for pawpaw too,” said Pomper.

What’s next for pawpaws? 

Pomper thinks there’s a real market opportunity for those value-added products, like ice cream. There’s also pawpaw beer, pawpaw wine and pawpaw brandy.

“Right now, I see this being kind of in that specialty market range or gourmet market, and there's a really strong niche for the fruit right now,” said Pomper. 

Nus agrees. She sees pawpaws becoming about as popular as figs. They’ll become more of a household name, but not necessarily as common as apples or peaches. They will be eaten when they’re in season, between August and early October. Still unique, but more recognizable. 

Anya Stansell works with Cornell Cooperative Extension as the small fruit educator for Western New York. She agrees that pawpaws could become the fig of tomorrow. But she doesn’t necessarily see that as a good thing. 

Stansell said pawpaws are pretty finicky. If they were to spread across the country, becoming more commercially available, “I feel like that would be taking a lot of resources that maybe we shouldn't be spending just to make a unique fruit a little bit more accessible,” said Stansell.  

Pawpaws are vulnerable to drought. They’re water guzzlers. They need to be shaded when they’re young, but then in full sun as they mature. And they take a long time to fruit — sometimes eight years. 

“I think it is such a good asset right now for a mid-sized farm, and I feel like it would be more of a gamble slash risk for a bigger producer,” said Stansell. 

R. Neal Peterson has studied pawpaws since 1974. He doesn’t think pawpaws will become too commercial, at least in the near future. In the long run, “pawpaw may even make it into the supermarket. But that's measuring things in terms of centuries,” he said.

But for the next couple of decades, pawpaws will remain a local, seasonal fruit. You’ll find them at farmers markets, festivals and specialty grocers.

“And that strikes me as OK. I mean, it's probably one of the things that contributes to the excitement around them,” said Peterson.