What’s a Pawpaw? The Fruit Great-Grandma Loved—And Foragers Covet

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Pawpaws are the fruit of a hardy understory tree native to parts of the U.S. They used to be everywhere, but most Americans today have never heard of them.

The tropical-tasting fruit is hard to farm and impossible to transport fresh, so it’s not in supermarkets—and foragers in the know keep locations under wraps.

The most sure way to try a pawpaw is to attend one of the handful of local pawpaw festivals held in the U.S. in September or early October.

Around the corner from my home in Birmingham, Alabama, there’s an old-fashioned diner—what Southerners call a meat-and-three—with an even older-fashioned name: The Paw Paw Patch .

Newcomers might think it has something