Where to try pawpaw, Long Island's forbidden fruit
They say fruit is nature’s candy. But what about a fruit that’s only ripe for a week or two out of the year and can’t even be purchased at the store? That’s pawpaw, a local delicacy that’s so rare, it’s almost a collector’s item.
Pawpaw has been called the largest indigenous fruit from North America, but because it’s so perishable, it’s not widely cultivated or farmed (or even heard about outside of the Midwest). It grows naturally across much of Eastern North America, and has been consumed by Native Americans for centuries, says Long Island pawpaw enthusiast Beverly Vlcek. She’s one of the handful of people, mostly on the East End, who happen to have pawpaw trees on their properties. When the fruit ripens for about two weeks at the end of September, she gathers between 100 and 200 pieces and gives them out to friends, family and local chef Taylor Knapp.
"The texture is like a soft banana, like a pudding," she said. "It has no shelf life. it falls off the tree and you have to eat it within two days or it basically goes rotten. ... You also can't pick it early because it won't ripen off the tree."
This year's fruit is so custardy that you need to eat it with a spoon. And in its less-ripe stage, it was like a citrusy but creamy mango.
If you want to find your own pawpaw peddler, you’ll have to join Facebook groups like Pawpaw USA, where local home gardeners often post their hauls. Since this year's season has already peaked, the most reliable way to try this nearly-forbidden fruit is at one of Knapp’s Saturday night pop-ups at The Lin Beach House hotel in Greenport.
Knapp, originally from Indiana, has fond memories of picking the fruit with his grandfather and eating them when he was little. The owner of Peconic Escargot, he started a pop-up restaurant, PAWPAW, a decade ago, even though he didn’t have a local connection to get the fruit. He went without for five years until he met Vlcek. And then his dream was finally realized.
"That was my first time having them again since I'd had them as a kid with (my grandfather)," Knapp said. "It was incredible, it was this thing that I hadn't tasted since I was 7 years old. It brought back a lot of memories. Flavors is one of those things, it brings everything back."
Because Knapp freezes the fruit he now receives from Vlcek as well as a local farmer Peter Harmon, he’s able to serve pawpaw related desserts for several weeks through the month of October and possibly into November. His five-course pop-ups are $85, and feature different dishes each seating. On a recent afternoon, he whipped up a special dessert that he described as a pawpaw pavlova. It featured three variations of pawpaw fruit: a pawpaw cream on the bottom layered with a pawpaw puree, topped with a toasted hay meringue that’s dusted with pawpaw powder. Together with the fresh gooseberries, it tasted almost like a banana fruit pudding, but with an indescribable flavor of the earth.
PAWPAW at the Lin Beach House, 455 NY-25, Greenport, instagram.com/pawpawnorthfork.
Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.
