By Brianna Gwirtz, OCJ field reporter
As passersby travel along State Route 3 just outside of Wooster, a stately red barn quickly draws their attention. While the barn itself is eye-catching, the giant painting of pawpaws causes people to slow down and ask, “What exactly is a pawpaw?”
West View Pawpaw Farm is owned and operated by Loren and Mabel Kirchner. Loren, a physician by trade, grew up in southeastern Ohio, where pawpaw trees were plentiful. When he moved to Wooster in his late teens, he had all but forgotten about the fruit.
“Growing up, we would see pawpaws in the woods while squirrel hunting. I would just grab them off the tree or pick them up off the ground and eat them,” Loren said. “About 25 years ago, a colleague I worked with in medical practice who had a couple of trees brought a few pawpaws in one day. He was asking the other doctors if we knew what he had. I said, of course, those are pawpaws. I had them all the time as a kid.”
This sparked an idea for Loren. At the time, he and Mabel had a small orchard with apple trees and a large vegetable garden on her family’s farm.
“I told Mabel I would like to plant a few pawpaw trees, and we started out with just a couple and have grown from there,” Loren said.
Today, the Kirchners are growing around 500 pawpaw trees. Loren, Mabel, and Loren’s brother, Tim, are the primary caretakers of the orchard. They’ve had to learn a lot about growing North America’s only native “tropical” fruit at scale.
“When we first started, growing new trees was difficult. Nurseries only sold pawpaw seedlings and grafted trees bare root, and we only had a 5% to 10% survival rate for the saplings. Today, pretty much everything is potted,” Loren said. “Our survival rate is 90% now.”
Pawpaws require a lot of moisture. Like other fruit trees, they also can face fruiting challenges due to Ohio’s weather.
“They flower in succession, depending on weather. They usually start around the beginning of April, similar to peach blossoms. They will flower up through the first week of May,” Loren said. “This normally works out, but periodically, frosts will come after all the blossoming is complete. Last year, a widespread frost destroyed all the young fruit, leaving little fruit throughout the Midwest. The fruit ripens in late August, all of September, and sometimes into the first week of October.”
There is a very short window to pick pawpaws. The primary way to know when the fruit is ripe is by its softness and smell. If a ripe pawpaw is left on the tree for over two days, it falls to the ground.
Unlike most fruits, pawpaws do not rely on bees to pollinate them; they need flies to help with pollination. Again, this can also challenge the growing season depending on Ohio’s weather.
“Flies typically need a couple of days above 70 degrees to appear, so you might get some blossoms opening in the spring when the temperatures are in the 50s and 60s, but you may not have flies out yet. Pawpaws are not self-pollinators; they have to have two genetically different trees to pollinate one another, so you need flies that can travel,” Loren said.
A unique quality of pawpaws is they have no significant native insect pests. Some fungi live on pawpaws but usually do not cause any major problems to the fruit or the trees. West View Pawpaw Farm uses no insecticides, fungicides, or herbicides. On occasion, they have to irrigate the young trees. The Kirchners seed clover and grass mix between the rows of trees every 3 to 4 years. Once the grass is tall enough to mow, they windrow it along the tree lines to allow for natural fertilizer as the grass decomposes. They also use bark chip mulch, which decomposes and adds nutrients. It takes anywhere from 8 to 10 years for the trees to bear fruit.
In an orchard setting, pawpaw fruit can grow four to five inches long and weigh about a half pound or more. The skin is light green and inedible, and the pulp is yellow or orange. Pawpaws are high in protein, vitamin C, and a variety of minerals. Many varieties of pawpaws are grown today. The Kirchners have at least 20 varieties in their orchard.
“As a physician, I spend a lot of time in the office focusing on health and wellness more than anything else. The last thing I want to do is treat sickness,” Loren said. “We should incorporate pawpaws and other fruits into a balanced diet. Pawpaws are underutilized for being a native tree. Plus, they taste good. Most people enjoy eating them.”
The pawpaw tastes like a cross between a banana and a mango, with a texture similar to custard. Kirchners market the fruit in the fall directly to consumers. They sell the fruit by the pound. Pawpaws typically sell from $6.50 to $8 a pound.
For Loren, Mabel, and Tim, the orchard is a labor of love and a place they truly enjoy. They value learning new things about the trees and fruit. The Kirchners have had multiple researchers visit their orchard from the nearby Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. They also pay close attention to studies conducted by the University of Kentucky, the leader in pawpaw research.
“Every time I go to the orchard, Loren and Tim are having a good time,” Mabel said.
Loren’s goal with the pawpaw orchard is to increase demand for the fruit. He personally wants everyone to try it at least once.
“One of the goals was to get pawpaw out to more people. Everyone knows about bananas, but bananas are not a native fruit. Very few people know about pawpaw, and it’s growing right here in Ohio. I originally wanted more people to taste them. If it became a successful business along the way, that would be good, too. We have to keep it financially sound. We have taken it slow over the years and gradually grown our orchard. It’s been good, financially, doing it that way,” Loren said.
Due to the time it takes for a tree to bear fruit, the pawpaw industry has faced challenges in commercializing. However, demand for pawpaw pulp has cropped up, which Loren thinks could be the fruit’s best bet to gain popularity. Jelly makers and craft brewers are seeking out the fruit for pulping purposes.
This fall, the Kirchners will try selling their pawpaw at local retailers. They hope the avenue will result in an increase of awareness of the fruit and create additional demand locally. Loren has worked with another local farmer to get his own orchard started.
West View Pawpaw Farm will host the Wayne County Farm Bureau farm tour this fall. They intend to make pawpaw ice cream for visitors to try. The Kirchners are also very active in the Ohio Pawpaw Growers Association and the National Pawpaw Growers Association. They’ve hosted several events in their orchard over the years.
“Growing pawpaws seems to me to be a calling, and we all agree that it has been a real blessing to help make them available for all to enjoy,” Loren said. “I like the idea that we are always learning so much. Between marketing, finding new sales avenues and working with the university to conduct research, I hope it all translates to good things for all pawpaw growers. I am very happy to be a part of it.”
