Pawpaws, beach plums and more: These native fruits could be on the menu as weather gets more extreme

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN

New York (CNN) — Walking around the urban oasis that is Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, one wouldn’t expect to find pawpaws – the largest edible fruit native to North America – growing alongside tombstones. Stroll farther into the cemetery and American persimmons dangle above graves.

While it may seem like an unlikely place to grow such native fruits, the cemetery is also an arboretum. And in this “museum of trees,” said Joseph Charap, vice president of horticulture at the Green-Wood Cemetery, planting native trees, like they did with the pawpaws and persimmons, is “part of our general ethos” and mission to foster a balanced ecosystem.

“Being able to show people that there are native fruit trees that can grow in our environment is really an important step,” Charap told CNN.

Pawpaws and American persimmons are among the rare, native fruits that some farmers and gardeners are exploring as extreme weather becomes more common. Warmer winters followed by sudden cold snaps, have devastated many of the conventional fruit crops people are used to eating like apples, pears and peaches.

Native fruits often exhibit greater resilience to extreme weather and require less water and pesticides than non-native varieties, “especially if being grown commercially,” Ben Flanner, co-founder and CEO of Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm, told CNN.

Having the “ability to withstand all that is critical” in a warmer future, Flanner said. But with the climate crisis accelerating at an alarming rate, experts say farmers need to experiment with native fruits now to see whether they can withstand in a rapidly warming world.

Many native fruits, including sand cherries and aronia, also known as chokeberries, either grow in the wild or are intentionally planted by gardeners or farmers in back yards or orchards. Flanner said farmers should consider adding these hardy native fruits to their crop rotations as the planet warms.

The serviceberry, also known as a juneberry, is a native berry that grows out in the wild. With a taste similar to a mix of strawberry and blueberry with just a hint of almond, they are used for pies, sorbets, jams and more. For centuries, Native Americans combined them with dried meat and fat to make the calorie-rich food “pemiccan.”

Beach plum is another native North American fruit that grows along the beaches and sand dunes from Virginia to Canada’s Nova Scotia. In early spring, their bush branches are covered in vibrant, white-petaled flowers that later turn pink after being pollinated by bees and other insects. Then in late summer to early fall, the blueish purple plums, which contain antioxidants, envelop the tree.

Flanner said he recently received a jar of beach plum jam from a friend in New Jersey.

“In our own farm, we are constantly monitoring how well things do compared with last year and the year before,” Flanner said. “We have to make adaptations for the types of crops we grow, and also the conditions that we grow in them in.”

America’s forgotten fruit

Nearby in the Brooklyn neighborhood of South Slope, 71-year-old Reza Farzan has been growing pawpaw fruit trees for over 30 years. Farzan, who moved to the US from Iran, became a pawpaw devotee after reading about the fruit in newspapers and library books.

After buying his Brooklyn home in 1992, he cleared out his garbage-filled backyard, bought seedlings from a nursery in Oregon (one of the only few sources he could find) and planted the native fruit tree.

“It’s the most prominent Native American tree,” Farzan, a gardener, told CNN. “It connects us to the native people who lived here before the Europeans came.”

Pawpaws may still be relatively rare, but they thrive in a broad range of temperatures across eastern Northern America from eastern Texas and the Florida panhandle to southern Ontario. The native fruit, which looks like a mango, is most commonly found in moist, well-drained soils along riverbanks, streams and in wooded areas.

But its tasty flavor, often described as a mix between banana and mango with a custard-like texture, has prompted a resurgence in its popularity. People may not find it in grocery stores, but many gardeners and farmers in different parts of the country are growing pawpaw trees and entire orchards. Ohio hosts an annual pawpaw festival in September, when the fruit ripens.

Growing pawpaws requires a great deal of patience, said Farzan, who learned the ins-and-outs of producing the fruit on his own and is now passing down the knowledge to other farmers and gardeners across the country.

The trees take at least two to three years to produce fruit, sometimes as long as a decade. And unlike other fruit trees, Farzan said, pawpaws that are picked too early will never ripen properly. Instead, he waits for the fruit to fall on its own.

A big challenge is the fruit’s shelf life — only three to five days. “They get bruised easily and they go bad very fast, so the only way is to eat them fresh,” Farzan said, which could make them unsuitable to sell at grocery stores.

And yet the pawpaw tree is resilient. The trees in Farzan’s lush backyard have survived both 100-degree summers and sub-zero winters. They even survived heavy rains and storms like Hurricane Sandy.

When temperatures drop, Farzan relocates his delicate pawpaw seedlings in a cozy greenhouse he made himself in his backyard.

“I emphasize to gardeners that climate change is real,” he said. “I teach them pawpaw can withstand such a range of temperatures and growing the fruit makes your garden beautiful. Also the fruit is nutritious.”

Offering a delicious bowl of homemade pawpaw ice cream, Farzan talked about the variety of things he could make with the native fruit including bread, ice cream and even pawpaw egg omelets.

“So much work needs to be done because so much damage has been done, so repairing (what colonization has done to the trees), building pawpaw gardens, is so important,” a teary-eyed Farzan said.

Changing mindsets

Although it’s vital for farmers to be thinking about these fruit alternatives now, said Jessica Fanzo, professor of climate and director of the Food for Humanity Initiative at Columbia University’s Climate School, diversifying crops will prove challenging.

“Every square inch of land matters for them,” Fanzo told CNN, noting farmers need to navigate an entire supply chain, where demand may not exist, while also figuring out how to improve varieties.

“Farmers are deeply concerned about climate change, and I think they’re worried about not only their bottom line, but how are some of these crops going to hold up in a warmer world, and will they even be able to grow them?” Fanzo said.

Farmers need to experiment with native crops and how they fare in different climates, she added. This research would serve as the “backbone” of climate modeling that allows scientists to envision how these crops might thrive as our planet continues to change.

In Brooklyn, Farzan said he just finds solace in seeing more people interested in native fruits, especially his favorite pawpaws.

“I know this is just the beginning,” he said. “It takes time to change ideas and change mindsets. It should be our mission, so that’s what I do. Every day I wake up, go to the garden, look at my trees, even when they don’t have leaves.

“But that’s my joy, that is the connection I have.”

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