If you’ve travelled north of Leamington on Highway 77 anytime in the past few years, you probably noticed a “Paw Paw trees for sale” sign just north of Road 4.
For those wondering what a paw paw tree is, Tracey Colenutt has the answer.
They are considered Canada’s tropical tree and the fruit they produce — according to Colenutt — is very much like a banana.
Colenutt, a member of the Leamington Horticultural Society, is a proponent of native plants and while the paw paw is not as popular as the oak or maple, it is native to Canada.
“It’s Canada’s forgotten fruit,” he says. “It dates back to the woolly mammoth.”
Colenutt saves about 4,000 seeds a year and plants them, then they are thinned out to about 1,000 seedlings.
He sells the seedlings at his roadside stand along with other native plant species and says he gets visitors from as far away as Quebec and Toronto.
His backyard is home to several maturing organic paw paw trees — most already bearing this year’s fruit — and hundreds of seedlings in pots waiting the appropriate amount of time to be planted in someone’s yard.
As for the fruit produced, they look like a green potato when full size and will ripen best on the tree. It takes about six years before you’ll see fruit.
Once they are ripe, Colenutt says you’ll fall in love with the custard-like banana flavour.
“Some people say they taste like a mango, but I liken them to bananas,” he says.
His family uses paw paws in place of bananas in pretty much everything from loaves and breads to muffins and smoothies.
While the seeds aren’t edible, they can be placed in a plastic bag with some water and then planted in pots during the winter.
The fruit is harvested in late September in this area, and Colenutt says there are a lot of paw paw trees in Essex County. In fact, Essex County has more fruitful trees than just about anywhere else in Ontario. The paw paw ranges from the extreme southwest (here) to just past Toronto to the north and to the Ottawa area to the east.
Ohio and Kentucky are also paw paw hotbeds.
Another unique fact about the paw paw is that the trees are pollinated by flies and beetles. While most flowers and trees are pollinated by bees, Colenutt says bees don’t take an interest in the paw paw but having lots of flies around does the trick. He’s even taken to hanging banana peels on the branches to attract the flies.
The paw paw is gaining recognition in Canada each year and being celebrated annually by Carolinian Canada, a network of leaders growing healthy landscapes for a green future in the Carolinian Zone, Canada’s far south, in the spirit and practice of reconciliation. The group connects science, community and business for healthy ecosystems and climate-smart neighbourhoods from Toronto to Windsor.
Carolinian Canada has regularly purchased paw paw seedlings from Tracey, but he says they have started to realize the fruit of their earlier purchases and are producing seeds for themselves now.
Colenutt’s hobby has been ongoing for about 20 years and he says he’s almost ready to scale it all back as retirement looms on the horizon.
“We want to travel and not have to worry about getting home to water the plants,” he laughs.
There is a lot of information on growing the trees and harvesting the fruit and the care that’s needed for both — way too much information to include in this article, but for now, if you’d like more information on Canada’s forgotten fruit, you can give Tracey a call at 519-562-3160 or email him at traccole@hotmail.com.
Or stop at his place at 440 Highway 77 and have a chat. He’ll be happy to share his knowledge with you.
One half of a ripe paw paw fruit.
