Photo by Blake Cothron
By Lauren Stepp
Most 17-year-olds spend summers skateboarding with friends or scooping ice cream for pocket money. But not Blake Cothron. As a teenager growing up in Louisville, KY, in the 1990s, Cothron spent his free time foraging for wild foods. He was particularly intrigued by pawpaws, the largest edible fruit native to North America.
“I developed a fascination with them,” says Cothron, who describes the fruit as having a creamy, custard-like texture and a banana-mango flavor. “It definitely has this very tropical profile,” he says, “and yet it’s native to the eastern woodlands.”
Fast forward a few decades, and Cothron has turned his adolescent obsession into a full-blown career. He’s the owner of Peaceful Heritage, a Kentucky nursery that specializes in pawpaw cultivars, and the author of Pawpaws: The Complete Growing and Marketing Guide.
Through a lifetime of research, Cothron has learned lots about cultivating this quirky fruit, from selecting planting sites to staving off pests. (He’ll dive deeper into these topics during his upcoming lecture at the Organic Growers School 2025 Spring Conference.) But Cothron also knows a thing or two about the pawpaw’s historical roots.
According to the grower, the pawpaw was once a vital foodstuff for Indigenous peoples across eastern North America, from present-day Ontario all the way south to Florida. In fact, the name of the Natchitoches Tribe of Louisiana loosely translates to “pawpaw eater.”
“Pawpaws were well-loved by Native American tribes,” Cothron says, noting that many used the seeds as game pieces or crushed them into a fine powder to treat head lice. Meanwhile, the inner bark was used to make fishing nets.
Pawpaws were also cherished by colonists, including some of the country’s most iconic figures. George Washington had a sweet spot for chilled pawpaw fruit, and Thomas Jefferson loved it so much that he planted trees at his Virginia estate. Daniel Boone and Mark Twain were also fans.
The pawpaw even played a role in Lewis and Clark’s westward expedition. When supplies ran low, the explorers turned to the tree’s fruit for sustenance. As William Clark wrote in his diary on September 18, 1806, the group “can live very well on the pappaws [sic].”
Appalachian folk lived well on pawpaws, too, making everything from quick bread to jam using the fruit’s pulp. Pawpaws were such a staple that towns in West Virginia and Kentucky are named after the tree.
Despite this, pawpaws fell out of favor in the early 20th century, says Cothron. “As people moved away from rural landscapes to cities, wild foods—including pawpaws—were forgotten,” he explains.
But in the past decade, horticulturists have rekindled interest in this once-overlooked fruit. Unlike high-maintenance crops like apples and peaches, which rely on pesticides and intensive care, pawpaws thrive with minimal intervention—a big win for market growers.
“The pawpaw fits the bill for local food production,” Cothron assures. “Plus, the fruit is really delicious.”
The Organic Growers School 2025 Spring Conference happens Friday, March 14, through Sunday, March 16, at Mars Hill University (100 Athletic Street, Mars Hill). For more information, visit OrganicGrowersSchool.org.
