Harvesting the fruits of our labor

In 2017 we planted a few dozen trees to start a small, diversified orchard on a gentle slope overlooking the pond. We call the orchard the “P” orchard, as we exclusively planted fruits that start with the letter “p”: Asian pears, persimmons, plums, peaches, and the American Paw Paw. The Asian pears were the first species to fruit, shortly followed by the peaches the next season.  After many patient years, this is the first season we have had harvestable fruit from every species. The Asian pears really came into their own this year, chef Daniel Messer of Willa said “ " They are truly incredible. The best Asian pears I have ever had”. 

When we saw the paw paws start to form on the trees, we patiently awaited them to ripen. We had our first fruits appear last season, however they remained hard, never ripening to an edible state. We had higher hopes for this year and the crops team kept a close eye on them as the summer progressed. In late September, Max found a few fully ripened paw paw fruits, and staff gathered to taste test this exciting first harvest. While native to North America, the paw paw is relatively unknown as it does not ship well, and therefore is hard to commercialize. No one had seen or tasted a ripe paw paw, and we were all eager to try it. 

Descriptions were overwhelmingly positive, some saying it “tastes like a banana crossed with a mango,” , “similar to guanabana - delicious!” “ it’s like a creamy mango”, and “similar to durian, without the pungent foot odor”. While the harvest was limited this season, we are looking forward to more paw paws in our future!