Pawpaw on parade: Restoring Ontario’s largest native fruit to its forest habitat – The Spec

November 22, 2023

Bringing the pawpaw back to Norfolk County and beyond is an act of ecological preservation and Indigenous reconciliation

Cross a mango with a banana and you get something close to the pawpaw, a fruit native to Ontario that is making a comeback in Norfolk County and beyond.

With a creamy, custard-like filling and flavour notes of pineapple and coconut, the yellow-fleshed pawpaw resembles tropical fruit like the papaya, which inspired its name. But this hardy fruit tree grows as far north as southern Ontario, where pawpaws once proliferated in the Carolinian forest zone between Windsor and Toronto.

“It used to be a widespread Indigenous fruit, and because of deforestation across a lot of Ontario, the population has declined,” said Brooke Martin of Abundance on the 8th, an ecotourism business in Norfolk County that, when it opens to the public in the spring, will connect visitors with nature by touring them through the 60-acre Carolinian forest on Martin’s rural property southwest of Simcoe.

Read More: https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/pawpaw-on-parade-restoring-ontario-s-largest-native-fruit-to-its-forest-habitat/article_9e440d90-fc23-5a2a-bd13-62efd00ff399.html