Pawpaws: the Fruit of Appalachia’s Heart
The Pawpaw is one of the most unique fruits in American history. Indigenous to Eastern, Southern, and Midwestern United States, and cultivated in the Athens County, Ohio, area, it’s hard to believe that pawpaws have been around for generations and were once a critically important source of food for both Native Americans and early European settlers. George Washington is known to have cultivated pawpaws. It’s also been recorded that Lewis and Clark’s famous expedition of the West relied on pawpaws for sustenance when other sources of food failed.
