After three weeks with no rain, a trickle irrigation system is watering a pawpaw patch at Kentucky State University’s Benson Research and Demonstration Farm. Dr. Kirk Pomper, a professor of horticulture at KSU, says the farm is home to about 10,000 pawpaw trees spread across 12 acres. He said the lumpy green fruit grows throughout the commonwealth.
“You'll find them, especially along streams and in the valleys. And they like a little water. They don't want to be flooded for long periods of time, but they will grow along these stream beds, drop their fruit into the water, and you know, the fruit will spread that way,” he said.
It’s September 3, and some pawpaws have fallen to the ground. Pomper pulls a few off branches, and we dig in – the reporter for the first time.
“Oh, this is different. What kind is this?”
“Susquehanna. The other one was Sunflower.”
“I like it.”
“Yeah, it's very good.”
Pomper said not all pawpaws are created equally – some don’t taste as good as others.
At KSU, there are 50 grown varieties, plus seedlings. All have short shelf lives – about two weeks in a refrigerator – something Pomper and company are trying to address.
“We've done a lot of different variety trials, just to kind of see what grows best in Kentucky, and then we've also been kind of a collection site for material from all around the nation, and we've used that and some breeding efforts," Pomper said.
Last year, around this time, another person who’d never tasted pawpaw came to the Benson farm. Daphne Phipps is the director of product excellence and innovations for the Winchester soft drink company Ale-8-One.
“To me, it was the most delicious complex fruit I'd ever tasted. As soon as I thought I figured out what it tasted like, the flavor changed, if that makes sense. So when I first started tasting it, to me, it was mango-forward. And then as soon as I had mango in my mind, it started switching to pineapple,” she said.
Some call it a Kentucky banana. However, the variety made Phipps’ mission more difficult: finding the proper mix of natural flavors for the company’s limited-time-only, or LTO, pawpaw drink.
She brought home a large bag full of pawpaws and emptied it in two days – so she could remember and replicate it in Ale-8’s lab. Eight months and 49 formulas later, she thought she had a winner. According to Pomper, perhaps the world’s preeminent pawpaw expert, she did.
“I think the pawpaw Ale-8-One is an excellent drink. I think it really does capture, especially KSU Chappell, but captures pawpaw. And so I think, I think it's a great drink on its own, but it's also a great mixer too,” he said.
Back in Winchester, Ale-8-One began bottling the pawpaw LTO for its August 4 release. Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Price says they quickly sold every bottle to stores throughout Kentucky and its seven border states. Still, he said it’s too soon to say whether they’ll bring it back.
“It's all about the fans, and if the fans are reacting in a more enthusiastic way, we have to pay attention. So we are paying attention,” he said.
Phipps said the pawpaw variety sold 48 percent faster than any other Ale-8-One LTO. What’s more, it’s raised interest in what she calls “little green potatoes” to the benefit of the 90-plus commercial growers in Kentucky. People like Matt Menegotto (Minn-uh-gotto), owner of the Hang Loose Pawpaw Patch in Wilmore that just began producing fruit this year.
“There's been a huge uptick in calls, emails, text messages, the whole nine yards,” he said.
It’s September 10th, and KSU is hosting the International Pawpaw Conference, four of the five of which have been held there.
And Kirk Pomper’s about to receive the fruit of 27 years in pawpaw patches.
At the request of KSU President Koffi Akakpo, a new pawpaw cultivar developed at KSU is given a name:
“KSU Pomper’s Choice is a fitting tribute to his vision, his dedication to pawpaw growers, and his extraordinary contributions to horticultural science together.”
