Go Back
  • For Business
  • |
  • Warnings
  • Data Suite
  • Newsletters
  • Advertising
  • Superior Accuracy™
A week after deadly Texas flooding, hope fades but resilience grows. Chevron right
Recovery teams, displaced residents in Texas face brutal heat. Chevron right

Columbus, OH

72°F
Location Chevron down
Location News Videos
Use Current Location
Recent

Columbus

Ohio

72°
No results found.
Try searching for a city, zip code or point of interest.
settings
Columbus, OH Weather
Today WinterCast Local {stormName} Tracker Hourly Daily Radar MinuteCast Monthly Air Quality Health & Activities

Around the Globe

Hurricane Tracker

Severe Weather

Radar & Maps

News

News & Features

Astronomy

Business

Climate

Health

Recreation

Sports

Travel

For Business

Warnings

Data Suite

Newsletters

Advertising

Superior Accuracy™

Video

Winter Center

AccuWeather Early Hurricane Center Top Stories Trending Today Astronomy Heat Climate Health Recreation In Memoriam Case Studies Blogs & Webinars

News / Weather News

Pawpaws, beach plums and more: These native fruits could be on the menu as weather gets more extreme

Warmer winters followed by sudden cold snaps, have devastated many of the conventional fruit crops people are used to eating like apples, pears and peaches.

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN

Published Nov 28, 2024 3:29 PM EDT | Updated Nov 28, 2024 3:29 PM EDT

Copied

Pawpaw trees bearing fruit at KSU's Harold R. Benson Research & Demonstration Farm in Frankfort, Kentucky, on July 17, 2023. (Photo Credits: Jeff Faughender/Courier Journal /USA Today Network/Imagn Images via CNN Newsource)

New York (CNN) — Walking around the urban oasis that is Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, one wouldn’t expect to find pawpaws – the largest edible fruit native to North America – growing alongside tombstones. Stroll farther into the cemetery and American persimmons dangle above graves.

While it may seem like an unlikely place to grow such native fruits, the cemetery is also an arboretum. And in this “museum of trees,” said Joseph Charap, vice president of horticulture at the Green-Wood Cemetery, planting native trees, like they did with the pawpaws and persimmons, is “part of our general ethos” and mission to foster a balanced ecosystem.

“Being able to show people that there are native fruit trees that can grow in our environment is really an important step,” Charap told CNN.

Pawpaws and American persimmons are among the rare, native fruits that some farmers and gardeners are exploring as extreme weather becomes more common. Warmer winters followed by sudden cold snaps, have devastated many of the conventional fruit crops people are used to eating like apples, pears and peaches.

Inside of a pawpaw purchased in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on October 5, 2023. (Photo Credits: Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press/USA Today Network/Imagn Images via CNN Newsource)

Native fruits often exhibit greater resilience to extreme weather and require less water and pesticides than non-native varieties, “especially if being grown commercially,” Ben Flanner, co-founder and CEO of Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm, told CNN.

Having the “ability to withstand all that is critical” in a warmer future, Flanner said. But with the climate crisis accelerating at an alarming rate, experts say farmers need to experiment with native fruits now to see whether they can withstand in a rapidly warming world.

Rows of Pawpaw trees bear fruit at KSU's Harold R. Benson Research & Demonstration Farm in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 2023. (Photo Credits: Jeff Faughender/Courier Journal/USA Today Network/Imagn Images via CNN Newsource)

Many native fruits, including sand cherries and aronia, also known as chokeberries, either grow in the wild or are intentionally planted by gardeners or farmers in back yards or orchards. Flanner said farmers should consider adding these hardy native fruits to their crop rotations as the planet warms.

The serviceberry, also known as a juneberry, is a native berry that grows out in the wild. With a taste similar to a mix of strawberry and blueberry with just a hint of almond, they are used for pies, sorbets, jams and more. For centuries, Native Americans combined them with dried meat and fat to make the calorie-rich food “pemiccan.”

Beach plum is another native North American fruit that grows along the beaches and sand dunes from Virginia to Canada’s Nova Scotia. In early spring, their bush branches are covered in vibrant, white-petaled flowers that later turn pink after being pollinated by bees and other insects. Then in late summer to early fall, the blueish purple plums, which contain antioxidants, envelop the tree.

Beach plums in bloom in North Truro, Massachusetts, in 2023. (Photo Credits: Merrily Cassidy/Cape Cod Times/USA Today Network/Imagn Images via CNN Newsource)

Flanner said he recently received a jar of beach plum jam from a friend in New Jersey.

“In our own farm, we are constantly monitoring how well things do compared with last year and the year before,” Flanner said. “We have to make adaptations for the types of crops we grow, and also the conditions that we grow in them in.”

America’s forgotten fruit

Nearby in the Brooklyn neighborhood of South Slope, 71-year-old Reza Farzan has been growing pawpaw fruit trees for over 30 years. Farzan, who moved to the US from Iran, became a pawpaw devotee after reading about the fruit in newspapers and library books.

After buying his Brooklyn home in 1992, he cleared out his garbage-filled backyard, bought seedlings from a nursery in Oregon (one of the only few sources he could find) and planted the native fruit tree.

American persimmons growing in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn. (Photo Credits: Rachel Ramirez/CNN via CNN Newsource)

“It’s the most prominent Native American tree,” Farzan, a gardener, told CNN. “It connects us to the native people who lived here before the Europeans came.”

Pawpaws may still be relatively rare, but they thrive in a broad range of temperatures across eastern Northern America from eastern Texas and the Florida panhandle to southern Ontario. The native fruit, which looks like a mango, is most commonly found in moist, well-drained soils along riverbanks, streams and in wooded areas.

But its tasty flavor, often described as a mix between banana and mango with a custard-like texture, has prompted a resurgence in its popularity. People may not find it in grocery stores, but many gardeners and farmers in different parts of the country are growing pawpaw trees and entire orchards. Ohio hosts an annual pawpaw festival in September, when the fruit ripens.

Pawpaw ice cream is served at Farzan's home in Brooklyn. (Photo Credits: Rachel Ramirez/CNN via CNN Newsource)

Growing pawpaws requires a great deal of patience, said Farzan, who learned the ins-and-outs of producing the fruit on his own and is now passing down the knowledge to other farmers and gardeners across the country.

The trees could take up to 10 years to produce fruit. And unlike other fruit trees, Farzan said, pawpaws that are picked too early will never ripen properly. Instead, he waits for the fruit to fall on its own.

A big challenge is the fruit’s shelf life — only three to five days. “They get bruised easily and they go bad very fast, so the only way is to eat them fresh,” Farzan said, which could make them unsuitable to sell at grocery stores.

And yet the pawpaw tree is resilient. The trees in Farzan’s lush backyard have survived both 100-degree summers and sub-zero winters. They even survived heavy rains and storms like Hurricane Sandy.

When temperatures drop, Farzan relocates his delicate pawpaw seedlings in a cozy greenhouse he made himself in his backyard.

Reza Farzan opens the greenhouse in his backyard in Brooklyn. (Photo Credits: Rachel Ramirez/CNN via CNN Newsource)

“I emphasize to gardeners that climate change is real,” he said. “I teach them pawpaw can withstand such a range of temperatures and growing the fruit makes your garden beautiful. Also the fruit is nutritious.”

Offering a delicious bowl of homemade pawpaw ice cream, Farzan talked about the variety of things he could make with the native fruit including bread, ice cream and even pawpaw egg omelets.

“So much work needs to be done because so much damage has been done, so repairing (what colonization has done to the trees), building pawpaw gardens, is so important,” a teary-eyed Farzan said.

Changing mindsets

Although it’s vital for farmers to be thinking about these fruit alternatives now, said Jessica Fanzo, professor of climate and director of the Food for Humanity Initiative at Columbia University’s Climate School, diversifying crops will prove challenging.

“Every square inch of land matters for them,” Fanzo told CNN, noting farmers need to navigate an entire supply chain, where demand may not exist, while also figuring out how to improve varieties.

“Farmers are deeply concerned about climate change, and I think they’re worried about not only their bottom line, but how are some of these crops going to hold up in a warmer world, and will they even be able to grow them?” Fanzo said.

Farmers need to experiment with native crops and how they fare in different climates, she added. This research would serve as the “backbone” of climate modeling that allows scientists to envision how these crops might thrive as our planet continues to change.

Pawpaw saplings grow in Farzan's Brooklyn home. (Photo Credits: Rachel Ramirez/CNN via CNN Newsource)

In Brooklyn, Farzan said he just finds solace in seeing more people interested in native fruits, especially his favorite pawpaws.

“I know this is just the beginning,” he said. “It takes time to change ideas and change mindsets. It should be our mission, so that’s what I do. Every day I wake up, go to the garden, look at my trees, even when they don’t have leaves.

“But that’s my joy, that is the connection I have.”

Read more:

North America's oldest macaroni penguin turns 40
The secret vineyard in the middle of Paris
Florida citrus industry already facing multiple crises after Milton

The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Report a Typo

Weather News

Weather News

A week after deadly Texas flooding, hope fades but resilience grows

Jul. 10, 2025
Severe Weather

Rounds of severe storms to rattle, drench central US

Jul. 10, 2025
video

Abandoned cars submerged by severe flooding in North Carolina

Jul. 10, 2025
video

Before-and-after pictures show devastation caused by Texas floods

Jul. 9, 2025
Severe Weather

Severe weather to rumble in the central US through the holiday weekend

Jul. 6, 2025
Weather News

Record sargassum seaweed piles up on Caribbean islands, Gulf

Jul. 2, 2025
Weather News

Alabama teen in ICU after lightning strike hits boat, causing burns an...

Jul. 2, 2025
Show more Show less Chevron down

Topics

AccuWeather Early

Hurricane Center

Top Stories

Trending Today

Astronomy

Heat

Climate

Health

Recreation

In Memoriam

Case Studies

Blogs & Webinars

Top Stories

Weather Forecasts

Texas Hill Country recovery, cleanup teams to face brutal July weather

14 hours ago

Weather News

State inspection before floods found Camp Mystic had emergency plan

19 hours ago

Weather News

Deadly flash flooding devastates wildfire-scarred New Mexico town

7 hours ago

Astronomy

1st full moon of summer to rise Thursday night

1 day ago

Weather News

Most Texas flood victims face devastation without flood insurance

16 hours ago

More Stories

Featured Stories

Health

How can families handle new anxieties around summer camp?

13 hours ago

AccuWeather Ready

Floodwater rising in your house? Do this

2 days ago

Weather News

Orcas are bringing humans gifts of food – but why?

13 hours ago

Weather News

Earthquake swarm detected at Mount Rainier, biggest since 2009

18 hours ago

Weather News

The US has a plan to breed millions of flies and drop them from planes

13 hours ago

AccuWeather Weather News Pawpaws, beach plums and more: These native fruits could be on the menu as weather gets more extreme
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™ Personal Weather Stations
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™ Personal Weather Stations
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
© 2025 AccuWeather, Inc. "AccuWeather" and sun design are registered trademarks of AccuWeather, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | About Your Privacy Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

...

...

...