When strolling around the territory of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, nobody would guess that pawpaws – the largest edible fruit indigenous to North America – may grow wild there alongside graves. Walk a little further into the cemetery and American persimmons hang over the tombs.
It may not sound like the most obvious place in which to cultivate such indigenous fruits, but the cemetery is also an arboretum. And in this “museum of trees,” as Joseph Charap, the vice president of horticulture at the Green-Wood Cemetery, put it, bringing back native trees, as they did with the pawpaws and persimmons, is “part of our general ethos” and goal of supporting the ecosystem.
“It is really important to be able to demonstrate to people that there are native fruit trees which can be grown in our climate,” Charap told BBC News.
Pawpaws and American persimmons are among the few native fruits that some farmers and gardeners are trying to grow as extreme weather increases. Seasonal changes such as warmer winter and then a freeze has destroyed most of the traditional fruit horticultural crops that people are familiar with such as apples, pears and peaches.
Local fruits are more resistant to climate change and need less water and chemicals than exotic ones, “particularly if the intention is to sell them,” Ben Flanner, chief executive officer and co-founder of Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm, explained to BBC News.
In a warmer future, the ability to withstand all that is critical, Flanner said. However, given that climate change is progressing at an alarming rate, the experts argue that farmers must try out native fruits now to determine if they can survive in a world that is warming up faster than before.
Some of the native fruits, such as sand cherries and aronia, or chokeberries, can be found growing naturally or cultivated by gardeners or farmers in back yards or farms. Flanner suggested that farmers should incorporate these native fruits into their crop calendars as the climate gets warmer.
Juneberry or serviceberry is a wild fruit which can be easily found in the forests of America. Tasting like a cross between strawberries and blueberries as well as having a slight hint of almond, they are used for pies, sorbets, jams and much more. Native Americans have been known to eat them with dried meat and fat to make the high calorie food known as “pemiccan” for centuries.
Beach plum is another native North American fruit that is found in the coastal regions of the states of Virginia to Canada Nova Scotia. During early spring, they have white flowers on the bush branches that become pink after the blossoms have been fertilized by bees and other insects. Next, in the late summer and early autumn, the blueish purple plums with antioxidants surround the tree.
Flanner said he recently got a jar of beach plum jam from a friend in New Jersey.
“At our own farm, we are always looking at how well things do compared to last year and the previous year,” Flanner said. “We have to make adjustments for the kind of crops that we are growing and also the environment in which we are growing them.”
America’s Forgotten Fruit
In the South Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, Reza Farzan, 71, has been cultivating pawpaw fruit trees for more than three decades. Farzan, who migrated to the United States from Iran, developed a liking for pawpaw after seeing newspaper and library articles about the fruit.
When he purchased his home in Brooklyn in 1992, he removed garbage from his backyard, went to a nursery in Oregon, one of the few places he could find the seedlings, and planted the native fruit tree.
“It’s the most prominent Native American tree,” said Farzan, the gardener. “It links us with the indigenous people who used to live in this area before the arrival of the white men.”
Pawpaws might still be considered exotic, but they grow well in a wide spectrum of temperatures in the eastern Northern America, from as far as eastern Texas up to the Florida panhandle and as north as southern Ontario. The native fruit which resembles a mango is most commonly located in areas with moist well drained soils in proximity to rivers, streams and wooded regions.
However, its delicious taste, which has been compared to that of a banana and mango with a custard feel has led to a revival of the fruit. Some may not be able to locate it in supermarkets, but many homeowners and farmers across the country are cultivating pawpaw trees and plantations. Ohio has a pawpaw festival every September, when the fruit is ready.
It takes a lot of time to grow pawpaws, Farzan said, adding that he had to learn everything by himself and now shares the knowledge with other farmers and gardeners in the country.
Some of the trees could take up to 10 years before they bear fruits. And unlike other fruit trees, Farzan said, pawpaws that are picked too early will never ripen properly. However, he just waits for the fruit to ripen and let it to drop on the ground by itself.
A big challenge is the shelf life of the fruit, it has a short shelf life of 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 be a problem if they are to be sold in supermarkets.
And yet the pawpaw tree is resilient. The trees in Farzan’s lush backyard have been through 100-degree summer heat and sub-zero winters. They even endured the downpour and storms including Hurricane Sandy.
When the weather gets cold, Farzan moves his fragile pawpaw seeds to a homemade greenhouse in his backyard.
“I want to stress to gardeners that climate change is real,” he said. I tell them pawpaw can endure such a range of temperatures and that growing the fruit enhances the beauty of your compound. Also the fruit is nutritious.”
Sharing a bowl of homemade pawpaw ice cream with the audience, Farzan said that he could cook almost anything with the native fruit including pawpaw bread, pawpaw ice cream and pawpaw egg omelets among others.
“There is so much work to be done because there is so much harm that has been done, so repairing (what colonization has done to the trees), building pawpaw gardens, is so important,” Farzan said as she wiped her tears.
Changing Mindsets
While it is important for farmers to be considering such fruit substitutes at the moment, said Jessica Fanzo, a professor of climate and the director of the Food for Humanity Initiative at Columbia University’s Climate School, diversification of crops will not be easy.
“Every square inch of land is valuable to them,” Fanzo said to BBC News, pointing out that farmers have to go through an entire value chain where demand may not exist while trying to figure out how to develop varieties.
“Farmers are very concerned about climate change and I believe they are concerned about profitability as well as how some of these crops are going to do in a warmer world and whether or not they can grow them at all.” Fanzo said.
They also require to try out native crops and how they perform under various conditions, said Ms. This research would help form the basis of climate modeling that enables scientists to picture how these crops may grow as our planet evolves.
In Brooklyn, Farzan said he just finds solace in seeing more people interested in native fruits especially the pawpaw fruits which he loves.
“I know this is just the beginning,” he said. That is why it can take a long time to change ideas and change mindsets. It should be our mission, so that’s what I do. Each morning I get up, go to the garden, and look at my trees, even though they may be bare.
“But that is my joy, that is the relationship I have.”