Pawpaws with Neal Peterson

The Forest Garden

It's pawpaw season! So today we have a very timely episode for you all, an interview with Neal Peterson of Peterson Pawpaws. Neal has spent decades working with Asimina triloba, collecting fruits from orchards across the Eastern United States and improving the largest tree ripened fruit of North America into the seven named cultivars that we know so well today. Allegheny, Potomac, Rappahannock, Susquehanna, Shenandoah, Tallahatchie, Wabash...you may have heard of these cultivars, but do you know how they came to be? In this episode we take a deep dive into Neal's breeding work and learn about the selection process that lead to these improved fruits release into the nursery industry. We also discuss the growing requirements for pawpaw, the culture that has evolved around this species over the past half century, food allergy/annonacin content concerns, and much more. This is an episode not to be miss missed, stick with us.

Peterson Pawpaws:

https://www.petersonpawpaws.com/

Places to buy pawpaws in the northeast:

Cricket Hill Garden - https://www.treepeony.com/

Broken Arrow - https://www.brokenarrownursery.com/

Logees - https://www.logees.com/

Perfect Circle - https://www.perfectcircle.farm/

Upcoming festivals (shoutout to Encygropedia for this epic list!):

Ohio Pawpaw Festival: https://ohiopawpawfest.com/

Frederick Maryland Festival: https://ecologiadesign.com/paw-paw-festival-longcreek-homestead/

Powhattan, Virginia Festival: https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/event?id=2023-05-24-17-33-29-969019-x6b

Pawpaws at West Farm Nursery, Branchburg, NJ: https://nofanj.org/event/farm-tour-pawpaws-at-west-farm-nursery/

1st Annual Pawpaw Festival, Louisville, KY: https://www.louisvillenaturecenter.org/upcoming-events/2023/7/27/first-annual-pawpaw-festival

York County Pawpaw Festival, York, PA:

https://hornfarmcenter.org/pawpawfest/

West Virginia Pawpaw Festival, Morgantown, WV:

https://arboretum.wvu.edu/wv-pawpaw-festival

Annonacin Content Research:

Progressive supranuclear palsy and pawpaw - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7156197/

Annonacin and Squamocin Contents of Pawpaw - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32761515/

Annonacin in Asimina triloba fruit: implication for neurotoxicity - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22130466/