WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio (AP) — Stubborn drought in Ohio and the shifting weather patterns influenced by climate change appear to be affecting North America’s largest native fruit: the pawpaw.
Avocado-sized with a taste sometimes described as a cross between a mango and banana, the pawpaw is beloved by many but rarely seen in grocery stores in the U.S. due to its short shelf life. The fruit grows in various places in the eastern half of North America, from Ontario to Florida. But in parts of Ohio, which hosts an annual festival dedicated to the fruit, and Kentucky, some growers this year are reporting earlier-than-normal harvests and bitter-tasting fruit, a possible effect of the extreme weather from the spring freezes to drought that has hit the region.
Take Valerie Libbey’s orchard in Washington Court House, about an hour’s drive from Columbus. Libbey grows 100 pawpaw trees and said she was surprised to see the fruit dropping from trees in the first week of August instead of mid-September.
“I had walked into the orchard to do my regular irrigation and the smell of the fruit just hit me,” said Libbey, who added that this year’s harvest period was much shorter than in previous years and the fruits themselves were smaller and more bitter.
Why is it always Ohio.
No one will look back and say there weren’t signs when our planet dies. They’ll finally realize we just ignored them.
Millions of people know and are trying to fight. The real truth is a small number of rich people are actively destroying things faster for profit and power. They are working to stop anyone getting in the the way of that. A good number of them are accelerationist psychopaths who should be removed from any position of power.
Personal responsibility is good and nice, sure. One private jet flight nulls years of work a single person does to right climate change. The target for why things are so bad is very clear and very obvious. Eat the rich
Love me some pawpaws and persimmons.
While we’re on this subject… What exactly are the pawpaw and the prickly pear doing in the middle of the Indian jungle? For that matter, what’s Cousin Louie doing there? How did he end up thousands of miles from Sumatra?
If Baloo was having his fruit imported from the Midwestern U.S., that’s hardly the bare necessities, now is it?
The pawpaw in the Jungle Book is what’s known in the US as papaya. It’s been cultivated in India since at least the 18th century. Likewise prickly pears have been brought all over the world. By the time Kipling wrote The Jungle Book, both fruits were well established in India, just as many old world fruits have made it to the Americas.
You do know that song isn’t in Kipling’s novel, right? It was written by an American songwriter who very likely never even went to India.
I’m well aware. Are you aware that the Kipling novel specifically mentions pawpaw too?
Perhaps he was secretly rich, and thusly his esoteric definition was actually an eccentricity.
Just planted 2 trees I got at the Pawpaw festival a couple weeks ago. They appear to have survived the wind storm from Helene. Even if my lawn furniture was thrown 30 ft.