It's the End of September in Kentucky: Have You Eaten Pawpaws Yet?

This fussy piece of forgeable local produce is the portable hand fruit we all need.

In 2014—the year another pandemic (Ebola) ravaged the world and Hollywood once again tried to force an Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore rom-com on us—I made a prediction in my book Kentucky Sweets about the fate of the humble pawpaw, that wild-growing, native-to-the-state, tropical-ish fruit that tastes like a custardy tiki drink.

I'm calling it right now,