After having read twice about the famed Michigan pawpaw, I decided that it was time for an expedition out into the mucky black soil on property that belonged to my boyfriend’s family. So upon waking early in the morning, I watched and waited for the right time to embark upon this journey I had so carefully planned. The night previous, while chewing on the stem of a sassafrass leaf, I stumbled upon a curious story that I had never heard before. Apparently my boyfriend of several years had already tasted this fruit coveted by the English 3110 class at WMU. I immediately interrogated him to discover that these mysterious fruit grew only a mile from my house. I knew that I had to hunt them down. The trip was carefully planned, and donned in my cowboy hat, I took off to find the mystery grove of trees. We wandered through trail after trail of trees of every kind. I identified maples, oaks, pines, everything except for the tree I wanted to find (and oddly had no clue what it looked like). We spent well over an hour in the heat of the day trailblazing through the woods, only to have no luck. We shook tree after tree, hoping that by some curious miracle an odd, green, banana-shaped fruit would fall to our feet. No such luck.
We returned to my house empty handed, only having discovered a trespasser’s arrow lying on the ground. There are fruit somewhere in that dense, adventurous woods, but they evade my eyes. I vowed to find them, especially after being attacked by countless prickly vines. One of these October days I will find them, that sneaky little fruit, the pawpaw.
After having read twice about the famed Michigan pawpaw, I decided that it was time for an expedition out into the mucky black soil on property that belonged to my boyfriend’s family. So upon waking early in the morning, I watched and waited for the right time to embark upon this journey I had so carefully planned. The night previous, while chewing on the stem of a sassafrass leaf, I stumbled upon a curious story that I had never heard before. Apparently my boyfriend of several years had already tasted this fruit coveted by the English 3110 class at WMU. I immediately interrogated him to discover that these mysterious fruit grew only a mile from my house. I knew that I had to hunt them down. The trip was carefully planned, and donned in my cowboy hat, I took off to find the mystery grove of trees. We wandered through trail after trail of trees of every kind. I identified maples, oaks, pines, everything except for the tree I wanted to find (and oddly had no clue what it looked like). We spent well over an hour in the heat of the day trailblazing through the woods, only to have no luck. We shook tree after tree, hoping that by some curious miracle an odd, green, banana-shaped fruit would fall to our feet. No such luck. 
We returned to my house empty handed, only having discovered a trespasser’s arrow lying on the ground. There are fruit somewhere in that dense, adventurous woods, but they evade my eyes. I vowed to find them, especially after being attacked by countless prickly vines. One of these October days I will find them, that sneaky little fruit, the pawpaw.
I think we need to make this an official class quest... I'm going to find a pawpaw this semester even if it lands me in the hospital!
ReplyDeleteI actually had a similar experience several weekends ago. My husband and I drove to the UP (my first time there) to see Tahquamenon Falls, and I spent much of our time looking up into the trees NOT for pawpaws but for porcupines. No luck. It seemed an awful lot like a snipe hunt to me...
I agree. I say we all get together, find out where they grow, and go hunting for them!!
ReplyDeleteThe pawpaw patch that we actually found the next weekend had no fruit in it anymore. I think we missed them by a couple of weeks. :(
ReplyDelete