I follow this blog and there was a post on native fruit trees. I have mulberry and saskatoon berry planted but after reading about some of the others, I was thinking about planting them. The problem is that I have never hear of the other ones in the post.
Interesting, i figure if i can find it growing wild within an hour of me, its wild native fruits, wonder if we could find the ones on this locally?
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
It was the pawpaw that I found interesting based on the post. I don't think I have ever seen it in a store. I was hoping that someone on here has grown it.
It shows on a map that it can be grown in Southern Ontario.
Like many fruits Pawpaw doesn't store well. This makes them unsuitable for commercial production. We've lost a lot of old produce simply because it doesn't all ripen at the same time, or maybe you can't force it to ripen or maybe you can't machine harvest.
This may actually be an advantage for the homesteader. Lengthens the harvest instead of overwhelming you.
Many old varieties were grown for eating quality and fit better for for our purposes anyway.
If it isn't grown commercially doesn't mean we can't grow a lot of these things ourselves and save them from being lost forever.
Supposedly there are pawpaw trees in Shorthills Park here in Niagara, but I have yet to find one.
Take a look around Woodend Conservation area. The NPCA lists that there are some species in that lot.
http://www.npca.ca/conservation-areas/woodend/
They have big floppy ear like leaves, sorta rounded. You may have seen them and just not registered. Plus, without a cross pollinator, they may not have bore any fruit.
I've seen a fruit bearing tree Paw Paw along the Twelve near Henley...but it's long gone now.
Runs With Scissors
I've never seen any at Woodend, maybe they're on the less-used trails? The leaves look familiar from some google pictures, but there are some other trees that also look like that. I'll have to go hiking soon!
Chances are all the good stuff is completely off trails. Go for a wander one day.
Runs With Scissors