Edible and Available in Ontario

 The Pawpaw or Paw-Paw

   During my childhood (which extended into my 30s) I was incurious, or at least not curious about the things that counted. Those 'things' included just about anything not directly related to goofing off, playing around or drinking. In fact, I didn't even bother to learn much about the things required during those activities. If, like me, you were making spitballs during biology classes or aimlessly shooting your BB gun while walking through the woods, you may not know about the pawpaw tree. 

   I am trying to pay more attention now, and in doing so read this article which is why you are now reading about the pawpaw: "The Forgotten Fruit: Few People Have Heard of It. Fewer Still Have Tasted It. The Pawpaw, Ontario's Mango, Has A Rich Indigenous History, But a Vulnerable Future in the Province," Jade Prevost-Manuel, On Nature, Summer, 2022. The only thing I knew about the pawpaw was this lyric, which I probably remember from playing and goofing off: 

"Where, oh where is dear little Nellie?

Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch

Pickin’ up pawpaws, puttin’ ’em in your pocket."

   Did you know that a tropical mango-like fruit grew in Ontario and that it has been described as tasting like a custard made from a combination of mangos, bananas and pears - "nature's Creamsicle"? Did you know that a 'patch' of them could more properly be referred to as a 'grove', since the pawpaw grows on pawpaw trees and another grove of them has just been discovered in the Chatham-Kent area and you can find the PawPaw Woods near Wallaceburg. 

   Given that we have only recently noticed that most of our food comes from far away and may stop arriving, perhaps we should be paying more attention to things that can be harvested here (I will avoid for now the related subject which has to do with the fact that we have to hire people from far away to come and do the harvesting.) To assist you in learning more about our 'tropical' fruit, I will provide sources since most of what I know was revealed in the lyrics provided above.

Cricket Chow
  It was announced yesterday that our food security has been enhanced and that soon thirteen million kilograms of crickets will be processed annually here in London. The Federal government just provided $8.5 in assistance. You should know all about cricket eating because the subject was thoroughly covered in my post on ENTOMOPHAGY. I even mentioned the possibilities presented by the byproduct "Kricket Krap." Perhaps someone in the company or the government actually read it since I noticed in the article that: "Some of the byproducts from the Aspire operation processing will be sold back to area farmers as fertilizer..." ("By Jiminy! Feds Put $8.5M Into London Cricket Farm," Dan Brown, London Free Press, June 27, 2022.)

Sources:

   I skipped horticulture classes as well, but I have learned from my research that you need a couple of trees to start, the shelf life of the pawpaw is short and in Ontario they can only be grown in our "carolinian area." These sources will suffice:

   You can start, as usual with the Wikipedia entry. Then just go to Kentucky State. Cornell is also good - "Pawpaw - A "Tropical" Fruit for Temperate Climates," Guy K. Ames. Closer to home there is the Arboretum at Guelph and there is an Ontario Tree Atlas. If you want to grow your own see "Care and Stewardship of Pawpaw Trees," Ben Porchuk, Carolinian Canada. 

   There are many articles in sources close by. For example: “New Guide To Growing Forgotten Pawpaw Tree,” Sharon Hill, Windsor Star, May 29, 2020 and 

"Why an Ontario naturalist wants to Make Pawpaws Great Again: The once-popular fruit faded into obscurity in the 20th century. Now Dan Bissonnette is trying to bring it back, Daniel Sellers, Feb. 9, 2017, TVO Today. There is even interest among the Torontonians and this piece is quite good: "The Native Tropical-Tasting Fruit Can Be Foraged, But It's Easy to Grow Yourself," Edible Toronto.
Forage On!

   For Food History, see my magnum postus. 

Entomophagy

Cricket Farming

   The fancy word I used to get your attention has to do with the eating of insects. That is our subject for today. I raise it because I read a good related article yesterday in the London Free Press. The article also actually contained some good news and it was good in that it was done by one of the last surviving local reporters. 

   Norman De Bono (the reporter) revealed that, London will become home to the world’s largest indoor cricket farm with Aspire Food Group opening a 100,000-square-foot plant here that will act as a launch pad to bring bugs, as food, to the North American market....At the plant, crickets will be hatched and grown on-site and will become a tasteless, odourless protein powder that will be sold as a food additive, and will also be used to make protein bars. I do think that attracting such a company is a good thing  and I am glad that London seems to be focussing on the food sector as an area for economic development, even as the city continues to expand onto good agricultural land. If we can't grow food, perhaps we can at least process and manufacture some.

   I will provide more information below about the raising of crickets for food. There is, for example, another cricket farm in Norwood, Ontario and you can already buy their cricket powder at local grocery stores. I know all of this because I did some investigative reporting of my own. I did so because I was aware of a use for a major by-product of cricket raising and I wanted to see if it was mentioned. It was not, but I am sure these new food entrepreneurs must be aware of the potential profit to be made from the poop of crickets.

Kricket Krap

   The hobby of my last father-in-law was raising tomatoes. Starting them from seeds under lights in the basement in the early Canadian spring, he nurtured them through the summer and talked about them throughout the entire year. It was for that reason that I gave him as a present some high grade organic fertilizer. This stocking stuffer came in the form of a package of cricket crap from Georgia. Perhaps the choice of such a gift explains why I had more than one father-in-law. In any case, that is why I noticed the article about the new London cricket farm.

   Although I did not find any mention of cricket crap in any of the current articles I did learn that the company in Georgia which provided my father-in-law with Kricket Krap back at the end of the last century is still producing it in this one. If you are interested in crickets as food or as the producers of fertilizer read on.

Sources:

   The article about the local cricket business: "Edible Insects: London's Agri-Food Sector Lands Unique Factory," Norman De Bono, London Free Press, July 21, 2020. 

   The website of the Aspire Food Group is here.  The company also has an operation in Austin, Texas and for some additional information about the company see: 

"How To Breed a Tasty Cricket," Phil McCausland, The Atlantic, Sept, 24, 2015. and

"This Giant Automated Cricket Farm is Designed to Make Bugs a Mainstream Source of Protein," Adele Peters, Fast Company, Aug. 17, 2018.

   The other Ontario cricket producer is Entomo Farms. For additional information see: "Bugs As Livestock? A Canadian Insect Farm is Taking Cricket Powder Mainstream," CBC, Mar. 9, 2018 and "Family of Cricket Farmers Tries Not To Take Their Work Home," Donovan Vincent, Toronto Star," Mar. 31, 2018.

   To buy your own cricket poop go to Bricko Farms in Augusta, Georgia.  Articles about Kricket Krap were circulated by Knight-Ridder back in 1991. See: "Jiminy Cricket! Droppings Make Great Fertilizer," Baltimore Sun, Nov. 3, 1991 and "They Call It What It Is and Sales Haven't Been the Same Since," Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 6, 1991.

   Wikipedia has an entry for Entomophagy and a good piece about it was produced by the folks at University of California, Riverside: Entomophagy (Eating Insects). 

   To grow your own, buy: Cricket Breeding Made Easy or Cricket Farming: The Ultimate DIY Guide. 

The Bonus: 

   Think you would never eat insects - you already are:

However, many westerners unwittingly eat insects or insect parts every day without knowing about it!! It has been estimated that the average American eats about two pounds of dead insects and insect parts a year. These bugs are in vegetables, rice, beer, pasta, spinach and broccoli. The US Food and Drug Administration has allowable insect parts per certain food types. For example, beer which is made from hops, can contain up to 2,500 aphids per 10 grams of hops!!! (From the UC Riverside piece noted above.)