While many Canadians spent Thanksgiving weekend preparing family dinners, thousands of people in southern Quebec travelled to a festival dedicated to a little-known fruit that supporters believe could have a bright future in Canada.
The second annual Pawpaw Festival in Farnham, about 50 kilometres southeast of Montreal, drew an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 visitors on Sunday. The event celebrates the pawpaw, a green-skinned fruit native to North America that fans describe as tasting like a mix of tropical flavours.
Warm autumn weather and colourful fall scenery set the stage as visitors sampled fresh pawpaw, along with a growing range of products including beer, pastries, hot sauce, candles and specialty dishes.
“It tastes like mango, banana, pineapple and caramel. It has every characteristic of a tropical fruit, even if it’s a native fruit. And it grows in our backyard here in Quebec — it’s pretty incredible,” said Vincent Renaud, founder of the non-profit organization Pawpaw Québec.
Growing interest in a little-known crop
For many visitors, the festival offered a first chance to taste the fruit and learn how it can be grown at home.
Gabrielle Boucher returned after attending last year's event and brought her family along. While enjoying a pawpaw-filled arancini, she said she sees potential for the fruit to reduce reliance on imported produce.
“Everyone should plant (pawpaw) in their yard, so that maybe, some day, we eat less fruits from abroad, like bananas. It’s fun that we're able to grow those fruits here,” she said.
Nearby, Nicolas Leporé and Sabrina Chiminazzo sampled pawpaw-inspired comfort foods including poutine and grilled cheese sandwiches.
Leporé said media coverage first introduced him to the fruit and encouraged him to attend the festival.
“I’ve always been curious about the idea of trying to grow a tree at home. When I saw this festival was happening, I thought, ‘This is the perfect opportunity,’” he said.
The couple left with seeds, fresh fruit and other pawpaw products as they prepare to grow their own trees at home.
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From backyard fruit to major festival
Renaud's interest in pawpaws began after a friend introduced him to the fruit in 2019.
“It’s fantastic, so delicious, so interesting — I couldn't believe it wasn't better known, so I dedicated myself to making it known,” he said.
He launched a Facebook group for pawpaw enthusiasts in 2021. The group has since grown to nearly 23,500 members. Last year, he expanded his efforts by creating the Farnham Pawpaw Festival.
The inaugural festival attracted about 10,000 visitors. This year's attendance increase reflects growing curiosity about a fruit that remains unfamiliar to many Canadians.
According to Renaud, visitors travelled to Farnham from elsewhere in Canada, the United States and Europe.
A broader pawpaw revival
The festival is part of a larger movement promoting pawpaw cultivation across North America and beyond.
Rodney Dever, a pawpaw specialist from West Virginia, said interest in the fruit has been growing steadily.
“I've been speaking at pawpaw festivals every weekend since the second weekend of September,” he said.
“It's great to just spread the pawpaw gospel.”
Dever said pawpaw was once more popular in North America before interest faded around the time of the Second World War.
“The pawpaw got forgotten for a little while,” he said.
One challenge is the fruit's short shelf life, which makes large-scale retail distribution difficult.
“Once it’s ripe, after a day or two, it goes from the best fruit in the world to tasting like rotten bananas,” explained Renaud.
Despite that limitation, Dever said pawpaw is finding new audiences in Europe and Japan, where the tree's hardiness allows it to thrive in cooler climates.
Reconnecting with local ingredients
For some vendors, the fruit represents more than a unique flavour.
Dominique Lalonde, owner of Kîsisam Patisserie, said discovering pawpaw inspired her to incorporate more local ingredients into her baking.
“Within colonization, we've been told for so long that everything that we have available here isn't good, right? And it’s kind of coming back to Mother Nature, coming back to the source, coming to Earth, and really reconnecting with those Indigenous roots,” she said.
On Sunday, Lalonde sold a range of pawpaw desserts alongside her regular pastries and cookies.
“We’re storytelling through a reconnection with these sacred ingredients. … I think those ingredients want us to reconnect with them — they want us too to bring them back to life,” she said.
Renaud said the Farnham event is unique because every vendor offers pawpaw products. After another successful year, he believes the festival has room to grow.
“I think there’s good potential for it to become the Farnham international pawpaw festival,” he said.
- with files from The Canadian Press
