A Tennessee pawpaw tree. Photo: Flickr / abirdv

Proponents of what could be the next big thing in Southern fruit say equating mainstays of the American lunchbox with their product is like comparing apples to pawpaws.

Unlike apple trees, pawpaw trees can be easily grown without chemical spraying and produce an enormously flavorful fruit. "It's a fantastic fruit," raves Ron Powell, executive director of the Ohio Pawpaw Growers Association, who says the pawpaw beats the apple in every nutritional category but fiber.

The pawpaw -- whose distinctively custardy insides have earned it the nicknames "West Virginia banana," "Kentucky banana" and "Missouri banana" – is an indigenous plant, most likely spread throughout the continent by Native Americans. Its tropical flavor makes the fruit a good fit for jams, breads, pies and wine.

"The beverage industry is interested," says Powell, who successfully lobbied the state of Ohio to honor the pawpaw as its official native fruit. He adds, "It has great potential for ice cream."

But unlike apples, pawpaws remain relatively unknown.

They disappeared from the nation's collective pantry around World War I, and Powell says few eaters younger than 50 are familiar with the fruit.

"It's a matter of re-education," Powell says, calling pawpaw growers' task "an uphill battle all the way."

That hasn't daunted Kirk Pomper, principal investigator of horticulture at Kentucky State University, who has devoted much of the last two decades to studying how tobacco farmers might profitably transition to a pawpaw crop. He and his team this week received a prestigious award from the American Pomological Society for their work, much of it done on a 10 acre demonstration pawpaw orchard.

While southern agriculture specialists are always on the lookout for plants that could supplant King Tobacco -- North Carolina farmers have experimented with truffles and purple sweet potatoes -- Powell believes pawpaws could be the long-sought panacea.

"If you can grow tobacco, you can grow pawpaws," says Powell, who reports pawpaw demand already outstrips supply.

Currently, there are only about a dozen commercial pawpaw growers nationwide, and their orchards are rather small by apple standards. That's because nobody's yet figured out how to mechanically free the pawpaw's delectable pulp from its peel.

"Once we find automated equipment," says Powell, "the doors are open."