How did you start farming the fruit?

Well, I wanted to live here in the foothills of Appalachia and there were a lot of pawpaws growing around and they were rotting on the ground and I basically attempted this entrepreneurial activity of gathering the pawpaws and processing them.

The interest in pawpaws has grown exponentially over the last 30 years.

When people get a chance to try it, oftentimes people love it.

But in recent years, an invasive pest has been threatening your crop, right? Tell us more about the ambrosia beetle.

Yeah, so one of the reasons I got into pawpaws was that it was a native plant, well adapted to our region, didn't have a lot of pests.

Pawpaws are naturally high in these chemicals called acetogenins, which protect them from most bugs.

Then a couple, I don't know, about seven or eight years ago, we had some extreme rain events in the spring.