Fun Fact #390

 Fun Fact # 390

The Boonies Fruit

When the settlers of Jamestown set up shop in 1607 they had no way of knowing that Chesapeake Bay was in the middle of the worst drought in over 700 years, and arrived too late in the year to get their crops planted. Thus when the pawpaw trees began to bear edible fruit in late August- October the settlers were overjoyed, helping to ensure at least 1/3rd of the settlers survived until Jamestown was resupplied.

 While Pawpaws were only a minor part in the story of Britain’s first permanent American Colony, the story would continue onto a man named Daniel Boone. Boone, would learn alot about the pawpaws from Native Americans he grew up around learning about how they could be used not just for food but also medicine, other useful items.  Boone grew to rely on the trees as he became one of the early explorers of the American interior, setting up the first settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains: Boonesborough. He then formed a militia which fought during the revolutionary war and while quite effective they did tend to leave anywhere they went quite devoid of pawpaws, using them for medicine, canoes, food, tinder, and other supplies –they were just too useful to leave standing if there was time to harvest them. By the end of the war, Pawpaws were a common resource used by the newly formed United States of America.