America's Wild Fruit

Morning Edition introduces listeners to the paw paw:

Although you may not have heard of it, the pawpaw has quite a history. Thomas Jefferson had pawpaws at Monticello. And when he was minister to France in 1786, he had pawpaw seeds shipped over to friends there. He probably wanted to impress his friends with something exotic from America.
Lewis and Clark wrote in their journals that they were quite fond of the pawpaw. At one point during their expedition in 1806, they relied on pawpaws when other provisions ran low. And from Michigan to West Virginia, people have even named towns and lakes after the pawpaw.
But the pawpaw has only recently been commercialized. That's one reason you don't see it in the grocery store. So far, there are just a few orchards selling to farmers markets. This progress is largely thanks to the work of plant scientist Neal Peterson.

I forgot to look for paw paws this year.  A couple of years back, I saw a couple of fruits hanging in a tree on the edge of my hay field.  I tried a little piece, but I don't think it was quite ripe.  I keep intending to try them again, but haven't.  This year, I noticed a bunch of wild raspberries along my new hay field.  I tried some of them, and they were extremely good.  I never ended up picking a large number of them, but I'd just grab a few each time I got off of the tractor.