Tollgate Pawpaw

Tollgate was selected by Corwin Davis — the prolific mid-20th-century Michigan breeder also documented in this database as the source of Davis, Prolific, Sunflower, IXL, Convis, Lynn's Favorite, and Sun-Glo — and named after his Tollgate Gardens property. It achieved second place for flavor at the 2021 Ohio Pawpaw Festival, a real juried result, and is documented in Andrew Moore's published book "Pawpaw: In Search of America's Forgotten Fruit," a genuine, citable secondary source on American pawpaw history. The fruit is large to very large (115-340 grams), with thick, bruise-resistant skin and a complex flavor profile — testers report clear banana, wild strawberry, and pineapple notes — along with an unusually high pulp-to-mass recovery ratio, making it a favorite for culinary processing as well as fresh eating. It ripens late, in October in northern growing zones.