It sounds easy enough for an experienced chef: design a three-course meal that showcases the pawpaw fruit.

But Shelli Bosgoed, the executive chef at Marshview Patio in Norfolk County, was working under a few constraints.

For one, pawpaw are hard to find, especially after the hot, dry summer southern Ontario sweated through this year.

Dylan Cowan from South Coast Gardens led guests to a grove of pawpaw trees near Long Point Eco-Adventures in St. Williams. J.P. Antonacci/The Hamilton Spectator

The volume of fruit that came into Bosgoed’s kitchen was just enough to feed the approximately 70 eager diners who attended a pawpaw-themed evening at Long Point Eco-Adventures in St. Williams last month.

Pawpaw is Ontario’s only native tropical fruit — beloved by naturalists, prized by ch

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