Pawpaw Festival!!

On a run through the woods yesterday, I found a culinary treat falling from the trees….

Pawpaws!!! Ohio’s official native state fruit, pawpaws come ripe around September, and are in season only a few weeks every year! AND Ohio has a whole FESTIVAL to celebrate them!

This year’s Pawpaw Festival will be Sept 12-14th outside of Athens, and not only celebrates the pawpaw, but all things sustainable and homesteady. There are workshops on composting, using a scythe, backyard poultry processing, square-dancing, and lots of kids workshops, too (like fire-building and screen-printing!). If that weren’t enough to entice you, there are a ton of food trucks with pawpaw-themed food (pawpaw grilled cheese sandwiches), a beer garden (pawpaw beer), a music stage, and a vendor village (where I will be selling tea and seeds!). I can’t wait!!!

But back to the pawpaw—–these native trees have graced Ohio’s forests long before the first American settlers, and were even noted in the journals of Lewis & Clark. Pawpaws taste like a delicious cross between a banana and a mango, contain vitamins A, C, and E, are an antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory. You can eat a pawpaw raw (I enjoy them on yogurt for breakfast!), and if you are interested in cooking with pawpaws, check out local author Sara Bir’s book, The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook!

P.S. Back by popular demand, I will be bringing Tangerine Sage tea with me for sale! I grew a small batch exclusively for Pawpaw Fest this year. 🙂