Fifth Annual Utah Pawpaw Festival

On 27 Sept 2019 we held the Fifth Annual Utah Pawpaw Festival. Over a hundred people said they would be there and about a hundred were there at different times, among them three of our little nieces, one wearing pearls we gave her from the Lesser Sunda Islands, one wearing an Indonesian batik shirt, and the youngest, at two-and-a-half years old, bringing a choice saying: "I like the Norma and Pawpaw Carnival!"

We thought the end of September would provide a bountiful harvest to share but the spring was late this year, and whereas in years past most of the harvest was done by the end of September, this year we only had a bag full of pawpaws, as seen below. I put them in a bag hoping that would speed up the ripening process for the harder fruits.

We asked a handful of friends to make pawpaw gastronomical inventions using frozen pawpaw pulp we had kept from last year. Some of our friends made pawpaw shrub (which is a vinegar drink). Unfortunately they had a funeral in California to go to during the fest, so they left it with us to do the final mixing. I think we mixed it just fine. I say "unfortunately" because of the funeral. But what stalwart friends to get the pawpaw shrub prepared in spite of a funeral!

Here's the pawpaw shrub out on the table to the side of our own meager contribution, which was simply to take the last bag of pulp out of the freezer and thaw it to make sure that everyone got to taste a pawpaw in its natural state, given the small number of ripe pawpaws we had on hand. (By the way, next time we have a pawpaw fest, I think we'll call it "puree" rather than "pulp." No one complained about the term pulp but there's something about puree that might fit better with a fest.)

Here's the plate with all of the ripe pawpaws that were available for the fest, just 13. The scarcity sent me walking among the guests giving each person their specific ration of fresh pawpaw. But the Weber County bee inspector and his family made the hour and a half trip down for the fest, so I gave him a larger portion than the people from the neighborhood, who could have plenty of pawpaws after the fest, since this year we had many many pawpaws on the trees. (As I'll get to in another post, we had a harvest of over 640 pawpaws this year!)

Here were the pawpaws that we had on hand but that weren't ripe during the fest.
They stayed in the bag.

A few years ago, maybe six now, we planted a couple persimmon trees. They've never really taken off, and haven't given any persimmons. But this year at least one of them had enough leaves to harvest and make a persimmon leaf tea for the fest. Included in the pic is some honey made by bees in our own neighborhood.

Some other friends brought Paw2na Cotta, pronounced Pawpawna Cotta. When they brought it in, the tray was covered with little cups like this. I snapped this pic thirty seconds after they set it down. Had I waited another 30 seconds, the tray would have been bare.

Some other friends brought a Paw'kin Roll. One component of the roll (maybe the bread?) was made with pawpaws, and the other component of the roll (maybe the filling?) was made with pumpkin. Maybe it was exactly like that, except reversed. Definitely it was good stuff. About twenty kids were there, with their approximately eighty adult folks. As the crowd was polishing off the Paw'kin Roll at the end, I found myself the unwitting mediator among about five of the kids (a good quarter of the child attendants) as they were having a low-grade fight about who would get the last of it and how much of the last of it they would get.

The pawpaw shrub was a hit at the fest among the adults. One fest-goer event commented to me that she had never been a fan of vinegar based drinks but that the pawpaw shrub won her over. But the shrub wasn't such a hit with the children who attended. It was kind of funny--only the smallest bit funny--to see some of the children pour themselves some shrub thinking it was lemonade. They made faces that were kind of funny--only the smallest bit funny--when they tasted the vinegar based pawpaw drink.

Here's the Paw'kin Roll nearing its end.
This pic taken just a minute or so before the five children descended on the last of it.

During the fest, I showed some party goers the pawpaw seedlings growing from our 2018 seeds, planted in spring 2019. One party goer from the community, whom I met through this blog, left with the gift of two seedlings. And the Weber County bee inspector left with three seedlings. 

Here was the scene at the end of the fest. There were other scenes too. Like outside at our carport, where most of the fest took place. (Most of the food was available outside, but people came inside into the kitchen to get the dishes containing pawpaw.)

Here were some other outdoor scenes after the festival was over.

The next day I woke up bright and early and went rock climbing for the first time. This isn't me. This is one of the fest attendants who took me.

Eating Our First Susquehanna Pawpaw

A few years ago we planted a Susquehanna pawpaw cultivar. Faithful followers of this blog will know that this year was the first time it gave fruit. It gave fruit really quickly, since we just planted it in May 2016.

Here's a pic of the first bite of the first Susquehanna pawpaw back in September. It was a fine pawpaw, and we've heard it grows very big. In terms of texture, it was more jelly-like than we were accustomed to with either the Shenandoah or the Atwood or even the Wells. In fact, in the center, the jelly-like quality was very pronounced, to the point that around the seeds in some of them the flesh seemed genuinely gelatinous, so that rather than being opaque it was translucent. I don't know if that's been others' experience with the Susquehanna. Maybe it's the year. Maybe it's the climate. Maybe it's the year plus the climate plus the cultivar.

In Virginia one year I foraged a bushel of pawpaws and was surprised to find, when I cut the soft ones open, they were kind of like big gummy bears. I ate two or three gummy bear pawpaws every day until they were gone. Still, my preference was for the creamy and custardy pawpaws that I was more familiar with. The Susquehanna wasn't as much of a gummy bear pawpaw as the wild ones I found in Virginia, but there was a resemblance, enough to get me to recall eating those gummy bear pawpaws. I'm discussing this attribute of the Susquehanna without putting either a positive or negative spin on it, since for some people this could be a selling point and for some people, something to avoid. I do recommend that you take my description here into account in balance with the description of Neal Peterson, who developed the cultivar, and who is much more of an expert on pawpaws than I am. He says the Susquehanna is his favorite of them all. It's not my favorite, but the Shenandoah is, and that also was developed by Peterson.