On a sunny Saturday earlier this month, almost 90 people joined us for our first-ever Pawpaw Festival, a celebration of the local fruit and other native trees and plants.

“I was inspired to start a pawpaw festival to share my passions for conservation, science, native plants, and work I do here at Heritage Conservancy,” says Senior Conservation Biologist Tyler Kovacs (above). 

“The festival was a great way to get the public excited about native plants, especially an edible native plant with the largest fruit in North America! I was excited to see a great turnout and share my enthusiasm with Heritage Conservancy supporters and others.”

Russell Mandel was the perfect Heritage Conservancy Preserve to showcase our conservation work, with native plant gardens and plenty of pawpaw trees. Paula Walter and Rick Andersen lead tours of its native pollinator meadow and native plant nursery, and guests learned about our reforestation and land stewardship efforts.

And of course there were pawpaws to taste! Volunteer Paula Walter made the pawpaw pulled chicken with pawpaw BBQ sauce and brought pawpaw jam. Pawpaw ice cream and muffins were also available for tasting. 

Our native plant sale featured around 15 different native plant species, including pawpaw seedlings. We sold about 20 pawpaw trees over the course of the afternoon. Proceeds from the sale support Heritage Conservancy’s community and conservation work in the region.

The Russell-Mandel Preserve is a perfect place to showcase Heritage Conservancy’s land stewardship efforts and historic preservation, and it will host more community and educational opportunities in the future.

Special thanks are due to Kimberton Food Markets, Solly Farm, and to Hundred Fruit Farm for bringing the pawpaws. (Adam Dusen from Hundred Fruit Farm, above in the the pawpaw t-shirt.) Gratitude also for our stellar volunteers, including Barry Rauhauser, whose event photos are featured here.

Read more about the mighty pawpaw and check out our other upcoming events.