Nicky and Dave Schauder are passionate about helping families grow their food, and medicine and find God in the garden
Celebrating Pawpaws in Ohio 🌱
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Dear Reader, A pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is the largest native fruit in North America. . It’s a survivor of the ice ages that still carries a tropical flavor, even while thriving in colder climates. Pawpaws need about 400 chilling hours (16 days) each year in order to set fruit. Here’s a “Jumbo” pawpaw variety from one of our newsletter-subscribing neighbors, who prefers to stay anonymous: When you cut it open, it looks like this: It may look unusual, but its flavor is remarkably similar to the Philippine soursop—also known as “atis” or “custard apple”—a close cousin. The pawpaw tree itself is small, unobtrusive, and requires little maintenance once established. In the wild, we often see it growing near rivers and beneath black walnut trees. Many people wonder what to plant alongside pawpaws, which was exactly the topic of our talk at the festival: “Growing Pawpaw Guilds.” Here’s an example of a pawpaw guild designed by festival attendees: (Isabelle from the Pawpaw Festival, if you are reading this, please let me know if I can share the video of your pawpaw guild presentation.) (Isabelle from the Pawpaw Festival—if you’re reading this, please let me know if I can share the video of your pawpaw guild presentation!) There are so many plants that thrive in a pawpaw guild. To learn more about companion planting and guilds, check out our Permaculture Guild Blog ➡️ The festival itself was full of life: music, bouncy houses, pawpaw tastings, fruit tree demos, and even pawpaw plants for sale. We also discovered some rare permaculture crops from an Ohio nursery called, Companion Plants! ​ One final highlight was signing copies of our new book, Permaculture Gardening for Everyone. If you haven’t grabbed your copy yet, you can order it here, and yes, you can even request a signed copy!
A big thank-you to Josh, Alyssa, and Randy from Mother Earth News for hosting and helping us share the book at the festival. What a trip! Now we’re back home, tending to microgreens for local chefs. We’ll share some of those stories with you in our next newsletter. Grow abundantly, |
Dave & Nicky Schauder
Nicky and Dave Schauder are passionate about helping families grow their food, and medicine and find God in the garden
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