Events

Southwestern Ontario's Fourth Annual Pawpaw Fest is happening soon!

Saturday October 11

1-4 pm

Simpler Thyme Organic Farm, 1749 Hwy 6 (between Guelph and Hamilton)

Free to attend

Myself, Meaghan Mechler, Karen Houle, and Ann, Mike, Bill, and Charles from Simpler Thyme Organic Farm are thrilled to invite you to what is becoming a beautiful annual autumn tradition - a grassroots gathering to celebrate and experience the pawpaw. As in past years, there will be pawpaws to eat, as well as other interesting fruit, fresh cider, and a cauldron of sweet corn cooked over a fire. 

You are invited to bring some sort of cloth fabric (a shirt, cloth bag, or even a nice piece of paper) to take home your own lino print from the festival, crafted by Meaghan - here's a sneak peek.

You are invited to bring a unique fruit for a fruit tasting 'contest' - last year we had an assortment of apples from my orchard and found alongside fields and roads, and it was lots of fun to try each one and discover which were the crowd favourites.

There will be a few new elements this year: 

We'll have a scavenger hunt on the farm... 

There may be some music, and some art... 

There will be a 'pawpaw growers roundtable' discussion at an arranged time, and I will be introducing a participatory pawpaw breeding project...

And we will be raising funds to support an amazing project at Six Nations called Revitalizing Our Sustenance Project. Denise Miller, of the Cayuga Nation, Wolf Clan, who founded the project, will join us, and she'll have a beautiful painting she's raffling off to raise funds.

Each year the Pawpaw Fest is an entirely grassroots event that we as the organizers pay for out of our own pockets. The intent has always been about community, not commerce - as Ann of Simpler Thyme said at the beginning, 'I just want to give people a chance to eat this amazing fruit!' That said, we encourage you to bring some cash - to support Simpler Thyme by buying some produce or preserves from their farm store, and to help us cover our costs and support Revitalizing Our Sustenance Project.

The event is family friendly, but please leave your dog at home.