Fifth Annual Pawpaw Fest

Saturday October 3, 12 - 5 pm

Simpler Thyme Organic Farm

Our annual southern Ontario Pawpaw Fest is entering its fifth year! We are excited to announce this year's event. Please read on for details of what to expect this year, including some important changes to the event.

Pawpaw Fest began with a conversation between me and the folks who run Simpler Thyme Organic Farm, about how to introduce more people to pawpaws and the other unique fruit and nut trees that they wisely planted many years ago. Ann, Mike, Bill, and Charles of Simpler Thyme wanted Pawpaw Fest to be an opportunity to educate people about pawpaws. Importantly, rather than sell pawpaw fruits they wanted to freely share them in a way that can build relationships and a sense of community. Our first event was in 2021, and with the exception of 2022 when there was a poor crop, our event has grown substantially each year since. 

Location: The biggest change this year is that parking will not be at Simpler Thyme. Parking capacity on the farm has been our main limitation that prevented us from promoting the event more widely (if you've came in recent years, you've likely seen how stressful managing parking was!).

This year, parking will be at Courtcliffe Park (155 Carlisle Rd, Carlisle) and we will have a bus shuttling people back and forth during the event's hours of 12-5. Courtcliffe is a public park under the City of Hamilton's jurisdiction, and we are renting the space for this purpose. It is located about 4 km from Simpler Thyme and has ample parking. 

I repeat, do not park at Simpler Thyme! Park at Courtcliffe Park. 

Accessibility: The shuttle bus will not be wheelchair accessible. If this is a barrier due to a required mobility device, you are absolutely welcome to park at Simpler Thyme. Please email matt@theurbanorchardist.com to secure a parking space. 

Carpooling: Parking is finite at Courtcliffe, so if you and your friends can carpool to minimize the number of cars, please do! Having a public un-ticketed event where we can't cap attendance is a bit of an experiment and we hope this shuttle bus method works out.

Pets: We kindly ask you to leave dogs at home. There are chickens on the farm who are sometimes free range, and leaving dogs at home keeps everything simpler. Service dogs or Emotional Support Animals are exempt.

The intention of the event: As mentioned above, the spirit of the event has always been to give people a chance to try and learn about the elusive pawpaw, to build relationships, and to connect with the land. Strong relationships and a connection to the land are the foundation of any better worlds we hope to build. Please come with an openness to meet new people, share freely (perhaps you have your own pawpaws or other interesting fruits you'd like to share), and learn something new about ecology and our place in it.

Schedule: 

General event time frame: 12 noon - 5 pm

1:00  Opening address
2:00  Farm tour of Simpler Thyme, and pawpaw growing workshop with Nick Lastikwa
3:00  Introducing a pawpaw research project and participatory breeding project, with Matt Soltys
3:45  Pawpaw prizes
4:00 Farm tour

Cost: Our Pawpaw Fest is a grassroots event that is free to attend. We get no grants to run the event and we pay for everything out of pocket, and our approach to financing our Pawpaw Fest is simple - we give generously, and we trust that you give generously in return to help us cover our costs. It is beautiful how well this has worked out each year. For context, this year our costs will be approximately $3,000.

Fundraising: Since pawpaws are a native plant that have been part of Indigenous food systems for centuries, and since we as the event's organizers are not native to this land, it feels appropriate to use the event to raise money for Indigenous land-based projects. Last year we were able to donate generously to Revitalizing Our Sustenance Project at Six Nations of the Grand River. This year we are raising funds for the Kenhte:ke seed sanctuary and learning centre (KSSLC), located in Tyendinaga Mohawk territory. 

The KSSLC is a Haudenosaunee-led non-profit located in Kenhtè:ke (Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory), dedicated to cultivating a sacred space to grow, preserve, and protect heirloom and Indigenous seeds. Through seed stewardship, seed rematriation, and land-based learning, they work to ensure the availability of healthy, viable seeds for future generations while revitalizing Haudenosaunee foodways and strengthening Indigenous food sovereignty. Funds raised through the Pawpaw Fest will help continue building a thriving seed sanctuary where Indigenous seeds, knowledge, and foodways can be protected and passed onto future generations.

We will have several donation jars at tables where you can share money to support the event (cash preferred, debit accepted). Please give generously if you can.

Supporting Simpler Thyme: Our gracious hosts will have their farm market open during the event, so consider bringing cash to take home some produce (i.e. garlic, frozen sea buckthorn berries, squash, and more).

Food & drinks: Stop by Chocosol for freshly brewed coffee, rich mochas, delicious chocolate drinks, and a tempting selection of artisanal chocolate bars and treats. ChocoSol is a Toronto-based business specializing in direct-trade cacao sourced through long-term relationships with farmers from southern Mexico and beyond.

Chef Wadi: Abbas Wadi is an Iraqi chef and photographer based in Toronto, sharing the warmth and flavours of Iraqi and Middle Eastern home cooking. His food is made from scratch with fresh ingredients, traditional flavours, and a passion for bringing people together through food. 

Niagara-area pastry chef Sammy Jean will have a special selection of pawpaw-inspired treats, including cookies, cakes, and refreshing pawpaw lemonade. Sammy is the founder of Niagara Bake Club, and loves creating fresh, homemade baked goods for customers and communities across the Niagara region. 

Pawpaw Fest art: Each year one of our event organizers crafts a beautiful promotional art piece for the event. Bring a shirt, a cloth bag, or another piece of fabric to take home your own Pawpaw Fest print.

Pawpaw fruit for sale: Warner's Farm, one of Ontario's largest pawpaw growers, will be selling pawpaw fruits from their farm based in Beamsville.

Pawpaw trees, and other native species for sale: Nick Lastikwa of Edible Earth Farm is selling native tree seedlings, including pawpaws and persimmons. Nick is an agroforestry practitioner and farmer focused on native plants, biodiversity, and sustainable food production in Southern Ontario.  

Our organizing collective will also be selling pawpaw seedlings for $20. 

Live music: Known as The Schotts, Darrin and Alison Schott are Norfolk County musicians creating original songs and tunes that reflect their heritage of growing up in tobacco country during the 70s & 80s with roots in country and bluegrass from their fathers. They will be joined by local upright bassist Jill McKenna to form ‘The Big Schotts’ at this years Pawpaw Festival.

Sarah Siembida is a Two-Spirit person and the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Smart Waterloo Region who has written about pawpaws (and many other important topics) in their book, Memoirs Of An Indian: A Guide To Surviving Colonialism, which they will have copies of for sale. Sarah is born from English, Finnish, Kānaka Maoli, Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw, and Polish descent, and belongs to the ‘Na̱mg̱is, ‘Nakwaxda’xw, dłu Kwagu’ł Tribes in the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw Territories of Northern Vancouver Island. Passionate about preserving Culture and Ancestral Territories, Sarah spends much of their free time on the land and by the waters learning from the Ancestors as well as current land and water caretakers/defenders. They hope by telling their story of the Urban Indigenous Experience, it breaks down the stigmas of marginalized groups as a whole and encourages all to walk in their truth. 

What else to expect? Also expect there to be a cider press in action, a fire with a cauldron cooking the last of the season's sweet corn, and lots of friendly people. 

Who organizes Pawpaw Fest? Pawpaw Fest is brought to you by:

• the lovely folks at Simpler Thyme Organic Farm (Ann, Mike, Bill, and Charles),
• Meaghan Mechler (the artist behind our annual lino printed event art, who is a pomologist and professor at University of Guelph and Toronto Metropolitan University), and
• Matt Soltys, the nursery operator and orchard consultant/pruner/grafter behind The Urban Orchardist,
• with support from Karen Houle (retired philosophy professor who runs The Art of Soil Collective) in previous years who had to bow out of organizing this year.

Thank you for reading through all this, and we look forward to seeing you at Pawpaw Fest!

All photos below from Sammy Jean:

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Events from earlier in 2026:

Pruning training & practice at Ignatius Farm's community orchard

Saturday February 7, 1:30 - 3:30 pm

Friday February 13, 9:30 - 11:30 am

Location: Follow this link to our meeting spot at Ignatius Farm. Address is 5420 Hwy 6 N, Guelph.

The community orchard at Ignatius Farm / Ignatius Jesuit Centre is where I gained proficiency in fruit tree care as their resident orchardist before I founded The Urban Orchardist. Situated on the north edge of Guelph, the orchard is now run by Ignatius Farm staff and a volunteer collective, and remains an excellent place to gain hands-on tree-tending experience. The orchard is a little over an acre in size and home to dozens of trees - mostly apple, but also pear, cherry, hazelnut, butternut, chestnut, plum, pawpaw, currant, gooseberry, goumi, goji, and Cornelian cherry.

These two days are focused on practical learning experience for those interested in volunteering at the orchard throughout the year - in any manner, for any capacity. No prior experience required. We will begin with an overview and introductory instructions on pruning before moving into the orchard to put our knowledge to work. 

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Searching for, propagating, and tending uncommon fruit trees

Workshop at the annual conference for the International Society of Arboriculture - Ontario.

Friday February 20, 9 - 10 am

Location: London, Ontario.

This workshop is part of the ISA-O conference, so to attend you'll need to register through their website. Even though it is not a standalone presentation, I thought to share it here for those interested in seeing what topics I cover.

Pawpaw, persimmon, quince, almond, goumi, and more - these are examples of uncommon fruit (and nut) species with crossover appeal to both home orchards and naturalization projects - yet there's not much of a body of knowledge of how to care for these trees, where to source them, or how to use them in the kitchen. Some knowledge is transferable from the care of relatively common fruit trees like peaches, pears, European and Asian plums, cherries, and apples, but in some ways they are unique. This presentation will discuss some of these uncommon species and their best practices in maintenance, sourcing, planting, and propagation, and will introduce a new fruit exploring and breeding program aimed at discovering and sharing improved varieties.

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How to grow fruit and nuts in your backyard

Part of the Guelph-Wellington Master Gardener's annual 'A Day in the Garden' event

Sunday February 22, 9 - 3:30

Location: Victoria Park East Golf Club, 1096 Victoria Rd. S., Puslinch, Ontario.

I am one of three featured speakers at a day-long event that includes horticultural demonstrations by Master Gardeners, door prizes, vendors, coffee, snacks, and lunch. I am honoured to be speaking alongside Lorraine Johnson and Sean James. My presentation will feature me singing the praises of home orchards and how we can thoughtfully integrate fruit and nut trees into the landscapes that surround us. 

Follow this link for registration and more information.

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Restoring Fruit Trees

Workshop with the Guelph Arboretum

Tuesday March 10, 1 - 4 pm.

Do you have a fruit tree in your life that you'd like to care for? This is a hands-on workshop on fruit tree pruning, using apple trees on The Arboretum grounds to demonstrate proper techniques. You'll learn how to prune for ideal branch structure, how restore old apple trees, how to train new trees for early productivity, and how pruning integrates with other elements of fruit tree care, such as holistic pest & disease management.  

Follow this link for registration and more information.

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Best practices for the home orchard: Tips for establishing and tending fruit trees, nut trees, berries, grapes, and more

Part of Centre Wellington's Seedy Saturday event

Saturday March 21, 12 pm.

I will be teaching about tips and best practices for your home garden regarding species options, pollination requirements, choosing planting locations, soil improvement, disease prevention, and culinary uses. There will be ample time for any questions from the audience, so please bring your questions and curiosity.