Posted in Past events

A Visit to the Ohio Pawpaw Festival

We attended the 15th annual Pawpaw festival at Lake Snowden, Ohio. The pawpaw is a native Ohio fruit and was the main attraction of the festival.

Educational presentations were held at the pawpaw festival tent.


We tried some cut-up raw pawpaw. The fruit is green and about the size of a potato. Inside it is either white or orangish with large brown or black seeds. The consistency is like custard, and I thought the taste (which can vary) was a mix of melon and papaya.

Pawpaw fruit and pulp.
The fruit tends to be shaped like a peanut of a potato. The white interior of this one reminded me of a pear.

A variety of pawpaw derived foods were available, including pawpaw bread, pawpaw chutney, ham and pawpaw pizza, pawpaw shaved ice, and even pawpaw flavored beer! You could purchase pawpaw trees, pawpaw themed jewelry, and someone was walking around dressed in a giant pawpaw costume.

The pawpaw on the pizza almost looks like scrambled eggs. And of course the drink was also pawpaw flavored.
Pawpaw chutney on a whole grain cracker. This was a free sample given out to entice buyers (it worked!)
Pawpaw chutney – it was good!
This spiced bread was delicious, but I couldn’t taste the pawpaw.
Pawpaw-flavored beer.
Pawpaw earrings
Posing with the Pawpaw mascot.

The venue – Lake Snowden is a park run by Hocking College. It offers camping, swimming, canoeing, and fishing. The Pawpaw festival weekend is very popular for camping and the camp site was full. Many people were taking advantage of the wonderful weather to go canoeing on the lake.

Campsites near Lake Snowden
There were paddleboats, canoes, and even a couple of dugout canoes.
The stern of each dugout canoe featured a carved dragon’s head with a ball in the dragon’s mouth. The ball was floating on the water and spun as the canoers paddled.

In addition to pawpaw, vendors were selling a variety of other foods. Tents were set-up with people selling all sorts of crafts. There was a band playing live music and many play areas for kids (including inflatable play areas, an obstacle course and a primitive water slide). A dog park was available for people with pooches.

Some of the craft tents. On the far right were live, pawpaw trees that you could buy and transplant into your yard.
Sign points the way to various attractions
The “Posers”… the name is a play on the more famous “Pretenders”; we enjoyed listening to them.
This totem marked the participation of some Native Americans; a member of the Shawnee nation also gave a presentation.
One of many inflatable play areas
Primitive, yet popular, water slide.




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© Deborah Platt, Robert Platt and TrekOhio.com 2012 to 2021


2 thoughts on “A Visit to the Ohio Pawpaw Festival

  1. So interesting post. I have never heard about pawpaw festivals, but now I have. Above other photos I love the totem pole photo. Sigh, I would love to see them someday. In our bookshelf we have small one which we bought from Toronto about 15 years ago.

    By the way I am back from our road trip which we made to the North of the Arctic Circle. In the beginning of next year You’ll see them 13 posts.

    Happy Sunday!

    1. Thanks – I very much look forward to seeing your posts about your trip north of the Arctic Circle. I’ve always wanted to do that. Unfortunately the farthest north I’ve been is 59° when visiting the Orkney Islands (not very close at all)

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