Ohioana Book Festival in Pictures

Ohio Pawpaw Festival - Lake Snowden

The Ohio Pawpaw Festival is a three day celebration of all things pawpaw!  This year was the 15th year for the annual south-eastern Ohio festival.  I went to my first pawpaw festival in 2007 when I was a student at Ohio University and have made it back for several festivals in between that first year and the 2013 festival.  I've written a little bit about the pawpaw on my blog before (click here, here and here for some of my pawpaw photography).

The pawpaw is a tree native to Ohio with a very unique fruit (also the largest fruit native to the U.S.)!  The fruit, which is soft like a custard (or pudding) tastes like a combination of banana, mango and vanilla.  This fruit is unique and unfamiliar to Americans today because the pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba) belongs to the tropical plant family Annonaceae, the majority of the plants in this family are found in the tropics, like soursop, custard-apple and cherimoya.  The fruit is also highly perishable and more likely to be found on a hike in the woods than at your local grocery store (though you can find it some farmers' markets!)  

Piqua Heritage Festival - Johnston Farm & Indian Agency

Food Booths, Antique Tractors and some of the Demonstration Booths.

 
The Piqua Heritage Festival is my favorite event held in my hometown of Piqua, Ohio.  The festival began in 1981 and is a family friendly celebration of Piqua history, local food and crafts.  The festival includes a variety of entertainment, music, children's crafts and games and a pre-1870s encampment.  While attending the festival, you can also visit the Johnston Farm & Indian Agency, located just off of the festival grounds.   If you watch Parks and Recreation on NBC, the Heritage Festival is a lot like the Pawnee Harvest Festival, minus Li'l Sebastian and Leslie Knope!

I'm including a review of the festival on my blog because while Piqua is not in Central Ohio, it's an easy hour and a half drive from the Capital City and is definitely worth the trip!

Pawpaws!

Saw these beauties and many others today at the Ohio Pawpaw Festival in Albany, Ohio!  What's a pawpaw?  Pawpaws are Ohio's state native fruit and the largest fruit native to North America.  Kenneth and I spotted pawpaw at Battelle Darby Creek, Sharon Woods and even at the Columbus Zoo - they grow all over Ohio!  The fruit is edible (but not the seeds!) and tastes like a combination of banana, mango and vanilla.  The texture is soft, like custard.  I will be posting a review of the 15th annual Pawpaw Festival very soon!

While you wait, check out the Ohio Pawpaw Festival website (or get yourself to Albany, the festival continues tomorrow!) and this NPR story The Pawpaw: Foraging For America's Forgotten Fruit by Allison Aubrey (a segment of the story is about the Ohio Pawpaw Fest!).  Don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for pawpaws in the Capital City - they grow in patches in wooded areas, the fruit is ripe when it falls from the tree (you can give a tree a gentle shake to knock high hanging fruit to the ground).  Enjoy!

Columbus Arts Festival - Scioto Riverfront

Last weekend was the 52nd annual Columbus Arts Festival on the Scioto Riverfront in downtown Columbus.  Kenneth and I have never made it out to the festival before, so we checked it out for a few hours on Sunday.

Columbus Skyline

View from the West Main Street Bridge during Kenneth and I's visit to the Columbus Arts Festival today (photo edited using PicMonkey).  Full review to come shortly!

Asian Fest - Franklin Park

 

The Asian Festival in Columbus is one of the few festivals that I have attended that actually lives up to its name - I've been to too many festivals where I was expecting to learn more about the festival's namesake, only to end up feeling like I'm at the local county fair with generic, greasy fair food and overpriced plush stuffed animals and other cheap plastic toys.  Don't get me wrong - I loved going to the Miami county fair as a kid and the Ohio state fair is exciting - but a (fill-in-the-blank) festival is not supposed to be just like the county fair.  The wonderful Heritage Festival in Piqua, Ohio and the amazing Pawpaw Festival in Albany, Ohio are two festivals that well represent their namesake.  The Columbus Asian Festival is another.

Dragon Boat at Asian Fest

Kenneth and I went to Asian Fest today at Franklin Park!  Review to follow shortly - it was a lot of fun!