In need of a healthy snack that’s native to us? Try a Pawpaw fruit! Pawp Paw is a fruit native to Pennsylvania. It is high in Vitamin C, magnesium, iron, copper, and manganese. It’s also a good source of potassium and several essential amino acids. Paw paw tastes like various tropical fruits including bananas, pineapples, and mangos.
The Pawp Paw tasting event took place this past Thursday at the demo kitchen in the Bowers Center. The event is hosted by SWAG and the Seeds Ecology Club. The club’s main goal is to promote sustainability, ecological education, and community. The event happens yearly in order to bring awareness to native species in the area. During the taste, they ran a game so that people can get a feel for what native species are and the misconception of some species that people think are native but actually aren’t. The members of the club want people to get a feel for our environment and our ecology.
The paw paws they had at the event were actually grown right on our campus by Schlosser Residence Hall. They served paw paw pulp on angel food cake and paw paw pulp smoothies at the event. Paw paw leaves are the only food that caterpillars of the native zebra swallowtail butterfly can eat.
“Having plants that are native to the area is really beneficial to local wildlife,” said Diane Bridges, club advisor. .”So, any town has a lot of native bushes and trees and flowers on campus, so we kind of do a good service for butterflies and birds and things like that.” Said Diane Bridges, one of the advisors of the clubs.
The club has a couple of exciting things planned in the upcoming months. On Oct. 17,ober 17th, they are partnering with Wittel Farm for a service day.
Wittel Farm is an organic growing operation that is at 1753 Mill Road, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, 17022 which is around 10 minutes from campus.
If you’re interested in gettingto get involved, you can register and put down Sseeds Eecology as their affiliated club. During the spring semester as well, on the campus day of service they are planning to plant paw paw seeds in tree pots and donate them to the Lancaster Conservancy. Nix, who is a member of the club, the club president Ceinwyn, and Maureen who is the social media manager said, “if you like plants, if you like bugs and even if you’re not an ecology major, come join.”
