Tag: Foraging

Edible Mountain – How To Sustainably Harvest Ramps

Ramps are an Appalachian delicacy, but their recent popularity has raised concerns about over-harvesting. Learn how to sustainably harvest ramps from local experts in the first episode of Edible Mountain!

Edible Mountain is a bite-sized, digital series from WVPB that showcases some of Appalachia’s overlooked and underappreciated products of the forest, while highlighting their mostly forgotten uses.

The series features experts, from botanists to conservationists, who provide insight on how to sustainably forage these delicacies. It also explores the preparation of these amazing delectables, something that many could achieve in the home kitchen.

Disclaimer: Folks. We hope that you take caution when entering the forest. Please, always be aware of your surroundings, while treading lightly, so as to not disturb the natural joy and wonder that our wilderness provides.

While most of the flora or fauna described in Edible Mountain has been identified by experts in the field, it is critical to your health and safety that you properly ID any item in the forest before eating it, let alone touching it. If you are uncertain about anything, then please leave it alone and ask for an expert’s advice. Many dangerous plants and fungi share similar properties which make them easily confused with their non-lethal relatives.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) wants you to discover, protect, and enjoy your natural surroundings. We do not want to see you harmed. Please harvest sustainably so that the bounty can be enjoyed by future generations.

The information contained within Edible Mountain is for general information purposes only. WVPB assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in the contents on this Service. WVPB make no guarantees as to the accuracy of the information presented, and any action you take upon the information in this program is strictly at your own risk.

In no event shall WVPB or contributors be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or incidental damages or any damages whatsoever, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tort, arising out of or in connection with the use of the Service or the contents of the Service. WVPB reserves the right to make additions, deletions, or modification to the contents on the Service at any time without prior notice.

Have fun and explore.

Once a Foodie Fruit, Could Pawpaws Have Economic Impact in Appalachia?

Those who’ve eaten a pawpaw before often say that the creamy, tropical fruit resembles a mix of a mango and a banana, or a mango and an avocado. They often can’t believe that the fruit is native to Appalachia.

“It’s creamy, but you get that tropical fruit taste,” said Katie Wight, a resident of Athens, Ohio, upon eating her first paw-paw. “It’s not really mango, but mango-papaya – that kind of genre.”

To the rest of the country, the pawpaw is little-known. It’s not commercially grown, in part because it’s so tricky to eat – it’s not ripe until it looks rotten on the outside, and ingesting the seeds or the skin causes some to fall ill. But the Appalachian fruit is showing potential.

Credit Anne Li/ WVPB
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Katie Wight holding first pawpaw at the Ohio Pawpaw Festival

In Charleston, a locally-owned ice cream shop called Ellens Homemade Ice Cream increased its supply of pawpaw ice cream this fall due to increased demand. And every year, thousands flock to Athens, Ohio, to celebrate the Pawpaw Festival, where they can learn about the pawpaw and buy pawpaw art, saplings and raw pawpaws. 

“At my place, a Belgian gentleman comes and buys all my seeds,” said one attendee who traveled from his home in the Netherlands for the eighteenth annual Pawpaw Festival this year. He spoke of the growing market for pawpaws in Europe. “Before that I threw them away but he pays me 15 cents a piece. I ask him (why) and he says he (uses it) for curing cancer.”

Credit courtesy Katie Wight
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pawpaw teapot by artist, on display at the Ohio Pawpaw Festival

According to Andy Moore, a writer who recently published a book called Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit, pawpaws have been consumed in the United States for generations. Towns are named after the fruit, and folk songs, like “Way Down Yonder in the Pawpaw Patch,” have been written about them.

Writer Andy Moore in Phyllis, Kentucky at the Lucky Penny General Store.
Credit courtesy Andy Moore

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In the last few years, pawpaws have started to be cultivated on a very small scale. “People are growing them in orchards now, just like you would any other crop, which will hopefully give people more opportunity to taste it and experience it,” Moore said.

Credit courtesy Katie Wight
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A man dressed as a tree was available to take photos with children at the Ohio Pawpaw Festival

Some pawpaw fans hope that pawpaws can be included in the forest farming or agroforestry movement, which means growing and harvesting crops like ramps or pawpaws in the forest that many West Virginians landowners own. Walt Helmick, the West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture, says that they haven’t looked into pawpaws as a commercial fruit yet, even though they are unique to the Appalachian region.

“We need to see what we can do with agriculture in the forest more than we have in years gone by,” Helmick said.

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