As the autumn season begins to unfold, it’s the perfect time to connect and learn with friends and nature. Join us at the Horn Farm Center for our fall kitchen classes! From baking to hand-made holiday gifts, these guided get-togethers in the kitchen are sure to spark your sense of community and creativity.Upcoming Kitchen Classes:

Click here for more kitchen class info.

For the Horn Farm Center’s biggest annual event, 2024 was a big deal!

Not only did we come together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the York County Pawpaw Festival; we also debuted our region-wide collaboration highlighting local tastes, crafts, and the many ways we can learn from the land right here at home. It all took root under the new canopy of Wild & Uncommon Weekend!

THANK YOU to the vendors, community partners, volunteers, sponsors and, of course, the many gracious and curious attendees who traveled from near and far to celebrate with us! All of you helped make this weekend one for the books!

As we like to say, pawpaws are far more than a fleeting native fruit with a funky flavor. They’re an invitation for us to foster deeper relationships with local landscapes. With their short-lived abundance, they remind us to savor the seasons, protect wild spaces, embrace experimentation, and steward biodiversity right where we live. From the kitchen to the forest, pawpaws bring us closer to our “place” on the land.

As we look ahead to the next 20 years, we’re excited to cultivate an even-more biodiverse and educational future for the Pawpaw Festival, now a part of the Horn Farm’s Wild & Uncommon Weekend! Like the pawpaws that call the Riverlands home, we hope you can continue to join us in animating our mission of ecological learning and action.

Photos from top to bottom, left to right:

1. Attendees at the 20th Annual Pawpaw Festival at the Horn Farm Center.
2. Liza Naylor of Locally Seasoned demonstrating how to prepare savory pawpaw galettes during Thursday’s Pawpaw Cooking Class at Leg Up Farmers Market.
3. Attendees enjoying a boxed brunch, pawpaw refreshments, and an informative presentation about agroforestry with Dale Hendricks during Sunday’s Pawpaw Brunch & Learn event at Columbia Crossing River Trails Center.
4. Participants enjoying desserts, mocktails, and chair massages at Firefly Hollow Wellness’ Wild & Uncommon After Party while HFC’s Andrew Leahy shares about our regenerative mission.
   

   ---

The Horn Farm Center’s new Wild & Uncommon Weekend wouldn’t be possible without the support of local businesses who believe in our mission to foster ecological learning through land stewardship, community partnership, and hands-on experiences. We are grateful for their generous support!

Share the excitement of Horn Farm Center’s inaugural Wild & Uncommon Weekend by treating yourself to our unique attire! Our new Wild & Uncommon t-shirts are not just fashion statements, they’re a celebration of the extraordinary abundance of our region’s community and Susquehanna Riverlands landscape.These exclusive t-shirts are now available on our online store for purchase. But hurry, stock is limited! Embrace your wild side and grab your t-shirt today.

Next weekend is sure to be Wild & Uncommon! Don’t miss your chance to enjoy seasonal tastes, local crafts, learning adventures and more during Wild & Uncommon Weekend, a new expansion of the York County Pawpaw Festival.

Check out our line-up of events and offerings taking place at different locations across the Susquehanna Riverlands:

The Horn Farm Center’s new Wild & Uncommon Weekend wouldn’t be possible without the support of local businesses who believe in our mission to foster ecological learning through land stewardship, community partnership, and hands-on experiences. We are grateful for their generous support!

Nationally recognized news site, Civil Eats, highlighted the 20th Annual Pawpaw Festival while speaking to the deeper meaning of this truly bioregional fruit! As we like to say, the pawpaw isn’t just a fleeting treat: it’s an invitation to learn more about local food and the natural landscapes we call home.

“At Horn Farm Center, where neighbors tend a flourishing community garden a short distance from young hazelnuts, persimmons and elderberries, Alexis Campbell hopes the pawpaw can be part of something bigger than itself. With that in mind, this year’s festival, now called Wild & Uncommon Weekend, will widen its scope beyond the pawpaw to consider a range of native fruits that are central to the farm’s regenerative vision. The broader focus can educate visitors about ‘bioregional living,’ a way of engaging with agriculture to elevate ‘what’s inherent and special about this particular climate, this particular land,’ Campbell says.”

Ticket Sales End September 13th!

Volunteering at the York County Pawpaw Festival on Saturday, September 28th has its perks, including:

• Free admission to the full day of the festival with on-site parking;
• Priority access to purchase pawpaw fruit;
• Free beverages, snacks, and a local pizza lunch, PLUS …
• A special invite to a volunteer-only educational get-together in the spring!

Enjoy the festivities while lending a hand with admissions, pawpaw sales, parking patrol, and more: consider attending as a volunteer!

Volunteer for Pawpaw Festival