More Than Just Pawpaws: 2023 Vendors

From small farmers and unique plant nurseries to culinary crafters and skilled artisans, the vendors at the Pawpaw Festival embody York County’s maker spirit.

Discover the wild and uncommon flavor of our region at the Pawpaw Festival, thanks to the following vendors

Food & Food Trucks

• Character Coffee
• 2Delicious – Gyro Fusion
• Stoney’s Burgers and Fries
• Brotherly Love Scratch Kitchen
• Locally Seasoned
• Historic Wrightsville
• Safe and Sweet

Plant Vendors

• Ort Family Farm
• Gino’s Nursery
• Swallowtail Forest Farm
• Calyx Native Nursery
• Heartwood Nursery
• Future Forest Plants

Food Products & Goods

• 4 Herb & 7 Spices Ago
• Simply Ghee
• Holla Vodka
• Kilgore Family Farm
• Burning Hell Hot Sauce

Goods, Arts & Crafts

• Nomadic Inspirations with Hexbotanicals
• Virtue Local Art Market
• Seek The Light Creations LLC
• Heart and Hands Homemade
• Wildwood Lavender Farm
• The Gardener of the Owl Valley
• BeeBees All Natural
• Alpacas of York
• Nodding Onion

Community Vendors

• West Shore Wildlife Center
• Watershed Alliance of York
• Lancaster Conservancy
• York Audubon Chapter
• York County Solid Waste Authority
• Native Roots Farm Foundation
• Pawpaw Project
• The Junior League of York
• Kreutz Creek Library
• Native Habitat Team: Penn State Cooperative Extension

Cash & Credit Cards will be accepted dependent upon individual vendors. No ATM on site. CASH IS RECOMMENDED.

Click here to learn more & purchase tickets!

Parking & Traffic Volunteers Needed!

Sponsor Highlight: Natural Awakenings

Each month Natural Awakenings magazines across the country take a practical look at the latest natural approaches to nutrition, fitness, creative expression, personal growth and sustainable living.

In Lancaster, Berks, and South Central. PA, Natural Awakenings offers global news and views while highlighting healing arts practitioners and resources in our area – mapping out alternate routes to a healthier, happier, longer life.

As a champion of healthy, sustainable living, Natural Awakenings is expanding their impact by sponsoring the 2023 York County Pawpaw Festival. We thank Natural Awakenings – Lancaster/Berks and South Central – for supporting our work and mission at the Horn Farm Center.

Sponsor Highlight: UPMC

In Central PA, UPMC has 7 hospitals, more than 12,000 employees, and 260 primary care and specialty practices, including UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute, UPMC Magee-Womens, and UPMC Express Care.

UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centered, cost-effective, accountable health care. And, UPMC is broadening their impact by supporting regenerative agriculture and education at the Horn Farm Center. We thank UPMC for supporting our mission by sponsoring the 2023 Pawpaw Festival!

Bow Making 4-Day Intensive 

Over four consecutive Sundays in November, we’ll take to the forest for an intensive workshop on crafting your own, fully-functional bow and arrows using primitive materials. All four classes will take place from 9am to 4pm at the Horn Farm Center.

Our time together will span all elements of the bow making process including: stave selection, initial shaping, curing, crafting arrows, tillering and string construction, advanced tillering, and shooting.

Students will learn how to craft a hunting-quality wooden bow suited to their own height and strength along with a handful of arrows. Due to the fact that potentially dangerous tools will be utilized, tool safety will be taught and strictly followed for the well-being of all participants. Additionally, students will be given their own tool set, covered in the class cost, for ease of instruction.

PLEASE NOTE: participants must be able to hike one mile into uneven, wild forest terrain and work using fine motor skills and small hand tools for an extended period of time.

Bow making is a process of longevity and though it requires strenuous work, honing the skills of bow craftsmanship can be very rewarding. Whether you’re a hunter, woodworker, or explorer, we hope you can join us for this intense and fulfilling experience!

“I have always been passionate about the beauty around me, but since taking a training program at the Horn Farm Center, I have found a new relationship with nature. I have a greater connection, awareness and focus due to better knowledge of how things work in the big picture.

This knowledge is empowering because I feel like I can make a difference in the world and certainly on my own property. Bringing this awareness to the world can be life changing.”

– Kathy, 2023 trainee

More Than Just Pawpaws: Program Line-Up

The Horn Farm Center is foremost a place to learn from the land.

At the 2023 York County Pawpaw Festival, we’re leaning into our educational mission: offering more ways than ever to explore our natural world, ways we can protect it, and, of course, the peculiar pawpaw that has a role to play.

Check out the calendar of FREE educational programs taking place during the festival! Many programs have been made possible thanks to our generous and knowledgeable community vendors!

Interested? You can sign-up for each program at the Horn Farm Information tent during the festival.

Last Chance for Premium Tickets!

Don’t forget: PREMIUM PASS ticket sales will close at 5PM EST next Friday, September 8th.

Don’t miss your chance to make the most of your festival experience by including a one-of-a-kind biodiversity tee, designed by local artist Joanna Tice, to your ticket order!

All festival info, including the ticket link, program schedule, vendor list, and more are available by clicking the link below.

The 2023 Pawpaw Festival is presented by the Horn Farm Center and Explore York.

Click here to learn more & purchase tickets!

Join the Crew

Click here to learn more.

Sponsor Highlight: John Wright Restaurant

Located on the scenic Susquehanna River in Wrightsville, John Wright Restaurant does their best to source the freshest ingredients possible. They take pride in the quality of their food by purchasing from local farmers – including the Horn Farm! Their personal relationships with local farmers ensures that their products are not processed or pre-made. John Wright Restaurant also provides a unique dining experience with exceptional service.

In addition to serving flavorful, locally-sourced cuisine, John Wright Restaurant supports the mission and work of the Horn Farm Center. And this year, they are sponsoring the York County Pawpaw Festival! We thank our friends at John Wright Restaurant for helping to make this year’s event a success.

John Wright Restaurant is the perfect setting for an intimate date night, family celebration, or just getting lost in the view.

Sponsor Highlight: Hayman Studio

You may have noticed that the 2023 York County Pawpaw Festival has a new look!

That’s because our sponsor, Hayman Studio, is helping us reach new audiences with their world-class design services.

The Hayman Studio design team worked collaboratively with the Horn Farm Center to understand our needs and the true spirit of the event to craft a unique and creative design for the Pawpaw Festival. We couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome!

Hayman Studio developed a new logo, promotional designs, and tagline, capturing the diverse and expanding offerings that you will find at the Festival. The new tagline – Wild & Uncommon – expresses our goal to celebrate the food, art, and nature that is unique to the Lower Susquehanna River region. This idea is further expressed in the Pawpaw Festival artwork.

With over 70 years of experience, Hayman Studio is built on a foundation of forward thinking and innovative technology – right here in York, PA.

Whether you need traditional or digital advertising, web site design, copy development, animation, photos, videos, or any combination of capabilities, Hayman Studio’s full-service creative team has solutions for everything from marketing and advertising to training and documentation.

Learning the Language of Plants

How do plants communicate with us? What can we gather about their nutritional, medicinal, and ecological values through observing shapes, scents, tastes, and more?

Discover the secret language of plants through intuitive observation during a day-long workshop led by special guest instructor and herbalist, Alyssa Dennis of Eclipta Herbal.

As a way to fully engage the topic of plant language, we will focus on Goldenrod, which grows in abundance at Horn Farm. After exploring the plant’s ideal habitat and growth cycle, we will harvest and prepare a Goldenrod herbal tincture for each participant to bring home.

Dig deep into the multi-sensory wisdom of plant language with a day of foraging, medicinal tincture-making, and hands-on learning!

Planting Seeds of Resilience

Get Your Free Ticket to Pawpaw Fest!

Tickets are now on sale for the 2023 York County Pawpaw Festival, held on September 23rd and 24th at the Horn Farm Center!

So how do you get a free ticket? Sign up to volunteer! From admission to activities to parking and pawpaw purchases, we’re seeking volunteer support to help make our celebration of York County’s wild and uncommon a success!

As a volunteer, you’ll benefit from free admission to BOTH festival days, lunch, and a goodie bag. FULL DAY volunteers will also enjoy PRIORITY ACCESS to purchase pawpaws before doors open to regular attendees!

Consider joining our volunteer team to help us enhance this truly local and unique experience!

The 2023 Pawpaw Festival is presented by the Horn Farm Center and Explore York.

Sign up to volunteer

• Establish and advise leadership
• Oversee governance policies of the organization-not the day-to-day operations
• Provide financial management including adoption and oversight of the annual budget
• Promote the organization to external audiences
• Conduct fundraising and outreach

What Homesteading Skills Do You Want to Learn?

From 2013-2016, Horn Farm Center hosted a popular educational program called Homestead Education Day. This day-long event included demonstrations, talks, and workshops focused on teaching common and forgotten homesteading skills.

In celebration of our 20th Anniversary next year, we are hosting a “throwback” Homestead Education Day on Saturday, June 22, 2024.

As we prepare to revitalize this program, we want to hear from you!

Let us know what homesteading skills you would like to learn at the 2024 Homestead Education Day by filling out the survey linked below.

Click here to take the survey.

Sponsor Highlight: 7group

7group is a long-time supporter of the Horn Farm Center! From Give Local York and Pawpaw Festival to our facilities and rebuilding efforts, 7group has been a partner in accomplishing our mission. This year, 7group is ensuring that you can explore regenerative programming at Horn Farm Center by sponsoring the York County Pawpaw Festival!

7group began more than 20 years ago to help to change how American builders, designers, architects, and owners understood the built environment as sustainable. When they worked on creating the U.S. Green Building Council LEED certification program, they knew that it was the first step towards true sustainability, but not the last.

Together with their clients and colleagues, 7group has been imagining a different way to understand how humans, their built environment, and the natural world around us all live and breathe with each other.

Learning the Language of Plants

How do plants communicate with us? What can we gather about their nutritional, medicinal, and ecological values through observing shapes, scents, tastes, and more?

Discover the secret language of plants through intuitive observation during a day-long workshop led by special guest instructor and herbalist, Alyssa Dennis of Eclipta Herbal.

As a way to fully engage the topic of plant language, we will focus on Goldenrod, which grows in abundance at Horn Farm. After exploring the plant’s ideal habitat and growth cycle, we will harvest and prepare a Goldenrod herbal tincture for each participant to bring home.

Dig deep into the multi-sensory wisdom of plant language with a day of foraging, medicinal tincture-making, and hands-on learning!