Category: Farm-To-Table

Secrets in the Pawpaw Patch, Quick Notes Version

  Pawpaw  Flowers Pollination Challenges Pawpaw flowers are a dull red to purple color which resembles rotting meat, and they have a putrid odor to attract the flies and beetles that pollinate them , much like native  skunk cabbage and jack-in-the pulpit. Pawpaw’s small flowers have six petals and are rarely larger than a half-dollar.  These are ‘perfect’ flowers, having both male, pollen bearing stamens and a female pistil, whose base will develop into the fruit after about five to...

Secrets in the Pawpaw Patch

  If you happen to come across a pawpaw patch in the springtime, when the trees have covered themselves in small, deep red blossoms, please don’t be tempted to step closer to smell the flowers.  Admire them from afar.  Zoom in  to take a photo.  Like skunk cabbage and jack-in-the pulpit, pawpaw flowers have a putrid odor to attract the flies and beetles that pollinate them, and the dull color of their flowers resembles rotting meat. Pawpaw’s small flowers, rarely...

Farm to Table in Williamsburg

A Tour of KelRae Farm, by Michele Garrard, Master Gardener, Class of 2022      Boots on the Ground Tour – As part of their training, the James City County Williamsburg Master Gardeners (JCCWMG) recently received a “boots on the ground” tour of KelRae Farm, located in Toano, VA. Leading the tour was the farm’s owner-operator, Michelle Gulden. Michelle together with her husband Randy, took over the farm in 2001 from Randy’s great uncle, Henry M. “Buck” Hazelwood, and they...