10/01/2026
Folks have been asking for our Contest Winners, so here we go:
Our Biggest Pawpaw went to Tom Wahl and Kathy Dice of Red Fern Farm, in Wapello, IA, who are also Festival Sponsors. Their winner was a Potomac weighing 2lbs .2oz. It was considerably larger than the Potomac from Lance and Ivan Sinkowski from Ohio we received, weighing 1lb 11oz, which was the next largest pawpaw we received. Potomac is a pawpaw cultivar known for producing many of the Biggest Pawpaws in competitions at some of the other Pawpaw Festivals (see the map at Project Pawpaw's website).
Tom and Kathy's largest Potomac also took Best Tasting Pawpaw, just edging out a nice plate of ripe Taytwo cultivar pawpaws from Ihor and Kathy in Downers Grove by .5 points. Taytwo is an older variety of pawpaws known for good flavor and nice qualtiy medium size fruit. Very Close. Potomac is also a delicious cultivar developed by Neal Peterson but one that Tom and Kathy have had difficulty fully ripening in in Wapello, Iowa in years prior. This year it has ripened some fruit. We hear that Potomac ripens in Dixon, IL - maybe it is a variety to try growing around Paw Paw, but not much further north and west.
Our Biggest Local Pawpaw belonged to Kipp and Jane Lykins from Paw Paw Farms with a wild fruit weighing 10.1oz. This prize is for trees within 5 miles of Paw Paw. Kipp says the biggest ones at his place are still hanging on way up in the trees. Honorable mention is due to Terry Stanek of nearby Somonauk, IL with a pawpaw weighing 1lb3oz - Terry's not sure if its tree is a cultivar or wild tree, the trees were planted by his father and the information is lost to time. Unfortunately Somonauk is beyond 5 miles from Paw Paw, BUT "Somonauk" means "Pawpaw Grove" in Potowatomi, which we thought deserved some attention. Thanks to Terry for that fruit, but it wasn't quite ripe enough to present to our Tasting Judges.
And our Best Tasting Wild or From Seed Pawpaw was awarded to Lionel Ryterski, from Springfield. Lional was a bit sad to learn he had the smallest entry in the Biggest Pawpaw Competition - fortunately, his pawpaw was perfectly ripe and good tasting, enough to take Best Tasting From Seed or Wild. Our back stage tasters determined a lot of the fruits we received were just a bit underrripe and not the best eating. It is a key challenge to present a pawpaw at the perfect stage of ripeness for judges, and Lionel nailed it!
Thanks to everyone for their entries and thank you to Diana Schott of Resource Bank, Jack Pizzo with Pizzo Native Plant Nursery, LLC and Mike Torman, Mayor of Paw Paw for being our Tasting Judge Panel.
