238: Sara Bir, Chef, Author, & Forager, The Pocket Paw Paw Cookbook (Marietta, OH)

Paw paw season is almost here. From late August through October, the largest native fruit to North America -- and growing in many parts of the South -- begin to ripen. These fruit are in the custard apple family and are enjoying a culinary renaissance, and so to learn more about these wild edibles, I turn to Sara Bir, the author of The Pocket Paw Paw Cookbook, just released with beautiful illustrations and plenty of ways to utilize your foraged fruit. Sara is a chef, writer, and self professed plant nerd. Her book, The Fruit Forager's Companion won a 2019 IACP Cookbook Award. She's a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, an editor for the website Simply Recipes, and her work has been featured and Saveur, Lucky Peach, and Paste Magazine, as you'll hear, and she always leaves me inspired to read more, cook more, and get out in the natural world more.