CPOP @ Cooper-Young Fest

Don't forget to visit our booth at the fabulous Cooper-Young Festival this Saturday, September 17, from 9am-7pm. We'll be on the west side of Cooper near Felix.

You can pick up a free sticker and help us celebrate the Old Forest State Natural Area by hugging the Old Forest Lorax. If you need our reprint of the 1960s CPOP tee -- as worn by the "little old ladies in tennis shoes" who defended Midtown from Interstate 40 -- we've got you covered.

THANK YOU for supporting CPOP and making the Old Forest State Natural Area happen. There's still plenty of work to do at Overton Park, but our wonderful Old Forest will never be clearcut again, because you stepped up to protect it.

The Edible Forest

The pawpaws are ripe. North America's forgotten and largest native fruit now cover the understory of the Old Forest as the ripe pawpaws have begun falling from their branches to the forest floor, leaving a mild sweet-rotten smell in the air.

I took my very first taste of a pawpaw on the hike last Sunday.

It was good, it was rich and it had the texture of custard. It's supposed to taste like mango but I've never tasted mango which puts me in a unique position to say that mango is supposed to taste like pawpaw.

I'm not surprised that you don't see pawpaws, their irregular shape and creamy texture, in grocery stores. But as a featured flavor for liqueurs, beers, ice creams, sorbets, yogurts, chutneys, smoothies, breads, etc., it's long past time for the pawpaw to emerge from the darkness.

Along the path, you might also see the other great fruit of the Old Forest, grapes (these are muscadine), dangling from the canopy,

or wild ginger at your feet.

Have you taken the survey?

You have four more days to fill out the Overton Park community survey -- it closes on August 8. More than 1,500 of your neighbors have already shared their vision for our park. Please take the survey today!

Overton Park Images, 1908-1913

Thanks to the fabulous Memphis Room of the Benjamin Hooks Central Library for giving all citizens free access to historical documents and a scanner. Click the images to biggify. Enjoy!

Come together, Overton...

Saturday's public meeting got great media coverage from the Commercial Appeal and Memphis Daily News.

If you missed it, there's a second meeting tomorrow -- Tuesday, June 28, 5pm-7pm -- at the Memphis College of Art's Rust Hall, in the heart of Overton Park.

Drop in to fill out the (short and sweet) Speak Up! survey and get an awesome free t-shirt, or take the survey online at overtonpark.org. Our park needs your voice and your vision!

Speak Up!

Share your vision for Overton Park's future by joining your neighbors at an open-house meeting: this Saturday, June 25, 10am-Noon, and next week Tuesday, June 28, 5pm-7pm, at the Memphis College of Art's Rust Hall. Visit overtonpark.org for more info.

Signed, sealed, delivered.

Governor Haslam has signed the Old Forest State Natural Area bill into law. It's official, people!

Thanks again to the hundreds of awesome citizens and elected officials who made this happen, and most especially to Sen. Beverly Marrero and Rep. Jeanne Richardson for never giving up.