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Letter to the editor

Add a little spice to life

Take your favorite hot sauce creation to compete in Pepper Fest at Clearwater's Sand Key Park today.

By TERRI BRYCE REEVES
Published June 3, 2007

CLEARWATER - Do you have a smokin' hot salsa recipe?

Does your hot sauce shimmy with flavor?

Then get cookin'!

Pinellas County concludes its first Pepper Fest at Sand Key Park in Clearwater today. The free event heats up with an amateur hot sauce competition, salsa dancing, music, pepper seminars, cooking demos, kids' activities and grill-offs.

For years, a similar hot pepper festival was held at Beckett Lake Nursery, but the business closed.

Now, coordinator Bonnie Desmond said the county decided to throw its own pepper party, since the other one was so popular.

More than 40 vendors will sell pepper-related products. There will be plenty of potted peppers.

Thai and Mexican restaurants will give away food samples. Hot dogs and hamburgers will be available for those with a tamer palate.

Spicy competitions are open to amateurs - those who don't sell their creations. The hot sauce challenge takes place today.

Registration is 10 a.m. to noon. Contestants can preregister by downloading the application at www.pinellascounty.org/events. Participation is free and limited to the first 30 entrants in both categories. Judging begins at 1 p.m.

There also will be a "People's Choice" category; the public can select a favorite hot sauce from noon to 2 p.m. Winners earn a trophy and a gift basket.

Dave Jonson, 49, has won two hot sauce competitions. He said competition is more intense each year.

"I've got something a little different this year, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed, " he said.

His recipe involves habanero peppers, mangoes, apple juice and smoky-garlic spices.

Maryon Marsh, a master gardener and certified Florida horticulturist, will offer about 35 varieties of pepper plants for $3 to $10 each.

She also will hold a seminar today at 11 a.m. on how to grow peppers organically using soap, water and cooking oil as an insecticide.

Another weapon in her arsenal?

Ladybugs, she said. She will sell them - $10 for 1, 500.

If you go

Pepper Fest 2007

Where: Sand Key Park, 1060 Gulf Blvd., near Clearwater Beach.

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today.

To do: Amateur hot sauce competition, restaurant samples, vendors, pepper seminars, salsa dancing, music, cooking demos, grill-offs, and children's activities.

Cost: Free admission and parking.

For information: www.pinellascounty.org/events and click on Pepper Fest or call (727) 588-4852.

[Last modified June 2, 2007, 20:37:30]