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Strawberries take the cake at festival
By JORGE SANCHEZ © St. Petersburg Times, published March 3, 2001 FLORAL CITY -- A two-day celebration of the luscious red fruit begins today at the Floral City Strawberry Festival at Floral Park. The festival usually draws a huge opening day crowd, intent on feasting on fresh strawberry shortcakes and lots of other delicious food. This is one time where it's definitely all right to eat dessert before lunch or even as lunch. Working at the strawberry shortcake booth has become somewhat of a local honor, and this year, staffers and volunteers from Hospice of Citrus County will be serving up the tasty desserts. "It's all fresh," said Denise Tobin of Hospice. "The strawberries are delivered to us in buckets after having been cut up. We add the sugar, mix it up and then serve it right away." Usually, larger organizations with a large number of employees staff the shortcake tent. Hospice, a relatively small business, will have nearly all its staff plus lots of volunteers to pull through the two-day shortcake marathon. Hospice will get a share of the proceeds, Tobin said. Strawberries will be sold by the chamber of commerce in flats for take-home use as well. The festival also features a great selection of local foods. Once again, the barbecue booth from Mount Carmel Baptist Church will lure many diners as the aroma begins to make its way through the crowd. One of their specialties is sweet potato pie. The best way to enjoy the food is to buy it and then head over to one of the hay bales spread out all over the grounds to use either as a seat or a picnic table. "We put out about 250 hay bales this year," said Joe Fallon, head of the food committee for the festival. Floral City Park, about 2.5 miles south of town on U.S. 41, will be transformed into a food court and arts bazaar for the festival. An exhibit area containing about 250 fine artists and crafters will line the bicycle path inside the park. Once again, the Citrus County public transportation system is offering free bus rides to the festival. This is by far the best way to get there. It's a park-and-ride system based out of the Citrus County Fairgrounds on U.S. 41 S. Buses depart every 15 minutes. Admission to the festival is $2. Festival hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $2, and children under 12 get in free. Today's scheduleEntertainment 9:30 a.m. -- Suncoast Cloggers 10:15 -- Amazzing Steel Drums 11:15 -- Jesse Watson 11:30 -- Citrus County Cloggers 12:15 p.m. -- Amazzing Steel Drums 1:15 -- Riverlanders of Dunnellon 2 -- Strawberry Jam, featuring Two Thorns and a Rose; Jim and Sheila Harpin, Duty Dotson, Betsy Wentworth, Jimmy Brown, Miriam Foster, Laura Strawn, Brandy Lynn Halkett, Shirley Frazier, Rachel Hough and Paige Halkett. Children's activities All day -- Games and crafts by the hay bales. Noon -- Strawberry pie eating contest, ages 4 to 17 12:30 p.m. -- Strawberry pie eating contest, adults 2:30 -- Story time from the Citrus County library
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