The Swamp Cabbage Festival

The old maxim ~ it takes house guests to get you out and about ~ held true for us last weekend.

Floridians have plenty of visitors this time of year. Actually it’s like a stampede as friends, relatives, old classmates, former colleagues and didn’t-we-once-meet-acquaintances, flee the frigid weather across the northern part of the country for the warm southern climes.

Nice to see you again, they say. Where’s the pool?

Despite the mild cynicism it is good to see people ~ even if all the visiting is squeezed into 10 or 15 weeks (why don’t people come in September at the height of hurricane season, I wonder)?

So there we were last Saturday with a visitor off to the Swamp Cabbage Festival up near the Caloosahatchee River. We missed the Mullet Festival in January and I won’t be here in April for the Orchid/Bromeliad Fair. Lot’s of choices.

This event had something for everyone. There were classic cars, motorcycles, a bluegrass band, a Swamp Cabbage festival beauty queen and arts and crafts including some nice jewelry from the indigenous Seminole Indians.

Most curious of all there were armadillo races ~ “gentlemen start your 'dillos” the announcer said ~ with proceeds going to the local schools. How do you handicap an armadillo race, by the way?

… and the food. Of course swamp cabbage itself (didn't you know?) is the heart of sabal palm ~ not dissimilar to the normal heart of palm you’d buy in the store. It comes served either as a mushy stew or as fritters just out of the deep fry. Tired of palms?

The alligator fritters (from the tail) are very, very deep fried. I passed.

Best dish of all? The blooming onion which consists of one huge vidalia onion ~ deep fried, of course ~ which is cut to resemble a flower. These monsters are usually served on a large paper plate garnished with dipping sauce in a cup.

Visiting us next winter? Leave the trans-fat counter at home.