Ten Things You Need to Know About the Florida Strawberry Festival
April 5, 2010
•Le Cordon Bleu
•Orlando
• 0 Comments
Ten Things You Need to Know About the Florida Strawberry Festival
Every March close to 500,000 Floridians and tourists descend on Plant City, Florida to celebrate one simple fruit: the strawberry. It’s actually more than just the strawberry, but this commonly grown Florida fruit is the centerpiece of the festival, which actually celebrates all of Florida’s agriculture achievements.
Close to 80 million tourists visit Florida every year, but few know about this delightful event. Here are ten things you need to know about the Florida Strawberry Festival, which just might convince you to attend.
1. The Southeast Tourism Society declared the Florida Strawberry Festival one of the top 20 events in the region.
2. The Florida Strawberry Festival goes all the way back to 1930 when the Lions Club decided to recognize the strawberry agriculture scene in the area.
3. While it started out small, today the Florida Strawberry Festival includes a parade, a flea market style artist event, daily country music concerts, a carnival, and a number of competitions.
4. Each year the Festival Royalty is chosen based on a series of beauty pageant competitions. This is a favorite attraction at the festival and includes a festival queen, first maid, court (three winners), and junior royalty, which includes a baroness, duchess, princess, and queen.
5. The Florida Strawberry Festival works in conjunction with the 4H organization to host several livestock competitions. Some are well-respected events while others are more light hearted like the Robinson’s Paddling Porker’s competition where pigs race through a series of obstacles.
6. Live music is a fundamental piece of The Florida Strawberry Festival. Special performances for children and seniors are held as well as daily country music concerts some of which include free seating. Popular headliners including Jessica Simpson, Jeff Foxworthy, Taylor Swift, and George Jones have been known to perform on The Florida Strawberry Festival stage.
7. One strawberry has only seven calories, 0.5 grams of fiber, and is 26% of your daily allowance of vitamin C.
8. Foods and drinks such as strawberry milkshakes, strawberry iced tea, chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry cobbler, strawberry shortcake, and strawberry preserves are served throughout the event.
9. Plant City is in central Florida and located only 50 miles from Orlando and 23 miles from Tampa. It’s close enough that you can come for the night or just stay for the day.
10. Plant City is located in Hillsborough County. There are 2,600 farms in the county, which generate $400 million in revenue each year. Strawberries grow on over 5,000 acres of that farm land.
Whether you are a Florida native, a regular visitor, or a first-time tourist, The Florida Strawberry Festival is a unique way to learn about the state and its people.
This article is presented by Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Orlando. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Orlando offers Le Cordon Bleu culinary education classes and culinary training programs in Orlando, Florida. To learn more about the class offerings, please visit http://www.Chefs.edu/Orlando for more information. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Orlando does not guarantee employment or salary.