What a wonderful event this was! The Tropical Fruit Growers of South Florida, Inc. sponsored a tasting table on Friday, February 20, 2009 in the Wine Spectator Trade Tasting tent of the Food Networks South Beach Food & Wine Festival in Miami, FL. This festival was a national, star-studded, four-day event showcasing the talents of the world's most renowned wine and spirits producers, chefs and culinary personalities. And there couldn’t have been a more beautiful venue than on South Beach. A clear blue sky, huge white festival tents staked on the white sandy beach alongside the most beautiful blue water you have ever seen. In the afternoon, the cruise ships slowly moved across the horizon as they sailed off to the islands.
It was positively gorgeous!
Under the big tops were many chefs and personnel that staffed tables that offered samples to the many guests. Among the offerings were incredibly delicious cheeses, breads, meats, salad dishes, and of course, wines and liquors. But there was only one table that offered fresh Florida tropical fruits, and well, Florida tropicals were a hit!
During the entire three hour event, visitors were four and five deep at our table wanting to sample our fruits. The table exhibited a beautiful fresh fruit display, bottles of Schnebly’s tropical fruit wines, our brochures, and a platter of fruit samples, and it was all presented on a tropical placemat of bright green banana leaves. Our volunteers gave out samples of locally grown sapodilla, carambola, Florida guava, Thai guava, banana, and papaya, Gaby Berryer handed out samples of her delicious tropical fruit ice creams and sorbets at the table next to ours. It was a good opportunity to expose Florida tropical fruits to a wider audience in the regional food service industry.
This could not have been possible without the generous donations of our volunteer’s time staffing the booth, and contributions of fresh fruit from the farmer’s groves. Their time and gifts of fruits to promote all of Florida’s tropical fruit industry benefits all the growers, and we are very grateful for their efforts.
TFGSF looks forward to next years South Beach Food & Wine Festival.
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The Tropical Fruit Antioxidant Comparison Tool is a visual resource that displays ORAC (Oxygen radical absorbance capacity), TDF (Total Dietary Fiber), and Vitiman C values in a side-by-side format. Antioxidant values for select Florida grown tropical fruits are compared to common fruits and vegetables.
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Publication of Florida tropical fruit nutritional analysis
in USDA newlsletter
In early 2007, the Agricultural Research Service at the USDA Citrus and Subtropical fruit crops laboratory in Winter Haven, FL conducted a study of the antioxidant properties of Florida tropical fruits. They discovered that several Florida tropical fruits are quite high in these cancer fighting properties. Their research was featured in the USDA newsletter, which you can read at this link:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct07/guava1007.htm
The full laboratory report is located on this website here: http://www.tropicalfruitgrowers.com/PDFs/TFAntioxicant-report.pdf
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WEATHER WEBSITES TO BOOKMARK These websites can help you to monitor local weather conditions for the upcoming winter season, and throughout the year.
UF-FAWN http://fawn.ifas.ufl.edu/
NWS geographical forecast page
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/ifps/mfl/GFE/ http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mfl/
NWS zone forecast http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/textversion/state/fl.html
NWS Miami-South Florida http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mfl/
NWS Interactive weather information http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/graphicsversion/rbigmain.html
WWW.Miamiweather.info
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COOL SEASON WEATHER UPDATE - Click Here
