Candid Florida

Buying tupelo honey roadside

If you’ve ever driven US 98 between Perry and Newport en route to Tallahassee and points west, chances are you’ve seen the tupelo honey man set up at the Bloxham Cutoff.  It never fails – every trip, I see him there.  So I did stop and buy a honeybear full of the golden stuff.

The tupelo trees are in full bloom now, so beekeepers along the Apalachicola River valley are busy with production. If you’re ready for a taste of this mild but distinctive honey, you don’t have to go to the source (although it’s fun) in Wewahitchka, a small town between Blountstown and Port St. Joe where the bulk of the apiaries are.

Instead, you can pop into a produce stand, or meet the tupelo honey man – a personable fellow who’s happy to tell you why you should be having a little tupelo honey every day.

Sour cream and onion flavored crickets. Soda that comes with a warning that you’ll poop blue after drinking it. Stacks and stacks of exotic beers and ciders floor to ceiling. And all of it jam-packed into a historic wrapper, a general store in downtown Fort Pierce. It’s weird, wild, wonderful and whimsically unexpected. Don’t miss it! They serve deli and bakery items, but you’ll have a hard time finding it behind all the beer and candy. Good luck! Open Mon-Sat 8:30-6:00 @ 100 Avenue A, Fort Pierce.

With family ties to the Greek Isles over the past several decades, I’ve always been drawn to Tarpon Springs as a source of gifts for those I hold dear. It’s the one place I know I can find authentic imports from Greece, be it the latest pop CD from Anna Vizzi or a new alphabet primer for the little ones. I was delighted, of course, to stop in at Gift World and find exactly what I was looking for … worry beads for my brother, and a nice set of flash cards for a niece who’s just young enough to pick up Greek as a second language.  Peek in the back room, of course, for the cool Greek imports, which include a variety of books, primers, CDs, Disney movies in Greek, and Greek language toys.

Gift World
557 Dodecanese Blvd, Tarpon Springs
(727) 938-3225

Spongeorama, along the Anclote River

Okay, it’s a bit dated and kitschy, but there just ain’t nothing else like it. When in Tarpon Springs, you must make a point of visiting SpongeORama!  The film (watch it and you get a discount in the shop) sets the tone for the extensive displays on the history of sponging in Florida, which appear to date back to my youth (the museum opened in 1968) but, despite their age, give a detailed overview of all aspects of the industry and Greek culture and life in Tarpon Springs. Did you know, for instance, that red tide walloped the commercial sponging industry back in 1957? It’s not a new phenonmenon. After you’ve soaked in the history (be sure to stand under the fans), take a gander at the wide variety of sponges available for everything from artists brushes to keeping you clean in the bath. Buy a sponge, support a native Florida industry!

SpongeORama
510 Dodecanese Blvd, Tarpon Springs
(727) 943-2164

Hernando’s got a rim of chocolate around its mouth, and it’s all Denny Lynn’s fault. This candy factory has been a fixture at the junction of SR 200 and US 41 as long as I can remember. When they moved from the strip mall to their own little building under the oaks, things just got better and better. Now, with room to move, they’re moving out creative candy like never before. I was barely off a fudge mix direct from Mackinac Island when I stopped here with my friend Phyllis to savor the possibilities, among them seafoam – a crunchy chocolate-dipped candy – and yummy maple walnut fudge. They offer so many creations, you just can’t go wrong!

Denny-Lynn’s Fudge Factory
2746 N Florida Ave, Hernando
(352) 637-3438

It’s not often I’m up in the upper tier of the state, pressed against the Georgia border, but a recent visit to Charleston, SC set up the conditions for us to meander through Macclenny and a few other backroads communities. Along US 90 and the railroad tracks, this is a quiet Florida town, the county seat of Baker County, with a small historic district, a genealogical library, and a historic courthouse that now serves as an education center: the public library.

Early in the morning, there wasn’t much going on, but I was sorry to see that the antique shop where I’d bought a copy of the WPA book on Florida for $10 was now gone. There’s a yarn store – the Local Needle – and one other long-standing antique shop in a historic home, plus a corner shop filled with fancy fabric purses, but otherwise all’s quiet in downtown Macclenny, and I bet they like it that way.