Candid Florida

Florida’s largest live oak is just south of the tiny town of LaCrosse in rural north Alachua County. Known as the Cellon Oak, it’s so expansive that the cover of “Big Trees in Florida” shows 30-some-odd people linking hands to approximate the width of the tree’s crown. It’ll help you put yourself in perspective!

The warming effect of Lake Jesup, shallow and broad, preserved the fruits of growers labor in Oviedo, where Black Hammock is an important historical agricultural district. What a delight to see giant grapefruit dripping from trees in residental yards and to pick tangerines from my friend Joan’s tree. More than 30% of Florida’s crops were destroyed last week due to the freakish cold weather, according to news reports. So please support your local growers this season, they need you more than ever!

Having fun at the Geneva 4th of July Parade

I had a wonderful 4th of July weekend vist with my friend Joan, who introduced me to the delights of small town Americana, Florida style, at the annual Geneva 4th of July Parade. This was as mom and apple pie as could be, including a parade where local children rode their bicycles and ranchers rode their horses – and virtually everyone in town who wasn’t on the side of the road was in the parade. Children sold lemonade, parade participants tossed candy to the crowd, antique planes did a flyover, and it was capped off with a community celebration at the town park, where you could join in a cake walk (which Joan did), bob for apples, take a pony ride on a trail through the woods, or just relax with a hot dog and listen to the local band play patriotic tunes. What a heartwarming experience !

Swimming area on Jenkins Creek

One of the conundrums of naming a place is that people DO expect to find what’s in a name: Silver Springs, for instance, or White Springs, or Lake City … logically, those landforms should exist in those towns, and they do. Hernando Beach is a different animal. I remember after a 60s visit to Weeki Wachee, going in search of a beach and being disappointed at a rough spit of land with sand and pine trees on the Gulf, down at the end of SR 50. But Hernando Beach, I think, was a marketing ploy by a developer who carved canals out of estuary and sold lots at sea level. Shoal Line Road is lined with some fine restaurants, but this is a mostly residential area to the west of SR 19.

You can’t see the Gulf of Mexico from Hernando Beach, even from the top of the tower at Jenkins Creek, but you can smell the salt air and drive along stretches of highway in the middle of a salt marsh. Pedersen Park at Jenkins Creek is a pretty little place for fishing or swimming, with picnic tables and pavilions and a man-made beach along a crystalline palm-lined creek, a slice of Old Florida at its finest.

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

Now Lake Butler is truly a Florida backroads town, huddled along the shores of a beautiful cypress-lined lake that they keep all to themselves. It’s another railroad town dating back a century and more, and quiet as the day is long. I know of it mainly since the Florida Trail cuts right through the middle of town, and hikers are encouraged to ask for permission to camp in the city park along the lake. I’ve stopped here before and dined at the Butler Seafood House to my satisfaction before, but this visit had a challenge attached – we were warned the food wasn’t as good as the last visit. And I learned my lesson. Don’t order beef in a seafood restaurant! The burgers, sadly, were uninspired. But the country buffet sure looked good. If it weren’t for all the eager teachers swarming across it, we might have ordered it. I’m not giving up on them yet, especially since the cashier was nice enough to give us a discount for waiting so long for the clouds of young teachers to clear the room. I’d suggest, however, sticking with country favorites and fried seafood.

Butler Seafood House & Grille
315 N Lake Ave, Lake Butler
(386)-496-3700
www.butlerseafoodhouse.com