Florida Keys Tropical Fruit Fiesta

This FREE event is for all tropical fruit tree enthusiasts who wish to plant tropical fruit trees in their home landscape. There will be hundreds of container-grown tropical fruit trees for sale, free lectures from University of Florida and Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden tropical fruit experts, a bilingual plant clinic, a homegrown fruit contest, fruit tasting, "Plant a Piney" for the kids, and a fast-paced fruit auction.

This year's Fiesta is scheduled for Saturday, June 28, 2008, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Marathon Garden Club, 5270 Overseas Highway, MM 50, Bayside, Marathon, FL 33050.

2008 Forms for Sponsors and Vendors to Download:

To see the Sponsor Levels, click here.

• Cash Sponsorship Form (MS Word)
• Cash Sponsorship Form (PFD)
• In-kind Sponsorship Form (MS Word)
• In-kind Sponsorship Form (PDF)
• Vendor Form (MS Word)
• Vendor Form (PDF)

For more information on the Tropical Fruit Fiesta, contact:

UF/IFAS/Monroe County Extension
1100 Simonton Street, #2-260
Key West, FL 33040
Tel: 305-292-4501
Fax: 305-292-4415
E-mail: Monroe@ifas.ufl.edu

2007 Tropical Fruit Fiesta - Last year’s annual Florida Keys Tropical Fruit Fiesta held on June 30 in Bayview Park, Key West, was another great success!

Approximately 1,500 people attended the event.  On a hot sunny day, people flocked to buy fruit trees, taste delicious tropical fruit, and walked around looking at what the 20+ vendors had for sale.  Some came to attend the lectures given by Monroe County Extension Agent Kim Gabel who talked about water conservation (How to Make a Rain barrel), along with tropical fruit experts Dr. Richard Campbell of Fairchild Tropical Gardens who spoke about “Tough Love for Better Mangoes” and Dr. Jonathan Crane of UF/TREC who spoke about “Preparing your Tropical Fruit Trees to Weather the Hurricane Season.”  Others came to enter their fruit in the Homegrown Fruit Contest.  There were fruit trees for sale from Hopkins Nursery, Going Bananas, and Pine Island Nursery.  A bilingual plant clinic was conducted by Dr. Carlos Balerdi.  The fruit tasting took place at the Truman Nutrition Site and was very popular with over 600 Fiesta goers.  For the kids, there was the ever popular “Plant a Piney” lead by Master Gardener volunteers.  The Fruit Auction drew a large crowd and included fast-paced bidding.  Also available was an information tent with books for sale and free Extension publications.  Everyone had tons of fun!

Eleven people registered for the Homegrown Fruit Contest.  In the Single Fruit category, the Grand Prize went to Sherry Popham of Duck Key for her pineapple; First Place went to Christine Patterson of Cudjoe Key for her pineapple; and Second Place went to Patricia Rogers of Key West for her papaya.  First Place for Clustering Fruit was won by Carol Buchholtz of Key West for her bananas; Second Place went to Patricia Rogers of Key West for her tamarind; and Third Place went to the Key West Garden Club for their strawberry tree.  Grand Prize for the Homegrown Fruit Contest was a charm bracelet designed and donated by Neil Goldberg of Sunlion Jewelry.

Neil Goldberg puts his beautifully crafted charm bracelet on Grand Prize Winner Sherry Popham.

   

Buco Pantelis of Waterfront Market hands Kim Gabel of UF/IFAS/Monroe County Extension Services a $1,000 donation for the Tropical Fruit Fiesta.

Click here to see our 2007 Photo Gallery.

Click here to see our 2007 sponsors.

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