Florida Fruit and Vegetable Festivals
This page lists all of the fruit and vegetable festivals in Florida. Links are provided to each festival's website, so you can confirm this year's date, times and events. Just click on the blue, underlined name of the festival. IUf you know of a festival we've missed, please click here to let me know about it!
January
-
Florida Citrus Festival
- Late January every year.
Winter Haven, FL (Central Florida). This long time festival was started back in 1924. They have with beauty pageants, karaoke, grapefruit packing competition and parade. - Kumquat Festival - Mid
January (Saturday, January 28th in 2006).
Dade City, FL. (Central Florida). Florida's furry citrus have their own festival with a cook-off, antique car rally and farmers market. Phone: (352) 567-3769.
February
-
Delray Beach Garlic Festival
- Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in February every year
Admission Fee (in 2007): $8 ($1 of every ticket purchased goes to Project Thanksgiving)
The Delray Beach Garlic Fest continues to offer Florida garlic fans the opportunity to celebrate the most widely used and loved food in the world ...GARLIC. This year the Delray Beach Garlic Fest continues its' tradition of bringing some of the greatest national act entertainment to downtown Delray Beach. Note: the 2007 Delray Beach Garlic Fest is typically held in mid-February.
March
-
Florida Strawberry Festival
- March, check their website for this year's dates.
Plant City, FL. (Central Florida). Whatever your interests, we have it all. All manner of strawberries, cotton candy and strawberry shortcake are served! Exhibits of agriculture, commerce, industry, livestock, fine arts, horticulture, and crafts await you. The fabric of American life is woven into this Florida Strawberry Festival® through ethnic traditions, social events, competitive contests, youth developmental programs, top-name entertainment, parades with scores of glorious floats, and high-stepping marching bands moving to the musical beat. The Florida Strawberry Festival® is also a community fair. Click here for directions. Discover the greatness of this land we live in by attending an American tradition–the community fair.
May
-
Zellwood Sweet Corn
Festival - late May - check their website. Gates
open at 11am - 10pm.
4253 W Ponkan Road, Zellwood, FL 32798. Phone: 407-886-0014. Fax: 407-886-0001. (Central Florida). The New Zellwood Sweet Corn Festival is a combination of outdoor family fun and entertainment. We have plenty of activities for everyone, young and old. Everyone loves to watch "BIG BERTHA" at work. She can cook 1,650 ears of corn every 9 minutes, in 350 gallons of boiling water. While Mom browses through the Arts & Crafts and the kids enjoy the amusement rides. You can purchase a variety of items from our concessionaires, and then walk it off while you spend part of your day browsing and shopping. We have one of the best Arts & Crafts exhibits in the state. Take home a Festival T-shirt from our Souvenir Shack. Many other items are available. As you leave for home, drop by the Corn Sales area and take home some great fresh Zellwood Sweet Corn. Our corn is grown right here in Zellwood. We will be purchasing our corn from the remaining farm in Zellwood, Long & Scott Farms. For those with disabilities there is a handicapped tent with facilities and assistance for getting to and from the area. Emergency Medical Services are nearby. Parking is free. -
Ruskin Tomato
& Heritage Festival - Saturday & Sunday, early May, 10 am to 5
p.m.
Food, Fun and Farmer's Market, Ruskin Tomato Queen, Plant Show and Sale, Gardening Seminars and Workshops, Fried Green Tomatoes, Kid's Korner- Rides and Games, Crafts, Products and Prizes, Watershed Tour, Butterfly tent with release at end of Festival, Free Sliced Tomatoes, Antique Tractor Show, Roamin' Oldies Classic Car Show, Bluegrass and Country Music, Heritage Center, Historical Exhibits. Free tomato plants to first 250 people. $4 admission; children under 6 are free.
June
-
Annual Bostwick Blueberry Festival is normally on the third Saturday in June, every year, but in 2008, it will be held on June 7th from 8am until 4pm at the community center in Bostwick on Tillman street. The blueberry pancake breakfast is from 8am till noon. There will not be a cook-off this year (2008) which was usually held on Friday to keep it to a 1 day event this year. There will be craft and food venders with possible entertainment. For more information, contact info Greg Brown Chairman 904-504-2121. It is held at the Bostwick Community Center in Bostwick, Florida, 125 Tillman Street. The city is just off Highway 17 between Palatka and Green Cove Springs. Includes a pancake breakfast, book fair and homemade baked goods.
-
Chiefland Watermelon Festival -
the first Saturday in June, every year
Chiefland, FL. City Park, Tommy Usher Center. The Parade runs from high school to CR 345. Watermelons, parade, music, crafts, Watermelon Queen Contest. Call (352) 493-2330 or (352) 493-1849 for more information. A one-day festival includes arts and crafts exhibitors, and children's activities, such as the Greased Pole and the Seed Spitting contests. Free cold watermelon, donated by local growers, is served by Civitan members and other volunteers throughout the day. The festival parade is made up of floats with a watermelon theme, high schools bands, fire engines, and cars chauffeuring contestants of the Watermelon Festival Queen contest. Local growers enter their biggest and best melons in the watermelon weighing contest, conducted in three categories. Following the awards ceremony, the delicious entries are auctioned off. Their proceeds help pay for festival expenses. Children's activities are a special part of the festival. The Little King and Queen Contest, organized by the Chiefland Woman's Club, is for youngsters between three and five years old. Each year, 20 to 30 pre-school children dress up and parade in front of an auditorium full of proud relatives and friends. The festival is sponsored by Chiefland Activities Incorporated, which consists of the Civitans and the Chiefland Woman's Club. -
Panhandle Watermelon Festival- Chipley, Florida - Held the last Saturday in June,
from 10 am to 4 pm.
Chipley, FL. Big Parade at 10:00 A.M. from Old High School through downtown. Held in the quaint Florida panhandle town of Chipley, at the Agricultural Center on Jackson Avenue, Highway 90. Events include: a Big Watermelon Contest, comedy shows and other surprise guests, a 5000 Meter Run, a Car & Truck Show, Contests for Kids, Tournament Horseshoe Pitching, Square dancing and Singers. There is also nightly entertainment at the Northwest Florida Campground, in Chipley games and plenty of entertainment for the kids. For More Information Contact : Washington County Ag. Center (850) 638-6180 or email: washington@ifas.ufl.edu. (UPDATED: May 12, 2008)
July
-
International Mango Festival - July 6 - 9, Saturday and Sunday, 9:30
am to 4:30 p.m.
Azucar! Celebrating Mangos from Old Cuba
Held at Fairchild Tropical Gardens. 10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables, Miami, Florida 33156, USA. Fairchild is adjacent to Matheson Hammock Park, about 20 minutes by car from downtown Miami and Miami International Airport. Driving directions are easy.
Saturday, July 8:
Mango Tree Sales, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (or until sold out)
Mangos of the World Cultivar Display, Garden House 9:30 am to Noon
Mango Medics, Mango Tastings & Evaluations, Corbin Building, 9:30 am to Noon, Admission: $1 per person
Enjoy Mango Cuisine Samplings from Regional Chefs, 9:30 a.m.
Mango Fruit Market, Garden House Lawn, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Mango Café, Garden House Lawn, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Mangos for Kids! Education - Center for Teaching and Learning Chickee, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 pm, Admission is $1 per child
Mango Workshops, Garden House, 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, July 9
Mango Tree Sales, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (or until sold out)
Mango Fruit Market, Garden House Lawn, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Mangos for Kids! Education - Center for Teaching and Learning Chickee, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 pm, Admission is $1 per child
Mango Workshops, Corbin Building, 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Fairchild’s Mango Brunch, Garden House, 11:00 a.m., Fairchild Members $75, Non-members $100
Mango Auction: Garden House, 3:00-6:00 p.m.
Florida Pick-Your-Own Information
- To see the pick-your-own farms and orchards for this area, click here or scroll down the page
- Crop availability / harvest schedule - click here
- To find pumpkin patches, corn mazes and other Halloween activities, click here.
- To find choose and cut-your-own Christmas tree farms, click here.
We also have our own free and simple, step-by-step, illustrated instructions on canning, freezing and drying many fruits and vegetables, such as how to make jam, apple butter, applesauce, spaghetti sauce, salsa, pickles, ketchup or freezing corn . If you are looking for Canners, mixes, jars, pectin and other canning supplies at the best prices anywhere!
I'm always looking for suggestions of more farms and events to add and feedback about any you have visited, so if you encounter any, just click on the preceding link, as appropriate! And if you have a farm and want to add it or correct the information, please click on the link to "add my farm".
For other areas of Florida, click here:
- Florida Panhandle (Pensacola, Tallahassee)
- North / Northeast Florida (Jacksonville, Gainesville)
- West and Southwest Florida (Tampa, St. Pete, Naples)
- Southeast Florida (Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach)
- Central and central-east coast Florida (Orlando, Daytona, Melbourne, Fort Pierce)
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For availability of other crops (berries, vegetables, etc.) in Florida, click here!
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This page was updated on 19-Aug-2008
