Hernando County's 29th Kumquat Festival Delights 40,000 With Pies, Jellies After January Cold Delay

Cold weather pushed January's plans aside, but Dade City's downtown more than made up for the delay. An estimated 40,000 people descended on the 29th Annual Kumquat Festival on March 8, a crowd that amounted to six or seven times the city's current population, turning the streets into a citrus-scented celebration of one of Florida's more unusual agricultural staples.

The festival, rescheduled from January after cold, windy weather made an earlier date impractical, filled downtown blocks with vendors selling arts, crafts, and an inventive range of kumquat-laced food and drink. Kumquat pie, kumquat cake, and kumquat smoothies anchored the edible lineup, but the offerings stretched well beyond the expected: kumquat jelly, kumquat barbecue sauce, kumquat honey, kumquat vinaigrette, kumquat salsa, kumquat butter, kumquat soap, kumquat candles, and even kumquat milk lotion for the skin. Admission and downtown parking were free, and all shops and restaurants along the downtown corridor stayed open for the occasion.

Beyond the food booths, the festival spread across a car and truck show, a farmer's market, a quilt challenge, and a children's play area. The breadth of the event reflects how thoroughly the small citrus fruit has worked its way into the local economy and identity.

That identity was built largely through Kumquat Growers Inc., whose packing house sits at 31647 Gude Road. In an average year the company moves more than 270 tons of fruit; the peak came in the 2012-13 season, when 416 tons were processed. As the operation grew, three local women, Carlene Ellberg, Roxine Barthle, and Phyllis Smith, attended the annual Caladium Festival in Lake Placid and returned with the idea that Dade City should have its own. The Kumquat Festival followed.

The recipes that became synonymous with the event have their own local genealogy. Rosemary Gude developed the kumquat pie that is now sold at restaurants and stores throughout the Dade City area. Margie Neuhofer built on that foundation with a kumquat cake recipe, and the culinary experimentation has continued ever since. Signs inside the Kumquat Growers Inc. gift shop on Gude Road credit the fruit with a range of health benefits, noting it as a good source of Vitamins A and C, high in fiber and antioxidants, and useful for fighting stress, lowering cholesterol and blood sugar, and boosting immunity.

Twenty-nine years in, the Kumquat Festival has proven resilient enough to survive a January cold snap and draw a crowd that dwarfs the city hosting it.