Florida Loquat Festival Update

March 2018

A Special Loquat Festival Update

The Florida Loquat Festival

Fifth Anniversary

America’s Only Loquat Festival

March 24, 2018

9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Frances Avenue Park

New Port Richey

Commemorative Brochure

The Florida Loquat Festival: Celebrating Florida’s Urban Fruit

Fifth Annual Celebration

March 24, 2018

Tentative Program

10:00

Welcome and Introduction

Dell deChant, University of South Florida

Florida Loquat Day Proclamation of the City Of New Port Richey

Supporters’ Recognition

10:30

Loquats and Traditional Medicine

David Maharajah , Maharajah  Acupuncture & Herb Shoppe

11:00

Seasonal Fruits and Local Fresh Food Markets
Jeff Wright, Wright’s Natural Market

11:30

Loquats and Me: A Loquat Adventure From Farm To Table

Sylvia Spencer, Habitat for Humanity, Community Garden  

12:00

“The Tree Itself”

Loquats in planned food producing ecosystems

Pete Kanaris, Green Dreams

12:30

Loquats In Our Home, Dell deChant

1:00

Loquat Literary Festival: “Leaves of Loquat” – Ryan Chen, Facilitator

Poetry Readings and Awards

1:45

Concluding Comments

Supporters’ Recognition and Thanks

Music during breaks in the program shared by Music by Carolyn

Carolyn Yates. Guitarist

Welcome to the Fifth Annual Florida Loquat Festival

The 2018 Florida Loquat Festival is Saturday March 24, at Frances Avenue Park in New Port Richey. The fifth annual festival welcomes loquat enthusiasts and those interested in learning about the fruit from around the state. This special festival edition of Loquat News, is available to subscribers in advance and to attendees at the event.

The Florida Loquat Festival is a learning and sharing event dedicated to expanding knowledge and appreciation of the Loquat Tree and its fruit. Loquat seeds, saplings, and young trees will be available for purchase.  To the extent that they are available, Loquat food products will also offered, including fresh fruit, preserves, and other specialties.

Although loquats have been grown in Florida over well over a century, this is the only event dedicated to celebrating, discovering, and learning about this wonderful fruit.  In fact, it may be the only Loquat Festival in the United States.

What To Look For At the Festival

Trees, Trees, Trees

Pete Kanaris of Green Dreams discusses loquat varieties with patrons at the 2017 Festival.  Pete will have 100s of cultivars at this year’s festival.

This year’s festival will feature trees, from seedlings and saplings to large trees.  Our major focus will be a wide array of cultivars, offered by Green Dreams – A Sustainable Solutions Company.  Green Dreams is a major force in the sustainable food and culture movement, offering a wide assortment of organic fruit trees, suitable for Florida growing We encourage folks to visit the Green Dreams’ website, and see all that they have to offer https://www.greendreamsfl.com/

Green Dreams has been the festival’s primary nursery for several years, and this year it will 0ffer its widest selection yet of high-quality named varieties.  All told, we’ll have close to 150 trees, with nearly 120 coming from Green Dreams.  These will include some of each of these varieties:

Premier
Golden Nugget
Bradenton
Christmas
Oliver
Champaign
Sherry
Yehuda

We are particularly pleased to have the hard-t0-find Yehuda this year.  This is the first year we have been able to make it available and Green Dreams’ proprietor, Pete Kanaris, reports that he’ll have a good supply .  All Green Dreams trees will be in 3 gallon pots, for $45.  

Other nurseries will have smaller trees lower prices – including seedlings for $5.

For best selection of the trees, please come early.

Anything Else?

Preserves, Fruit, Poems

We will also have loquat preserves, fresh loquats, loquat tea, and candies.  Supplies are lower than in previous years, so come early for best selections.

Special note is made of the Loquat Literary Festival (also, the only one in America), this year featuring prizes and nearly 40 submissions.  Prize winning submissions will be read at the literary festival, which begins at 1:00 p.m. Wining poems and others of note will be published in Leaves of Loquat, vol. IV, which will be published in the Fall.

Loquat Fans, Patrons, and Trees at the 2017 Florida Loquat Festival

Support Opportunities Available

If you or your business would like to support next year’s festival, please let us know, and we’ll send you our supporter package.  You can contact us through the Ecology Florida website. If you leave a phone number, we’ll give you a call.  

https://www.ecologyflorida.org/contact-ecology-florida/

https://www.ecologyflorida.org/

Thank You

Your interest and support of loquats and the Florida Loquat Festival is appreciated. Thanks for being part of our mission to increase awareness, appreciation, and use of “Florida’s Urban Fruit.”

Please share this newsletter with others you know.  For information on supporting our work, see the contact addresses and link earlier in the newsletter, and below.