It’s that time of year when the market closes for our yearly vacation! This year, the market will be closed from Monday, August 4 to Monday, August 18th. The market will reopen promptly at 9 am on Tuesday, August 19th.
We hope to get some rest and finish up some of the summer projects we’ve started. And we look forward to seeing all your happy faces on Tuesday!
Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Food and Wine Conference in Orlando hosted by Isabel from Sunday Supper. The event was housed at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort on Universal Boulevard.
As a sponsor, I headed up to Orlando with a car full of strawberry cookies for the afternoon snack break.
I must tell you, the strawberry cookies were a hit, but you already knew that. I’m not going to lie, It was so fun to see everyone oohing and aahing over our Parkesdale strawberry cookies!
It was also nice running into other Plant City people! I ran into Sue Harrell from Strawberry Sue. If you don’t know Sue, she’s the director of marketing for the Florida Strawberry Association as well as a seasoned strawberry grower. Also in town, to give the Keynote Opening Speech, was future Plant City resident Ms. Whitney Miller! If you missed her on Master Chef, she was the winner of the show’s first season.
The other keynote speaker was Emily Ellen from Food Network Star. She was a finalist from season 8. With her Retro Rad look and her witty comebacks, these two were the perfect introduction to a great learning experience.
Alas, it was a great weekend of fun, food and camaraderie among bloggers and brands alike. I’ll leave you with some of the fun tweets about our strawberry cookies:
So good they make us do silly things! RT @AmeeLivingston: Nom nom! Delish strawberry cookies from @parkesdale Farms! pic.twitter.com/AQSo5b4a2a
— Taylor Kiser (@foodfaithfit) July 19, 2014
@AlexisNasc @Parkesdale we may have snuck an extra cookie for the trip home #shhhhhh #whathappensatfwcon
— NHIE Tampa (@nhietampa) July 19, 2014
Best strawberry cookies in all the land #fwcon @parkesdale @emily_ellyn @goepicurista @ameelivingston… http://t.co/QgbuLSmPw1
— Shaina Wizov (@takeabiteblog) July 19, 2014
This past Friday, Plant City celebrated the first Summer Kick Off party in the new Midtown area. Have you driven by that area lately? It’s just pass downtown, across from the old Sweetbay store. I was very impressed with the “new look” of that area. The road has been widen, there are those cute street lamps and I’m definitively looking forward to the Midtown construction.
But, back to the summer kick off event, the girls were super excited about it because in addition to face painting, they were going to be showing the movie Frozen on the lawn! Can’t say I wasn’t excited too. 🙂
The Lions Club clowns were there making ballon animals. I lost count as to how many balloons the girls got. They thought it was funny that one of the clowns was the sad one.
No outside party would be complete without bouncy houses!
Arts and crafts tables were set around the lawn.
We grabbed some hot dogs from First Choice BBQ. Best $3 hot dog I’ve had in a while.
As the sun started to come down, we made our way to the “lawn”. As you can see, it wasn’t completely ready, but we didn’t mind. It was a great night to be outside enjoying a movie with family and friends. Thank you to the City of Plant City for putting together such a great event. Aside from the activities provided for the kids, I felt very safe. The whole area was blocked off so the kids could run around safely. There were people riding their bikes too.
I hope to see more of these type of events in Plant City. The City has started a Food Truck Round up event on Facebook for June 20th. Keeping my fingers crossed that we can make it there! Keep up the good work Plant City!
