The first weekend of March held an incredible event down at the
Fruit and Spice Park in Homestead, Fl. called the
Asian Culture Festival. This was my first time going to the event but it's actually the 23rd year for Asian Culture Festival. I learned about the event from the owner of
BG Asian Grocery, a local Asian grocery store in Deerfield Beach that I absolutely love to shop at. So I invited my best friend, Linda, for her birthday and boy did we enjoy ourselves! Sooooo many different Asian countries are represented at the festival like Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Iran, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Laos, and on and on. The festivities were of the abundance from the Japanese taiko drummers, to Chinese acrobatics and all kinds of dance groups like Thai classic dances, Indian and Filipino folk dance, Persian dance and the famous Lion dance! The traditional costumes, jewelry and makeup were incredibly detailed and exquisite. The performances were absolutely fantastic to watch from the martial arts, to the sepak takraw (no hands volleyball tournaments) to the fashion show's. They also had a fruit and vegetable carving tent filled with all kinds of beautiful works of art. There were a few master carvers on hand showing people their skills. For the kids, they had a huge area set up for them to "travel with a passport to learn about many of the Asian countries" as well as a large play area for them. The vendors brought wares of all kinds from hand made jewelry, clothes, trinkets, exotic plants, orchids, flower arrangements, incense, body lotions and soap, perfumes and fashion accessories. There were even massage therapist's, yoga instructors and a full blown buddhist monk temple where for a monetary donation you could receive monk's blessing as well as offerings of orchid flowers, incense and foods.
Now for the best part.....the food and drinks! Oh my goodness, I was soooo excited to eat so many delicious home-made dishes. Believe it or not, most of the vendors were ordinary folks making extraordinary delicious goodies, only a couple were restaurants. Same with mostly all of the other vendors where they sell their wares at these types of festivals throughout the year, only a handful actually have a retail store. Well all in all we met some of the most wonderful people and made some new contacts for our work at this event. I will most definitely be coming back next year and bringing many more of my friends! I hope you will be there too!
While you are down in
Homestead and the
Redlands, there are many more places to visit:
The Fruit & Spice Park (where the festival was held),
Schnebly Winery,
Banjong Orchids,
Knaus Berry Farm (only open Nov thru mid April, closed on Sundays),
Robert Is Here Fruit & Vegetable stand (they even have a mini zoo in the back),
Peublito Paisa Miami,
Coral Castle,
the Theravada Thai Buddhist Temple,
Cauley Square, get the best local BBQ at
Shiver's BBQ,
Monkey Jungle,
RF Orchids,
The Bonsai Gardens, the
historic downtown area of Homestead, the
Everglades and
Everglades National Park,
Redland Koi Gardens,
Redlands Market Village,
Burr's Berry Farm,
Larry & Penny Thompson Park, Sam & Philly's U-Pick and Market,
Homestead Miami Speedway and so many more! So Linda & I went tooling around Homestead like we used to when we were young...ahhhh, the good ol'days. What an absolutely awesome day we had...life is good and I am truly thankful for that!
Here are a few pictures of our day at the Asian Culture Festival and our stop at Robert Is Here fruit stand and market. I was disappointed that I didn't take more pictures but I realized afterwards that I was so absorbed in the festival that I totally forgot, lol. Well, you will just have to attend next year and see for yourself. :)
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Beautiful grandiflora hybrid rose
Wait till you see the post on the rose I bought here :) |
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Ground orchids and pink begonias for sale
So many different kinds of plants and herbs |
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| Close up of one of the ground orchid flowers |
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| Tillsandia (air plants) for sale from Majestic Foliage in Homestead |
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| More air plants and orchids from Majestic Foliage |
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| Bananas and bamboo |
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| The fruit & vegetable carving tent, way cool! |
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| Carvers showing their craft. |
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| Ornately carved melons |
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At Robert Is Here fruit stand & market,
the "canning" section, with honey tasting.
Soooo delicious! |
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The aviary at Robert Is Here
Surprisingly lots of different kinds of birds
I'm not sure they are all supposed to be together |
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| Cool old farm tractor with lots of wear-n-tear |
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| Another cool old farm plow & jack fruit tree |
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| The "zoo" area with lots of farm animals, super cute goats. |
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| A great way to get rid of corn husks, lol. |
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| Who doesn't want a sweet coconut head keepsake, lol, so 1960's :) |
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What a great way to end our Homestead trip, with a little
homemade key lime pie from Robert Is Here market. :) |
Hope you enjoyed our trip and maybe one day you can make it to our South Florida gem of a place...Homestead, FL. So get out there & take a day trip to enjoy your local neck of the woods.
Hope you enjoy your weekend!
Best Wishes,
Sheri
xoxo
Boy does that look like it was fun. Wonderful plants to buy, crafty things, delicious food, etc.
ReplyDeleteToo far for me to go to.
Looking forward to seeing what plants you got there.
Have a great weekend ~ FlowerLady
Hi Lorraine, for me it was an 1 1/2 hour trip from Pompano but my friend lives in Coconut Grove so I had a place to relax for a bit before we heading down to Homestead. I do say, it was well worth the trip though! I just posted the triple hybrid rose I bought there, wait till you see it! Hope you are enjoying your rainy weekend indoors as we are here, lol.
DeleteBest wishes,
Sheri