Whether you’re traveling these days or not, you still can bring north Florida to your own home.
Sausage from Bradley’s Country Store
In 1927, Mary Bradley began selling sausage from her kitchen on Centerville Road, east of Tallahassee, Florida. The building still stands, with its rough-hewn shelves, uneven floors and the unmistakable aroma of years of producing the best smoked pork sausage in north Florida. The store carries all the old-style favorites, including hoop cheese, local honey (including tupelo), stone-ground grits and lots of jellies and sauces. Online, you can buy a basket with a little bit of everything, or focus on the smoked sausage (mild or hot). If you can get there for a visit, they sell Italian sausage, breakfast sausage and smoked pork chops. And, they make sandwiches and sell their sausages ready to eat on out on their beautiful property.
$6.95 per pound of smoked sausage, minimum of 4 pounds for shipping. Available at bradleyscountrystore.com.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Handmade hard candy from Lofty Pursuits
Are you a fan of image candy or cut rock? Have you ever wondered how they make those hard candies that have the image of a fruit or a flower inside, surrounded by more layers of candy, and then wrapped in a color coating? The folks at Lofty Pursuits in Tallahassee have been making image candy since 1993. Their candy cooling table, essential for this work, dates from 1881, and they have the vintage tools to make ribbon candy, humbugs, pillow mints and more. Our favorite is the Violets Are Blue cut rock. Drop by their shop to watch the candymakers in action, or, if you can’t visit, enjoy their YouTube video demonstrating how they make watermelon image candy. And, if you’re looking for a vintage way to deal with winter ills, they make cough drops, too.
$5.99 for a 2.75 ounce bag of image candy. Available at pd.net.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Seminole Swamp Seasoning
Quincy, Florida, lies midway between Tallahassee and the Georgia state line, not too far from Lake Seminole and the Chattahoochee River. There, Jimmie McDaniel, a Creek Indian, has been producing his Seminole seasoning mix since 1996, based on a recipe he developed with Seminole Chief Jim Billie. He proudly proclaims it’s exactly what you need to season anything that flies, walks, swims, crawls or grows in the ground, and he suggests you use it in your cooking, or as a table seasoning. It’s a blend of salt and pepper with garlic, onion, sugar and spices. We can’t figure out just what’s in that spice mixture, but it has just a tiny bit of heat, and maybe a little bit of paprika to give it some color. We tried the no-MSG version and are looking forward to using it in all kinds of cold summer salads. But, right now, it’s our new favorite shrimp boil.
$9 for three 8-ounce cans, one each of regular, no-MSG and hot. Available at seminoleswampseasoning.com.
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