Sugarland Tours

The Clewiston Chamber of Commerce offers "Sugarland Tours," an overview of the city history and the agri-business that gave the city's signature phrase "America's Sweetest Town" in a four hour whirlwind tour. It begins at the Clewiston Museum with a fossil talk and a brief history of the town. From there, you load the bus and head out towards Southern Gardens, where orange juice is made.  You see the semi-trucks loaded with oranges and are hoisted up to dump the fruit into the bins that starts the process of making juice and concentrate that you buy from grocery stores.

Next stop, the sugarcane fields. From burning off the cane, to harvesting and loading it into the train cars which roll down the tracks into US Sugar Corporation's sugar processing plant, the tour shows most of the process. Inside the plant you see how the railroad cars are pivoted so that the cut cane falls into the bins to become raw sugar.  Certain materials are added to the product to crystalize the sugar into the white granules that are used in everyday baking and sweetening in many products.

Sandwiched in-between these two tours is a wonderful buffet lunch at the historic Clewiston Inn. (More on that in a later post).

What a fascinating look at two staple food items that we expect to find on the shelves for purchase.  And they are both mainstays in the Hendry County agri-business economy. "Sugarland Tours" operates from late October until March, sugarcane's harvesting season. Log onto http://www.clewistonchamber.com/ for times and costs.  This tour is a must see when visiting the area! 

Big Cypress Christmas

I had the privilege of being able to go to the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation Christmas party this weekend. It started with a parade (notice how the Billie Swamp Buggy is decorated). 

From there, the tribe hosted a big dinner for everyone.  It was held in the rodeo arena complete with decorations and gifts.  The food was great and so was the band.  Several of the Seminole tribe dignitaries spoke, and the various princesses were on hand to add more charm.  I met the Senior Queen of the annual rodeo, a very gracious young lady. Santa even arrived on a " 4 wheeled gator" to give out presents. 

There's a lot to see and some wonderful people on the Seminole reservation. 

Make a visit there soon!! 

Only in Hendry Co.

Christmas is my favorite time of year and I was wondering what people in Hendry Co. do for the season that may be different from whence I came. I found out tonight as I saw these decorations on telephone poles down a street in Clewiston.  (Yes, the picture isn't the best since I don't have an adequate flash.)

 But if you look closely, you'll see a wide-mouth bass flipping around with some garland in his mouth!  Where would this happen? Only on the south shores of Lake O., in Hendry Co.!

Would Merry Fishmas be appropriate to say?? Or Hark the Herald Anglers Sing??   
OK, enough of that. I hope your Christmas is the merriest.

(I thought a daytimeshot would give a better idea of what it looks like).