Florida Turnip Festival Celebrates Sweet Rutabaga
 Ed Rysk and Maralyn Brown are crowned Turnip King and Queen. Note Rysk's turnip trimmed scepter. |
Walking into the newly redone party room with its rustic look of exposed beams and fall decorations provided a nice atmosphere for the occasion.
Kicking things off was "Accordion Al" Bedini and Mae Embry playing familiar tunes while people sampled the turnip strips served with a cocktail sauce for dipping, which were quite good! People lined up to wait their turn to enjoy the buffet spread prepared by Bounti-Fare Restaurant. For many, including myself, the tastiest was the mashed turnips, which were prepared perfectly by Whitcomb Summit staff from Florida turnips donated by Stan Brown and Jimmy Cote. I definitely had to have a second helping of the turnips.
As the meal died down, the music revved up again with "Turnip the Volume" playing roots music from Irish to country. They had to work a bit at first to get enough couples up so Jeff Burdick could call square dancing, but for the second and third rounds it was a little easier and in the last round even three teenagers joined in.
It was a successful return of the Turnip Festival, originally held from 1972 from 1984 by the Florida Lions club at the former Florida Lounge, then held at the North Adams American Legion in the early 2000s leading up to Florida's bicentennial in 2005. With the Whitcomb Summit, owned by Jim Pedro and Ed and Carol Drummond, now open year-round, the festival could appropriately be held once again in Florida.
The festival is held to recognize the rutabaga, Florida's official root vegetable. A real Florida turnip, according to Brown, is actually the Laurentian purple-top rutabaga. Its seeds originate from that French-Canadian area, which has similar mountainous terrain. The Florida turnip is considered sweeter than other turnips and likely the frosts on the mountain help this to be true.
Many in the crowd got into the spirit of the party and dressed down in their finest wornout overalls, or the closest they could find in their closets. The crowd was treated to a few musical numbers with turnip lyrics by the infamous Hoarse Chorus (Edward Morandi, Marvin Burdick, Donald Davis, Alfred Bedini, Ronald Davis, Alfred Gallese and Stan Brown) with, of course, town mascot Rooty Rutabaga (aka Edward Drummond).
A highlight was waiting for the choosing of the Turnip King and Queen amongst the crowd. Ed Rysk with his authentic look was crowned king and given the turnip scepter to rule. Maralyn Brown with her colorful fall turnip-picking outfit, complete with new turnip boots, was chosen to reign as this year's queen.
After careful weighing and judging of the turnips, Dan Kruszyna won for the heaviest turnip at 13.75 pounds; Jimmy Cote for both the best-looking and the best-shaped turnips; and Stan Brown for "Son of Rooty," who was the best dressed.
And while the evening was family-style fun, it was held at a tavern, so 12 lucky people won bottles of rum and the ultimate prize, a $300 bottle of 25-year-old single malt scotch, was won by Tom Bosley.
 What it's all about: the Laurentian rutabaga, better known in these parts as the famous Florida turnip. |
There were were definitely those on Saturday who were "just passing through," also a Burdick term, but appropriate in this case for the groups of motorcyclists who were taking a fall run through the area from New York state and decided to stay at the Summit. Zaki Dawlat Zai, an exchange student from Afghanistan, who is living in Florida and attending Drury High School for the school year, definitely got to learn about a different culture. He said he enjoyed it and liked meeting people.
The long-distance prize and the crowd-pleaser award has to go to 18-month-old Arthur, who came with his parents, Martin and Helena Heindel, from Germany. Arthur was quite the charmer going up to people and dancing away. "We were driving by and looking for a place to stay," said Helena Heindel. "We saw all the cars and thought with lots of people there, it must have something going on, so we booked a room for the night and it has been great."
Many thanks for this year's event, which is already being planned for next year, to Turnip Festival planning committee members Al and Fran Bedini, Jim Pedro, Margo Van Peterson, Jeff Burdick, Tom Brule, Al Gallese, Roy Burdick, and Pat Gray Sr.
To keep the party rolling, the Summit is holding a Halloween bash to be held on Friday, Oct. 29, in the same room. There will be $175 in cash prizes for costumes. For more information, contact the Whitcomb Summit at 413-662-2625.
