winter citrus...

Citrus is everywhere right now, being fresh in season, and I am constantly looking for new recipes to use up all the gorgeous satsumas (made marmalade), lemons (see the lemon meringue torte) and grapefruits that friends and neighbors have been sharing. What I love about these perfect fruits is that they aren’t perfect at all. A real lemon fresh off a tree looks nothing like the plastic-y perfect fruit found in most grocery stores! The outsides are blemished and rough, and the insides are heaven on earth. I may be biased, but I think the further south you go the better the citrus becomes, and it keeps me thinking of south Florida this time of year.

The absolute, without question, best fruit stand in south Florida is Robert Is Here on the way to the keys. So pack your convertible, save room for a bushel or two of produce and head to Homestead. Robert Is Here Fruit Stand was established in the late fall of 1959. At that time, a six-year-old boy was set on this very corner with some of his father’s cucumber crop and told to “Sell ‘em!” Robert sat all day that Saturday and no one even stopped. That evening, Robert’s father decided that “there can’t be that many people who don’t like cucumbers; they must not see this little boy standing here on the corner.”

The next day, Robert’s father placed a sign on each side of the table proclaiming in big red letters “Robert Is Here.” By noon Robert had sold all of the cucumbers. The following weekend, a neighboring farmer added tomatoes to Robert’s display and a fruit stand was born. Robert was out on the corner every day during Christmas break, and when school started again in January of 1960, Robert’s mother made arrangements for the bus to pick him up and drop him off at the fruit stand. He and his mother would set up the stand each morning and leave a coffee can on the table. Customers paid by leaving the money in the can using the honor system. The bus would drop Robert off after school and he would work his stand until it got dark. By the time Robert was nine years old, he had hired a neighbor lady to work for him while he was in school. Robert bought his first ten-acres of property when he was fourteen and planted an avocado grove.

Specializing in all sorts of tropical fruits, including some you’ve never heard of, Robert also sells canned produce using his mother’s recipes, makes up fresh shakes and smoothies and other goodies, and often has live music playing. It’s an experience.
Robert is Here 19200 SW 344th Street. Homestead, FL

Head out from Robert Is Here down South Dixie Highway and Highway One and you’ve reached the Keys. One of the best meals I’ve ever had was at the Marquesa in Key West on New Year’s Eve several years ago. One block from the famous (and rowdy) Duval Street, this former Catholic boardinghouse painted pale aqua-blue and yellow houses an award-winning boutique hotel and restaurant. The “innovative” Café Marquesa serves "fine Caribbean-Continental" food. The hotel rooms, restored 1884 conch houses, are situated around a little secluded garden oasis where we were served champagne on New Years after our amazing dinner of Lamb. Rated number 1 in Florida by Travel & Leisure Magazine, the hotel made their list of the 500 of the Worlds Best Hotels. The best part about it? Today’s weather report reads Sunny and 74 degrees.
http://www.marquesa.com/