Mormino to discuss 10 foods that define Florida
Award-winning historian and author Gary Mormino, Ph.D., is coming to Pine Island today, March 11, to talk about 10 foods that define Florida. The location has changed in anticipation of a large crowd, from the library to Pine Island Methodist Church.
The program starts at 6:30 p.m.
Mormino said it’s more like 10 food groups, which will likely be guessed by most of his audience. He said there is no need to gear the lecture toward Pine Island, since mullet and grouper are already topping the list of foods he’ll be talking about.
He’s put something together for the crowd called “Mix and Match” where he matches Floridian cities to their most influential crop, since, according to Mormino, the connection between city and crop has become somewhat lost. He will also talk about the popularity of ethnic foods, such as one you might find in Ybor City.
In his humanities talk, Mormino will discuss the varying options of food preparation, including whether to salt or smoke in order to preserve a bountiful harvest, as well as old Florida traditions, such as barbecuing, which, he said, dates back as far as the 16th century.
Mormino said he enjoys unraveling mysteries, such as why people might add a palmetto leaf when baking Cuban style bread.
He explained that a man attending one of his lectures had met a Cuban baker who told him the reason for the leaf was because older ovens had varying temperatures, making it difficult to get the baking time down to an exact science. The color of the leaf as it baked along with the bread, let the baker know exactly when the bread had finished cooking.
Mormino also dispels the rumor that oranges are leading Florida’s agrarian market, revealing instead that ornamentals have become the chief agricultural commodity, citing new homeowners as well as people who’ve made a hobby of landscaping, having created a huge industry.
Mormino said he would like everyone to bring their food memories of Old Florida.
Mormino currently teaches at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, where he has taught for the past 42 years. In one of his classes he said he instructs students to ask their grandparents who taught them to cook, in an effort to retain memories and recipes dating back possibly hundreds of years.
Although he hasn’t been to Pine Island for a number of years, Mormino said he looks forward to sharing the foods that have defined Florida with the community.