Swamp Cabbage festival !

One of my favorite rides on the bike down here is to ride out to the small port town of La Belle. La Belle is on the Caloosahatche river. The Caloosahatche has been turned into a straight canal but it has been one of the blue superhighways of the state for a million years. The Caloosa indians used it mainly in dug out pine canoes. The Caloosa indian name for river was hatche so the river was named by the Spanish explorers the Caloosahatche. Everything from Steamships to paddlewheel boats used this river over the last 100 years. The port of La belle celebrates a strange food every year the Swamp Cabbage. Now even though I went and tried everything you can think of from jelly, salsa, and chilli made with swamp cabbage I am still a little challenged to tell you exactly what it is. I thought it was heart of palm but no it is the center of a type of palm tree that needs to grow near water to be good to eat. It is a great festival and a fun time to try new things, or just kick back and watch the Armadillo races.