Time for Dade City's Annual Kumquat Festival

If you’ve always wanted to try the tiny citrus fruit called a kumquat, now is your chance. The Greater Dade City
Chamber of Commerce will host the 12th Annual Kumquat Festival in downtown Dade City on Saturday, Jan. 31.

The event celebrates the harvest of kumquats, a sweet and sour fruit that can be eaten skin and all but tastes best as part of a yummy kumquat pie. The festival is held in the heart of Dade City’s historic downtown and includes more than 200 arts and craft booths, live entertainment, a farmer’s market, wagon rides, antique fire trucks, a car and truck show, beauty contest and recipe contest.

For a full schedule of events, visit the festival site at
http://www.kumquatfestival.org/ or call the chamber at 352‐567‐3769. For a complete list of kumquat recipes, including kumquat pie and ice cream, visit www.kumquatgrowers.com/recipes.html

Also, if you are planning to attend the event, be sure to check out the great event rates at Hampton Inn Dade City.

Pasco Hosts Powerman Florida in San Antonio

It was a great day to run, bike and run some more through the hills of San Antonio on Saturday. More than 200 top athletes from around the United States and Canada and as far away as Denmark and South Africa participated in Powerman Florida, the sole qualifying event in Florida for the 2009 World Championship in Switzerland. Powerman returns to Florida after a hiatus of more than a decade. The event was co-sponsored by the Pasco County Sports Commission, Florida Sports Foundation and Exclusive Sports Marketing. Powerman is a grueling competition known as a duathlon: 8K (5 mile) run followed by a 53K (33 mile) bike race and another 8K (5 mile) run. The event also included a shorter Powerman Sprint, which covered half the distance of the main event.
Professional athletes were among the weekend competitors, including five-time Ironman champion Heather Gollnick, Powerman Malaysia champion Jason Spong and the reigning US Elite National Duathlon Champion, Anne Curi Preisig. To learn more about Powerman, visit http://www.powermanflorida.com/

Skydivers jump for Thanksgiving Boogie

More than 380 jumpers from 19 countries came to Zephyrhills last week for Sky Dive City's annual Thanksgiving Skydive Boogie. Although the numbers were down a bit this year, jumpers completed more than 4,000 successful skydives, according to manager T.K. Hayes. Skydive City is one of the world's premier drop zones and the Thanksgiving event has been going on for 40 years. Check out the full story at Zephyrhills News or find out more at the Skydive City site.
(photo courtesy of Zephyrhills News)