SIGNS TOURISM
OF THE TIMES
10
KERRY FIRTH
Kirk Funnel , left, tourism coordinator for Indian River County Chamber of Commerce, and J.T. Fischer, marketing and PR coordinator for the tourism department,
show off a sign in front of the chamber building that is part of the Indian River Citrus Label Tour.
Innovative tour features advertising labels
for Indian River citrus
Just the name Indian River citrus
brings back a flood of childhood
memories for me. As a child
growing up in South Florida and
spending a lot of time at my grandmother’s
house in Palm Beach, one
of my fondest memories is piling the
entire family into our old Ford station
wagon and heading up the coast to
Vero Beach where we would buy only
the sweetest citrus for my grandmother
to make her fabulous marmalades.
We’d stop at the citrus store and fill
our bags with fresh grapefruit and
oranges from the big bins of imperfect
fruit because they were less expensive.
They were far from imperfect however,
because my siblings and I would end
up peeling and eating an orange long
before my parents finished gathering
all the fruit to take to our friends back
home.
Sure, anyone could buy citrus in a
Palm Beach grocery store, but it just
didn’t have the sweet taste of the fruit
harvested in the Indian River Lagoon
region.
Vero Beach’s love affair with Indian
River citrus is rich in history. Early settlers
in the late 1800s quickly discov- >>
BY KERRY FIRTH
VERO HERITAGE INC.