Bizarre Foods In the Everglades
Residing in the vast wilderness of the Florida Everglades, for five generations the Gladesmen Culture has endured by living off of the land. The many different habitats here have provided us with a great bounty of food from both the land water. A few years ago, TV host Andrew Zimmern cam to Mack’s Fish Camp to sample some Gladesmen cuisine as part of his Travel Channel program, “Bizarre Foods”.
The Other Florida
In the episode “The Other Florida”, Andrew spent the afternoon with Keith and Marshall Jones, who were happy to share a glimpse of Gladesmen Culture with the world (You can watch it here). They took an airboat ride into the Everglades to show Andrew the land they call home. They also grabbed a few resources from it that they call supper in the Glades, some Bracken fern fiddleheads to have as a side dish. For an entrée, Marshall made fried and grilled frog legs from the haul he and Keith had caught frog gigging the night before.
It's Not TV, It's Gladesmen Culture
All in all, Andrew had a great time visiting and exploring our “Other Florida”, and found our distinct cuisine to be as delicious as it was bizarre. Anyone who comes to the Everglades and dines on the wild plants and game animals here usually finds them to be a real treat! But the Gladesmen living here have thrived on those foods, with marshes, sloughs, and hammocks acting as their grocery store.
Florida gets its name for being full of flowers, and there are plenty of flowers and plants growing in the Glades, many of them good for eating! Amaranth, dollarweed, and Bracken ferns can make for great salad greens. A few wild Florida plants can be used to make tea also, such as blackberry leaves, roots and bark from sassafras, or young pine needles.
Try this at home, VERY carefully
When preparing wild plants, it’s important to how to make and consume them safely in some cases. For the fiddlehead (Bracken) ferns we cooked for Andrew Zimmern, we made sure to blanch them in salt water then shock them in ice water. Doing this greatly reduces certain chemicals in them that while not poisonous or toxic, can be harmful if eaten over time or too frequently.
When life hands you gators...
One food staple of the Gladesmen Culture that can’t be overlooked is alligator meat. With the Everglades having so many of them, you could say, “When life hands you gators, make Gatorade.” While probably not the best ingredient for a sports drink, American alligator meat tastes great no matter how it’s cooked. It’s also packed with protein, having nearly 30 grams in a 3.5 ounce serving.
With so many resources available in the South Florida Everglades to live on, it truly does feel like living in paradise!
