Apalachicola and Tupelo honey
The fog thickened and the air cooled after I left Mexico Beach headed for Apalachicola, but soon after I arrived at this charming little town, the sky cleared and the sun came out to make a crisp, cool afternoon for taking a walk. The town Christmas tree was still on display down by the waterfront:
I had started to think about Tupelo honey when I was considering staying overnight in Tupelo, Mississippi, back when I started planning this trip. Everything I knew about Tupelo honey is that there's an old song that talks about it. When I hunted up the youtube video for Tupelo Honey, the only part of it that sounded at all familiar was the hook. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klSQUdPTU0A My guess is that it's one of those songs I only know about because of the ads for collections of hits that used to play frequently on TV when I was a teenager. They would play the hook of each song then move to the next one. It left me with the impression that I knew the songs when I'd actually never heard the whole thing. Every once in a while I'd finally hear one of the songs in its entirety and really be surprised at what the rest of it sounded like.
After I arrived in Tupelo, Mississippi, I wondered whether I could finally taste Tupelo honey while visiting there. Rather than risk the embarrassment of being obviously and totally off-base by asking someone, I did some research online and found out that it's actually from the river basin I was planning to visit in another week, the Apalachicola River basin in Florida (and a couple of other places) where the tupelo tree grows in sufficient quantity to haul in bees for the purpose of making this famous local honey.
It turns out that the Apalachicola River was a really big deal back in the days before the railroads took over hauling the majority of commercial freight around the country. When cotton was shipped by steam boat. This town was the 3rd largest cotton shipping port on the Gulf of Mexico back in the day. Reading about its history reminded me that the guy who founded the factory that later became the Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum had invented a revolutionary cotton press. What is a cotton press you might wonder? I certainly did until the tour guide explained it to me. Cotton is very compressible, and it recovers just fine after being compressed. So for shipping, it makes all the sense in the world to squash it down as small as you can. But transporting cotton by steam boat was fraught with dangers. Varying river levels sometimes resulted in boats running aground or sinking with their cargo, and the boats themselves were prone to various mechanical problems including catching on fire. So when the railroads came along, the decision to ship by rail was obvious.
Another interesting industry in the area was sponge fishing, which came into fullness after the cotton port industry died down. Apparently they over-fished the sponges (as we humans are prone to do), so there was a 70-year hiatus in the sponge industry in these parts. The waters were re-opened for sponge fishing in recent years and the Apalachicola Sponge Company sells sponges online, to other retailers, and in a storefront in the charming old-fashioned downtown area. Guess what else they sell? Tupelo honey! So now I will get to taste it, and get as much of the money I spend for it into the hands of the locals who produce and sell it.
While walking around, I enjoyed watching the pelicans hanging out and grooming themselves on the waterfront: https://youtu.be/F2o5Nlo2kiw
There are a number of historical markers around town that tell interesting stories. Apparently the man who invented a machine for making ice many years before commercial refrigeration was popularized is from here. This marker tells the story:
Sadly, he did not see much profit from his invention, and died before seeing where it would lead in the future. If you want to read more about him, you can check out his Wikipedia bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gorrie
The next day I drove as close to the coast as I could for the rest of the panhandle and then started heading South. After the state starts to become a peninsula, there isn't much of a coastal road for quite a while because the land is marshy. I would next pop out to an area that feels coastal at Crystal River.
I had started to think about Tupelo honey when I was considering staying overnight in Tupelo, Mississippi, back when I started planning this trip. Everything I knew about Tupelo honey is that there's an old song that talks about it. When I hunted up the youtube video for Tupelo Honey, the only part of it that sounded at all familiar was the hook. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klSQUdPTU0A My guess is that it's one of those songs I only know about because of the ads for collections of hits that used to play frequently on TV when I was a teenager. They would play the hook of each song then move to the next one. It left me with the impression that I knew the songs when I'd actually never heard the whole thing. Every once in a while I'd finally hear one of the songs in its entirety and really be surprised at what the rest of it sounded like.
After I arrived in Tupelo, Mississippi, I wondered whether I could finally taste Tupelo honey while visiting there. Rather than risk the embarrassment of being obviously and totally off-base by asking someone, I did some research online and found out that it's actually from the river basin I was planning to visit in another week, the Apalachicola River basin in Florida (and a couple of other places) where the tupelo tree grows in sufficient quantity to haul in bees for the purpose of making this famous local honey.
It turns out that the Apalachicola River was a really big deal back in the days before the railroads took over hauling the majority of commercial freight around the country. When cotton was shipped by steam boat. This town was the 3rd largest cotton shipping port on the Gulf of Mexico back in the day. Reading about its history reminded me that the guy who founded the factory that later became the Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum had invented a revolutionary cotton press. What is a cotton press you might wonder? I certainly did until the tour guide explained it to me. Cotton is very compressible, and it recovers just fine after being compressed. So for shipping, it makes all the sense in the world to squash it down as small as you can. But transporting cotton by steam boat was fraught with dangers. Varying river levels sometimes resulted in boats running aground or sinking with their cargo, and the boats themselves were prone to various mechanical problems including catching on fire. So when the railroads came along, the decision to ship by rail was obvious.
Another interesting industry in the area was sponge fishing, which came into fullness after the cotton port industry died down. Apparently they over-fished the sponges (as we humans are prone to do), so there was a 70-year hiatus in the sponge industry in these parts. The waters were re-opened for sponge fishing in recent years and the Apalachicola Sponge Company sells sponges online, to other retailers, and in a storefront in the charming old-fashioned downtown area. Guess what else they sell? Tupelo honey! So now I will get to taste it, and get as much of the money I spend for it into the hands of the locals who produce and sell it.
While walking around, I enjoyed watching the pelicans hanging out and grooming themselves on the waterfront: https://youtu.be/F2o5Nlo2kiw
There are a number of historical markers around town that tell interesting stories. Apparently the man who invented a machine for making ice many years before commercial refrigeration was popularized is from here. This marker tells the story:
The next day I drove as close to the coast as I could for the rest of the panhandle and then started heading South. After the state starts to become a peninsula, there isn't much of a coastal road for quite a while because the land is marshy. I would next pop out to an area that feels coastal at Crystal River.
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