The Orange County Regional History Center will launch its Viva Florida 500 commemoration with “500 Years of Eating in Florida: A History of Florida Foodways” with Gary Mormino. Mormino is the former director of the Florida Studies Program at the University of South Florida and an award-winning author and popular speaker. The History Center will also be displaying a painting by Jackson Walker, “They Called It La Florida.” The Central Florida Council for Florida House owns the painting by Walker, an acclaimed artist who creates portrayals and landscapes of Florida life.
WHAT: “Florida Foodways” will explore the most significant event in the history of modern food production and consumption. In the “Columbian exchange,” animals, plants, culture, ideas, and even diseases were carried to the America’s by the Spanish. Hear the story of how Iberico pigs, Castillian cattle, Andalusian chickens, Valencia oranges, and Canary Island sugarcane arrived in Florida, and how, in return, the Americans sent tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers back to Spain. Walker’s painting will be on display beginning April 11 and running through April 28 and depicts the first landing of Ponce de León in Florida. It will be accompanied by an iPad app created by UCF, which will allow visitors to find out more about the items in the painting, the artist’s perspective, and more.
WHEN: Thursday, April 11, 2013; program beings at 7 p.m.
WHERE: The History Center is located at 65 East Central Blvd., at the corner of Magnolia Ave., downtown Orlando. Parking is available in the Public Library parking garage on Central Blvd. Event on 4th floor in the Chapin Gallery.
