Key Lime Pie Festival

 

July 6, 2022

Key Lime Pie Festival

The July 4^th holiday in Key West has been the weekend of the annual Key Lime Festival. Key Limes are a traditional fruit that grows wild here and is a key ingredient of the official dessert of the Florida Keys, the Key Lime Pie.  The festival celebrates the fruit which is so associated with our island chain. The festival features five days of activities and events that recognize the unique fruit and the eccentric people who live here.

The 2022 Key Lime Festival is to include a Key lime pie–eating contest, cocktail stroll, “moveable feast” pie tasting, wacky Key lime pie “drop” and even a scavenger hunt with a limey twist. The event was conceived by Florida Keys author and pie expert David Sloan, who penned “The Key West Key Lime Pie Cookbook.” 

Believed to have originated in Key West in the late 1800s, Key lime pie was designated Florida’s official pie by the state legislature in 2006. Its primary ingredients are condensed milk, egg yolks and the juice of the tiny yellow Key lime, with the filling typically nestled in a graham cracker crust and topped with whipped cream or meringue

I have attended and even participated in the Key Lime Pie drop on numerous occasions in the past, but that has really been the only festival event that I have seen in person, so this year I vowed to expand my
horizons a bit and also go to the Key Lime Pie eating contest, which is held on Sunday at the Southernmost Beach.

The Pie drop is held on the grounds of the Key West Lighthouse. A large target is placed on the ground at the foot of the lighthouse and contestants who have spent time building contraptions meant to protect a Key Lime pie as it is dropped from the top of the lighthouse. There are prizes in categories like, ;least damaged pie, closest to the target, biggest splat, most creative and best overall.

About 40 hopeful contestants trudged up the spiral staircase in the center of the structure to the platform which is 73 ft. high. There they dropped their creations that encased the pies and hoped for the best.  The wind was higher than usual and many of the dropped pies ended up in nearby trees, especially those that depended on a parachute to protect them, very few came anywhere close to the target but the competition for biggest splat was tight.

The crowd on hand was about the largest I have seen at the event, I think in part that was due to new sponsorship by the people at Chive- who brought people and entered the contest as well. In the end winners were proclaimed and trophies awarded and a good time was had by all.

The next day, I was at the Southernmost Beach to attend for the first time ever, the Key Lime Pie eating contest. The event is fairly simple-  After donning safety goggles, entrants must attempt to devour an entire 9-inch pie, topped with mountains of whipped cream, faster than the competition — without using their hands. 

There were about 25 participants were on hand for this event, which is held in the heat of the day and was pretty damn toasty but fun indeed as a large crowd gathered to watch the shenanigans. The contestants were lined up in one long table and a Key Lime Pie was placed in front of each one and they were asked to place their hands behind their backs.

To win you had to be the fastest to completely devour the pie. A number of judges kept close eye on each of the entrants to insure that no funny business, hands or other trickery was involved. After a lot of build-up, the contest itself goes pretty quickly. The winner this year was our pal Chris Schultz who finished off his pie in just over a minute.

Chris has been a repeat entry in the event and he finally was able to take the trophy and the Key Lime belt that goes with winning. It was nice to see a local win the thing, It was about 80% visitors on hand to try their skills out. 

https://keylimefestival.com/