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• Shearer, Victoria

Though the Keys coral bedrock has proved itself an inhospitable host to commercial growers, tropical fruits--key limes, mangoes, avocadoes, bananas, papayas, and citrus--flourish in backyard gardens from Key Largo to Key West. Commercial growers moved up to Homestead, at the gateway to the Keys, where the marsh lands of the drained Everglades provided idyllic conditions. The truck farms of Homestead provide produce for America's table.

With restaurants as diverse and creative as a miniature Manhattan, Key West leads the restaurant scene in the Keys. But for the length and breadth of the Keys, talented chefs reflect the enduring ethnic traditions of generations past as well as the cutting-edge composition and presentation you would expect to find in major cosmopolitan cities worldwide.

Within these pages, expert author Victoria Shearer combines terrific recipes with evocative stories and nostalgic period photographs to convey the Keys' unusual and fascinating local lore alongside recipes showcasing its robust culinary heritage.