David Sloan, president of DLS4 Productions and co founder of the Key Lime Festival, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the festival.
The history of the festival is interesting.
Sloan said, “When I moved to Key West, I came here to start a ghost tour. So I started the ghost tours that brought me to the Curry Mansion, where I was looking for ghosts. But I ended up finding out this story about Aunt Sally, the creator of key lime pie. We got involved in producing festivals. We did key lime festival, and several other projects. So I like doing the different things that tie in with the community. So it kind of all fell under the DLS4 banner and it’s great because I get to work with these other incredible organizations in town.”
This is the week of the Key Lime Festival.
Sloan said, “We did the kickoff party last night, and that was a blast. We closed off Duval Street right down there by the Southernmost Beach Resorts. I love that day, because the kickoff is really something special. It’s five days that are just packed with activities. Today is one of my favorites, it’s the Pie Hop and that’s where people go to about six or seven different stops and get to try some of the island’s best key lime pies. I love this because we incorporate the history. There’s a guide who tells the stories, the things that people don’t always know about how the crust war started and how the arguments over the toppings started, and who’s really right, and stories about Aunt Sally and the sponge fisherman. Then they get to taste pies from one of my favorites is Red Shoe Island Bistro, and so they’re going to be down at the Hemingway Rum Company where it starts serving their pie and then it’s going to finish at Key West Cooking School. I’m going to be down there. I’ll be signing cookbooks afterwards and I’m really looking forward to their pie. A new part on the hop this year too, is Alamo. And I’m hearing great things about the key lime things they’re doing. And then, of course we’ve got Kermits, we’ve got the Key West Key Lime Pie Company. There’s Bagatelles. Here’s the cool thing, they’re all different.”
The waterfront market is held today as well, and that will feature a Coast Guard Band performance and a sunset reception hosted on board the CGC Ingham from 7 to 9 p.m.
Sloan said, “There’s a lot of great stuff going on today. And then, of course, on the fourth of July, we’ve got the fireworks, but the pie eating contest, which is so much fun, it’s right down on the beach. Everybody thinks about Coney Island and the hot dogs for the Fourth of July. We always say, hey, let them go to Coney Island for the entree, but come to the island of Key West for dessert.”
Is Key Lime Pie still the official pie in the state?
Sloan said, “We were the official pie. Then they made strawberry shortcake, the official dessert. And we didn’t really like that, because strawberry shortcake, it’s another thing that was created in Europe. Apple pie was created in Europe. People say as American as apple pie, but really one of the most American pies is key lime pie, because it was invented right here in the Florida Keys, but both the county and the city did make key lime pie the official dessert. So were the official dessert of the Florida Keys. We’re the official dessert of Monroe County, the official dessert of the Conch Republic.”
What’s the story about Aunt Sally?
Sloan said, “When I first went to the Curry Mansion, they had a recipe card, and they said that it was created in this mansion by Aunt Sally, but I’m asking around. It’s like nobody knew who she was, and all they said was that she was a cook for Florida’s first millionaire, William Curry. So I started going through all the census records, digging everywhere and you start really with the creation of sweet and condensed milk, which was popularized during the Civil War. So that’s when I started really looking at the census records, and I couldn’t find anything. But my dad’s a genealogist, and I told him what I was doing in like an hour, he comes back, he said, I found her. I said what do you mean? And he said he knows it’s Sarah Lowe Curry. And I said, no, no, no, I’m looking for Aunt Sally, right? He said yes, Sally’s a nickname for Sarah, and that’s one of those things that he knew from genealogy. I just didn’t know that. And here’s the cool thing, Sarah Jane Lowe Curry, she was married to William Curry’s oldest son, Charles. He was part of Curry and Sons that had the ship where they sold all of the ingredients from Key Lime Pie, everything you’d need, and they sold it to all the people out at sea, all the mariners, including the sponge fishermen. So we believe that the earliest version was made by the sponge fisherman, and then it came to land, and it was really a blue collar dessert. Sarah Jean Lowe Curry would have been Aunt Sally to 14 of William Curry’s grandkids, and she lived in the house right next door, so we think that she probably made this very simple dessert for her nephews and nieces. Then some of the neighborhood kids would be there, and they’d go home and they’d say, oh, Aunt Sally, she was making that blue color, they called it hooker pie, probably because the sponge fishermen used the big hooks to pull the sponges up. But we think that then people started saying, oh, she did. And that kind of evolved it to the next level, where people started adding the crusts and the toppings and trying to make it a little fancier and a little less blue collar. That’s when it would have started appearing in the Woman’s Club cookbooks and things like that.”
The culmination of the Key Lime Festival is the key lime pie drop.
Sloan said people “can go online in advance for all the different events. They’ll want to sign up, like for today, for the pie hop. Grab tickets. There’s still some left, but not a lot. There’s different time slots for the sip and stroll, which is the pie hop, but with drinks tied to key lime, same thing. They can get tickets online, and then for the pie drop, if they register in advance, because that is limited to how many people can compete. We want to know that they’re coming and we want to know the details of their contraption. It’s dropping a little key lime pie, launching it from the top of the Key West Lighthouse towards a target on the ground. Can you build a contraption to try to have it land intact, and whoever’s closest to the target without it breaking is the winner. It’s just so incredible to see the community coming together like this. One other place that I’ll be is at the firehouse. Alex Vega Key West Firehouse Museum on Saturday, I’m making the five alarm pies these. These are our habanero key lime pies, and it’s a benefit for the museum. Free admission to the museum, people can come in and taste the hot key lime pie, which everybody’s like, oh my, it’s really good. So if people want to come by and say hello to me, then I’d love to see them and so much of the stuff going on is for a good cause.”
For more information, click here: https://keylimefestival.com/