Did you know the City of LaBelle is home to the annual Swamp Cabbage Festival?

The LaBelle Jaycees began the festival in 1965 and named it in honor of the cabbage palm, or sabal palm - Florida's official state tree. The meat of the palm tree can be shucked, boiled and eaten, and is known to gourmets as the "heart of palm." The Swamp Cabbage Festival is held on the last full weekend of February and includes beauty pageants, dances, food, music and a parade complete with floats decorated with palm fronds. The event now draws approximately 25,000 people to the city of 4,400 located along the Caloosahatchee River.

Reprinted from Quality Cities September/October 2005

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