PUMPKIN: State record ANNIE'S: Potential casualty of Seafood Shack sale

FROM PAGE 1 the pumpkin and then dragged by truck to a waiting forklift. It was then lifted into the truck bed and Caniff drove it slowly to the fish house. It was once again removed by a forklift and placed carefully onto a scale.

When the scale registered 1,039 pounds, after the removal of the pallet and metal lifting frame, he received handshakes and congratulations from his friends and fellow fishermen.

“I’m blown away,” he said. “Four digits. You just never know if it will take off.”

A representative from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Extension Service was present at the weigh-in to verify and certify the results and send those results to the Florida Department of Agriculture.

“This is a Florida state record for sure,” said Christine Russo, commercial horticulture agent at UF/IFAS. “Last year’s record was a 622-pound pumpkin grown in Santa Rosa County.”

The statewide record comes with bragging rights, and Caniff said he’s going to try to grow a pumpkin next year to exceed this one.

Caniff has grown a pumpkin every year for about the past 20 years. The last couple of years, the fruit was up to about 100 pounds.

“I had one about 8 or 9 years ago that was 675 pounds,” he said. “At 600 pounds, I would have 10 guys come over and give them some beers and we could lift it. This one is too big for that.”

Caniff started the seed indoors last December. Since Florida sun is not the most hospitable environment for pumpkingrowing, Caniff fashioned a sun shade to protect the fruit.

He said the debris left by Hurricane Ian proved to be great compost for his backyard garden.

“I took the leaves that came down after the hurricane and put them into the soil,” he said. “Between that and fertilizing the soil with cow manure, the pumpkin just took off.”

He credited the genetics of the seed as contributing to the pumpkin’s size.

“I’ve met growers over the years,” he said. “I was introduced to the 1885 Werner seed. People have grown 2,000-pound pumpkins with that seed.”

Once the weighing is done, Caniff will return the pumpkin back to nature.

“It’s the circle of life,” he said. “I’m going to give it back to the farm where the manure came from so it can be fed to the cows there.”

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“We may look like a dump but our kitchen is gorgeous,” he said. “I’m very proud of what we’ve done here.”

Shearer, who has lived in Cortez for more than 40 years, reflected on how the area has changed.

“Cortez Road was a two-lane road back then. The only thing you had to worry about on the road is that you might hit an alligator or a pig,” he said. “I lived in the village 20 years and everybody knew everybody. It’s not like that anymore.”

The Seafood Shack parcel is listed by Dave Neff and Elliot Rose of Coldwell Banker, and only offers of $15 million or greater will be considered.

“We’ve had a lot of interest in the property,” Neff said. “We have asked people to submit bids by May 15. The floor on this is $15 million.”

Neff declined to say how many interested parties there are.

The 5.6-acre property is described on crexi.com as a “...fully operational marina, restaurant and ancillary income streams from Jet-Ski/boat rental, with additional land for expansion of marina wet slips and dry rackominium boat storage.”

The parcel also includes a submerged lease area.

Neff said the current owners, Canadian-based Vandyk Properties, had prepared a conceptual plan for condos, an upgraded marina and dry boat storage, but decided to step away and focus on their primary business model of luxury residential properties.

“Zoning has a height restriction of 50 feet there,” Neff said. “That’s not to say that they couldn’t have gone for rezoning, but they decided not to take that route.”

“Little by little they’re taking away the Florida way of life,” Shearer said. “I guess they call that progress, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”