A resident of the Florida Keys with an outdoors focus, Edwin Hammond Meredith maintains a position as chef and has a strong interest in cooking. Edwin Hammond Meredith enjoys the cuisine of the local area, which is rich in seafood and is also known for its pies, which incorporate the distinctive local Key lime as a flavor.
As identified by local food historian David L. Sloan in an Epicurious article, Key lime pie traces its origins to the mid-19th century recipe of an anonymous cook at the William "Bill Money" Curry mansion. With condensed milk an essential part of the modern recipe, a surprise is that the graham cracker crust pie never incorporated fresh cream. This has to do with Curry’s line of business as a hardware magnate who provided ships with provisions and imported the first tins of condensed milk to the Florida Keys. This long-lasting luxury product provided a safeguard against malnutrition and was soon a necessity of life in a region that did not have refrigeration or ice until the completion of the Overseas Highway in 1930. Today, sweetened condensed milk is preferred over fresh cream in the recipe due to the distinctive texture and taste it adds to the pie. Unfortunately, indigenous Key lime groves were victim to a massive 1926 hurricane, and the original taste is extremely hard to replicate with the limes that are currently found in the Keys.
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Edwin Hammond Meredith is a Florida Keys-based chef and marine sports enthusiast who takes full advantage of outdoor activities accessible on the string of small islands extending more than 120 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. Conservation minded, Edwin Hammond Meredith also has a strong interest in the marine biology of a local region that is one of the most ecologically diverse in the world. In positive news for those who are working to ensure the survival of sea turtles throughout the Keys, the turtle nests in the region from Longboat Key to Venice witnessed a record-breaking number of clutches in 2016. As reported by Mote Marine Laboratory's Sea Patrol, which began its monitoring operations in early May and finished at the end of October, there were some 4,588 total nests, each of which typically contains between 50 to 100 eggs. This number was approximately double those recorded in 2015, with Casey Key and Longboat Key epicenters of a resurgent sea turtle population. Siesta Key witnessed an increase from 398 to 476 turtle nests, with one outlying loggerhead turtle nest discovered on the island in early December, weeks after the nesting season officially ended. The Sea Turtle Conservancy reported that only one hatchling ultimately survived in releasable condition from this unusually late-occurring nest. |
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