Florida Keys Cuisine: From Soil to Sea

From Soil to Sea: the FKHDC community cookbook

Have a recipe that tastes like home? Share a family favorite, fresh-catch specialty, or beloved Keys dish with Soil to Sea and help us preserve the flavors and stories of our island community.

Overhead view of several vintage and spiral-bound Florida Keys community cookbooks arranged on a white tabletop — Community cookbooks from the Keys, gathered for the From Soil to Sea exhibition. This is the model for our book.

Call for recipes

Send us your recipe

Fill out the form and your email opens with everything you entered. Nothing is collected on this page. Our Curator of Collections, Dr. Heather Gonyeau, will follow up about how your dish will be used.

A family favoriteThe dish that has been passed down, scribbled on a card, or made so often you no longer need the recipe.
A fresh-catch specialtyHow your family or your captain prepares what comes off the boat: conch, snapper, lobster, bonefish, or whatever the day brings in.
A beloved Keys dishA recipe tied to a place you remember: a church supper, a restaurant that's gone, a holiday staple.
The story behind itWho taught you, where the ingredients came from, and what the dish means to you. The memory is as valuable as the recipe.

Questions first?

Call us at (305) 922-2237 or email info@keysdiscovery.com.

A cookbook built by the community

Old Florida Keys cookbooks read like community histories. Behind every recipe is a family, a church supper, a restaurant remembered by longtime residents, an ingredient that once played a much larger role in local life, or a dish tied to a particular moment in Keys history.

We are bringing those stories together for Florida Keys Cuisine: From Soil to Sea, on view now at the Center, and we want your kitchen in the pages. Send us what you cook and the memory that comes with it.

Five women in mid-century swimsuits posed around a large bushel basket piled with limes in front of a banner reading LIME Festival — Key limes at a Keys lime festival. The fruit gives these islands their best-known pie.

A horse-drawn wagon loaded with wicker baskets of pineapples and bunches of bananas in front of a clapboard building — A wagon load of pineapples and bananas. The Keys once grew and shipped much of what people here ate.

Dock laborers unloading bunches of green bananas onto a Key West wharf beside a masted sailing ship — Bananas coming ashore at a Key West wharf. Island tables were fed by ships as much as by gardens.

Whole raw lionfish arranged around a bowl of ceviche garnished with red onion, peppers, cilantro and lime — Lionfish, an invasive species, laid out with the makings of ceviche.

A fisherman aboard a small wooden sailboat holds up a large fish while a line of smaller fish hangs along the boat's rigging — A fine catch off Knights Key. The day's harvest became dinner.

Cookbook only price

Add your name to the cookbook!

Businesses and families can underwrite the cookbook and the exhibition it accompanies. Every level below is a cookbook-only price. Choose the recognition that suits you best.

Support the project

Name listing & advertising

Community SupporterName listed in the cookbook$100
1/8-page ad$200
1/4-page ad$350
1/2-page ad$600
Full-page ad$900

Recipes & covers

Sponsored RecipeGuaranteed inclusion$250
Featured RecipeDedicated full page$750
Inside front/back cover$1,250
Back cover$1,500

Community Partner

A portion of cookbook proceeds supports the Burton Memorial food pantry

A portion of proceeds from From Soil to Sea will go to the food pantry at Burton Memorial United Methodist Church, which provides free food to families struggling to make ends meet here in the Keys. Cooking for one another is how these islands have always looked after their own. This cookbook helps carry that tradition forward.

Learn about the food pantry

Where the proceeds go

The food pantry at Burton Memorial United Methodist Church: free food for Keys families struggling to make ends meet. The pantry also welcomes volunteers; contact the church to help.

Belong here

Become a member

Memberships begin at $75 and help conserve the Keys, inspire discovery, and keep our community engaged.

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Conserve · Inspire · Engage

Make a gift

Annual giving begins at $500 and sustains dynamic exhibits, innovative programs, community events, and the Keys Heritage Ledger.

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