In the mid 1700s pioneers came from other colonies to Florida while it was still an unsettled land handed off to Great Britain by Spain. These people were woodsman, cow herders and frontiersmen from Virginia and Maryland; they could live off the land by hunting and fishing.
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The term 'Florida Cracker” is believed to come from the sound that their whips made as they cracked them while riding horses to herd the cattle. Still, others say it comes from the crackling sound of dried corn as it was ground to make cornmeal which was a staple of their diet.
Florida Crackers are the original Cracker Cowboys. The term still remains to differentiate the pride of Floridians who were born and raised here for generations, as to those people who have come in from other states to live, and as they are better-known, the original Florida Crackers. Many of them still live on farms in rural communities and are sprinkled throughout the peninsula’s wetlands as well.
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Today, you may not be able to hear the cracking of rawhide whips or the stone grinding of the dried corn, but you can still taste famous recipes of yesteryear with our food prepared fresh daily, here at the Florida Cracker Café.