Here at Orange & Blue, we believe there’s no such thing as biting off more than you can chew.

Spring presented our staff with a daunting task: Make a magazine about one particular aspect of Florida culture — and make it worth reading. After much brainstorming and debating, we’ve brought you 64 delicious pages of Florida food.

After our decision, we thought our challenges would only mount. Could a class filled with graduating seniors work their tails off until the very last days before graduation? Could we stretch our minds and legs far enough to cover more than just the Gainesville area and bring you only the tastiest morsels of food info? Could we achieve any kind of culinary sophistication when a good portion of our staff subsides entirely on cold beer and macaroni and cheese?

The answer to all of these questions turned out to be “Yes.” Just like Hall Hunt, our resident competitive eater and cover model with a mouth like an anaconda, or Kristen Femminella, our back-cover cake-baking goddess who pulls double duty as a engineering master’s degree student, we found we could live up to any challenge put in front of us.

Now it is fall and, like the season suggests, it’s time to reap the seeds of our labors. Enjoy!

Ted Spiker, Terry Hynes, William McKeen, Helga Williams, Hal Herman, Arlindo Albuquerque, The University of Florida Division of News and Public Affairs, David Carlson, Dave Hendryx and Sue Arteaga at StorterChilds Printing Company, Ralph Lowenstein, Hector Hernandez of Fratello Ristorante in Aventura, Brad McClenny, AP Phillips Foundation of Orlando, Patricia Shannon Magazine Fund and the Reader’s Digest Foundation.

Orange & Blue is published quarterly by UF College of Journalism and Communications students in the Applied Magazines course. This issue was printed by StorterChilds Printing Company, Gainesville, FL. Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without written permission.

Orange & Blue is protected through trademark registration in the United States. Send letters to 2129 Weimer Hall, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.