About Highlands County, FL

School Supply Drive - Lake Placid and Sebring

The Suncoast National Bank is hosting a school supply drive until August 21. All items can be dropped off at the bank, located at the corner of Tower Street and US 27 in Lake Placid from 9am to 4pm from Mondays through Friday.

Items most needed are binders, folders, notebook papers, pencils, pens, erasers, rulers, crayons, markers, index cards, glue, dividers and highlighters.

Edward Jones branch office at 17 Ryant Blvd in Sebring will be accepting school supplies for local children in need through The Guardian Ad Litem Program. Items can be dropped off at the office during regular business hours through August 21.

The Lake Placid Board of Realtors has collected

500 sheets of copy paper (1 package), 1,950 shhets notebook paper , (13 packs) 40 sheets of primary writing paper, (1 pad) 40 sheets of construction paper, (1 pad) 4 composition books, 3 spiral notebooks, 3 folders, 2 pencil cases, 2 rulers 68 pens (5 packages), 150 no. 2 pencils (10 packages, 8 individual), 10 mechanical pencils (1 package), 36 colored pencils (3 packages), 20 markers (2 packages), 4 highlighters (1 package), 704 crayons (11 boxes of 24, 2 boxes of 64), 400 index cards (4 packages), 3 glue sticks (1 package), 3 bottles of glue

and $177 to donate to Manna Ministries.

Please consider donating school supplies to the above, even the smallest donation makes a big difference.

This article was originally posted on Highlands County Talk Blog

ALDI is coming to Highlands County!

People in Highlands County have asked for it, and ALDI listened. ALDI, the German based grocery chain will build a store in Sebring at the corner of New Life Way and US 27. It will be located where Barnhill's and, more recently, Farmer's Market Buffet have operated restaurants.

The currently existing 10,540 square foot building will be torn down and replaced by a bigger 17,000 square foot building. The store is not expected to open until late 2010 or early 2011.

This will be very interesting to watch as the proposed Sam's Club will be pretty much right across the street on the corner of Bayview St. and US 27.




So, what is ALDI? This is what ALDI USA has to say about itself:

"The ALDI way of shopping has been continuously honed and refined since our first store opened in Southeastern Iowa in 1976. Committed to bringing food to customers at the lowest prices possible, our early stores set up shop in small spaces and introduced shoppers to the select-assortment concept, carrying only 500 select brand products. Compared with other supermarkets, our stores seemed tiny. But ALDI found a niche with Americans hungry for real value, and the chain grew rapidly.

Over time, more products were added, including more refrigerated and frozen foods. ALDI also began experimenting with Special Purchase items, to great success. More recently, Sunday hours were instituted, and ALDI began accepting debit cards.

Today, there are over 1,000 ALDI stores in 29 states, from Kansas to the East Coast. And today's ALDI store carries about 1,400 regularly-stocked items, including fresh meat, and, in certain locations, beer and wine. Though the original ALDI concept has been modified somewhat to accommodate our ever-changing tastes and preferences, the core concept remains: "Incredible Value Every Day."



ALDI is coming to Highlands County was originally posted at Floridatalk.net

We had been keeping this date in our calendar for weeks as we were excited to see Henscratch Farms re-open after their summer break - and we were not the only ones. We counted hundreds of cars in the parking lot and more entering as we made our way through the vineyard to hit our first destination - Henscratch's Country Store. You will find delicious home made jellies, sauces, salsas amongst scores of Scuppernong country wine. I highly recommend the "Country Blush", a light semi-sweet rose that finishes very smooth.




Visitors enjoyed burgers or hot dogs with chips while listening to bluegrass tunes performed by "The Front Porch Pickers" on, you guessed it, a front porch!

We opted for delicous strawberry shakes with big strawberry chucks swirled with delicous vanilla ice cream. What a delight!









A trip to the "Wine Bar" gave us some interesting insight in the wine making process as well as a history lesson in wine making. Be sure to mark your calendar for the upcoming annual Grape Stomping Festival. Participants in the stomp may purchase the finished wine in November, complete with their picture on the label. and the caption, .... FOOT STOMPED BY MY DILIGENT FEET" .

We spent a wonderful relaxed afternoon at Henscratch Farms, listening to music, sampling fabulous foods and watching the free range chickens do their chicken business.

We will be back for the 9th Annual Grape Stomping Festival on August 15th and we hope to see you there too!

Originally posted on Highlands County Talk Blog

"Welcome Back Picnic" at Henscratch Farms

After being closed for the summer, Henscratch Farms in Lake Placid is open for business once again! Come and join the fun!!!

FREE live music by "The Front Porch Pickers", playing popular bluegrass tunes - always a delight to listen to.

In Shake Shack you will find Henscratch's famous strawberry shakes, shortcakes & soda floats. Muscadine fritters will be available as long as supplies last. If you're not that much into fruit, there will be a hotdog lunch with chips and a drink for $3.

The winery is open for free wine tasting & nibbles. My personal recommendation: Try Henscratch's Countywine! I will be picking up a few bottles myself.

The farm has 8 educational stations, you can feed the chickens or pick some yummy muscadine and scuppernong grapes for only $1.49 per pound.

This sounds like a bunch of family fun, so we are headed to Henscratch Farms today. Hope to see you there! The fun starts at 10am, "The Front Porch Pickers" will be entertaining from 11am til 2pm.

...and it's no wonder: Sun'n'Lake of Sebring is one of the most popular neighborhoods in Sebring. Not only is it conveniently close to US 27 to give you access to all the shopping and dining you could ever ask for; it is also a safe and family friendly neighborhood. The Florida Hospital is located right at the main entrance of Sun'n'Lake at the corner of Sun'n'Lake Blvd and US 27.

Residents take advantage of the two championship golf courses located within Sun'n'Lake. The community pool is popular with everyone and there are plenty of paved hiking and biking trails for the nature enthusiasts. Sun'n'Lake offers prime spots directly at either of the two golf courses, there are 55+ condos, duplexes, deed restricted neighborhoods as well a older homes available for re-sale. Truly, there is something for any taste, and life style and any budget.

Currently, there are 98 properties for sale in Sun'n'Lake. Prices range from $55,000 to $599,000 including Single Family Homes, Condos, 55+, and Duplexes.

Since January 2009, 62 homes have sold in Sun'n'Lake of Sebring. Prices range from $40,000 to $285,000. Compare that to Sebring Hills and Sebring County Estate: 43 sales (combined) ranging from $40,000 to $175,000 within the same time period.

If you are considering selling your home in Sun'n'Lake, now is the time to do it because you are in the hot zone!

We hope this article about Selling in Sun'n'Lake of Sebring was helpful to you. If you have any questions or concerns, just drop us a line.