Local Goods Made in Paradise

Cleopatra’s Barge Naples Medallion

The signature Naples Medallion celebrates the iconic Naples Pier and was designed by Marilyn Janss, who founded her downtown boutique in 1966 as the city’s first fine jewelry designer. The medallion is available in 14-karat gold or sterling silver and a variety of sizes, backgrounds, and frames.

Congress Jewelers Sealife by Congress Collection

No doubt you have found yourself doing the “Sanibel stoop,” bent at the waist as you eagerly survey the shell-strewn shoreline. Congress Jewelers on Sanibel Island has captured these memories in its proprietary, hand-crafted Sealife by Congress collection, featuring a wide range of pendants in gold, enamel, and pavé diamonds of various local shells for necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.

Edison Ford Winter Estates Shoppe 

This high-profile landmark in Fort Myers has a unique on-site gift shop with so many one-of-a-kind offerings that it also has an off-site store in the Edison Mall called Edison Ford Shoppe. Both retail locations have an extensive book selection, Edison and Ford memorabilia, kids’ games, local artwork, and kitchen items.

Fort Myers Brewing Company

There are several award-winning breweries in the region, but Fort Myers Brewing Company was the first to open in Lee County in 2013 and it continues to lead Southwest Florida’s craft beer movement. Fort Myers Brewing creates an award-winning line of flagship beers in addition to seasonal brews and small-batch specialties. Its ales, pilsners, stouts, and IPAs are poured and sold at hundreds of bars, restaurants, and retail outlets, including Publix and Total Wine. Fort Myers Brewing’s 40,000-square-foot Gateway facility includes a tasting hall, event space, beer garden, and food-truck zone. It offers tours and regular events.

Fresh Citrus & Regional Flavors

Of course, you can find fresh citrus and orange juice around these parts. Here are two places where you can pick up a bag of vitamin-C goodness or have it shipped north:

In Lee County, grab a couple of gallons of fresh-squeezed orange juice and citrus goodies at Sun Harvest Citrus in Fort Myers. Learn the difference between honeybell, Valencia, and temple oranges and order gift baskets brimming with red grapefruit, mandarins, or tangelos. Sun Harvest also sells smoothies, orange blossom honey, Key lime cookies, Florida jellies and marmalades, and other regional delights.

In Collier County, South Naples Citrus Grove is the go-to for Key lime pie, citrus candy, and bags of fresh-picked oranges and grapefruits. The farm stand, established in 1978, is stocked with seasonal delights, including ruby red, pink, star grapefruit, honeybells, sugarbells, navels, honey tangerines, and Orlando tangelos. Find fresh-squeezed orange and grapefruit juices, gift baskets, swirled orange and vanilla soft-serve ice cream, jams, marmalades, and candies.

Gator Hammock Sauces and Rubs

If you like to crank up the heat, pick up one of Gator Hammock’s sauces, rubs, or mustards. The first in the line of products, Gator Sauce, launched in 1989. The Felda-based company’s growing line of handmade, all-natural condiments have been applauded by the Fiery Food Industry and featured on the Food Network. Gator Sauce, a blend of peppers, garlic, vinegar, and other spices, is sold in local grocery stores and utilized at are restaurants. Other condiments include Cooter Rubb, Swamp Mustard, Bull Gator, Gator Sprinkle, Lethal Gator, and Sawgrass Boil. 

Kristi’s Key Lime Cookies

Gourmet, handcrafted Kristi’s Key Lime Cookies are vanilla cookies smothered with a decadent Key lime, preservative-free topping and baked to order. All new: Kristi’s Orange Cookies. With a three-week shelf life, these kosher treats are popular as wedding favors and corporate gifts. They are sold at local attractions, resorts, and boutique food stores, including Seed to Table and Three60 Market.

Naples Soap Company

After struggling with eczema and psoriasis, Naples Soap Company Founder/CEO Deanna Wallin set out to find effective skincare solutions. In 2009, she opened Naples Soap Company in Naples’ Tin City to sell her all-natural s products that are free of preservatives and commercial additives. Naples Soap Company operates several retail stores in Florida. Find therapeutic bath bombs, allergen-free parfum, loofah soaps, body scrubs, and shampoo and conditioner bars at its coastal-themed shops in Estero, Naples, and Fort Myers.

Norman Love Confections

If you’re a chocolate connoisseur, you already know the name Norman Love. Since Norman Love Confections began crafting ultra-premium chocolates in Southwest Florida in 2001, the award-winning, Fort Myers–based chocolatier has been lauded internationally by Forbes.com, The Huffington Post, The Daily Telegraph, and more. Norman Love has chocolate salons in Fort Myers, Estero, and Naples, and a pastry shop and café at Whole Foods Markets in Fort Myers and Naples.

Taste of Immokalee

Taste of Immokalee is a social enterprise that teaches entrepreneurship and real-world skills to Immokalee High School students. They develop family recipes spotlighting Immokalee’s crops and cultures, while learning about food science, marketing, accounting, operations, and public speaking. Its line of products is sold at Publix stores and small, organic grocers throughout Collier County. Taste of Immokalee incorporates Lipman Family Farms’ field-grown tomatoes into barbecue sauces, habanero and serrano hot sauces, and salsas. Best of all, profits are donated to local charities.

Wicked Dolphin Rum Distillery

Since 2012, Wicked Dolphin Rum Distillery in Cape Coral has been pulling in awards for its ever-growing line of rums—black, silver, gold, premium, spiced, and flavored. The distillery’s rums are made with Florida sugar and local ingredients. Handcrafted in small batches in an American copper-pot still, the rum is aged in white-oak barrels once used for premium Kentucky bourbon. The 100-proof RumShine infuses fresh fruits—strawberry or blueberry— picked at their peak of ripeness and comes in a Mason-style jar, imparting the spirit of moonshining in the ‘Glades frontier. Wicked Dolphin is sold and served in local restaurants, bar, and stores. The distillery also has a retail shop on-site and offers free tours.

Tower Gallery

Tower Gallery on Sanibel Island is an artists’ cooperative featuring two-dimensional and three-dimensional mediums by two dozen artists. The gallery was founded in 1982 and features the work of popular regional artists—some you won’t find anywhere else.