Mike Usina Casts Minorcan Magic at Made in St. Augustine®

/ Made in St. Augustine/
Mike Usina Casts Minorcan Magic at Made in St. Augustine®

A spool of twine, a needle, a mesh board, nimble fingers and time. These are the tools Mike Usina needs to create Minorcan Magic. 

Usina isn’t a magician in the traditional sense. But once you watch him tie knot after knot to transform bonded nylon into a 7-foot cast net - you will agree he is a magician in his own right.

Usina began hand making cast shrimp and mullet nets more than 65 years ago. While the English cast net made from bonded nylon is his favorite, he has made all types of fishing nets using an array of materials including linen, cotton, Nycott, braided spectra fiber and braided Dacron. 
 

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Changing the World, One Pop at a Time

/ Made in St. Augustine Festival/
Changing the World, One Pop at a Time

In the early months of 2010 Stephen DiMare was working in Montana for a winter at the Lodge at Big Sky and flew home to St. Augustine for a friend's wedding. On the flight he pitched his idea for a coffee shop to the (random) nice woman sitting next to him. She told him that what he needed in his coffee shop were ice pops, gourmet ice pops in the Mexican style. Stephen listened as she explained that paletas (Spanish for ice pops) could contain anything from cucumbers to fresh pineapple to jalapeños.

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