20050224

smokin' mangoes

mango buds

this weekend i went out into the garden to take some photos of ginger plants, but they were looking a little weedy and not in bloom. as i've been gardening at night, i didn't realise that the mango tree is budding!

i know i shouldn't be so happy, but since the tree has previously only wielded one fruit, i am. yay, maybe we'll have a real crop someday soon. to help insure that, every night at dusk, we've been going out and building a little fire to "smoke" the tree, which will drive away the harmful bugs that may inhibit flowering. i shall be out there every night for at least a month, maybe i should find a nice pork shoulder that may benefit from the nightly smokeout.

more mango buds

see those little green bumpies? beeby-baby mangoes!

mango shoot

this is a mango shoot, which i believe is called putat in kapampangan, talbos in tagalog; edible, certainly, best as a salad. so i'm told.

7 comments:

Santos, your photo evoked childhood memories growing up in the Philippines. We also have mango trees in our backyard. I have been living in the US for twenty years and I haven't tasted any mangoes here that rivals the carabao mango's sweetness.................

Every night for a month? Wow...that is devotion!

Moira

Here it's early mango season! I think putat is Kapampangan. Tagalog is talbos. Let's see what the Tagalogs say.

Smoke 'em if you got'em.

If there's any justice in the world, they'll taste fantastic.

hello anon--i agree, carabao mangoes are the best! alas, this is from a hawaiian mango--it's not haden, but i'm not sure exactly what it is. our one fruit from last year weighed a pound, stayed green on the outside, and the flesh was little fibrous. there is a carabao mango orchard here, but mostly the 'native' mangoes are small, green, and hard.

hi moira--i believe in the philippines the smoking period is much longer, and they can be there all night! i just spend an hour or so, when i'm doing other chores, so it's not exactly devotion :-)

ate--the kapampangans in the room agree it's putat :-) the rest have no idea, so i'll do some editing!

anthony--there is no justice in this world, but i'll eat 'em anyway :-D

Hi Santos,

Does this mango just stay green on the outside and is orange on the inside, or does the outside get red at all? If it's a Hawaiian mango, most of them get red on the outside, unless of course it's the "common" or Chinese mango which we use to make pickled mango, but then those are green and hard. There is also the Keitt from Florida which doesn't get red, but the fruits are huge...like 2-3 pounds!

The only other types that I know of that are grown in the state are Haden, Pirie, and Gouveia.

hey reid

it was green even when ripe, had a lot of fiber, pale yellow flesh, and come to think of it, weighed closer to two pounds than one. it was the size of a baby's head, i swear. maybe making up for the fact it was the only fruit ;-)