Monday, July 26, 2010

Mango, Mango, Mango, Mango, Mangooooo


Yesterday, my brother and SIL took us all to the Mango Festival hosted by the University of the West Indies Agriculture Field Office. I didn't have any expectations one way or another, so I was happy with the experience.
My niece was fighting off a cold and could hardly speak, so after we parked up I offered her a piggy-back. At 5, she's a heavy little thing and it's hot. But it meant she wasn't getting pushed past, or walk.
There were stalls promoting mango products: cosmetics, foods, preserves & chutneys and stationery. There wasn't very much to see in all honesty. There was also a stall promoting the benefits of wheatgrass which I avoided like an STD. As I've got older, my disbelief in 'wonder' ingredients and alternative treatments like wheatgrass, coconut oil, green tea has fallen disproportionately. Anything that promotes 'natural' products gets more than a sceptical look.
Natural is not better than man-made people. It's not automatically more healthy. Honestly, it isn't. Consider products with 'natural herbs' for instance. They particularly annoy me. Belladonna and foxglove are very natural and are very, very dangerous. Should your organic back be getting up at this point. I'm not of a mind to get into a massive debate about the massive issue. All I'm saying is that in all cases Buyer Beware. I do believe we should be using cleaning products that do the job and are gentle on mother Earth. I do believe we should scrub vegetables and fruit before consuming. Responsible consumerism should be practised at all times and a label stating 'natural' should be carefully examined and the efficacy of the product should be scrutinised.
I digress.
Mangos are my favouritest fruit ever. Especially, when my brother has picked it off his tree in the backyard. I love that if you have a bowl of mangos in the kitchen, the smell permeates. Buying mangos in the UK has ultimately been an expensive and depressing experience. In the main they just don't smell and taste as fantastic as the homegrown.
My brother's garden is beautiful and edible. He has mango trees, lime trees, a kumquat, five-fingers (which I detest), avocado trees, passion fruit vines; there are a variety of herbs, ginger lillies and chilli peppers, as well as vines for leafy salads. Tasty and beautiful. In The Bush, he also grows aubergines, several varieties of bananas, mangos, oranges, lemons, grapefruits...the list goes on. He used to grow watermelons, but that apparently, was a bit of a disaster.
As for the local cuisine. I am working hard not to return to the UK in September with an arse the size of Brazil, but they are not making it easy for me. My brother's MIL is in charge of cooking and I have yet to try something she prepared and for me to go 'bleugh'. That woman can cook!
Om nom nom.

8 comments:

  1. When I lived on Maui, there was a hiking trail I liked that was under a canopy of wild mango trees. The mud along the trail was mango-scented!

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  2. xl ~ Maui. Oooo. Sounds lovely.

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  3. Anonymous9:18 pm

    Hey - Mango! I have to google all these fruit and have a look at it. There exists a lexicon for merchants from the beginning of the XXth century, but I do not know whether its digitalized. It was for "Kolonialwaarenhändler", with pictures and descriptions - simply because the people did not know how a mango would look, how it would come packed and transported, what of the fruit is edible and when it's not edible anymore. A very useful book. There was a section about herbs, spices and medicamenta too.

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  4. Al looked into organic accreditation for our veg garden when he had ideas of growing more stuff for the shop (before he had a family of his own so had more time). Paying for it would have meant that the association would have made more out of the veg than he would. We're a bit cynical too.

    But actually, the post could have stopped at Mango Festival and I'd still have dribbled with envy.

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  5. mago ~ wow. I didn't know there existed such a thing. You're a real font of knowledge.

    z ~ that the Association takes a large chunk is outrageous. Organic food is so expensive, that most of that goes to their fees....

    Humpf.

    Trust me, the mangos from my brother's tree will make you drool from just the smell...and the taste is just...divine.

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  6. Hi Roses,
    when I lived in Queensland i was surrounded by mango and Lychee farms. Coud pick up a box of mangoes for about 10 dollars on my way home from a farmers gate.
    It makes me weep thinking about it.. as since moving south you can pay up to 10 dollars for a single mango!

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  7. princess ~ a mango farm...mmmmm. Lychees...not so much. Don't mind them, not overly fussed. $10 for a mango?! Thievery!

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