MangoFesting

It was a hit a year ago, so we scheduled it again. The Tropical Fruit Society of Sarasota's July meeting was its Second Annual MangoFest, featuring a mango tasting organized in part by your humble blogger.

Eight days before the grand occasion, three fruit tree buddies and I piled into my Civic and headed down to Pine Island to hunt mangos. The main stop was Steve Cucura's Fruitscapes. After a walkaround of the nursery, we converged on the well-stocked fruit stand and picked out 75 pounds of mangos, of a dozen varieties. Steve weighed them and I think he gave us at least an extra five pounds, a baker's dozen for a good customer. He also offered us a friendly price on lychee trees, and pal Kevin and I bought 3-gallon Ohia's to add to our collections. Heading back, we stopped at nearby Painter's to see what was on hand, and picked up six pounds of Coconut Cream mangos. At both places, we loaded up with fruit for ourselves as well. Bursting at the seams with mangos, longans, jakfruit, Ohia lychee trees, and fruit tree fanatics, we made our way home, talking plants all the way.

Now for the anxiety stage--- eight days for the impossible task of getting 85 pounds of mangos perfectly ripe. I had three levels of ripening speed to work with: inside the house, out on the porch, and out on the porch in a paper bag. Last year's five days weren't enough, while this year's eight days were probably one more than needed, and the paper bags never came out. The rock-hard fruits went to the porch and the others stayed inside. As the days passed, the backup refrigerator gradually filled with mangos that felt about ready.

The Julie's never did ripen, but just kept shriveling, so we ended up with twelve varieties for the fest. I turned down generous offers of help preparing the fruit in order to wait until the afternoon before the meeting to open them. Some had ripened unevenly, and it was a three-hour job to generate enough bite-sized cubes for the tasting. About 20 mangos remained, and they went into seven bags for the mango auction.

At the meeting we set up three tables in a line and laid out the dozen tubs, labeled “A” through “L”, along with the toothpicks and discard plates for the sanitary “one toothpick for one bite” tasting method. We provided the sixty or so in attendance with paper, and pens if needed, for taking notes.

We cautioned the participants not to make a hasty judgment of a variety based on just one tasting, since so many factors can affect the quality of a given sample. Many samples are needed, from different trees, at different times of the season and even different seasons. I think there may be a lesson in there about judging people...

The first mango tasted has an advantage, so we formed two lines moving in opposite directions along the tables. That is, some started at the “A” end and others at the “L” end. After everyone had been through, a vote was held for the favorite, and then we revealed the varieties. They were, with the vote totals: Wise (6), Mallika (2), Lancetilla (1), Pickering (6), Nam Doc Mai (6), Dot (7), Valencia Pride (5), Coconut Cream (8), Keitt (2), Carrie (2), Duncan (3), and the winner, mango “L”, was Kent (12). As we announced each variety, some of the knowledgeable club members told a bit about it--- some characteristics of the tree, the fruiting season, and so on.

I wouldn't disagree with the outcome, based on the samples. It's early in the season for Keitt's, and late for Carrie's. Neither of these favorites ripened very well, and I almost didn't take them to the meeting. The Mallika's also weren't up to par. The Kent's were at perfect ripeness and really were delicious, and with the advantage of a pole position it was no contest.

The auction was a lot of fun. Will Wright, Vice Chairman and past Chairman of the Sarasota club (and also an MRFC member), was the auctioneer, and the bidding was spirited. In the end, the auction proceeds almost exactly equaled the cost of the mangos.

Will had also started the meeting with a twenty-minute talk on mango varieties, plus fielding questions about how to grow mangos. Putting it all together, it was a wide-ranging evening that was both informative and entertaining. It's becoming a popular tradition for the Sarasota club, and I'm looking forward to the Third Annual TFSS MangoFest next July.