We arrived home from our wonderful June trip at the start of mango season; it was actually a little late this year as we often start getting ripe mangoes in mid May. We have four different types of mango trees on the property yet the flavor of the mangoes we prefer is the tree which spreads half its branches over our cottage. We’ve become quite expert at interpreting the sound of mangoes that fall from the tree onto our roof. Our roof has no insulation – just wooden shingles nailed onto a single layer of 1 inch thick boards. In the quiet of early morning we can often hear the sound of a single leaf landing on the roof above us. (Granted, mango leaves can be big.) We can tell when the mangoes are ready for picking by the sound of the bounces. When they are still green and hard (usually knocked off by a gust of wind or a rat in the night), they fall off the tree and hit the roof with a loud bang, possibly followed by further bounces down slope. Once they are ripe, though, we hear more of a thud and roll. When mangos are scarce we sometimes shout in unison from different parts of the house “That’s a good one!” as we run for the door to retrieve it before the chickens get to it.
Half the tree is picked from our driveway and requires the longest extension of the picking pole. The tree is now so tall that even with the extension, some are out of reach and we have to let gravity do the work (they drop when ripe.) The other half of the tree can be picked from the roof allowing some hand picking but even up there the longest extension is not always enough. Neil is diligent every morning going up to the roof to pick the mangoes that are ready. (Sometimes I go up and help!) If he waits too long, the wind picks up and brings them down producing bruised and smashed mangoes. Neil has developed quite the technique, as you can imagine, for identifying the mangoes ready to be picked, positioning them in the basket just so and then upward pressure to let them “release” from the tree and into the basket. He has also discovered another day or two with just a little afternoon sun on the picked mangoes brings out a little more of the natural sweetness in their flavor. Oh yum!
Each morning the perfect mangoes come down for our enjoyment or for sharing. Before sharing, however, I had to fill our freezer with baggies of frozen mangoes for my winter smoothies (maybe 50 pounds or so!). Ah yes, we have yet another finely tuned system for “processing” mangoes. We can wash, cut, scoop, juice, bag, and stack about 4 dozen mangoes in about 45 minutes. I did leave just a little room for a few other frozen items!
Fortunately, the fruit of the mango tree ripens at different intervals allowing us months of fresh mango savoring. Sadly the season is almost at an end. Neil thinks maybe another week of picking as the tree finishes this year’s cycle. Summer season is usually mid-May to mid-September. Depending on the whims of the trees, we sometimes get a winter season of fresh mangoes for a few months.
We continue to enjoy our island home and all the beauty and abundance that it gives up.
