Mango musings

I turned the calendar page from July to August with an twinge of disappointment. July is generally considered the end of mango season around Port-au-Prince. While we still see a few road side vendors displaying little piles of fruit, they are far fewer and farther between than during season's peak in May and June. Soon and very soon we will have to more or less say goodbye to the mango until the local season picks up again next April.

Over the last few years, I've lived in several mango producing ecosystem but I was never crazy about them - not the way many North Americans are when they first get a taste of a perfectly-in- season straight-from-the-tree mango. Part of the thrill lies in the fact that the fruit is not picked early and shipped thousands of miles. It only costs 10-25 cents compared to the $3 they are accustomed to paying for a far inferior piece of fruit in a North American supermarket.

I chalk my lack of mango enthusiasm up to the day in 2001 when I visited a particular village in South Sudan where I was spending 2 weeks assisting with a community health survey. When we arrived in that village, I was coming off of 7 or so days straight of eating nothing but rice, eggplant and antelope meat (It was antelope migration season - one of the guards from the WR compound would go out each morning with an AK-47 over his shoulder to bring us fresh meat). We got out of the vehicle to discover mango trees all around us that were heavy with small green fruit. Over the course of the next few hours of interviews I managed to eat a dozen or so green mangoes. By the end of that day, I ended up with a pretty unhappy stomach - which was followed by a mild aversion to mangoes for several years there after.

Living in Haiti has given me a renewed appreciation for the mango; more specifically for the francique mango and the blan mango and the jean baptiste mango and on and on through the more than 140 varieties of mangoes that can be found on this half of Hispanola. Each of these mangoes has a distinct taste and texture - some are more firm and fibrous while others can be scooped out of their skin with a spoon like an avocado. Some overwhelm you with a smell and taste like overly sweet perfume while others are quite sour and tangy. The photo above has two of my favorite varieties - the smaller green blan mango and the s-shaped yellow francique which is generally considered the best by most Haitians you meet. Francique mangoes are unique to Haiti and the second largest export crop after coffee. You can find them in many a NYC fruit stand.

I need to thank my blan housemate and neighbors, especially S, for the recent jump in my status as a mango connoisseur. They were relentless in their pursuit of new mango varieties and generously shared their findings with me. Now they have to transition their focus to other Haitian delicacies. Fortunately avocado season is starting to pick up where the mangoes are leaving off.