Mango Melee

Large rose colored orbs hanging from long skinny stems like spiders at the end of a web, if the web was a large dark green leafy tree, began to appear across the island. Mango season has arrived.

Mango trees can grow as large as a live oak tree and many are heavy with abundant mango fruits. Sidewalk stands of mangoes emerge not only along the side of the road but in driveways manned by children, the local equivalent of a lemonade stand.

Each year the St. George Village Botanical Gardens hosts the Mango Melee to celebrate the harvest. In addition to crafts and food booths, typical of any festival, the Mango Melee features a display of the unbelievable amount of mango varieties. Besides the named species, I would estimate that at least a dozen unnamed local mangoes were on display. They range in size from larger than a softball to the width of a cell phone and all number of hues, textures and sweetness.

For someone who only found one variety of mango in her local Winn Dixie, I gained quite an education on the vastness of mangoes. I also bought some mango soap and a mango jam put up in a baby food jar and sold by an elderly woman sporting an American flag patterned bandanna around her head and matching petticoat. I have yet to try it, but I am convinced that it will be goo-ood.