You can see how large my mangoes are yes, that is a quarter next to it!). The season is upon us – Tropical Storm Debbie is off the coast, the mangoes are hanging heavy on the tree, and the dehydrator has been sitting idle for weeks.

Not much longer now.

I expect the winds tonight to kick up into the 40-50mph range, and as the weather warning says “… which can cause unsecured objects to blow around… snap tree limbs or cause power outages.”

This means almost-ripe mangoes will litter the ground yet again this year. It happens frequently enough to be an annoyance – high winds just before the crop ripens, causing massive amounts of loss. I’m just glad I don’t have to rely on my crops for my livelihood, unlike out grandparents did. It also helps that when a crop DOES come in, its so bountiful that I have enough mangoes stored that they lasts years.

This year, I’ll do what I can to utilize the fallen fruit, but green mango just isn’t as tasty as the ripe ones, and they don’t taste the same IF they ripen instead of just going bad from the heavy impact.

Maybe a green mango pickle? Dried green mango fruit leather (yuk)? Possibly a green mango salsa? Anyone have any ideas? Feel free to chime in….I expect Ridgerunner will have some ideas, having lived in the far east for a time…(And a Happy Birthday to him, BTW!)

Time to go secure the loose gear…a good warm-up for hurricane season.

db