Vieques: Mangoes, Mangoes, Mangoes... ¡Basta Ya!
As a child I growing up in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, “mango” is what we called a green bell pepper. Little did I know at the time, mangoes are actually the number one selling fruit in the world. Approximately 50% of all tropical fruits produced worldwide are mangoes.
Now we have two big, beautiful mango trees in our yard. Ours are the alcanfor variety (as in camphor, and they do have a hint of piney/turpentine flavor.) This seems to be a popular variety with the locals and we’ve given many away. And still we have WAY more than we could ever hope to eat. It’s really nice to be able to partake of nature’s bounty in this way...
...but...
...¡Basta Ya! Enough already!!
The downside to all this is that there are LOTS and LOTS of mangoes. And because most of them are high out of reach, we can’t get at them until they fall naturally. At which point they’ve often been partially eaten by a bird or iguana, are at least partly rotten, covered in a million fruit flies, and smelly. Mangoes are quite dense and make a loud “thud” when they hit, usually breaking open and oozing sticky sap all over that stains the concrete black.
Of course, often they make a splash instead. Because our trees overhang our pool. This was NOT a wise landscaping decision. It seems that the trees are dropping something in the pool most of the year: millions of tiny flowers in the spring, rotten fruit now, and leaves in the winter.
The final joy is that some people are allergic to the skins which make them break out in a rash. (But they can still eat the fruit.) Unfortunately, it’s looking like Chris is one of these people. Which makes the clean-up effort all the more fun. At this time of year it’s a daily (or more often) task. The last pic is the pile I picked up from the pool deck this morning.
