Mango Time Soon Come

"Inna de heights a de mango crop/when de fruit jus' a ripe an' drop/ wash yu pot, tun dem down, mango time."

"Graham mango is my favorite. It's sweet, and has a nice comfortable size. You can destroy it quickly and it doesn't act as a purgative. The challenge of seeing how fast you can finish and move on to the next one, that's what I like about mangoes,” says fruit lover Bert Cooke. –I cut around the stem, then peel from the stem down when I use a knife. When I use my teeth, I peel from the bottom up. "
Not everyone is as precise in expressing their ardour and technique, but all us have a favourite mango. Like Cooke, we relish those private moments when we can let the juice from some sweet mango get all over our face. It feeds some primal instinct that probably comes from our first memory of the taste of this delicious fruit.

Certainly in Jamaica, there is good reason for that kind orgasmic relationship with mango. Our fertile soil yields this f ruit in wanton abundance. If as many mangoes grew to maturity as there were blossoms on the trees, we would have fruit to stone dog. But the tender flowers that appear between December and March are easily savaged by wind and rain.

Mango matures somewhere between now and August, and may measure from two to seven inches and weigh from a few ounces to a few pounds. Its the tropical fruit that comes in the most flavours, textures and shapes, making it a perfect icon for this region. If their lavish depiction of mango is any guide, the intuitive painters must be awed by its presence.

Mango comes from the Indo-Burma region. It appears to have been introduced into Jamaica quite by accident in 1782. A ship in Lord Rodneyês squadron captured a French boat, bound for Haiti from Mauritius, carrying seeds and plants. Among them was the now very common Number Eleven mango. Some of those were planted in gardens in Liguanea. The botanical name of mango - whose nectar, by the way, is so delicious that it would be a natural as the forbidden fruit in a Jamaican Garden of Edenã is mangifera indica.

In 1869, 22 varieties of grafted mango plants arrived here from India. Fifteen years later, several other varieties came from Martinique. That shipment, mango lovers might want to note, included the heavenly Julie. Another preferred variety, the Bombay, came to Jamaica in 1900, imported from India by Governor Sir John Peter Grant.

Other varieties were imported later from Dominica, Trinidad, Mexico, the East Indies, Puerto Rico and Florida. Over the years, some seem to have disappeared, but we can still find their interesting names in the literature: Tie-tie, Cedot, Amelie, Jacot, Mazagan, John crow bellyful, Cashew, Busha's wife, Ladies' fringe, Yam, Saltfish, Miss Cuskett, Dandy Williams, Duckanoo, Grandfather and Bees' box and Zil. Today, the more popular mangoes include Julie, East Indian, Bombay, Graham, Haden, Kent, Robin, Long and Black mango. The Keitt and Tommy Atkins are among relatively recent arrivals.

If mango is the king of tropical fruits, then Julie is the queen of mangoes. And being a small tree, the Julie can find a home almost anywhere. For sweetness it allows few rivals and is usually juicier than most other varieties. The wide range of tastes and textures of this fruit is amazing. The pulp is coloured from pale yellow to bright orange, while the skin may be green, yellow, red, purple - even bluish. The preferred fruit tends to be those with a sweet pulp and smooth consistency. Some mango lovers, however, want fruit with a more acidic taste and stringy pulp, such as the East Indian.

In India, the mango is considered a fundamental of daily life. "There are many references to it in classical literature... poetry, painting and sculpture as a great symbol of fertility and fruitfulness," says art historian Kapila Vatsayayan. The mango brings visions of a time in the rainy season when married girls would return to visit their mothers and sit under a mango tree, singing sad songs of longing for their husbands. In Indian literature, a mango grove is the classic rendezvous for lovers. In that country of hundreds of gods, there are about 1400 varieties of mango, according to the India Year Book, one of the most prized of which is the Alphonso which has apparently disappeared in Jamaica.

Not surprisingly, in India the fruit is reputed to have untold, sometimes contradictory powers. It is believed to be the inevitable aphrodisiac, but also a help in cooling passions. It is thought to be a blood and skin purifier, a digestive aid, a preventive for heat stroke and a cure for the common cold.
The way we eat mango also varies widely, depending on its type, who is eating and under what circumstances. Some people peel and slice it, or cut it diagonally and scoop it out with a spoon, after discarding the seed. Others prefer it with a selection of other fruit in a salad. Children, however, find the smaller varieties best popped whole into the mouth and chewed till only the bare seed remains. Others massage the fruit to liquefy the pulp, then suck it from a hole at the tip.

Green, it may be pickled and the ripe fruit may be pureed, made into various fruit punches and iced desserts or baked in pies and tarts. But cooking ensures that a great deal of the nutrients are lost. The ripe fruit is rich in nutrients including 4% to 20% sucrose. It has a high viltamin A and C content, some calcium and iron and even its protein content is higher than most other fruits.

Although adult aficianados may wax quite lyrical about the pleasures of the mango, children most savour the excitement of mango season. Hardly any of us, at that age of simple pleasures and high adventure, is without the memory of some delicious escapade.

We have such a report about his childhood in the nineteen thirties fromWhen me was a boy (1989) by radio and theatre personality Charles Hyatt. He relates that when Hope Pastures was just that ã pasture ã he and his –fren dem go discover mango walk inna de pasture an dem raise some Bombay ... pedigree mango fi downtown schoolboy... Bombay mango squash under yuh foot every step yuh step. So yuh pick up dis one an bite it, yuh see one look prettier an yuh throw way dis one an go fi dat.”

Professor Gladstone "Charlie" Mills, in his 1995 autobiography, has a slightly different memory of how, in the 1930s at Jamaica College, he and other boarders would raid Bombay mangoes from that same Hope estate. For them it was a kind of training for athletic events as –chased by estate rangers, boys were forced to escape by scaling fences and running the return journey to their dormitories."

Nowadays, with the wide dispersion of Caribbean peoples, the mango is found in ethnic markets in most large international centres. Shipping and handling are not normally a problem because most mangoes, like some people, have thick skins. It may also be found canned in syrup, so that even when out of season in the country of origin, it may reach the tables of mango lovers all over the world.

The taste abroad for this exotic fruit has helped to put money in the pockets of farmer. Mango exports, fresh and dried, have been increasing in the last few years, according to figures from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica. In 1994, for instance, mango exports to Canada jumped by 25 percent over 1993 figures; the UK showed a 21 percent increase; and exports to the US soared a whopping 8,290 percent. All of this may be good news for the economy, but mango lovers are looking askance. They wonder whether it might mean that the best fruit are being exported to benefit people in the metropolis, while those who most appreciate a good mango must settle for seconds. Itês not a farfetched scenario. Ask pawpaw connoisseurs.