Mango Season

Here in Townsville, it's mango season for another month or so. Andy and I both love mangos, and we're already dreading the time that they become expensive again.

Since we've been back in Townsville, we've been rearranging our weekly trip to the farmer's market around the mangos. There are a few markets here--one of them has good veggies and exotic fruits, one has much cheaper mangos and more potted plants. So we've been forsaking the selection of veggies to buy the mangos. This past week, we saw one lady selling trays of Bowen Mangos (small, sweet, juicy) for AU$10. When we counted them up, there were about 25, all at varying stages of ripeness. We paid for that, and then walked around some more. At the other side of the market was a man selling R2E2 Mangos (the size of a baby's head, and not as stringy as most mangos) for AU$0.50 each. He had two trailers and a truck bed, all completely full of these massive fruits. We bought ten.

What could we possibly do with 35 mangos? Well, as soon as we got home we picked out the ripest ones, peeled them, cut them up, and then stuck them in the freezer. We've got about 5 or 6 mangos frozen so far, and we'll probably do at least that many again. When mango season ends, we can snack on frozen mango, or make it into sorbets or smoothies or cocktails. Aside from freezing them, we've already had tofu marinated in mango chili sauce, mango oatmeal, and 2 or 3 mangos a day just for snacks. The R2E2s aren't ripe yet, but when they are, I think we won't have room for anything but mango!