Summer here is hot and humid--kind of gross. It's the start of hurricane season (groan). However, it's also tropical fruit season. Right in our back yard grows a Seuss-ian wonderland of fruits like and . Perhaps none of these fruits inspires as much obsession as the mango.
The summer's mango mania reaches its crescendo this weekend with the annual at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Backyard growers, food fanatics, farmers and from around the world gather to bask in the resplendent red-orange glow of hundreds of fruit, talk shop and buy new plants.
There's always a different theme--this year's is Mexico--but each year tropical fruit curators Richard Campbell and Noris Ledesma create a sprawling display of mangoes from around the world, grown at Fairchild's farm in the Redland. There's also a mango brunch, a mango tasting and a mango auction. Even if you don't bid on mangoes at the auction, it's fun to listen to Ledesma and .
Watch this video of a luau at 2011's Hawaii-themed festival to see that impressive mango display. The video includes a cameo by actor and tropical-fruit-obsessive, Bill Pullman, who was filming part of the documentary, . Bhaskar Savani, an Philadelphia dentist, talks about how on the import of Indian mangoes.
It's been , so if you've not yet touched your lips to the bright yellow-orange flesh of this fruit, you should mark your calendar for this weekend's mango festival at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
Special thanks to for video and editing and to David Samayoa for stills.
This is a guest post from food and drink blog, . She is also the Miami editor for You can follow her at on Twitter.
