Mango Season on Maui

MANGO SEASON ON MAUI

Mango season on Maui comes once a year. It's a time of year that I really look forward to. When I first moved to Maui I think I had a mango or two. However, it wasn't until last year that I really started noticing the mango trees on Maui. It was as if a blindfold had been removed from my eyes. They were everywhere. This year I had access to a mango yard of 10 trees!

Mango season came a little later this year because of the colder weather earlier. It's now August and we are still seeing some mangoes. My friend Debbie and her husband Bob visited from the Washington, DC area in July and I know that the mangoes were a highlight of the visit. We had fun picking mangoes, making mango smoothies, eating mango bread and dehydrating mangoes.

How can something like mangoes be so intriguing? I do not know why they excite me so much, but they do. I get so excited just thinking about them, finding them, cooking with them, sharing them with friends. Mangoes are a very lush and sweet fruit and they grow so abundantly, nobody has to do anything, they just appear. It's really quite amazing. The trees grow dozens of feet high. The mango is so delicious when you get it ripened from the tree. I am aware that most people will never have experienced the lusciousness of a tree ripened mango.

I know for sure that mangoes have inspired me. They inspired me to come up with new recipes. They have helped me make new friends. They put a smile on my face. I look forward to waking up in the morning and foraging for mangoes. I look forward to finding the deep red/orange ones that are perfectly ripened and ready to eat. I look forward to peeling, slicing and pureeing mangoes. Mangoes, they have created moments for me, good memories. Mangoes have taken me to a place of appreciation, awareness and creativity. It's really quite amazing how a fruit could do that!