Went to Zill’s on Tuesday July 3rd for some trees. Was lucky enough to get Orange Sherbets and Cotton Candy’s even though they were only 18-24 inches tall. The adventure was started when I opened the office door. Inside covering the entire floor were 7 gallon plastic pots filled up with gorgeous Harvest Moons, fruit Punch, coconut Cream, Carrie, Fruit Cocktail, Pineapple Pleasure, and more! And what made it so special for me was 2 things. I have planted over 200 mango trees over the last 2 years and all of my choices came from the TFF’s comments and yet so many of the varieties I haven’t yet even tasted. And here was my opportunity to taste so many. So I took my time picking and choosing each variety and each fruit in each bucket. What made this visit soooo special was that all the while Gary Zill was in this part of the office watching the World Cup and during the big break on TV he spent about 20 minutes with me. The highlight of which was him presenting to me the E-4 which has been named Sugarloaf. And he told me about it and picked it up and cut me a slice. My taste buds exploded and it was a seriously special mango moment. I’m not exaggerating like an ignorant little kid, I’m a 69 year old retired medical professional with 11 grandkids and I’m not being emotional. Sugarloaf stays green. It has no color changes. I think the only way to know when it’s ready is by touch. It tasted like the inside of a mango pie that was made with real cream and sugar and was just as pure a taste as possible. And the texture was that smooth too.
Yesterday was the 4th and we had a total of 6 adults at the BBQ. I cut up in paper bowls for a mini mango taste fest, harvest moon, pineapple Pleasure, Sugarloaf, coconut Cream, fruit Punch, Haden, emerald, maybe 2 others.
My daughter and her husband chose Coconut cream as their favorite and the other 4 went ape over Sugarloaf. Mr Zill said he was going to start propagating it even though it has that solid green skin from beginning to end. Yes Sugarloaf will knock your socks off. What a great visit to Zill’s and my 20 minutes with Mr Zill and our talks about all areas of the world of mangoes from mango disease to soccer will always be a special memory for me He is such a nice guy!!!