so a few comments of my own.
first, huuuuuuge thank you to King Harry for being, as ever, a most gracious and generous host.
thankyou also to sheehan for, as ever, providing me with endless laughs and some glorious quotes, including "gerry you are like a roach, in a good way".
what was especially hysterical was watching sheehan stomp around harry's yard, as though he owned it, stopping at every second tree to lop off enormous quantities of foliage (none of which will ever be successfully grafted) . equally funny, was sheehan lecturing no one in particular about nothing in particular, at the top of his voice, while poor harry was trying to gently get a word in about his trees.
you should have seen little sheehan's face when i unfurled not only a lemon zest but also an orange sherbet- his dear little eyes sparkled with glee and he instantly took out his phone and started calling every Trinidadian he knew to share his joyous news, that he was in the presence of an orange sherbet and lemon zest. as sheehan mentioned, the LZ was not good because it was under ripe. I ate another one tonight tht was ripe and it was amazing.
other highlights included sleepdoc shimmying up a jackfruit tree, about 20 feet up to harvest jackfruit. he made bear grills look like an amateur. the 3rd jackfruit we ate was excellent. the first two were meh.
as sheehan said the imam was excellent, as was an angie sleepdoc bought. sleep also bought a delicious Khusan mango and a mystery mango he grafted but does not know the name of. the malikas were also excellent and the nam doc mais were pretty good. harry also provided an biu which was very sweet and pleasant if a little unexciting.
it was really nice to meet Clint (sleepdoc) Kate (Hollywood) and Abeyoumi (Future). Hope top meet up with all of you again soon.
after swearing i would not buy any trees at the fairchild mango festival, i heard one of the lecturers rave about a wild mango variety called kastoree, which apparetly tastes like lychees. thats like waving a red flag in front of me. i immediately bought a treee and persuaded harry to plant it and act as trustee.
i went to Gary Zill's brother's house where they grow a bunch of mangoes and sell them. the picture sheehan included above of the box of mangoes are the mangoes i bought from there. Mr. Zill was a little grumpy at first but once he saw (from talking to me ) that i knew a little about mangoes he warmed up and when he started talking about pickering he actually became extremly emotional and started choking up with tears (im not exactly sure why).
He had about 20-30 different varities of mangoes for sale, ranging in price from $1.50- $2 a pound, mainly rarer varities and many that have not yet been named. a must- visit for any mango enthusiast.
the mango festival was nice- it was great to meet two of my heroes- Dr. Crane and Dr. Fairchild, and Norris Ledesma is an extremly knowledgable, pretty and enthusiastic mango expert.
the mango tasting at the mango festival was never going to measure up to the tasting we had at King Harry's place the day before, but even going in with low expecations, it was really terrible. about 8 mango varities- none of them rare or exciting, cut up into tic-tac sized pieces so that they were pretty much a tasteless mush. and they charged an extra dollar for admission to the tasting.
there were tons of food vendors. i tasted some incredible mango and key lime pie but never got around to buying any alas.
tons of food stands, all of which were busy all day. (not sure how people had an appetite for gyros in the heat)
dr campbell spoke very well about how the florida mangoes started with the haden and he discussed about 10 varities which he felt were particularly promising.
oh and despite sheehan's mocking, i stand by my assertion that some mangoes have a parsnipy flavor and smell.
