The 2017 Mango Madness is nearly done. We started this season in Mid-June with a box of mangoes from Alex at Tropical Acres Farms in West Palm Beach. He sent a delicious spread of Edward, Ah Ping, Carrie, Cogshall, Lily, and Lemon Meringue. Then we were off to meet a friend in Ft. Myers and take her to Fruitscapes in Bokeelia where we picked up a few more Cogshall, a bunch of Pickering and some Cac.

Fruitcation Day 1

July came with a burst of fireworks and flavor as we headed to South Florida on what is becoming an annual pilgrimage to the Masters of Mangoes. We started with a stop at Spykes and Benders Groves. Spykes had the added draw of Kodama Koi being located on the property, so we dropped by to marvel at the beautiful koi and hopefully pick up some mangoes. While the koi did not disappoint, their selection of mangoes for sale were all over-ripe and woefully mislabeled.



Not wanting to be stuck with a Tommy Adkins when we thought we were picking...well...anything else, we opted to skip the fruit and try one of their fruit smoothies. The girl at the counter assured us that the mango in the orange-mango smoothie was from their own groves. Unfortunately the flavor didn't live up to the hype or the price. We spent $8 on a 16 oz smoothie that had almost no mango and just a washed out orange flavor. Strike Spykes off the list for upcoming years.



We continued the adventure stopping by Benders Grove in Davie, FL. Mike had a great selection of fruit, freshly picked and guarded by his mango-loving golden retriever. Here we loaded up on Bailey's Marvel, Florigon, Sunrise, Lemon Meringue and a few others. We took the spoils of our quest and headed to our Air B & B to lay waste to them. Mike's Bailey's Marvels were a great way to start our vacation. They were sweet, rich and creamy with hints of Indian spice. The Florigon's were reminiscent of Edwards a little milder but still fiberless and creamy.

Fruitcation Day 2

We start our next day at Excalibur Fruit Trees in Lake Worth, FL. After grabbing enough mangoes from the grove's fruit stand to feed an army of fruit rats, we ask the staff about jaboticaba. They were all sold out at the stand, but if we are lucky there might be a few left on the trees. They offer to take us on a ride through the groves to check it out. Although our search bore no fruit, our guide - upon discovering we had never had a tour of the groves - promptly kidnapped us for a golf-cart ride around their extensive grounds.



As well as the expected fruit trees of mango (close to 100 different varieties), peach, longan, lychee, jackfruit and sapodilla (all of which they had multiple varieties) the grove boasted plenty of other rare and exotic fruit trees. As we careened through the trees on the back of a golf cart, our guide told us about the different varieties of fruit they had and even stopped to let us taste some green mulberries (a variety I was unaware even existed) fresh off the tree.



We returned from the tour to meet up with our friends back at the fruit stand and pay for the second haul of the trip, which included Edward, Val-Carrie, Po Pyu Kalay (Lemon Meringue), Bombay, Dot, K-3 (Kathy), and Dominica.  After dropping off our friends, we continued on to the next grove on our list, Walter Zill's.



Technically, Walter Zill doesn't sell trees, although he will graft one for people on special request. Walter Zill is from Mango Royalty, the Zill High Performance Family, and has a small grove on his property in Boynton Beach, FL with a stand next to it. He sells fruit From Sunday through Friday and is always closed on Saturday. Unfortunately, we arrived somewhat late and most of the varieties had been sold out. We got a couple of Pickering and Taralay.

Our final stop on Day 2 was Tropical Acres Farms in West Palm Beach. The owner, Alexander Salazar, has one of the biggest stands of Edwards in the state of Florida. While Edward is considered a shy producer, when you have a bunch of 50 foot tall trees, you'll still get a lot of fruit, no matter how shy they are. In 2016, Tropical Acres Farms was our first introduction into all the mangoes Florida has to offer and they never disappoint. 

We loaded up on Edwards and then started searching for whatever new and exciting varieties Alex had to offer. We ended up with some great new finds including Ewais, a mango from Egypt with a surprising abundance of Indian Spice packed in a tiny, juicy little egg-shaped fruit and a Juicy Peach, some Maha Chanoks and a variety of single mangoes that we had never tried or that we knew from experience were excellent. 

We returned to our Air B&B to taste some mangoes, relax in the pool and rest up for our final day of fruit hunting and the trip home. For dinner, we headed out to a little Salvadoran restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale, near our B & B. El Guanaco looked like a dive. A tiny restaurant with only a few parking spaces, it seemed a little sketchy. I'm glad we weren't frightened away, however. The food was incredible. We ordered the seafood fajitas which were actually quite good, however we were blown away by the Churasco steak. It was melt-in-your-mouth tender (surprising for a skirt steak) and seasoned perfectly. Served with tostones, the steak alone was enough to serve 2 moderately hungry people. We were tempted to try one of their flans for dessert, but we had mangoes waiting for us, so we skipped dessert and headed back to our temporary home.

Fruitcation Day 3

The final day of our mini vacation was the only day that Truly Tropical in Delray Beach was going to be open for more than an hour. We were warned that there would be a line waiting to get in if we came around opening time, but when we saw what varieties Chris had posted on her blog as being available that Saturday, we had to get there early. The gates opened promptly at 9 am and the waiting cars poured through, parking willy-nilly among the mango trees lining the road. The ensuing rush to the bins of Graham, Sweet Tart, Carrie, Valencia Pride, Ice Cream, Alphonso, Dwarf Hawaiian, Mallika and so many more mangoes was reminiscent of a Christmas sale at Filene's Basement. These fruit hunters were a much nicer bunch of shoppers than Boston's fashionistas, however. 

Once bags were full and fruit hunters were exhausted, we all happily queued up for our booty to be weighed and our bills to be paid. We then stopped to pick up some fertilizer and chat with fellow Fruit Forum members and then loaded it all up for the trip home. We had one non-mango stop still planned before our long drive back to Tampa Bay. 

Before heading back across the state, we had one more treasure to find. Etlingera elatior or Torch Ginger is a favorite ingredient in certain southeast Asian dishes. Penang Laksa - ranked one of the top 10 dishes in the world - gets its unique flavor from the flower of this beautiful ginger. One of the few places that carry this treasure is Jesse Durko's Tropical Garden and Nursery. We made it to the nursery, just as the rain began which made our search for Torch Ginger feel more like an adventure in a tropical rain forest.

After touring the nursery in another golf cart and determining exactly which ginger species we were searching for, our host took us to the appropriate area to pick up the potted plants. We searched in the pouring rain until we finally found the elusive plant, then headed back home with a load of mangoes and two torch gingers, already planning for next year.

Our Final Haul