Mangoes, so sweet and wonderful- the most abundant fruit right now, in markets, veggie shops, road sides and on your trees! MAny of course are grown to be shipped interstate, but we can make the most of enjoying them freight free. Now going for $2.50- $3.00 a kilo or $25 a box, so if you don’t have a friend with a mango tree, or orchard, fear not they are affordable and in some places just falling to the ground, some people in the rural area will let you pick fruit for a small fee, r trade, so ask around. Some commercial growers can use a lot of spray, so just ask about how they are farmed and pick those using minimal sprays or fertilisers to help our natural environment (and your health).

Above Mim from Rapid Creek Markets shows off a great pair of mangoes grown in Darwin River, below are just some of the locally grown varieties available (can you name them?) So you can of course just cut the cheeks off, by cutting down the sides of the stone and then score this into cubes, then fold the skin inside out and eat the mango from the skin.  If you are freezing or blending mangoes into daiquiris or just wonderful non alcoholic smoothies, then you can scoop out the cheek with a large metal spoon.

On Friday night at The Mulch Pit’s “Eat Local Feed Global” campaign Louise made a lovely mango salad with lime, toasted coconut, mint macadamias and walnuts- it was delicious.

Below is a green mango salad made with very similar ingredients to a pawpaw salad – finely sliced mango, chilli, lime juice, rice vinegar, fish sauce and palm sugar with heaps of Thai basil.

The above green mango salad is great if you fancy a mango delight which is a bit less sweet, green mango can also just be enjoyed cut into pieces with a salty sweet dipping sauce or paste, this is really popular in South and Central America! The best variety for this is a sour Thai mango. (see below)The salad below, can be made at the start of mango season when a few cucumbers can be harvested too, add chilli, lime, mint and fresh coconut.I try and enjoy a mango every couple of days while there in season and freeze as much as possible in takeaway boxes in our little freezers for the rest of the year to make mainly smoothies and sorbets…. mmmm mmmangoes!