USA: The short, sweet life of Valencia Pride mangoes
Deborah Wong Chamberlain's luscious Valencia Pride mangoes are among a very few elite fruits, such as Blenheim apricots, Snow Queen nectarines and Persian mulberries, whose seasonal appearance at farmers markets occasions the most intense anticipation and excitement.
In some ways they elicit the ultimate degree of craving and strategizing among farmers market cognoscenti: They're expensive and require careful planning to obtain, and they taste like a sweet dream incarnated as fruit.
Valencia Pride, a Florida variety selected in 1941, is alluring in appearance, large, long and slender, with canary yellow skin and a delicate pinkish red blush. It's exquisitely aromatic, with deep orange, juicy, very sweet, fiber-free flesh.
Why can't all mangoes be so sublime?
Although one can sometimes find very good imported mangoes in the supermarket, generally they have been treated with hot water vapor to kill pests, which also kills the aroma; farmers often grow productive and colorful but inferior-tasting varieties such as Tommy Atkins; and the use of paclobutrazol and nitrogen to regulate flowering boosts production at the expense of flavor.
Chamberlain grows just 20 trees of Valencia Pride at her farm at North Shore in the Coachella Desert, the only area in the continental United States, other than Florida, suitable for growing this crop.
(IMO NOTE: MANGOES GROW ALL OVER CALIFORNIA: FROM SAN DIEGO TO SAN JOSE)
She'll sell this premium variety for about two more weeks at the Santa Monica Wednesday market and then switch to Keitt, which is green and football-shaped, with flavor that's almost but not quite as good.
Last Wednesday, after the first picking, all the fruit that Chamberlain brought was spoken for in advance, even at the heady price of $40 for an 11-pound box, or $3.49 a pound individually.
To reserve mangoes, talk to Chamberlain or her vendors at the market, call her at (760) 265-9167 or email her at wongfarms@aol.com.
Source: latimes.com
Publication date: 8/12/2011
Source: latimes.com
Publication date: 8/12/2011
