In July, prosthesis I headed to Fairchild Botanical Gardens in Miami and tasted delicious mangoes.

For the mango taste test, I sampled 10 different varieties of mangoes which originated in the Caribbean. I live and work on ECHO’s farm, which has over 25 different, LUSCIOUS varieties and I tasted all of those after this event in Miami. I’m sad that mango season is over…I’ll have to wait until next summer to break into a juicy mango when working in the field and savouring the delicious aromas and textures. My favourite varieties: Okrong, Nam Doc Mai, Edwards, Southern Blush and Jakarta.

My friend D being interviewed by the local press. She had just flown in from New Zealand, and here she is being pestered by American press to “tell us how it tastes!”

Hundreds of mangoes! It’s hard to imagine! In Canada, grocery stores sell only two or three insipid varieties (granted, they would probably taste better if picked off the tree and eaten straightaway): Tommy Atkins, Phillipine and a Mexican one (not sure of the name). At ECHO’s nursery alone, we sell over 10 different varieties. Yum yum!

The guy in blue jeans and white T-shirt (right, background) is Dr. J Crane, a researcher at University of Florida’s Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC). He gave our ECHO intern group a fantastic tour of TREC’s mango, mamey sapote, avocado, longan, and lychee collection. I managed to stuff two avocados and at least five mangoes in my purse as we tasted our way through the trees.

Irwin mango – this variety is grown in my garden at ECHO, but I didn’t get the chance to taste it because my tree is stunted and un-productive. Too bad.

Hugging a baobob tree (native of Africa). You could call me a tree-hugger now…

Strange, page but true snack…available at fine gas stations. (It tasted disgusting.)

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. My summer has been very busy…June and July were intense months of massive construction in my garden and supervising volunteer work teams. I was also in Nicaragua for a week at the end of July to attend an agricultural conference. It was a timely trip as it re-whetted my appetite for overseas development work and reminded my why I decided to come to Florida and work on a farm as an intern for one year. More pictures to come about that trip. August was just plain old hot, but I was able to get away to New York City and enjoy a few days walking the city, treat taking public transportation and walking (oh so not what you do in Florida), eating Chinese and Korean food (finally!) and hanging out with girlfriends. Was a good time.

Currently it’s really hot (average 35-37 degrees Celsius), humid (sometimes 90%) and mosquito-y (they bite as early as 8:30am!!!) here, but I’m proud to say that I’ve survived the worst of the summer. We’re always anticipating hurricanes and tropical storms too, but nothing major has hit (yet…). The sky is extremely beautiful at twilight, as enormous clouds roll inland from the Gulf of Mexico, silhouetted against oranges, pinks and purples I’ve only seen in Florida. I also always see lightening storms zigzagging in the distance in the dark night sky. I’ll have to take some sky pictures and post them.

Happy autumn to those of you up north. I’m slightly jealous that you’ll have an autumn filled with leaves turning orange and red, and carpeting the ground.

September is time for me to prepare my garden beds for fall planting, so I’ll be hoeing and weeding and seeding. Stay tuned!

Eating a mamey sapote shake at “Robert is Here” fruit stand in Homestead, pills
Florida. Mamey sapote is a bright orange, tropical fruit that is beloved by Cubans and tastes fantastic blended with vanilla ice cream.