Mango and LimeMy autumn crop includes mangos, from a tree that is now nearly twenty years old. It is not a big tree mainly because it is into its second life - in 2001 a bushfire burnt the tree so badly that I thought it was dead and cut it off to a stump, but before I could get round to digging out the stump a new shoot emerged which has grown into a small tree and four years ago produced its first fruit. The biggest crop ever this year at 17. Because of the cool weather, I assume, the fruit does not ripen until April, though along with a lot of other fruit the mangos are starting to ripen in late March. They are a very welcome touch of the tropics and the taste takes me back to my youth in Queensland. The taste of tree ripened mangos is so ripe and luscious that you realise why this fruit has such a reputation, a reputation that is never reached by the fruit picked early transported and sold in the fruit shops of the southern states. I eat all the fruit from my trees fresh, on a very few occasions with prawns in a salad, but mostly just as is for breakfast.
Another warm climate fruit I grow is the Tahitian lime, these are also ready now, in fact starting to turn yellow as they get to the end of their ripening life....a gin and tonic is not the same without a slice of lime.
Apples
The Granny Smith apples are ready to be picked and stored, they will store in cold conditions for a all of winter, giving me time to deal with the golden delicious. Granny Smith is good for both eating fresh and cooking. The last of my apple trees is the Lady Williams its crop will not be ready until late May.
Max Dingle 27 March 2014
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