It's Mango Time!
This time of year you can find amazing deals on mangos at pretty much any grocery store. It's pretty cool to know that there is so much abundance growing in the world, and at prices as low as 50 cents each, why splurge on anything else?
Let's stop and think about how exactly that mango got there. The grocery store probably bought the mangos from a distributer who probably purchased the mangos from a huge scale farm (in Mexico, Central America, South America, or the Caribbean) who probably hired a large amount of workers to harvest, pack, and ship the mangos to the distributer. That is a lot of hands to go through for a 50 cent mango.
Ever wonder why a grocery store mango looks so perfect and why a USA grown mango often have spots or marks? That's because grocery store mangoes are not only heavily graded, but they're also often times heavily sprayed. Even the organic ones. That's right there are certified organic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. A google search will give you more info on that. Many companies also use ethylene gas to ripen the mangoes to the perfect level so they are nice and yellow for the shelves. Some varieties of mangoes in South Florida don't even turn yellow!
So if a USA grown mango goes through less hands and is more ugly than an imported mango, why are they so much more expensive? One word. Quality. We value high quality fruit, so much so that we are willing to pay small scale farmers whatever price they find to be fair. We also never have to irradiate, gas, or boil our mangoes unlike imported mangos. By law the USDA requires all imported mangoes to be irradiated or hot water treated. The better mango companies will choose hot water treatment, but many of them will just irradiate which is basically the equivalent to putting a mango in a microwave. Not only does irradiation kill all potential organisims on the mango, it also makes the seed infertile and unable to sprout.
You can literally plant the seeds from our mangoes and grow your own mango tree! That's what it is all about.
It's time we make little changes in our lives by valuing the most important things, like family, friends, and the FOOD we are nourishing our cells with. Lets get more connected to our fruit and support the farmers and small businesses working hard by actually valuing their work and not always trying to score the best deal.
And if you still aren't sold on USA grown mangoes, don't take our word for it, come down to South Florida and try one yourself! The Fruit and Spice Park has a mango festival every year in July where they showcase dozens of amazing mango varieties in South Florida. There is also a mango auction at the Fairchild Botanical Garden where some of the super rare varieties go for hundreds of dollars per mango. Now that's valuing quality. ;)
Buy a USA grown Mango Box HERE
Mango Merch available HERE