Mango season keeps going

There won't always be one more mango. But, for now, there is. Plus Cherry Bombes, DC and dwelling in Orlando.

There is one more mango sitting on my kitchen counter.

I thought mango season was done for me. My mom’s trees, which I’m slowly accepting are now kinda, mainly, mostly my trees, tapped out early this summer, devastated by windstorms that stripped far too many fruits from their branches when they were still tiny, green and hard as pebbles.

We shared the few mangoes that ripened with squirrels and ants, pests my mom did a better job of controlling back when these were mainly, mostly her trees. I brought a handful of mangoes to a book event at The Lynx in Gainesville. I ate the rest with my daughter, my home’s second-biggest mango fanatic, huddled over my favorite cutting board, letting the juices drip from our fingers to our forearms, then puddle yellow-orange atop the dull wood.

The beauty of living, truly living, in South Florida is that whenever you think mango season is over, finished, caput, someone comes along and keeps it going. A neighbor whose trees are late fruiters. A friend of a friend whose kid is allergic. A stranger who leaves sticky Publix bags of them at your gym/work/school/bank, gently folding back the crinkly handles to let folks know: Hey! Take as many as you like.

Such kindnesses have extended my mango season yet again. This last mango — at least for now — is difficult for me to cut. Literally and less so. It seems to have been picked before it was ripe, and while it is a beautiful sunset of colors, its flesh is unyielding.

Maybe that’s OK. As long as it’s here, mango season is too.

In book news …

• I had the delicious pleasure of discussing “The Mango Tree” on the legendary Radio Cherry Bombe with host Londyn Crenshaw. The interview started with the book, then delved into my years as a restaurant critic and the interesting idiosyncrasies that make Southwest Florida’s food and dining scene so unique. I got to name drop a few favorite local spots — hey Blue Dog! hey Liberty! — but, more so, I got to talk about my passion for food with someone who shares it vividly and ardently. I have been a Cherry Bombe fan for years, so to be part of this legacy, to be a small piece of all that Cherry Bombe has built for women in food, I am honored. Listen to my episode here (or bookmark it and save it for later!).

• What’re you doing next week? If you’re in/near/can get away to Washington DC, then please join me at the Library of Congress’s National Book Festival! I’m thrilled simply to have been invited, but when I saw my fellow panelists I about lost my mind. Crystal Wilkinson, former poet laureate of Kentucky, and NYT bestselling author and poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil will be joining me to talk Food, Family & Community at 2:50 p.m. on Saturday, August 24. Learn more here.

  

• Can’t make it to DC? Orlando is closer! And there’s going to be Filipino food! On Sept. 4 at 7 p.m., I’ll be conversing with Jan M. Padios to celebrate the launch of her brilliant hybrid book of prose and poignant architectural illustration called “36 Dwellings.” We will be at the Michelin-awarded Kaya in Orlando’s Lake Eola Heights neighborhood. Pinoy food and drink will be available, and a little bird told me there may also be — karaoke?! Can we do this every Wednesday? Learn more here. Order Jan’s beautiful book here.