Michelle Loubon

UWI vice-prin­ci­pal Prof Rho­da Red­dock says the man­go fes­ti­val should act as a pre­cur­sor to oth­er in­dige­nous food fes­ti­vals in T&T. She made this com­ment dur­ing the launch of the first ever Man­go Fest event which was held on the grounds of the In­ter-Amer­i­can In­sti­tute for Co-op­er­a­tion on Agri­cul­ture at 10 Austin Street, St Au­gus­tine, on Au­gust 15.

Its theme was, "Every kind and taste find an equal place."

Plead­ing for a man­go con­nois­seur to move her away from the starch man­go dis­play, Red­dock said: "The Man­go Fest is a good op­por­tu­ni­ty for UWI to place re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to re­vi­talise agri­cul­ture in the re­gion. "We have been weaned away from in­dige­nous fruits (sug­ar ap­ples, mamee ce­pote and pois doux (sweet pea)," she added.

She laud­ed UWI's op­por­tu­ni­ty to part­ner with the stake­hold­ers in the im­por­tant fes­ti­val. "I want to en­cour­age every­one to buy more prod­ucts from man­goes...I en­vi­sion it as a pre­cur­sor to oth­er food fes­ti­vals," Red­dock said.

Gas­pard-Tay­lor: Ex­plore po­ten­tial

Among those present were vice-pres­i­dent of the Rur­al Net­work of Women, Gia Gas­pard-Tay­lor and Gregg Rawl­ins, rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the In­ter-Amer­i­can In­sti­tute for Co­op­er­a­tion on Agri­cul­ture. Da­ta col­lec­tion as­sis­tant in the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Mar­jorie Sawh-Walk­er, and an­oth­er mem­ber of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Net­work for Rur­al Women Pro­duc­ers, Rose Ra­jbansee, at­tend­ed the fes­ti­val, Cos­ta Ri­can en­voy Ri­car­do Thomp­son was al­so present. Gas­pard-Tay­lor ad­mit­ted that man­goes were among the most prized fruits in the trop­ics.

"Its full po­ten­tial hasn't been ex­plored yet," she said. Rawl­ins said the chal­lenge T&T faced was de­vel­op­ing a sys­tem for har­vest­ing and mak­ing bet­ter use of the tasty fruit which ma­tures with­in a short grow­ing pe­ri­od. He sup­port­ed Red­dock's view that the man­go fes­ti­val could be the pre­cur­sor for oth­er types of fes­ti­vals and the ve­hi­cle for link­ing oth­ers in the re­gion and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly. To date, the bulk of man­goes here are made in­to pre­serves, an­chars, chows, kuchelas and cur­ried for East In­di­an events like wed­dings. In In­dia where the fruit flour­ish­es, its po­ten­tial is wide­ly-ex­ploit­ed. Cooks have the pick of cook­ing pow­ders, spicy pick­les and brine wa­ter pick­les.

Man­go con­nois­seurs can savour a range of re­fresh­ing drinks and flavoured yo­ghurt pick­les. Even the Guardian ed­i­to­r­i­al (Au­gust 4) had sug­gest­ed its us­es be ful­ly ex­plored. It said: "Where are the jams, jel­lies, wines, pre­serves, juices and cook­ing ad­di­tives that would ex­plode its re­mark­able taste in­to more culi­nary de­lights?"

Apart from man­goes, there were booths which dis­played wheat­grass and lit­er­a­ture. In­clud­ing recipes for man­go chut­neys, jams and cakes. The 2010 venue has been sched­uled for Neap Val­ley Farm in Princes Town.

About the fes­ti­val

The event, which at­tract­ed den­tist Dr Ian Pre­vatt, was billed as a day of ed­u­ca­tion, com­mu­ni­ty and good taste in cel­e­bra­tion of man­goes. It was al­so seen as an op­por­tu­ni­ty for food lovers to match their sci­ence with the de­sires of man­go lovers. Scores of peo­ple sam­pled a sub­set of the re­put­ed 54 va­ri­eties of man­goes, like doux doux, rose, bux­ton spice, Gra­ham, starch, julie, cal­abash and an­geli­na. Julie, which Guardian colum­nist Dr David Bratt had dubbed the "queen of man­goes," sat there re­gal­ly, too.