Giant Catimon Mango at Maambal Orchard

There are two Giant Catimon mango trees at the Orchard, and both bore a lot of fruits this season. The fruit of this mango variety is very large, about three times the size of manggang kalabaw. We particularly like its sweetish taste when it's just about to ripen (manibalang). When fully ripe, it still tastes good, but if forced to choose only one, we'd still opt for the ripe manggang kalabaw.

This season, we saw for the first time the fruits of each individual mango tree in the Orchard, allowing us to ascertain which variety each tree belongs to.

Among the over two dozen mango trees in the Orchard, we counted six different varieties. The vast majority are manggang kalabaw, our preferred variety because of its unbelievable sweetness when ripe, and various stages of sourness when unripe. The rest are two types of piko (not good tasting when ripe), manggang supsupin, Giant Catimon and Indian mangoes.

An unpicked Giant Catimon mango fruit - with no familiarly sized object in the photo, the huge dimensions are not readily discernable.

The huge size of the fruit becomes apparent when we include a ruler in the photograph - the total length is over 7 inches!

This particular fruit tips the scales at 969 grams, and this is not yet the largest one we have harvested. Some of the even larger ones easily exceed 1 kg. 

This last photo shows the relative size of the Giant Catimon and a large specimen (for its variety) of manggang kalabaw from Zambales. It usually takes three pieces of manggang kalabaw to make 1 kg. We traditionally name something after kalabaw (carabao, or Philippine water buffalo) because of that thing's large size. But if manggang kalabaw is dwarfed by the Giant Catimon, which animal would fit the latter - manggang elepante? Or manggang balyena?

New Bahay Kubo at the Orchard

We have cleared the triangular area between the garage and the gate of construction materials and scrap items, then overlaid it with some gravel. This area is shaded by a row of mahogany trees and grass wont grow well in such a condition. The gravel overlay will protect the soil from erosion and keep the patch a nice place to walk on (mud-free) during the rainy season. 

A new bahay kubo was placed in the centroid of the triangular area to serve as our field office as we supervise the construction of the farmhouse.

 

 

Burrito The Pug visits Maambal Orchard

Burrito, our male pug puppy, recently visited the Orchard. He is about 14 weeks old and he now weighs around 3.80 kg. He weighed just 1.50 kg when he arrived about 5 weeks ago. 

The wide, open spaces of the Orchard is a treat to Burrito. He enjoyed running around like crazy, even under the high heat index prevailing in northern Luzon.

 

Sineguelas season at Maambal Orchard

There are six matured sineguelas trees at the Orchard and this is the first season when we are able to taste the small, oblong fruits. 

Sineguelas (aka Spanish Plum, Spondias purpurea) is a deciduous tree introduced from tropical America by the Spaniards. It grows to a height of 5 meters and bears smooth-skinned, oblong fruits that are about an inch long. When ripe, the fleshy skin and pulp of the fruit is eaten, leaving behind a large, stony seed.

Thanks to the Orchard's previous owner who selected and planted the seedlings years ago, the fruits turned out to be good tasting. The pulp is thick and sweetish, with a hint of sourness and that unique sineguelas  taste. The fleshy part easily separates from the seed, making it probably among the best sineguelas varieties I ever come across.

The fleshy part easily separates from the seed, making it probably the best sineguelas variety I ever tasted.

 

 

A cluster of low hanging green fruits - it will take about a week more before these ripen.

 

When ripe, the small fruits turn dark.