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Strawberry Mango Bars

April 4, 2023

Here is the perfect early spring easter dessert, really we can’t stop eating it

I adore strawberries. One of my long-standing fantasies is that I will retire in Italy as an organic strawberry farmer. I also fantasize of retiring in Sicily as a mango farmer (believe it or not mangoes grow decently there). This recipe fuses my two fantasies together and I can’t help but feel joy at the heart of this dessert. The combination is sweet and interesting with an ease of complexity.

I love pairing mangoes with strawberries in my recipes because of this flavor camaraderie. This new lemon bar-ish recipe began as a cranberry mango bar in the original idea phase. I am so glad I procrastinated because this spring strawberry version feels more natural and lighter with less sugar use than the cranberries would have called for, thanks to the natural sweetness in mangoes and oranges and my strength in using fruits to sweeten deserts.

Featured, News, Secrets & Lies

Hold On Just a Bit……and Then Let Loose

March 28, 2023

Round fruit inflexible for as lower yields and high demand wreak havoc

When I was a little girl in southern California I used to race my bother on this little honda 50 on my pony Cricket. We would race down this long ass trail next to a creek with all kinds of bends and bumps and even oak branches in our way slapping our faces. Cricket was a fast little pony but in the beginning I used to lose all the time until I learned that I had to hold Cricket’s reins back a little bit on some of the worst turns and bends and bumpy areas; after I learned that move we beat my brother Axel’s ass every time!

These next two weeks are like the bendy turns that Cricket and I learned to race through.

Organic round mango fruit volume will be incredibly inflexible the next 2 weeks followed by a big loosening. This is a tough position, but one that we will transcend and soon forget once normal #MuchosMangoes quantities resume before your tulips bloom.

Farm, Featured, News

A “Big” Crop Report

March 10, 2023

The lack of small fruit is real and size Up-ortunities are too!

There is a significant and serious lack of small fruit coming out of mango orchards in the south (Chiapas & Oaxaca) right now. As a result, there is a lot of confusion and panic in the market. This is mostly because pricing remains higher than average and bigger fruit and higher prices mean more expensive pieces of fruit.

We’ve received new intel, including photos and video from our Crespo boots on the ground or in this case Roberto Crespo. His information has been coming in the last several weeks as we’ve been trying to better access the small fruit situation. It’s been coordinated and agreed upon by all Crespo’s as well as several other large and medium sized conventional and organic producers in the south. It all true, the small fruit shortage!

Featured, People

“Our Stories”

March 8, 2023

El Grupo Crespo/RCF’s Unstoppable Women

I shared my thoughts on this International Women’s Day in another post: “Where Is the Spine of International Women’s “Day”? Building Bridges: Diversity & Inclusion.

In that post I call on my fellow industry peers to welcome more diversity and inclusion on their teams, to their marketing streams, and beyond. Women and other underrepresented groups come with differing perspectives, education, skill sets, expertise, and training that should be celebrated. If we are willing to openly and honestly assess where we are at today, we can take the steps necessary to create a fairer world.

I asked those with a vehicle for sharing information in our industry to welcome more diverse voices, role models, and unstoppable leaders. Diversify who you interview, feature, and talk about. Cover topics of diverse value. Increase awareness. If we market underrepresented voices in our industry, we can help accelerate equity. But we have to support them directly, too!

Below is my contribution to the effort, celebrating a few of El Grupo Crespo/RCF’s Unstoppable Women’s voices!

Featured, Kitchen

Celebrate Fat Tuesday with Mangoes

February 20, 2023

Étouffée with mango tabasco & mango anise (sugar cube) sazeracs

“Mardi Gras” means fat Tuesday, I only learned that a few years back which makes me giggle a little bit! It always falls before Ash Wednesday which signals the beginning of Lent a predominantly Catholic “event” which happens during the lead up to Easter and typically consists of payer, repentance and some fasting. Fat Tuesday is the day during lent when people indulge in all that they obstain from during lent. The day is a feasting occasion, often filled with all kinds of debauchery, which you can read about in more detail on Refinery 29.

Here are a few mango-centric recipes I whipped up this past weekend to help you celebrate Fat Tuesday which will be even better if you add some #MangoJoy.

Farm, Featured

Mango Blossoms WOW!

February 16, 2023

A mango tree’s flowers signal potential for #MuchosMangoes

Flowers have been top of mind this week, and it wasn’t because my social media feed was bombarded by flowers for Valentine’s Day. Rather, throngs of vibrant photos and videos of mango blossoms from the #HermanosCrespos lit up my WhatsApp, exhibiting the last of the late blooms in the south, the new blooms bursting open in the north and the vibrant openings everywhere in-between.

Beautiful mango flowers currently blanket most of Mexico. As we begin to learn more about the early season quality, yields, sizing, and the varietal nuances of the season from the southern regions’ mature fruit (where we’ve been packing for a month now), we are all filled with promise. That is what I love about mango blossoms: they gorgeously signal great possibilities in their abundance. Even though less than 1% of all blooms actually form fruit.

Farm, Featured, Secrets & Lies

Tommy Atkins = Mi Favorito Mango

January 30, 2023

A deep dive into the when’s, why’s and how’s of the firm fleshed, farmer friendly mango

My favorite mango is a Tommy Atkins, but it’s not because it’s farmer and supply chain friendly. It’s my favorite because it’s culinarily versatile and it also happens to be farmer and supply chain friendly which isn’t a bad thing.

If you google Tommy Atkins, one of the first links is Wikipedia which describes in the first sentence the Tommy as not generally considered the best in terms of sweetness and flavor. If you ask me, this sets up Tommy for a negative bias before you’ve even seen one in real life. Yes, the statement that follows is true, basically saying: it’s grown because it fares well in the production and import supply chain. But, for real, this is a gigantic part of the equation, in all parts of the world, for all commodities. Not unique to Tommy.

Before you hear the retort from an adoring Tommy Atkins fan, based on my professional mango expertise and observations, not to mention my culinary exploits, I want to report that we have harvested the first organic Tommy Atkins from El Grupo Crespo’s southern orchards and, as this glides into your inbox, our southern packhouses are cleaning, polishing, and packing them into several of our most coveted packaging SKU’s: the Crespo Big Box, Net Bags and the old faithful Crespo 4KG case (all of which have been designed to look dashing as both big and small mango displays while also proving strong as stand-alone displays and storage).

Featured, News, People

It Takes a Village

January 15, 2023

Proper Ataulfo handling practices increase sales and consumer satisfaction

El Grupo Crespo grows exceptional Ataulfo mangoes. They grow the Ataulfos in ideal microclimates that yield their signature flavor – sweet, sugar-caramel with a tinge of spice. If you ask me, it can only be created in Mexico.

The Ataulfo mango, a Mexican cultivar, is puro Mexico, as the saying goes. Just like Indian mangoes and Thai mangoes taste and look a little different when grown in Mexico, the Ataulfo mango is the same grown elsewhere. The Mexican season is THE season for this special mango. Many consumers know this and more are learning. We want to fuel that momentum, educating on best handling practices, and gaining more lovers of Mexico’s Ataulfo.

Farm, Featured, News

Empaque Don Jorge II Open for the Season in Chiapas

January 14, 2023

Plus, an additional NEW packhouse, Bola de Oro opens in Oaxaca

Back in 2019, just prior to the mango season, El Grupo Crespo opened Empaque Don Jorge II (EDJII) in Ocozocoautla de Espinosa, Chiapas, or – as the locals call it – Coita. It was the Crespo family’s second proprietary mango packhouse, plus several hundred supporting hectares of organic mango orchards. The expanded mango volumes and increased packing outputs allowed the family business to expand and grow. This season El Grupo starts their 2023 mango programs with even more volume, more capacity and more varietals. It’s exciting for me to witness their growth and see the family rewarded with recognition from the industry, retailers, wholesalers and processors.

Farm, Featured, News

Early Rain Damage & Lots of Optimism

December 21, 2022

It’s beginning to look at lot like a prosperous Mexican Mango Season

It’s that time of the year again when you all forget about fruits and vegetables amidst all the holiday hubbub, and also the time of the year when I begin thinking excessively about mangoes as we begin to prepare for the upcoming Mexican Mango Season!

I’m not going to lie, I get giddy with anticipation of all the mangoes to come, usually cooking up something mango-centric to ring in the holiday season. This year it was my Mango Pork Mole & Christmas Tamales and a very special Mexican Mezcal Pechuga Mango Milk Punch. My excitement for mangoes had already been jostled more than normal for this time of year since fresh back from a recent trip to Egypt where I had been pleasantly surprised by all the mangoes.

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Newer Posts

Ataulfo

Strawberry Mango Bars

Hold On Just a Bit……and Then Let Loose

Round fruit inflexible for as lower yields and high demand wreak havoc

A “Big” Crop Report

“Our Stories”

El Grupo Crespo/RCF’s Unstoppable Women

Celebrate Fat Tuesday with Mangoes

Étouffée with mango tabasco & mango anise (sugar cube) sazeracs

Mango Blossoms WOW!

A mango tree’s flowers signal potential for #MuchosMangoes

Tommy Atkins = Mi Favorito Mango

A deep dive into the when’s, why’s and how’s of the firm fleshed, farmer friendly mango

It Takes a Village

Proper Ataulfo handling practices increase sales and consumer satisfaction

Empaque Don Jorge II Open for the Season in Chiapas

Plus, an additional NEW packhouse, Bola de Oro opens in Oaxaca

Early Rain Damage & Lots of Optimism

It’s beginning to look at lot like a prosperous Mexican Mango Season

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