'Tis the season

I like fruit. 


Growing up, Dad had to put a two-piece-per-day per child cap on our daily fruit intake, to stop all the fruit being eaten as soon as the shopping bags hit the kitchen bench! One of my clearest childhood memories is trying a mango for the first time, and the days after where I tried to convince Dad that surely Burnie was tropical enough to start a mango orchard?!? My parents often remind me of when we lived in Boat Harbor and as soon as we pulled into the driveway after school I’d run to the back fence and check out the status of the nectarine tree – and munch away until I was forced inside! Hayley could probably also vouch for my fruit love, as when we were in Ireland I had the knack for honing my radar in on every blackberry bush in sight! Yes, I do like fruit. 

But since being in Bangladesh, I've been overwhelmed by the Bangladeshi attitude to fruit. Bengali's don't just like, no, no - they love it! Ha. Entire conversations are had (regularly) on the topic!
"Bridget this is called mango, have you had this before?" "Bangladesh have the best mangoes in the world, very sweet!". Guavas have just come out here, and the office is buzzing! 

work mates going crazy for the guavas!

The world of cold stores and refrigerated transportation hasn't hit the 'desh quite yet, so fruit seasons truly just last for the time the fruit are ripe on the trees! The locals get excited - they only have three weeks to gobble up all the Lychees available, then they have to last a whole year until they're out again!

Lychees!

Even if you can manage to avoid the constant office conversations about fruit (which, believe me, you can't!) you can tell which fruit is the new 'it' fruit for the season because there are about a thousand fruit sellers on every corner, and they only sell that one fruit! The end of May was lychees, then came the famous mangoes, and now guava! There are certainly no two-piece-oer-day rules here! The locals (and me!) buy whatever the 'it' fruit is by the bag load. Seasons aren't talked about by their proper name, but by the fruit produced! So currently it's not monsoon season, it's the end of mango season, heading into guava season!

Mangoes. Green on the outside, but deliciously sweet on the inside!

'Tis the fruit season! and while I'm mourning the passing of the mango season, with Guavas at 20 Taka (AUD 0.25c) per dozen, I'm turning Bangladeshi and welcoming guava season!