Messy but marvelous mangoes

Laura Young ECB Publishing, Inc. “If it gets messy, eat it over the sink.” That's what my husband often says when he's leaning toward the kitchen faucet gripping a slippery, dripping mango. It's been one of his favorite fruits since his days living in the Florida Keys, way back when. Mangos apparently arrived in the Keys and nearby parts of peninsular Florida with pirates about 200 years ago but weren't a commercially viable crop until the early 1900s. The 1970s were the “glory days” of the mango in Florida, according to information from the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden. Nowadays, even though the fruit is produced across six continents, Florida is where most of the world