Nevis Harvest
My first memory of a Nevis mango was with my mother on the beach. I recall a faded photo with a tangle of coconut trees behind her and a basket of Nevis mangoes hooked in the crook of her arm. We had just moved here from America. She told me the best way to eat a mango was to just make a mess; peel the mango and bite right in. And when my face was all yellow, covered in juice, and my hands so sticky, she sent me into the sea to wash and let the taste of salt water finish the flavor.
An orchard of Nevis mango trees surrounded our house. It was a forest for a little boy to climb and explore, but every summertime, when the trees grew full of fruit, it became my job to gather the windfallen mangoes that had dropped overnight. At first, it was just filling a basket, but the labor required greater effort as the summer progressed until I was using a steel rake, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow to clear up the masses of mangoes that just kept falling down.
The first Nevis mangoes we ate for the season were green, in thin slices pickled in vinegar, salt, and bird peppers, eaten just so out of the jar or on fresh dollar bread. When they ripened, we had them on the breakfast table in a woven basket, and as the days grew longer, the basket overflowed with spilled fruit still on the table by lunch and then even into dinner. Ultimately, Nevis mango became a part of every meal that was prepared. Put in porridge, pudding, salads, and sandwiches, fried with fish, cooked with meat, curried, and even baked in bread. The kitchen smelt forever of burnt sugar from a nonstop chutney production.
We ate and cooked as much as we could, until we met our limit. Then we fed them to the pigs until the pigs stopped eating them too. Throughout the summer Nevis mangoes fell. I filled barrow after barrow and continually sought another place where I could dump a wheelbarrow full of the overripe and rotting Nevis mangoes, with their skin turning from yellow to gold and finally black. I mostly tipped them out in the ghaut, the dry mountain streams, hoping that heavy rain would come soon to flush them out to sea.
I remember mounds of Nevis mangoes in the market in town, in the fruit stands by the roadside, and even on the ground where old ladies sat on cardboard under umbrellas. They were stacked in neat piles and each mango was sold for 25 cents, five for a dollar. Now, when I walk through Charlestown the old ladies call me by name. They ask me “How is Daddy?” They remember my mother. And they call me to buy their fruit and the best money I can spend is five dollars for mangoes that I ask them to keep. I still have plenty and the pigs will look at me funny if I bring more home.
Come make a mess,
Richie
July 4-6, 2025
The Sweetest Escape
This is the magic of Nevis mango season—a time of abundance, nostalgia, and flavors. And there’s no better time to experience it than during the Nevis Mango Festival on July 4th-6th, 2025. This celebration of the island’s most beloved fruit brings together chefs, foodies, and mango lovers from all over the world for a weekend of culinary delights, live entertainment, and cultural experiences.
To make your experience even sweeter, The Hermitage Nevis is offering an exclusive 30% discount for reservations made before July 2nd, for stays between June 21st and July 12th 2025. Book your stay with us and use the coupon code Mango2025 at checkout on our website to take advantage of this limited-time offer. Enjoy the island’s best mango-inspired dishes, explore Nevis in its most vibrant season, and relax in comfort at The Hermitage Nevis after a day of mango-filled adventures.
