I am so glad that I went to the Organic Fruit Club meeting on Monday night.  The leader, Jon Puig, really knows his material and not only raffled off many varieties of trees to the large group of attendees, and spoke a bit about the Maringo tree and the various ways to eat the beans and leaves, but he invited guest speakers from ECHO to discuss what to do in cold weather.  It could not have been a more timely discussion.  I learned that I had to water two days before the cold so that the soil could be moist and there by trap heat because moist air and soil is warmer than dry air and soil.  They also provided us with two web addresses to check the current weather trends at both NOAA and FAWN.  If the weather dips into dangerous weather zones, the website will highlight it in yellow and you know to cover your fruit trees or fragile flowers.  If you signed up to be a member of the club, they will also email you on days that you need to prepare in case you don't notice the weather trend on your own.  They will also remind you of the next meeting.  (Who could forget!)

I thanked Jon for inviting me after the meeting.  There were lots of people who wanted to speak with him, so I kept it as brief as possible but did have one important question I needed to know about my mango tree.  Will it grow?  I had planted a seed from a mango that I ate and it sprouted up over a foot tall then stopped growing.  That was a couple months ago and no new growth was noticeable.  Jon asked me a "very important question".  "Did I like the mango?"  When I told him I did, he reassured me that it is typical for mangoes to take the winter off.  It should start growing again by the end of next month. 

I am beginning to like my mango even more!