What a tandem. What does one have to do with the other?
Well let's find out.
My husband got a call from one of his former co-workers and told him that his car broke down half a kilometer away from where we live, and that he needs help. So husband went to check.
A little later, husband arrived and said it was a case of broken fan belt and he just replaced it.
The following day, this former co-worker arrived at our house with a bag of mangoes. He said his brother sent it for him from Batangas, a province in the Philippines.
It turned out to be Carabao Mangoes, a variety which is very sweet when ripe.
It's individually wrapped in newspaper but I can see it's still greenish and not ready to be served yet. But my daughter is too eager to eat one, she peeled one instantly and just sprinkled with salt to lessen the sour taste, and ate happily.
Oh! Before she gets to consume everything, I instantly hid the mangoes in our rice bin and covered it! Yes, that's our traditional way of ripening fruits. Placing the unripe fruits in the rice bin to fasten the ripening process.
Is there a scientific explanation for it or just an old way our elders commonly do to ripen fruits?
Well there is. It is said that fruits about to ripen emits ethylene, a substance that makes them ripen. Placing those unripe fruits in rice box traps the ethylene inside thus, helps them ripen faster, for a day or two than just placing them in kitchen counter top. Just don't forget to check on them daily if you don't want them to rot.
After two days, I checked on them and saw that they ripen just fine and are ready to be eaten.
Sweet yellow mangoes, hope you can taste it too! 🥭🥭🥭