Meet the Mangosteen

A representative from Frieda's, a California specialty produce dealer, sent me this link to a recent New York Times video article on mangosteens (actually sort of on imported produce in general). It features ethnobotanist Nat Bletter, who might even be a bigger fruit dork than I am. (And Nat, if you read this, I mean that in the nicest way. Honest.) I have to admit, my first reaction when I heard the idea of a "life list" of fruit was to immediately pop open Word and get to work putting mine together. (For the record, it's now moved over into Excel, where I can sort it more easily, though it's very much a work in progress...).

Although I ignore a lot of the messages I get here "informing" me of products I might like to mention on the blog, Frieda's has an interesting enough website that's worth checking out just to poke around, even if you don't buy anything. And, as expensive as they are, I have to admit I'm tempted by the mangosteens. So I'll give them a little free press. (Though for future reference, Ms. Kelly, I do generally respond very well to freebies. We have a very flexible definition of journalistic integrity around here).

My previous post on mangosteens is here, though I noticed that I had tagged it "magonsteens", so it might have been difficult to find. It features a photo by my friend David Karp, whose photos are featured in the NY Times pieces above, and who is comfortably in the same class of fruit dork as Nat and I.