Mango Butter

 A few weeks ago, Tom came into the kitchen and smelled the bubbling mango mixture and said, “Mmmm, it smells like Christmas—Island Christmas.”

Megan with mangoes

It may have smelled like Christmas, but the weather didn’t feel like it (at least from an American perspective). The islands have heated up— the air is sticky with humidity. Everyone is constantly sweating. If you’re not sweating, it means you’re dehydrated. This time of year is a little unpleasant, but there is a trade-off because as the temperature and humidity increases so does the fruit! 

Right now piles of mangoes are for sale all over town. Any major road has people selling mangoes to passersby. If ever we don’t have mangoes in our house at this time of year, it is an error that needs to be corrected the next time one of us leaves the house. 

I am not sure how many years ago it was, but at some point when the mangoes were abundant, cheap and delicious, I looked in the index of our Wycliffe cookbook (written for/by overseas workers) and saw a listing for ‘mango butter.’ Curious, I went to the listed page and found it was a variation listed under the Apple Butter recipe. Actually it is exactly the same recipe, you just replace mangoes for apples and strain the strings out at the end. 

Ready for cooking

I tried it and it was good, and so began a tradition. It is a nice blend of islands and our home culture— the spices smell like mulled cider, hearkening a winter Christmas scene, but the mangoes are tropical and even the spices themselves (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg) are local products. 

So at some point, when the mangoes are plentiful,  we buy 2 or 3 piles at once. We peel and slice the mango away from the pits. We add sugar and spices, let it simmer for a long time. We push the cooled mixture through a sieve and voila, we have enough mango butter to last for the rest of the holiday season. 

Mmm… it smells like Island Christmas.

Pouring into jars

PRAYERS ANSWERED

We are thankful for the time of rest we’ve gotten with family and for the chance to celebrate a late Thanksgiving-early Christmas with them. We are thankful that our first leg of travel on our way back to the islands has gone well and that we get to connect with Tom’s cousin on our layover. We are thankful that after two denied attempts, our island colleague was finally granted a visa to visit his wife’s home country with their baby—we pray for a great visit for them all.  A few new Christmas songs in the island language have recently been recorded and put on youtube.  They sound great.  Hopefully lots of people will listen.


 

PRAYERS REQUESTED

We’ve learned that our close neighbor Ma Jadza lost her mother this past week— pray for her family as they grieve and that she and her husband Makini could be a light to their extended family. Our island sister Elewa has been very sick, pray for her full recovery, especially as she has plans to celebrate the upcoming holidays with some friends and neighbors on the big island- pray that it could be an opportunity to share good news. Pray for the rest of our travels back to the islands that it would all go smoothly and that we’d all stay healthy.