I’ve seen A LOT of mango trees in my life but yesterday was the first time I saw thousands of paper bags hanging from their branches. The photos were taken in Tanay, Rizal.
A house is partly visible on the right side of the photo so you can gauge the size of those trees from the height of the house.
A fiesta thing? No. Something more amazing.
Minutes after taking the photos, we passed by a mango vendor along the road, told them about the paper bag laden trees we passed and asked if they knew what that was all about. Guess what? He said each fruit is wrapped in paper bag to keep the insects off. Otherwise, the fruits just fall to the ground. It’s a fifty centavo investment per fruit. And this is not something done by machine. This is manual work. Imagine…
oh wow! that is a sight to see!
That’s usual in Laguna, too. For better monitoring, some of the caretakers even count the number of mangoes each day. =) Here in Abu Dhabi, they’re doing the same for the dates. Inside of papers, dates fruits are covered by nets.
I continue to be amazed by the bagging technique. I first saw it in Zambales mango orchards and was really impressed by the patience of the orchard workers, balancing themselves on ladders and bagging each green fruit. Beats a wild spraying of insecticide anytime. For this kind of treatment, I would gladly pay whatever they ask for their mangoes. Nothing beats Philippine mangoes straight from the orchards, they taste way better than similar ones I get in Asian food market (mostly coming from Mexico). I believe the mangoes I purchase here in California are steam treated to prevent infestation, but it surely does a number on the flavor. You must be having a blast with your summer jaunts near (and far soon?). Kahit mainit, sige lang,cam in hand,keep up the very interesting and excellent posts!
I’d like to take photos of the process of bagging. Next summer, perhaps, when the mango trees are just starting to bear fruits. Lots of mango orchards here in Antipolo but no bagging here.
hi connie. my dad does the same thing (bagging) to his veggie garden, particularly dun sa mga tanim nyang ampalaya.
the pics above are such a sight to behold.
Ampalaya is a vine, right? At least no need to climb so high (me don’t like heights hehehe). But the patience is amazing nonetheless.
i also believe that bagging is to keep the dagta away so the fruit is as pristine as it could be.
wow, if that’s not patience i don’t know what is, i’ve never seen that before. thanks for posting such beautiful pics.
Oooh, I knew that the minute I saw the picture. I remember in my childhood when we used to visit Ilocos, and some parts in La Union, they do that with the mangoes. Weee, I’m so happy I know something..LOL.
BTW, wanted to comment on that Chinese guy article but you closed it..hehe. Mostly about what “angry” Filipinos have completely missed on the article. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise though. I don’t want Pinoys throwing kamatis at me
I’m sure you got the tone of the bulk of the comments there. Had you posted, they’ll be throwing BIG BIG kamatis at you. LOL
ooh yeah. I might take the plunge and write about it in my blog. Do you mind if I use your images? I’ll give you credit of course. Bring on the kamatis..hehe
No problem, Dex.
paper bags? pano pag umulan? e di lalaki ang gastos nila? I used plastic bags in bagging our ampalaya, with the bottom cut off so the ampalaya can sweat. medyo nahirapan din ang mga bugs na hanapin ang entry kasi sa ilalim pa sila susuot eh
Oo nga ano? Paper bags aren’t waterproof.
Mas madali at mura ang papel kaysa plastik… That how I remember when I grew up. My uncle had more than 20 mango trees then, and the ground is fully covered with the trees’ shade. So when it rained we just ran underneath the shade. There was little trickles but not as heavy unlike when you stand directly in the rain downpour.
Di naman nalaglag ang mga balot na papel at tutuyo naman pag di na umulan. What is amazing is how to put those paper bags up there. So my uncle had all these bamboos that they assembled and tied with the rattan like you see in Rush hour 2 bamboo scaffoldings. Not only that, there is the ritual of making small fire underneath to smoke out “usok” the bugs every now and then.
Those were the days but it was fun.
If only there’s a person in the house brave enough to climb our lone mango tree, perhaps putting those bags around the fruits would have meant we’ll have hundreds of mangoes to harvest rather than 2. After all the flowering, we only see 2 mangoes now. boohoo
now that you mentioned “usok,” i was reminded of our own “rituals” with paper bags (yung balot ng pandesal sa umaga specifically) when we’re kids. we will let the paper bag stand up-side down on the ground and light both ends and wait until the paper bag rise on air. hehehe
and another thought on mango trees – once there’s this indian mango gree in front of our house in nueva ecija. for so many years, it would bear so much fruits during summer but after a pregnant aunt took fruits from that tree one summer, it never bear fruit again. i’m not sure if the old folks sayings are true or the tree was just too old that the fruit bearing times ended.
a menopause mango tree, hahaha
Your “usok” game with paper bags — my brother did that too. Boys’ game, I guess.
yes, i also see those in nueva ecija. and sometimes, they don’t only do that with mangoes.
Pregnant with meaning ba yang comment na yan (hahahaha) or you mean they do it with other fruit trees too?
I never knew they bagged mangoes like so. We had only one mango tree in our backyard in my grandparent’s home in the province and all I remembered is that they “pausok” the mango tree every so often and I had no idea why they were doing it. Isn’t it depressing to know how much you do not know, especially if the information is so trivial and of general knowledge?
It’s a generation thing, bertN. They did the smoke and bag routine, we grew up in the pesticide generation, our kids know organic farming.
Now I understand why mangoes are expensive.
But, as always, they’re cheaper nearer the point of origin. In Tanay they were selling for 40 pesos/kilo.