By Ruth Hill R.N.
How shall we spend the 4th of July? A beach picnic, a campsite in the woods surrounded by trees? At a National Park with hideaway creek beds, or fishing lakes? Or your own backyard surrounded by the noise of kids playing games and barking dogs. Wherever you’re going be sure to put on your shopping list mangos. Mangos are in peak season right now. Because different regions and varieties harvest at different times, they are technically available year-round in the US, but the prime summer season runs from May through September. You can check out the varieties and availability at this website.
Include a farmer’s market when you shop for the 4th. Go to more than one store to see if they have a Coconut Cream mango, or a Valencia Pride, a Maha Chinki, a Nam Doc Mai, a Kent, or a Lemon Zest. Notice the shades of green, yellow gold, or mango color, the shapes, the textures, and the smells of each variety. “Press the flesh if it indents or is wrinkly, it is ripe”.
Create a Zen atmosphere during this celebration of freedom. Freedom to finally smoke a joint of cannabis or drag on a vape pen without getting arrested. Japanese Zen refers to meditation. In interior design, it reflects balance, harmony, and relaxation. Zen is a slang word for feeling peace and relaxation. What makes a Zen experience? An amalgam of sounds and smells that bring together an awareness of the senses and a clearing of the mind’s clutter.
A Zen experience is the focus of attention on being present here and now. When your done stuffing your belly with hot dogs, potato salad, coleslaw, I imagine you covering all the food, so you don’t attract fly’s. The sky is changing colors as the sunset approaches and it’s time to relax around the fire. You now smell the ocean waves or hear the mountain spring water musically running down a creek bed. Hot embers are bouncing in the air from your fire pit, and you are deep in your meditation. I call out to our designated Mockarita chef and ask for a Mockarita. I take the first sip of Lemon Mockarita and I’m in heaven.
Like first-time tasters in a chocolate factory, we savor every aroma of coconut, spice, fruity, peppery, juicy mango meat that dripped from your mouths. Around the campfire on the sandy beach, we smell the ocean air. Or listen to the pitter-patter musical sounds of water flowing over the rocks. It’s breathtaking.
We then them the taste on a scale of 1-5, 5 being excellent. The Lemon Zest and the Nam Doc Mai received a 5 rating. High on energy we floated home from mango paradise. Carrying the smells tickling our noses, the taste buds still tingling with spice, fruit, or lemon, and lastly, echoes of water still sound in our ears. Some of us save the pit, stand it in water until it grows roots, then plant it in our backyard. Only one of us got the pit to grow into a mango.
This is the nonalcoholic Mango Mockarita recipe using a Mango Indica tincture. “Mango Indica is a heavy-duty cannabis strain that kicks the flavor in this non-alcoholic drink up a notch”.
Ingredients:
2–3 slices ripe mango
2 ounces orange juice
1 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
½ ounce agave nectar
2 ice cubes
10mg worth of Mango Indica tincture
Orange slice and sugar to garnish
Directions: Add drink ingredients to a blender and purée until smooth. Wet rim of a cocktail glass with orange juice and dip rim in sugar. Pour margarita into cocktail glass, garnish, and serve.
Anecdotal research has shown that eating mangos roughly forty-five minutes before consuming cannabis can indeed augment THC with a faster onset of psychoactive effects. There are over six mango cannabis strains: Mango, Mango Tango, Mango Kush, Mango Dream, Mango Haze, and finally CBD Mango Haze. Have a Happy 4th of July.
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