What's in Season in July at Mexico City's Markets?

At the Mercado de Sonora, this gigantic freshly cut squash looks more like a huge flower. The squash, an extremely hard-shelled variety known as calabaza de Castilla (Castilian squash), was approximately two feet in diameter! Behind it are plátanos machos (plaintains). The squash, carefully cut in half to show its beautiful flesh and seeds, is resting on taro root rhizomes.

Those of you who live somewhere outside Mexico and are enjoying seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables right now might be surprised to learn that even in Mexico, where the growing season can be year-round, there are times when it's the season for (insert name of item here) and we all rush to buy what's new in our markets. Whether Mexico Cooks! shops at a tianguis (street market), at an enclosed municipal market, or at a modern supermarket, seasonal fruits and vegetables are must-haves--otherwise, they won't be back in the markets till next year.


The most recent seasonal fruit for summer 2017 is the tuna (prickly pear cactus fruit).  Available by the ton from late June until sometime in September, the tuna is considered to be Mexico's national fruit.  It even appears on Mexican flag!  You can see how it grows: that's a nopal cactus paddle, with tunas growing around the outside edge. More are piled up in the boxes. The spiny, thick green peel encloses a marvelous fruit.  


Here's a tuna that I just peeled.  Peel-and-eat, seeds and all.  Cut the ends from the tuna, make a lengthwise slit down one side of the skin, and with your fingers, simply pull the skin away from the flesh.  Chilled, the sweet, crisp tuna flesh is as refreshing as watermelon--and similarly textured.


Can you even believe it?  The cool, refreshing rainy season in central Mexico means wild mushrooms!  The season is just beginning.  I bought these glorious fresh morels at a municipal market where I often take touring foodies. Women from small towns in mountainous areas around Mexico City forage for these and other mushrooms (chanterelles and lobster mushrooms, anyone?) and sell them at local markets.  These morels were so inexpensive that I bought a kilo (2.2 pounds) and gave half to my neighbor.


What you may know as lobster mushrooms (Hypomyces lactifluorum) are called trompa de puerco (pig snout) here in central Mexico. Contrary to its mushroom name, this is actually a fungus that attacks a kind of wild white mushroom, deforming it into the delicacy you see in the picture. These do sometimes appear at farmers' markets in the USA, but prepare to pay through the snout for them: upwards of $30.00USD per pound.  Here, they're a tenth that price.


These enormous just-cut flores de calabaza (squash blossoms) appear in Mexico's markets as the plants are setting their fruit.  The Purépecha indigenous woman in the photo has brought her flowers to sell on the street in Paracho, Michoacán.  Tidbit of information: only the male blossoms are cut; the female flowers, notable by the spherical beginning of a squash at the base of each flower, are left on the vine to bear fruit.


Mangos!  It's still mango season in Mexico, and the varieties are many.  These are Paraíso: about five inches long and plump as can be, the flesh is tender, sweet, and incredibly popular as a snack.  Mangos are the most cultivated fruit in the world!


Here's a ready-to-eat mango-on-a-stick, offered by a street vendor in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.  Spritzed with a little jugo de limón (juice of the Key lime), sprinkled with a big pinch of salt, and dusted with crushed, dried, red chile--absolutely marvelous.  People in Mexico look forward all year long to the several months of mango season!


July is also papaya season.  This variety, the usual one that we see in Mexico, is the Carica papaya--otherwise known as the Maradol.  Ranging in size from about eight inches long to a jumbo-size foot and a half, the Maradol papaya has very thin orange skin, meaty, deep orange flesh and usually a zillion firm black seeds, each smaller than a pea.  Eat this fruit any time: diced for breakfast, in a smoothie, or accompany your comida (main meal at midday) with a refreshing agua fresca de papaya--a papaya fruit water.


Limón criollo: Mexico's small spherical 'native' limones are known in the United States as Key limes.  These limones aren't really native to Mexico; they originated in Asia and were brought here by the Spanish nearly 500 years ago. Available all year and used ubiquitously for everything from squeezing onto fresh fruit to squeezing into your bowl of caldo de pollo (chicken soup) to spritzing onto your hands for slicking down unruly hair, these green to greenish-yellow limones are available all year long.  July is their peak season, though.  Their flavor is completely different from either the lime OR the lemon; oddly enough, neither Persian limes (the large oval green ones) nor Eureka lemons (the large oval yellow ones) are grown for the fresh fruit market in Mexico.


Last, the sandía (watermelon).  Available all over Mexico and in season right this minute, the sweetness of the fruit is as refreshing as a cool shower.  Native to somewhere in Africa--there's lots of controversy about where--and over 5000 years old, Mexico's watermelon is grown primarily in this country's western and eastern coastal states.


Fresh mango, papaya, and watermelon, ready to be seasoned just the way you like them.

Here in Mexico, many tropical fruits are eaten sprinkled with salt, crushed, dried red chile pepper, and a squirt or two of limón.  If you've never tried it this way, you'll be surprised at how this multi-level flavor combination changes a standard sweet fruit experience to a rush of OH MY GOODNESS! in your mouth.  Many years ago, when my elderly mother visited me in Mexico, I presented her with an already-seasoned breakfast plate of fresh ripe-picked pineapple from Veracruz, ripe-picked strawberries from Michoacán, ripe-picked papaya from Chiapas, and field-ripened cantaloupe from Mexico's west coast.  Always an adventurous eater, she gobbled it right down and sighed in contentment.  She said, "Cristina, I've never really understood tropical fruit before.  It needs all those seasonings to make it just perfect."  My mother was right.

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Comments

[Joe Hwu]

Marvelous fruits! Mouth-watering pictures! Thank you, Cristina!

[Don Cuevas]

The photo of the cut squash brought a smile to my face. The whole blog post was delightful.

Thanks!

Saludos,
Don Cuevas