Pangasinan city showcases its mangoes

SAN CARLOS CITY—What’s summer without sweet, luscious mangoes?

This agricultural city in central Pangasinan, known for its mango industry, unveiled a giant mango pie during its Mango-Bamboo Festival on Tuesday to showcase its top product.

All 86 villages of San Carlos have mango trees, but the western part harvests the most number of mangoes. During the festival, the residents baked 400 small pies with ripe mangoes, which they set side by side to form the giant pie measuring 100 square meters.

Mayor Julier Resuello said the giant pie was originally designed to break the Guinness world record, but the people decided to simply “showcase our delicious product to the country.”

Each square meter of pie was made from 7-8 kilograms of mangoes, which were set in trays manufactured for the event.

Each village baked four pies equivalent to a square meter of the giant pie. The remaining sections were assigned to city officials.

“We asked the help of local bakeries and hotel and restaurant management students and teachers of a local university to come up with the pies. It took several trials before the residents got the right consistency and taste,” Resuello revealed.

The giant pie was displayed at the city park, and consumed with gusto by the same people who prepared it.

The city government plans to produce more sweet products like mango pastries, taking stock of the city’s resource.

In February 2008, the city agriculture office recorded 127,373 mango trees planted in San Carlos. But 60 percent of the 82,384 fruit-bearing trees were lost to typhoons that struck that year, and in 2009.

Godofredo Tiong, a former city consultant on barangay affairs, said many residents had honed their skills in mango growing and fruit production techniques. The “expert technicians” are now consulted or hired by other provinces where mangoes are also grown, he said

“Just ask those who are working on mango orchards and more often than not, they will tell you that they come from San Carlos,” Tiong said, with undisguised pride.