For Miami mango lovers, sharing is caring.

• During mango season — when the red, yellow and green fruits decorate our city's trees like Christmas ornaments — each fallen fruit gives us a sweet opportunity to connect with a neighbor.

Why it matters: In a city with low levels of volunteerism and neighborly helpfulness, Miami's obsession with mangoes doesn't just feed our sweet teeth — it strengthens social bonds and builds community.

• A good backyard mango tree can produce 300 pounds of fruit each season, which makes "everybody want to share and then start talking about who has the best mango," Carl E. Lewis, director of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, tells Axios.
• "It does get these neighborhood conversions going."

What they're saying: Jayme Kaye Gershen, a Miami filmmaker who has a mango-themed art exhibit and a tree in her yard, tells Axios that she views every mango as a gift to cherish because it only comes once a year.

• "It brings out the best in people because there's so much of it, you're almost like 'this tree is so special, I don't want to waste it.' It's this time when you meet your neighbors."

Plus, store-bought mangoes just don't taste as good, she added.

• Gershen noted how some locals like to say, "If you are buying a mango at the store, you don't have any friends."

That's not always true, but mangoes do say a lot about how immersed you are in Miami and its cultural traditions.

Case in point: Bradley Gerber, the former president of Miami Young Republicans, tells Axios that when someone would tell him they wanted to run for political office, he'd ask them a simple question.

• "I'd ask them how much a mango costs, like at Publix. If they had a dollar-figure answer, I'd say, 'Don't run.'"
• "The reason? If you don't know anyone who says, 'Take a mango. Here, take six,' then your Miami social network isn't nearly big enough for a successful campaign," Gerber, a director at Golin Public Relations, wrote to Axios.

By the numbers: Lewis, of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, says there are over 400 different kinds of mangoes in Miami, the result of importing and breeding dating back over 200 years.

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It's no accident that Miami is home to hundreds of mango varieties.

• Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden sells mango trees every year at its Mango Festival, which is holding its 31st annual edition Saturday and Sunday.
• This year's festival — which will feature mango smoothies, cocktails, snacks and more — highlights the fruit producers who sustain the local industry.

With such a large variety of mangoes also comes a diversity of cultures that cherish the fruit, which originated in South Asia but is popular in Caribbean and Latin American countries, too.

• In her 2024 short film, "Mango Movie" — which is screening at the Mango Festival — Gershen filmed members of the community eating mangoes to highlight the different ways we enjoy the fruit: Some peel it with a knife, while others bite straight in.
• "What I liked about watching people eat mangoes was that people were uninhibited," Gershen said.
• "For whatever reason, most people forgot the cameras were there and just did their thing. It just became about them and the mango."

Gershen took extra footage from the 13-minute film and created an immersive art exhibit, "When Mangos Last in My Backyard Bloom'd," which is on display at Green Space Miami through August 9.

• The exhibit, which offers mangoes to visitors and has a sculpture wall made of the fruit's husks, will host a mango poetry jam and mango swap on Saturday.

If you go: The 31st Annual Mango Festival at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden on Saturday and Sunday, 10am-5pm. Tickets $25+ for adults.

• 10901 Old Cutler Road

"When Mangos Last in My Backyard Bloom'd:" Open Thursday-Sunday, 12pm-6pm. Green Space Miami, 7200 Biscayne Boulevard.

• Mango swap: Saturday, 4-7pm. Free.
• Mango Poetry Jam: Saturday, 7-9pm. Free.

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👋 Sommer here! And my friend Natalia started a mango pie business. So, I'm writing about it.

• Because why co-write a daily newsletter if I can't toot my friends' horns every once in a while!

State of pie: Sunny Slice Co., a seasonal mango pie biz, launched this month, offering made-to-order whole pies or by the slice. (The decision seems obvious, but again, I may be biased.)

• The season will run from June through August, or as long as the mangos are tasty.

The intrigue: While the official biz may be new, Natalia has been baking mango pies for quite some time — a simple ritual she began years ago to honor her late abuela.

• When she was a child in Havana, her abuela would collect the fruit from the "towering" mango tree to hand out to neighbors, friends and strangers.

Today, baking a mango pie honors her abuela's spirit of community.

• Sharing the pies — Natalia's take on the all-American classic mixed with a bit of "Cuban improvisation" — is a "reminder that home is something we can keep remaking" and there's always enough to share.

How it works: Orders are placed via text (see Instagram). Slices are $8, while whole pies are $40. A cut of every pie goes to Meals on Wheels.

What's next: Happy eating!

Tell a friend

When it comes to mangoes, our differences unite us.

• Some of us eat them with our hands, others cross-hatch them with a knife.
• Some like them sweet, others with a pinch of salt.

Yes, but: It doesn't matter where you get your mangoes or how you eat them. Miami's harvest brings us all together.

Tell us how you eat your mangoes by taking our poll.

🎾 U.S. tennis player Amanda Anisimova, who lives and trains in Miami Beach, will play in the Wimbledon final on Saturday. (NBC)

🏛️ A New Hampshire federal judge issued a ruling Thursday prohibiting President Donald Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship from taking effect anywhere in the U.S. (AP)