Mangoes 2026: In search of Salem’s sweetest fruit

I plough through thorns that cling to my clothes, tiptoe around fire ants and stomp past fallen leaves in a 40-acre mango farm in the foothills of Bodhamalai near Adimalaipatty village in Salem. Here, summer is brutal. But I plod on, for I know my search for the best mango of the season is about to come to fruition. All along our path, peacocks and parakeets have strewn half-eaten mangoes. “They know exactly which ones to pick,” chuckles organic farmer A Shajahan to his wife Parveen Banu, who owns the farm.

The birds partake of the season’s best even before harvest begins. There are trees heaving with alphonso mangoes that are slightly curved at the bottom end; the elongated kilimooku variety with a dusting of pink on their deep green skin; and bulbous thick-skinned malgova mangoes hanging in clumps.