“This is from the tree which bore the ‘Patricia’ first,” says Joseph Francis placing a plate of sliced golden mango on the table. “It has no fibres and the pit is small,” he adds showing the bare mango stone. ‘Patricia’ was created by Joseph, 22 years ago when he found a fledgling mango plant growing on the five cents of land on which he built his house in Mundamveli in Kochi. “The plant was a hybrid between two local varieties from natural pollination. I grafted this and created Patricia,” says Joseph. Patricia is not available in the market but only at his house, he says with a smile. What sets Joseph apart is his roof top mango orchard that now has 50 varieties of mangoes and about 150 plants. “I sell Patricia plants but the fruits are for visitors, family and friends only,” he says.
A businessman he started as a refrigeration technician, and was fond of agriculture since his childhood. With traditional knowledge of plant life, he grafted a local variety called ‘kalluketti’ with the sapling growing on his land. In a few years the tree blossomed and bore delicious, fragrant, juicy medium-sized mangoes. He named it Patricia, after his wife and “a Queen with the same name”. He also received a certificate from Kerala Agriculture University recognising its distinct sweetness and quality.
Come summers and Joseph’s mango orchard is lush with bunches of low-hanging mangoes. It was in 2010 that the family visited the Flower Show and saw for the first-time mangoes growing in sacks. “It started from there,” he says.
