The Mulgoba tree that Campbell planted at Williams Grove is a graft from the original Palm Beach County tree, while the Turpentine was grafted from budwood taken from a 100-year-old tree in Snapper Creek Hammock, where it's thought mangoes were introduced to Miami.

These are just two of the 450 mangoes from all over the world that Campbell and his Colombian-born colleague, Noris Ledesma, have planted at Williams Grove, creating the largest mango germplasm collection outside India and Southeast Asia.

At Williams Grove, you will find the Cuban mangoes of my memory, the tiny Toledo and the bizcochuelo, the Prieto (dark-skinned with lightly fibrous orange flesh) and the stupendous, red-skinned San Felipe from Western Cuba.

''You can taste sugar cane with a backdrop of resin in these mangoes,'' Campbell says. He obtained the San Felipe graft wood in 1994 from his friend Pedro López, a Cuban exile, and has been surprised by its star performance.

''San Felipe is the god of Cuban mangoes,'' Ledesma told me, perfect for Florida gardens.

Campbell considers many of the commercial varieties sold in Florida stores, like the Tommy Atkins from Guatemala and Mexico, ''an embarrassment to the mango.'' And he wants to extend the pleasure of eating exceptional mangoes by teaching farmers how to grow perfect fruit.

''If you can grow a good mango here in South Florida, you are not competing with the fruit in the grocery store because it is not the same product,'' he says.

Mangoes do not reach their full flavor potential with the nitrogen-rich synthetic fertilizers many commercial growers use to boost yield, he explains, but prefer light organic mulch.

''Surprisingly, there are parallels between grape growing and mango farming,'' he says.

Like grapes, mango trees like poor soils, abhor excess water and thrive with pruning. Smaller trees are not only more convenient at harvest time, but are more likely to survive hurricanes.

''Early-bearing trees are best for Florida on many accounts,'' Campbell says, because fruit that ripens before the rainy season isn't subject to fungal disease.

Campbell and Ledesma believe the way to reverse the decline of mango acreage in Florida (down from an estimated 7,000 acres in 1954 to under 1,000 today) is to further develop the boutique niche. Already, farmers growing green mangoes like the Thai Nam Doc Mai for the Asian market are making a profit.

Like many U.S. chefs, I would pay a premium to have a steady supply of Florida mangoes with rich and varied flavor profiles to serve at my restaurants rather than cheaper, lackluster imports.

Campbell and Ledesma practice what they preach at Williams Grove, managing the center like a family farm. At their weekend market, you can buy fruit and smoothies from whichever trees happen to be bearing for $1 apiece. The closest I have come to the childhood joy of eating my grandfather's mangoes was feasting on a dozen varieties Ledesma selected for me at Williams Grove.

The lovely Myatrynat from Myanmar (formerly Burma), a yellow mango with a rosy blush, tastes like a sweet lime with hints of vanilla; the long, thin-seeded Shwethinta, also from Myanmar, has dairy notes and smooth, fiberless flesh; the sweet, ivory-fleshed Ivory from Singapore has the texture of a pear; the Thai Nac Dom Mai tastes like an unripe guava; the Indian Borsha has a floral perfume and can be cut in half across, twisted to dislodge the seed, and eaten with a spoon.

At Williams Grove, Campbell and Ledesma have created a model of sustainable agriculture that makes economic sense, and have given mango lovers the opportunity to get reacquainted with the essence of the fruit.

Culinary historian Maricel E. Presilla is the chef/co-owner of Cucharamama and Zafra in Hoboken, N.J. Her latest book is The New Taste of Chocolate.

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