But it's going to have to wait. The mango rescue scheduled for this Thursday's Slow Food Earth Market in The Levee is off.

Why? The mangoes aren't ripe enough to be picked.

You see, the farm near Townsville had some rain - after a long and intense drought - and now the trees aren't so worried about getting the fruit ripe quickly.

"They are as hard as a rock," Slow Food Earth Market Maitland chairwoman Amorelle Dempster said.

"This is agriculture, sometimes things are unpredictable and the mangoes don't know we were expecting to have them here at the market this week."

Ms Dempster has been keeping in close contact with growers Bruce and Helen Hill to check on the mangoes progress.

Now there's a plan B.

The mangoes are now expected to arrive in time for the final earth market of the year - scheduled for December 17.