Luscious Litchi

(Note: This article was originally published in the Sunday Free Press dated September 2000.)




Litchi - that luscious fruit with strawberry red spiny skin which encloses a pure white, translucent, juicy and pulpy layer around an oblong shining brown seed. Lamentably, the seed occupies too much of space and one would wish that the sweet and sour, aromatic pulp could have been a little more in bulk. But these are the ways of nature; it is bountiful though miserly in some of its products -for example, one would wish the eatable portion in custard apple (sharifa) could have been a wee bit larger. These are fanciful thoughts; if wishes were horses beggars might ride!

Litchi, also spelt as Litchi, Lichee or Leechee is a native of Canton in southern China. It has been a favourite fruit of the Cantonese since ancient times. Litchi was introduced to the western world I in 1775 when its seeds were sown in Jamaica. They say the first litchi fruit ripened in USA in Florida in 1916 where it has acquired commercial importance. The tree is cultivated around the Mediterranean, South Africa, Hawaii and some parts of our own country.

Litchi is a good-looking tree, it develops a compact crown of bright green foliage all the year round. At the time of fruition in the summer season, the tree acquires a brownish red hue due to the abundance of clusters of ripening litchi fruit.

Due to its climatic and cropping requisites, litchi can be grown in a few areas only. Litchi is an intimately associated with Dehra Dun and to a degree with Muzaffarpur in Bihar.


Litchi baghs in Muzaffarpur

Litchi is found in other areas in India like Shillong where it is grown in expansive pineapple gardens. Due to its perishable nature and rather short duration of cropping, say 2 months, around May/June, it is not very profitable to grow this fruit on a wider scale.



The Doon Valley


In the sprawling bungalows of Doon Valley, one or two litchi trees are a common sight. A bungalow without a litchi tree is rare in Doon, particularly in Dalanwala area, along with mango, guava and the ubiquitous papaya and banana. Before the onset of litchi season, custody of the trees is given to contractors who arrange to pluck the fruit when it ripens, for being sent to the markets packed in wooden boxes. Contrary to popular belief, litchi is sold dear in Doon as most of it is exported to richer markets in Delhi, Mumbai and elsewhere. In places like Mumbai, litchi is very expensive; one fruit of litchi may cost you one rupee and a bunch may burn a hole in your pocket.

When we came to reside in Dehra Dun in the late nineteen forties, litchi trees were found in abundance in the abounding green glamour of the valley. With the unscrupulous spree for urbanisation, trees were cut down to create spaces for the new inhabitants of the valley. One such place was Khazanchi Bag on the road leading to the Forest Research Institute.



Forest Research Institute at Dehradun


Almost three decades ago, the Bagh gave place to numerous housing societies and residential colonies inhabited mostly by the employees of ONGC. Some houses existing in the erstwhile Khazanchi Bagh still have the boon of at least one litchi tree that bestows its bounties on the resident in the litchi season. Doon litchi trees are generally tall but some are so short that one can pluck the fruit standing on the ground. Some exceptional litchis, having very small seed surrounded by thick layer of pulp, are a real catch.

In Calcutta, one can see green litchi fruit being sold in New Market. Surprisingly, it is not raw and sour but as sweet and juicy as the red fruit of Doon and elsewhere.

The fruit is best eaten fresh; it is canned in the form of pulp or juice, which is very popular through not available in the market in abundance.

I would share with you the recipe for a heavenly cocktail with the heady combination of litchi juice and Vodka.

Mix 30 ml of Vodka with 60 ml of litchi juice, canned or fresh, in a tall glass. Lace it with 1 spoonful of full fresh cream; add some crushed ice. Shake gently and sip comfortably in any easy chair watching the raindrops washing the green leaves in your garden in the afternoon.