Litchi Madness

If you’ve never eaten a litchi, go do it now. It’s cool, I’ll wait. I live in litchi territory, which means for the last month, our town has been flooded with them. Litchis from here go out by the truckload, in a steady stream of trucks going for weeks on end. It is great that they have an outlet. Most of them go to Tamatave and get shipped to Europe. People make a lot of money off of the litchis. Unfortunately, it is not the farmers, but they make a fair amount as well. More than on any other crops.
Everything had a season, which is kind of cool. No, I can’t get pineapples all year, but when they come in, they are fresh. And I appreciate them even more because I can get them now, and only for this month. Litchis are different. Yes, they are incredibly delicious, the best fruit I have ever eaten, but it would be cool to be able to buy bananas or vegitables in the market to. They are in season, but the people here don’t care about anything but litchis. I ask ‘do you have green-beans?’ they say ‘green-beans?! No! there are litchis!’ ‘yes, but what about something to add nutrition, or to have a little variety? ‘Litchis! Litchis!’ ‘I saw bananas on your tree, are you going to bring those to market tomorrow?’ ‘No, of course not! there are litchis! Litchis!!!’
It is rather amazing, this litchi-madness. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it. There are so many they can’t eat or sell them all, and believe me, they try. The whole town is just crazy for litchis.
Dec 9, 2008