The Lamyai or Longan fruits are known as one of the best
in the world. The sweet, pinkish-white flesh is believed to energize the
body and banish fatigue. This year has been a bumper year for this crop,
with Lamphun alone expecting a surplus of 75,000 tons.
All
helping - with bamboo sticks, ladders or just by giving ‘good advice’.
For the commercial producers, the surplus will be taken
care of by 600 million baht farmers’ assistance to help boost distribution
to other provinces and overseas. Even the government took action and
declared 2003 as a Lamyai fruit year with financial help of five million
baht for a fruit promotion on domestic and overseas markets.
The
sweetest fruits are always on the highest branches, but if you try hard
enough and are adventurous enough, nothing is too high!
For the farmers, this is a wonderful windfall, but for
people with a few trees in their garden, the excess fruit becomes an
embarrassment. One of Chiang Mai resident’s who has a garden with 20
mature loaded Lamyai trees found a novel solution. He invited his friends
including children, grandchildren, the neighbors, all his staff with their
families (and dogs) to a Lamyai picking party. Told them to come in their
best Sunday gardening clothes and be prepared to clamber up branches (for
the adventurous type) or just manipulate a bamboo picking pole (for the ones
with weak knees).
Everybody
around Chiang Mai has the same problem - what to do with all the fruit? Who
will eat it all?
Sunday afternoon the pickers arrived with hats or
without, with plastic bags, even with rakes and garden shears. While the
rain was coming down in the city of Chiang Mai, the interesting
micro-climate in the area behind Maejoe saw sunshine all day.
Henry Q. had plenty of sunny garden beverages prepared
like his famous ‘HQ Sangria’ and cocktails he had invented himself. And
by the end of the afternoon, the 20 Lamyai trees with the huge luscious
fruits looked denuded and the guests left, with their car boots or
motorbikes loaded with Lamyai and the memory of an inventive, beautiful
adventurous afternoon.
Brazilian
Paulo Zereu and Nat Yontararak from Thailand performed piano duets at Kad
Theatre to raise money for cancer patients.
Art
will be for sale during the exhibition as well. Suchart, one of Thailand’s
top watercolor artists, is the author of the watercolor resource,
“Watercolor is...” or “Arie Keu See Nam?” His work spans many styles
and often has a strong Thai theme. His wife, Phuksri Srisuphar, is a very
accomplished landscape artist, often incorporating wet-on-wet techniques in
her work. Interested persons should contact Ajaan Note at 01-287-5046 for
more information.