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Today's story is about a sweet and sour berry from China, where it is one of the symbols
of this country.
It's about the lychee.
In China, the fruit has been cultivated for over a thousand years.
Its red, pink or green skin hides a shiny sweet flesh with a slight bitterness.
No wonder since ancient times the Chinese called this fruit "dragon's eye", because
of the bright combination of red peel, white pulp and brown seed.
Lychee is sometimes called Chinese plum, and for good reason.
It really is somewhat similar to a plum, and besides, it is in the south of China that
this plant is quite widespread.
Also, Vietnam is often called the second homeland of the lychee.
See how many fruits of this fruit Vietnamese merchants bring to the market.
Today, lychee can also be found in other countries of Asia, America and Africa.
When asked what lychee is, many answer that it is a fruit.
This is true, but to be more precise, lychee is a single-seeded stone fruit.
Berries are considered a type of fruit.
At the household level, we are used to calling berries small-sized fruits that fit in a handful.
Lychee pulp has a jelly-like texture and tastes like a mixture of grapes and strawberries.
Someone hears notes of pineapple in the taste of the fruit, someone - kiwi.
It can be described as sweet and sour, pleasant, pronounced.
Well-ripened fruits have a strong aroma, similar to the smell of a rose.
If the unpeeled fruit smells of mold or rot, it is spoiled and should not be eaten.
Approximately 80% of the pulp of the fruit consists of water.
Due to this, juicy fruits are used in the hot period to quench thirst.
The pulp contains about 1.3 g of fiber, which is necessary for the normal functioning of
the gastrointestinal tract.
Lychee fruits contain a lot of carbohydrates in the form of sugars, but few proteins and
fats, which makes them attractive for dietary nutrition.
The evergreen lychee tree belongs to the Sapindaceae family.
It strikes the imagination with its gigantic size and dense spreading crown with paired
pinnate elongated leaves of rich green color.
All this creates the impression of a “curly hair” of a huge “cap” of an exotic tree.
The height of the evergreen lychee reaches about 15 m.
Lychee leaves are leathery, each leaf is divided into several leaflets.
Young leaves are reddish, then they become shiny, bright green.
The lychee prefers subtropical and even rather tropical climates, but can tolerate some cooling,
but does not tolerate frost.
It grows in southern China, South America, Africa and Japan.
Some varieties can tolerate individual frosts down to -4C, provided that in summer the air
temperature is as hot as possible, accompanied by showers and high humidity.
Lychee grows best in well-drained, acidic soil rich in organic matter.
Here the plant bears fruit abundantly, but grows rather slowly, the fruits appear only
for 8-9 years.
Litchi blooms with inconspicuous panicle inflorescences, about half a meter long.
The flowers do not have petals, the calyx is colored yellowish-green.
There are many flowers in the inflorescence, but the fruits are tied only in a few of them,
and the rest fall off.
In the spring, it is simply impossible to take your eyes off a flowering tree - huge
scatterings of flowers adorn it from the lowest branches to the top.
Lychee flowers are bisexual and often the flowering time of male and female flowers
does not coincide - on some trees, panicles with male flowers appear and develop earlier
than female ones.
Thus, the possibility of maximum pollination of female flowers and obtaining a good harvest
of fruits is directly due to their natural pollinators - bees, which transfer pollen
from male flowers to female flowers during the entire flowering period of the tree.
It takes about 140 days from the end of flowering to the full ripening of lychee fruits, and
then, for about six weeks, there is an active harvest.
Lychee fruits are considered ready for harvest when the ripening fruit changes its color
from light green to bright red.
Usually, the fruits begin to be removed as soon as they begin to turn red.
Lychee fruits are harvested by cutting or breaking off the whole bunch and then cutting
off the fruits from it.
Such a collection takes a lot of time and requires a lot of effort.
After harvesting, the fruits are immediately taken to the shade and, after immediate sorting
and packaging, are sent for sale or processing.
Depending on the place of growth, the average yield taken from one lychee tree ranges from
10-50 kg in relatively cool regions, to 125-130 kg in the south.
The difference between green lychee and green tomatoes is that lychee plucked from the tree
will never ripen.
The fruits ripen in June.
Despite the fact that the inflorescences are quite large, the fruits are 4-5 times smaller,
because most of the flowers crumble.
Still, the tree as a whole gives a fairly large yield.
The fruits of the evergreen lychee tree are oval in shape, hang in bunches and contain
one brown stone.
The ripened fruit has a dense red skin with a large number of sharp tubercles.
Only the pulp of the fruit is used for food, which has a jelly-like structure, and in color
and taste resembles peeled white grapes.
When harvesting, they pluck the whole seed and store them on the branches, because separately
plucked fruits quickly deteriorate.
The fruits themselves are relatively small in size - on average, about three to four
centimeters in diameter.
The shape can be both oval and ovoid, depending on the variety.
Such a fruit weighs about twenty grams.
There are yellow and orange varieties.
The lychee peel will tell a lot.
In a mature fetus, it is reddish or pink, without any dents, damage or spots.
If the peel has a yellowish tinge, the fruit has been plucked from the tree too early.
A brownish tint indicates that it is thoroughly overripe.
A rotten fruit will immediately give off a smell.
Ripe lychee smells like a rose - fresh and pleasant, with subtle sweetish notes.
A thick sugary aroma exudes spoiled fruit.
It is important to know that the peel of this fruit is completely unsuitable for food.
Remove the skin carefully with a knife.
After that, you should remove the bone from the pulp with the same knife, since it is
quite large and it is inconvenient to eat lychee with a bone, it is easily removed.
Although the skin of the lychee is not remarkable, since it does not have a pleasant taste like
the pulp, it is tough and dry in appearance.
But don't judge a product by its first impression.
In fact, lychee peel hides many vitamins and minerals that have a beneficial effect on
the human body.
In addition, it is rich in coarse fiber and diuretic components.
This means that decoctions from the lychee peel will help remove excess fluid from the
body.
The peeled lychee peel is placed in a large bowl.
First, salt is added to it, and then water.
Soak the lychee peel in the solution for several minutes.
This is due to the fact that litchi is prone to discoloration and blackening.
In addition, pesticides that were sprayed during the growth of the plant can remain
in the peel.
All this is effectively dissolved with the help of salt.
Then a little flour is added to the solution.
After that, the peel should be thoroughly washed, since the surface of the fruit is
pimply and it may contain eggs of various insects.
The adsorption properties of flour are very high.
The lychee is then washed until the water runs clear.
Washed lychees are placed in a pot of water and boiled for 10 minutes.
The water in the pot turns dark yellow.
This means that all the beneficial substances are released from the lychee peel.
The resulting drink should be poured into a cup and add a lollipop to eliminate bitterness.
Such a drink will help get rid of bloating and abdominal pain if you have eaten too much
lychee.
In general, the drink gives an excellent sedative effect.
It will help relieve dryness and sore throat.
If you pour the solution into a spray bottle, it will be an excellent mosquito repellent.
If you spray on the bite site, the itching will quickly pass.
It's completely safe and good for kids.
This solution is very effective for treating eczema.
If you regularly wipe the skin with this solution, the eczema will quickly disappear.
In Asia, eating litchi is not accepted by hand.
Lychee pulp is put in one plate, eaten with a spoon or fork, because it is jelly-like
in structure.
So it will not be possible to get dirty with pulp juice.
Lychee is very often eaten not only fresh, but even dried and canned.
For those who can easily get lychee every day, you can make lychee smoothies or puree.
In some countries, lychee is dried with the skin on.
At the same time, the peel of the fruit stiffens, and the dry pulp with the stone rolls freely
inside.
Lychee in this form is called lychee nut.
The cost of a kilogram of lychee in Thai markets is about 50 Thai baht (approximately 100 rubles).
This is slightly more expensive than the price of other, more common fruits (pineapples and
bananas).
Fresh fruits are very difficult to store and transport
over long distances.
Therefore, it is advisable to eat lychee immediately after purchase.
At room temperature, fruits can be stored for only 3 days.
The longer the fruits are stored, the worse.
Every day more and more vitamins "disappear" from lychee.
Berries can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week.
To do this, choose ripe and slightly firm fruits.
They should be red or pink in color with a pleasant floral scent.
For long-term storage, litchi can be placed in
the freezer.
First, the fruits must be prepared, since the pulp of the lychee is quite loose and
prone to rotting.
To do this, put the lychee in a saucepan, add water and a little
salt.
In this solution, the fruits should be held for 5-8 minutes.
In this way, salt water eliminates pesticide residues and insect larvae, extending the
shelf life of fruits.
In no case should the cuttings of the fruit be removed, otherwise the lychee is easily
corroded by external bacteria and dehydration occurs.
The shelf life of the fruit will be significantly reduced.
From the solution, the fruits should be placed on a kitchen towel to dry.
Dried fruits should be put in a plastic bag, squeeze the air out of it and tie tightly.
Now the package can be put in
the freezer, where the fruit can be stored for several months.
That's all.
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