Bountiful Nature
A look at some of the locally grown fruits on Samui.
Samui. Vacationers see it as a series of beautiful beaches with an unknown interior, all its towns dotted around its shores. Farmers see it in a completely different way: orchards, plantations, jungles and fields, all of it barely inhabited, except, of course for the loud, noisy perimeter.
Looking up at the hills from your hotel, it might seem as if that interior is just a green wilderness. But if you take a closer look, the first thing you notice is that there are a lot of palm trees. That’s a bit of an understatement: there are some million. The entire island is one vast coconut plantation, with an incredible two million coconuts sold or exported every month. The palm trees start off at the shoreline and front most of the beaches, then continue inland. Coconuts are simultaneously fruit, nut and seed, so it’s hardly surprising this tree is so beloved of the islanders. It’s versatile not just as a foodstuff but for making furniture, buildings and so on.
Before Samui became famous for its tourists, it was well-known throughout the nation for its coconuts. Today they’re still a massive crop bringing in a huge amount of revenue. But there are plenty of other crops, too. Thanks to its fertile soils, the majority of Samui is under cultivation of one sort or another. Fruits figure highly. Visit any market on any day and you’ll see local fruit piled up in generous amounts, and most of it being sold cheaply as it’s so plentiful. Make friends with anyone from Samui and they’ll bring you produce, not really even as a present – there’s just so much to be had that individual smallholders can afford to be generous.
Banana trees with their massive leaves can be seen in many places, and are a favourite for locals to grow in their town gardens. The trees tend to get top-heavy and eventually fall over, but not before they’ve produced big clusters of bananas. There are several different varieties growing on Samui, including delicate ones that are the just slightly bigger than finger width, to the more usual sizes. The leaves can serve as plates and even the flowers of the banana trees have their place in Thai cuisine.
Pineapples, too, grow in abundance on Samui and you’ll find them even in quite isolated places. There are several different varieties and all are well-adjusted to the island’s soils. If you venture into the interior of the island, you’ll see roughly cultivated patches of land with pineapples sprouting in rows. The fruits may be small and round or larger and more elongated.
Who doesn’t love the exotic taste of mango, whether eaten with sticky rice as a dessert, drunk as a shake, or simply savoured cut into slices? They’re enormously popular on Samui and you’ll see many mango trees. Normally, the fruit is removed from the tree before it’s ripe and then set aside for a while until it’s judged good to eat. A mango tree is something many householders love to have in their garden; plant a tree and it’ll last for generations – three hundred years is not uncommon. Mangos appear on the tree only once per year, but since there are many varieties and differences in climates within Thailand, you’ll always be sure of finding mangoes in Thai markets.
Durian, though not a native of Thailand – it’s said to come from Malaysia and Indonesia – is grown in many parts of the country and you’ll find it on Samui, too. Despite the infamous smell that causes it to be almost universally banned in most hotels and resorts across South-East Asia, it’s beloved of most Thais. You’ll find durian at the market, often with its hard spiky skin removed and cut into segments. The King of Fruits, as it’s widely called, doesn’t come cheap, but its aficionados are always ready to fork out for the delicious taste of the fruit.
Nature has indeed been generous with Samui. Its inhabitants and visitors never go short of fruit. Whenever there are seasonal fruit that’s ripening it’s harvested and brought to the markets to be sold. Otherwise it’s simply brought in from the neighbouring regions. This applies to pineapples, mangos, watermelon, papaya and just about everything. The result is that Samui always seems to have an abundance. However, you’ll see variations in individual types of fruit; one sort of pineapple, for example, may predominate for a few weeks but then is replaced by another.
If you take the time to explore Samui, even if it’s only in the most casual way, it'll quickly become apparent that it’s a lot more than a holiday destination. Quietly and unobtrusively, all across the island, farmers are busy growing fruit and vegetables, all of which will end up being eaten, maybe in places that are thousands of miles away. Being on Samui means enjoying the best that nature has to offer – and there’s a lot more to the island than just its famed beaches!
Dimitri Waring