PHEROZE PATEL of Gholvad does what few farmers in Maharashtra do. He grow lychees in a small coastal area of Gholvad that is close to the sea.

The lychee, or litchi, is a white, translucent fruit that is oval, heart-shaped or nearly round. It grows to about an inch-and-half, is firm and juicy, sweet in flavour, fragrant and delicious. The fruit is covered by a leathery rind which is pink to strawberry-red in colour and rough in texture.

But if the fruit is a common sight in most Indian markets, especially during the monsoon, which is lychee season, it is the lychee tree that is not seen by everyone and which is an unusual and stunning sight.

Pheroze, who is a slightly-built man, is happy to show people around his little orchard of lychee trees. He has about hundred of them and they grow on a two acre plot of land outside Gholvad Railway Station.

�If I had any more than that, it would be difficult for me to control them,� he said. The lychee tree is handsome, dense, round-topped and slow-growing. It has a smooth, gray, brittle trunk and limbs. Under ideal conditions, it grows upto 40 feet in height, but generally the tree is much smaller than that.

Pheroze has all his lychee trees covered by nets. �The trouble is bats,� he explained. �They love the lychee fruit and can destroy a tree in one night. But keeping the tree covered is not 100 per cent fool-proof, the bats can still get at the fruit.�

Lychees require warm and humid summers for flowering and fruit development and a certain amount of winter chilling for the flower bud to grow. Cool winters and low rainfall are ideal for lychees.

In India, this fruit is only grown in Saharanpur, which is in Dehradun, and in Kolkata. Pheroze has no idea what contributes to their growth in Gholvad. �Maybe the climate, maybe my technique,� he said modestly.

About 75 years ago, his father, Darabshah Patel, got the first lychee sapling to Gholvad from Calcutta. It�s been growing here ever since. �The climate in Gholvad and Kolkata are similar, both are coastal areas, but in Saharanpur it is different, so I really don�t know what makes the lychee grow in Gholvad,� he admitted.

The fruit is believed to have originated in South China over 2,000 years ago in the provinces of Kwangtung and Fukien. They are considered a symbol of romance ever since a concubine of one of the Chinese emperors insisted on having teams of horses carry lychees hundreds of miles across country for her pleasure. There are reportedly still villages in South China with lychee trees that are over 1,000 years old.

Lychee farming spread from China to the neighbouring areas of South-East Asia, the West Indies, Madagascar, then to France and England. It came fairly recently to the US and to India. Although there are about 33 varieties of lychees grown around the world, India grows only one variety. The harvesting time for lychees in Gholvad, and everywhere in the world, is between May 10 and 30.

Pheroze, after he has plucked the lychees of all his hundred-odd trees, sells much of the fruit locally and sends the rest to Bombay. The evening trains that depart from Gholvad Railway Station carrying the Dahanu farmers� chikoos, also take his lychees.

A basket of 300 lychees sells for anything between Rs. 200 and Rs. 400 depending on the quality and size of the fruit. �Each tree gives me between 10 and 15 baskets,� he revealed.

His lychees are also sold in the small lanes outside the station by local tribal women out of small wicker baskets. They sell them cheap and by the dozen because, after all, this is lychee country.

Not every Parsi-Irani farmer in the Dahanu-Gholvad belt grows lychees, the coastal towns have about 25 lychee farmers between them. The returns are slow, and therefore, most farmers are discouraged by the effort to grow lychees. It takes upto 14 years for the tree to first bear fruit. �And then, there is the problem of insects and bats that destroy the fruit,� Pheroze complained.

When buying lychees in the market, it is best to look for fruit with bright red flesh and with little or no greenish hue. Greenish fruit are under-ripe and the brown lychees are past their prime. There are some lychees that are pinkish, but the strawberry red variety is the best.

Fresh lychees can stay in a refrigerator for days. But in off-season, they are had out of syrupy cans, though this variety does not have the same crisp flavour or colour as the fresh lychee. Frozen lychees are like a fine sorbet. They can be frozen with the skins on, in zip-lock freezer bags, and though the colour of the skin will turn brownish, the taste of the fruit will not be affected. The tough skin on the outside acts as a suit of armour, protecting the tender fruit inside, so peeling the fruit before freezing is not such a good idea.

And do keep the fruit with the stem on it. If the stem is pulled off, this can rupture the skin of the fruit and accelerate the spoiling process.

Fresh lychees are best eaten raw as a refreshing end to a meal. Diners simply remove the shells, the nibble or such the flesh off the stones. Lychees can also be stoned and added to fruit salads, or poached in lemon-scented syrup and served chilled, alone or with ice-cream or other poached fruits.

For an unusual appetiser, serve stoned fresh lychees stuffed with cream cheese and nuts. These succulent fruits are also used in savoury dishes.

The Chinese, who are somewhat crazy about lychees still, make good use of them in their sweet-and-sour dishes and also in salads (particularly when combined with avocado).