Swansong harvest: Phitsanulok villagers gather rare talipot palm fruits
Villagers in Phitsanulok’s Muang district came together on Sunday to harvest two talipot palm trees that fruit only once in 50 years before they perish.
Approximately 20 residents of Moo 4 village in Hua Ror subdistrict, arrived to collect the rare talipot palm fruit. Their plan is to turn these fruits into sweets for sale and raise funds for their neighbourhood temple, Wat Ta Pakhao Hai.
Since the trees are more than 30 metres tall, the harvesting process involved the expertise of an experienced climber – Uncle Prawit Noitoi, 68, the lay secretary-general of the temple.
Pinphet Poolsawat, chief of the Hua Ror subdistrict, said talipot palm fruits are very scarce and there are very few of these trees in her area.
The talipot fruit is rare because the tree only flowers when it is 30 to 80 years old, and it takes about a year for the fruit to mature. The plant dies after fruiting.
Pinphet said since the fruits are so rare, the committee in charge of the temple’s management will boil them in syrup before selling and raising funds for the temple’s improvement.
She said the last time a talipot palm yielded fruit was two years ago, and the committee raised 70,000 baht by selling small jars of the preserved fruit for 50 baht each.
She said this year, two talipot palm trees bore fruit at the same time and delivered some 3,000 kilograms of the fruit. This harvest, she said, will result in up to 500 jars of the fruit being sold.
The harvesting event on Sunday was similar to a fair, attracting many villagers who participated in making merit and purchasing the preserved palm fruit.
