Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 2017 — “Mr. Sun Cho Lee get plenty lychee” [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

“Mr. Sun Cho Lee get plenty lychee”

y intention was to shift gears this month, leave 'trees'

behind us and move on to some other I topic: POTUS 45,

UFOs, Kim Jong Un, Henry Opukahaia, Boki or Father Damien. But those of you who took precious time to eall or email me want to hear more about trees. Thus this is the first of three hana hou's to oblige those requests. I will write about trees to the end of the year. A promise I hereby make and will keep. This hana hou is on lychee whieh several of you asked me to pen

a eolumn about. I'm not sure about November. I'm wide open for now. Kiawe (mesquite) possibly. December is a 'no brainer.' It has to be 'O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum' for it is the Season to be Jolly. I have yet to meet someone who doesn't like lychee. My wife brought home a gallon size Ziploc bag at the start of the 2017 season. Our three-year-old grandson Samuel eame by for a visit. I asked Samuel if he wanted to try one. This was his first lychee experience and a huge mistake on my part. One bite. Samuel was hooked. Next lychee season, Samuel is on his own. He will have to procure his own lychee supply. There is so mueh wisdom to George Santayana's adage, "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." Please know, I'm just being facetious at Samuel's expense. One of my favorite Keola & Kapono Beamer songs is "Mr. Sun Cho Lee" (along with "Honolulu City Lights"). Do you remember that song? I like it for several reasons. I'm part Pake. And it's about lychee. It's funny-as it pokes fun at so many of us ethnically who eall Hawai'i home with 'no maliee' intended. Here are a few select lyrics.

Mr. Sun Cho Lee Mr. Sun Cho Lee

Getplenty lychee Getplenty lychee But he no gives to me Anā lie 's just a mean, olā Pake man, Then there 's Mr. Conrad Jones witli 'plenty swimming poo!s,'Mr. Maximo Concepcion with 'plenty fighting chickens,' Mr. Kazuo Tanaka with 'plenty camera supply,' Momi Lomi Lomi with 'plenty experience,' Mr. Kamakawiwoole with 'plenty nothing.'

I was driving to Hilo when I first heard the song on KIPA Radio and had to pull off the highway as I would have had 'plenty accident' and the consequence would have been 'plenty ticket' from Mr. Perreira. I almost died from laughing. Back to lychee (aka Litchi chinensis) that scrumptious fruit encased in red, leathery, crinkly skin with brown seed. Lychee immigrated to Hawaii (Honolulu) with Mr. Ching Chock in 1873 from China. On Hawaii Island lychee thrives in Hilo, Kea'au and ma uka Kona. Some describe its ono taste as a blending of a grape, Bartlett pear and eoeonuī. Lychee is used in preserves, sauces, cocktails, sorbets, iee cream and mueh more, I like it chilled. Right out of the icebox. Lychee grows well in Waimea where I live but it doesn't produce flowers. So no moah fruit. Possible contributing factors: loeahon, elevation, climate, soil type. I'm sure a lychee variety appropriate for our conditions will be discovered soon. It's amazing the magic science is able to create in the lab now a days for the mahiai , (agriculturists), the tillers of the soil. Mr. Sun Cho Lee wants a hnal word. "There is one thing I ean say about this plaee (Hawai'i). All us guys ean tease the other race, It's amazing we ean live in the same plaee." ■

Robert K. Lindsey, Jr. TrustEB, Hawai'i