Sugar falling from the coconut tree in Ampawa (Thailand).
Coconut sugar the Thai way.
Around 100 km from Bangkok, in the small village of Ampawa (Samut Sonkhram province, south-west of Bangkok) on the banks of the Mae Klong, we enter the heart of “authentic” Thailand. The friendly locals are close to the exuberance of nature. This warm, sunny November day was the perfect time to take a stroll around the outskirts of the village to visit a coconut farmer. Indeed, having been intrigued the day before by coconut sugar vendors at the market, I wanted to find out a little more. I was about to witness an original and disappearing activity: the production of coconut sugar, used in traditional Thai dishes to the delight of discerning local taste buds.
Samran, 49, and his wife Manit, 48, own a pocket farm on the Mae Klong River. Around their house, coconut palms and piles of coconuts of all sizes are their horizon. Their families have owned coconut plantations for several generations, and despite the heavy toll paid by this activity (one dead and one disabled both fell from the coconut trees), they continue their traditional trade because they want their children to finish their schooling and to give them the chance of a better future.
The day before harvesting, containers must be prepared and placed at the end of each bunches. To do this, it’s necessary to climb to the top of the coconut trees, then strip a complete bunch of nuts, bundle them together and trim the end to allow the sap to flow into the container provided.
The coconut sap will run off naturally overnight, yielding a quarter to half a liter of colorless, sweet liquid. In most cases, as the coconut trees have already been pruned, all you need to do is refresh the cut from the day before or the day before, and place the container as quickly as possible around the bundle, as the bees, also very interested, are everywhere. As soon as the container is secured and wrapped in a cloth to protect it from rodents, it’s time to go back down and do it all over again.
The next morning, the work of collecting pots begins very early, which seems obvious given the heat of the midday sun and the physical performance to establish since it is for our host to climb to the top of sixty coconut trees. The morning is just for pickup.
Samran is thin and easel which makes the climb easier, but in this case it would be more correct to use the word climbing. The coconut trees are all cut into the trunk to facilitate climbing. However, Samran climbs with bare hands and without any security. It is therefore necessary to combine speed, agility, balance and technique so that the containers reach the bottom with all their contents and with their carrier. All the small pots in blue plastic but more anciently in bamboo are openwork by the bites of squirrels who also crave sweet sap. They will be collected in the late morning and sent to the cooking shed near the home.
After starting a fire with dried palms from the maintenance pruning of coconut trees, the harvested sap is first filtered on a cloth provided for this purpose and then poured into a container that resembles a large wok topped by a fireplace. This bamboo leaf hood is used to accelerate the evaporation of water vapor but especially to maintain a high temperature in sugar syrup.
In this heating operation, the colorless syrup will gradually take a pale ochre hue and become viscous. After about two hours of cooking, the syrup is ready and has a correct density. The wok is removed from the fire and placed on a dedicated tire. Then begins a mixing operation with a tool similar to a spring compressed at the end of a broom. This very original tool is used to aerate the sugar and give it volume. After 10 minutes of mixing, the sugar is cooled. Slightly grained and light ochre, it is finally ready and will be poured into a seal to be weighed there and then finally packaged in bags of 1 kg to be sold. Having not been able to resist the temptation of tasting, I can say that this sugar has an incomparable taste, a very special and original sweetness that makes the delight of the taste buds since it is still widely used in many culinary preparations.
Coconut sugar is not the only product of the plantation. Indeed, the coconut tree is very widely profitable through many applications of which we can draw a quick and non-exhaustive list. The leaves are used for packaging desserts, making woven baskets, hats and a whole bunch of accessories that it is impossible to list. The branches also serve as a heating aid. The shell of the fruit is used for the manufacture of various objects and kitchen utensils. The flesh of the coconut and its juice are used in culinary preparations, the spinnable shell of the coconut is used as fuel and the wood of the coconut tree for furniture.
Today, Samran and Manit have a large plantation but also grow other fruits to improve their incomes: lychees, bananas and pineapples; each of them providing a useful financial supplement. All this would look like a paradise… but, a problem of size and unfortunately without solution. Samran, appreciated by local people attached to their traditions, will have to stop in a few years, the day when, the age has come, it will become too dangerous and too tiring to climb on top of its so hard-maintained coconut trees. Who will then take over their succession as they did themselves almost 30 years ago following their parents: nobody. The reasons? About 0.4 dollars per kilo of sugar sold for a daily production of 20 to 40 kilos. The daily salary is therefore less than 20 dollars! «At this price, the children are not interested in taking over the estate» says Samran «they prefer to go and find work in the city in offices. That’s why I’m still going a little bit further to pay for their education.”
This book is a tribute to Manit and Samran for their work and the traditions they carry on at the risk of their lives. A book was given to them one year after the shots in tribute to their work.
Ampawa (Thailand) – August 2009
