With a bumper palm harvest and high sales, palm growers in Nghe An are delighted.
(Baonghean.vn) - These days, people in the mountainous districts of Nghe An province are beginning to harvest palm fruit. This year, the palm harvest is abundant, with plenty of fruit that sells well, bringing joy to palm growers.
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The mountainous districts of Nghe An province, such as Thanh Chuong, Anh Son, Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, Que Phong, and Ky Son, still have a considerable number of palm trees. Many families still maintain and cultivate palm gardens with dozens or even hundreds of trees. Photo: Huy Thu |
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This year, the palm trees are bearing a bountiful harvest, with many bunches and abundant fruit. According to local residents, healthy palm trees yield 7-8 bunches, or even more. Each bunch weighs 8-12 kg and contains hundreds of fruits. Young palm trees usually produce many bunches, with large, fleshy fruits. Photo: Huy Thu |
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Nowadays, most palm trees that bear fruit are "old," with tall trunks, making harvesting difficult. Palm harvesters have to use ladders to climb or tie sickles to poles to hook the fruit. Families with palm trees often keep long poles nearby during the ripening season to hook and test the fruit. Photo: Huy Thu |
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Ms. Nguyen Thi Ti, from Thanh Thinh commune (Thanh Chuong district), said that every year, the palm trees in her garden yield delicious fruit. The tree with the most fruit yields 70 kg each harvest season. According to Ms. Ti, the palms are plump and ready for harvest in the 11th lunar month when the weather is very cold. If harvested too early, the fruit will still be astringent, and if harvested too late, it will be infested with insects. Photo: Huy Thu |
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The palm trees are short, and harvesting the palm fruit is quite easy; just a few cuts with a knife are enough to get the bunch. Districts like Thanh Chuong and Anh Son... used to cut down many palm trees to plant other crops like acacia, oranges, and pomelos. People also didn't plant new palm trees, so the short palm trees yielded relatively few fruits. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| According to palm growers, the year the palm trees bear abundant fruit will be bitterly cold – "a freezing cold year" is the saying. In the photo: A bunch of palm fruit weighing 12 kg in Thanh Thinh commune (Thanh Chuong district). Photo: Huy Thu. |
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| Ms. Nguyen Thi Sau from Thanh Thinh commune (Thanh Chuong district) said: "Since the beginning of the palm fruit season, I usually pick palm fruit from my garden and bring it to Ho Chi Minh Highway to sell. The palm fruit is delicious, beautiful, and has thick flesh. Customers buy a lot, and every bunch I cut sells out immediately." (Photo: Huy Thu) |
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| Palm trees are easy to grow, not picky about soil, and require little maintenance or investment. They have been associated with many generations of rural and mountainous people in Nghe An province. Nowadays, palm leaves are less commonly used for roofing, but palm fruit remains popular with consumers everywhere. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| Currently in Thanh Chuong district, families with many palm trees only have a few dozen, while in Con Cuong and Ky Son districts, people cultivate many palm trees, with some households growing hundreds of trees and harvesting tons of fruit per season. In areas with many palm trees, each season brings in a significant income from selling the fruit. The retail price of palm fruit at the beginning of the season was around 20,000 VND/kg, but now it is down to 10,000 VND/kg. Many traders go door-to-door to buy palm fruit, collecting it from mountainous districts to sell in the lowlands. Online sales channels also contribute to the rapid consumption of palm fruit in these districts. Photo: Huy Thu |
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Palm fruit can be used to prepare many delicious dishes. After purchasing, palm fruit is usually scrubbed in a bamboo basket to remove the outer shell, then soaked in water for several hours before being stewed or pickled in earthenware jars or glass containers. Palm fruit pickled with the shell intact can be stored longer. The ripe palm fruit is soft, creamy, and has a distinctive aroma. It can be stir-fried, sautéed, or dipped in soy sauce or fish sauce – all equally delicious. Photo: Huy Thu |
