Dong leaves, giang tubes, peach blossoms... race down the mountain
(Baonghean.vn) - Dong leaves, giang bamboo, peach blossoms… are considered forest products, also known as “forest blessings” for the highland people to harvest at the end of the year. These things are indispensable in every family, so they are consumed a lot in the days before Tet.
Dong leaves and giang tubes are carefully selected.
When spring is in full swing, it is also the time when people in the highlands of Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, Ky Son, Que Phong, Quy Chau... rush into the forest to find "forest blessings". Dong leaves, giang tubes, peach blossoms, bamboo poles... are carefully selected by the people, following the flow of people to the city to welcomeTet.
Ms. Vi Thi Hue in Chan Nan village, Chi Khe commune (Con Cuong) arranges bundles of dong leaves on a wooden table, placed on the roadside to sell to passersby to buy.wrapping Tet cakes. Mrs. Hue confided that every year, around mid-December, her family goes into the forest to look for the most beautiful dong leaves, pick them and sell them to customers. In addition to selling to traders, she also arranges a point along National Highway 7A to retail to passersby.
“Wholesale is 300 VND/leaf, but retail is 500 VND/leaf. Each bundle of 50 leaves has been carefully selected, so customers only need to wash it before wrapping the cake. In total, at the end of each year, the whole family earns about 15 million VND from selling dong leaves,” Ms. Hue shared.
Along National Highway 7 from Ky Son down to Con Cuong and National Highway 48 from Que Phong down to Quy Chau, you can occasionally come across dong leaf retail points and some facilities that purchase dong leaves in large quantities to transport downstream for consumption by car.
According to the people, dong leaves usually grow and develop in forest areas with high humidity, the deeper the forest, the more beautiful the leaves, while giang grows halfway up the mountain. Customers most prefer dong leaves about 25 cm wide, about 50 cm long because they are used to wrap banh chung and banh tet beautifully. Therefore, people have to take the trouble to find dong bushes with many beautiful leaves.
Picking dong leaves requires sharp cutting tools, and the leaf stalks must be cut in one stroke to look nice. Arranging and bundling leaves also requires “skill” to avoid tearing the leaves. Because people believe that “forest blessings” welcome Tet, when bundling leaves, torn or bad leaves are not mixed in to sell to customers. “The villagers have been attached to the forest for generations, and every Tet, a part of their expenses depends on “forest blessings”, so everyone is excited,” a local confided.
Along with dong leaves are giang tubes used to split bamboo strips to wrap Tet cakes. Giang tubes are cut from the forest and must be sold totradersimmediately, because the bamboo must be fresh and intact to be easily split into thin strips. Many people in Ky Son and Tuong Duong also take advantage of their free time to split bamboo strips to sell to customers.
Ms. Luong Thi Nam in Hoa Son village, Ta Ca commune said that due to the demand of customers for pre-split bamboo strips, her husband uses a sharp knife every day to choose long, straight bamboo tubes, split bamboo strips as thin as paper, and tie them into small bundles to sell to customers. Each bundle usually has 30 bamboo strips, sold for 10,000 VND. "In recent years, the demand for pre-split bamboo strips has increased. With the labor as profit, she also earns 200,000 VND every day from splitting bamboo strips to wrap cakes for customers," Ms. Nam shared.
Dig up less moss than other years
In Ky Son, Que Phong, local peach trees planted by locals for many years, with "moss-covered" buds, beautiful flowers, and green shoots, are brought down to the mountain town to sell to traders. According to Mong men in Muong Long commune (Ky Son), this year the number of peach trees sold for Tet is lower than previous years, because families with beautiful peach gardens do not cut them down to sell for Tet but keep them for tourism.
Mr. Va Cha Xa - Chairman of Muong Long Commune People's Committee said: The whole commune has about 10 hectares of peach trees planted in the villages: Muong Long 1, Muong Long 2, Sa Lay, Tham Luc... and Trung Tam village. Based on the beautiful peach and apricot gardens that have attracted tourists, the commune has also promoted and mobilized people to take care of and protect beautiful peach gardens to develop tourism. Therefore, this year's Tet holiday, many households did not cut down peach trees to sell.
At the end of the year, “forest blessings” also include banana products for Tet. On Tet holiday, every family cannot lack a bunch of bananas placed with a tray of five fruits on the altar. Therefore, along the roads to the highlands, occasionally you will see people carrying bunches of bananas on their backs from the forest.
According to the people, bananas are grown in home gardens, along the banks of the fields. Bananas are harvested all year round, but the most is still at the end of the year, on Tet holiday. On normal days, people sell for 60,000 - 70,000 VND/bunch, but on Tet holiday, the price increases to 120,000 VND/bunch. As soon as they are harvested, traders buy them right along the roadside. There are families in Luu Kien commune (Tuong Duong) who grow hundreds of banana bushes, earning tens of millions of VND during Tet holiday.
Straight copper trunk meter to make Tet pole
In addition, people in the highlands also go into the forest to select the right sized, straight and beautiful meter trees, without broken tops, to cut down and make poles to sell to traders from the lowlands. Mr. Kha Van Hiep in Tam Dinh commune (Tuong Duong) said: Meters are planted by people in dense forests, so most of the trees grow straight and beautiful. However, to get a satisfactory pole, you have to choose straight trees, with a diameter of 5 - 6 cm, leaving both the top and leaves intact.
"There are countless traders buying, they bring large trucks to transport them, so the family has to borrow 3 people in the village to cut down the poles for customers. This year, the selling price is 40,000 - 45,000 VND/pole, the family is expected to earn over 20 million VND from selling poles," said Mr. Kha Van Hiep.
“Forest blessings” give us a fresher spring, and enable the highlanders to celebrate Tet happily. Therefore, those who enjoy these products must know how to protect the forest and preserve each sapling. That is, it is necessary to exploit the forest reasonably, so that the forest can flourish. If there is no awareness of exploiting these products, one day the “forest blessings” will be exhausted.
It is impossible to calculate how much money the highlanders earn each year from picking “forest products”, but there will be hundreds, thousands of families who have a more prosperous Tet thanks to the products of the forest. Therefore, at the end of the year, going up to the highlands, we see trucks loaded with goods heading down to the lowlands. On those trucks are green dong leaves, giang tubes, peach branches, and other products that lowlanders call “specialties” of the highlands, giving us a feeling of excitement when Spring comes./.
