Strange job of 'scraping stones to get vegetables' earns half a million dong per day in Nghe An

In addition to seafood exploitation, some people in the coastal villages of Quynh Luu (Nghe An) also have other "money-making" jobs, including scraping vegetables that grow naturally on coastal rocks, which people call "scraping vegetables".
Follow Mrs. Nguyen Thi Diem in Cong Hoa village, Quynh Long commune (Quynh Luu) to the rocky beach less than 500m from her house to collect scraping vegetables. A scraping blade and a basin are necessary tools to scrape this vegetable clinging to the rocks.

Around February to May of the solar calendar, watercress grows abundantly on rocky cliffs in Quynh Luu district. Photo: Viet Hung.

According to Ms. Diem, from February to May of the solar calendar is the season for collecting scraped vegetables. For the people of the coastal villages, it is not difficult to find this type of vegetable, because they know which sea areas have it and how to scrape it to avoid sand particles, snails, and rocks sticking to the vegetable. To scrape the vegetable, you have to wait until the tide goes down, when the rocky reefs are exposed to collect it.

The vegetable grows on rocks, likes moisture, is very small in size and has a coffee-like color. To get this “special” vegetable, people use a scraper blade to press against the rock so that the vegetable falls into a basin. Photo: Viet Hung.

“At the beginning of the season, because few people came to collect, the selling price was 200,000 VND/kg. Now, many people come to collect, so the price has dropped to 150,000 VND/kg. Every month, by collecting vegetables, I earn an additional 3-4 million VND,” said Ms. Diem.

During the season, people can scrape about 3 - 5 kg of this vegetable, earning 500,000 - 600,000 VND/day. After scraping the vegetables from the sea, people wash them briefly, then bring them home to wash them, sift them carefully to filter out grit, sand, and rocks before bringing them to the market to sell.

If you don’t sell fresh vegetables, you dry them in the sun until they are dry, then use an iron hammer or wooden pestle to hit them so that all the rocks and pebbles mixed in with the vegetables fall out. Then wash them several times, dry them in the sun for a few more days, and package them; every 4 kg of fresh vegetables will yield 1 kg of dried vegetables, which you can sell for 500,000 VND/kg.

Freshly washed and cleaned, the price is 150,000 VND/kg. In season, people process the dried vegetable to preserve it and make it easier to use. The vegetable can be made into cakes to eat with vegetables and fruits or cooked into soup with a sweet and nutritious taste when used in the summer. Photo: Viet Hung - Nhat Thanh.

From a rustic dish of the coastal villagers, thanks to its characteristic salty taste of the sea and especially in the summer, this vegetable helps to cool down and nourish the body, so gradually the dish of rau scraping has become a "specialty" loved by people everywhere, appearing in parties at restaurants and hotels. Rau scraping can be processed into cakes to eat with vegetables, fruits or cooked into a sweet soup. Rau scraping cake is best eaten with braised fish..