Strange market selling 'unique' things

(Baonghean.vn) - In Thanh Luong commune (Thanh Chuong) there is a unique market - the straw market, where only straw is sold to feed buffaloes and cows.

According to local people, Thanh Luong is a commune that raises many buffaloes and cows, while the land is limited so there is not much straw. Every year, during the lean season, buffaloes and cows often lack food. Due to the need for animal feed, a straw market has been established for nearly ten years now.

Straw buyers are mainly people from surrounding communes such as Thanh Luong, Thanh Khai, Thanh Yen, Ngoc Son...

Straw market on lean days, only occasionally has customers buying straw. Photo: Huy Thu.

The market usually meets every morning, starting from the 10th lunar month and lasting until the next year's winter-spring rice harvest. It is called a market but in fact it is just a spontaneous straw trading place, located next to the old cemetery in the middle of hamlet 3. Previously, the market was several hundred meters wide, but now the area around the market has developed, with high walls and fences, so people have to meet along the road.

This season, on Highway 46, from Ngoc Son Commune to Thanh Khai Commune, if you see women riding motorbikes carrying large bundles of straw, heading towards Con Market, they are the ones selling straw. They usually prepare their “goods” the previous afternoon, pulling the straw from the trees, moving the straw out of the straw house, then carefully tying them into small bundles. When they go to the market, they put the straw on the cart and tie it into a pile. When they get to the market, whoever buys it takes the whole cart of straw back to their house.

A woman carries straw to the market to sell. Photo: Huy Thu.

Arriving at the straw market quite early, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ly, in Hamlet 8, Ngoc Son Commune, said that her family has nearly 5 sao of rice fields, but every season there is excess straw so she has to bring it here to sell. According to Ms. Ly, to sell straw, you have to choose a sunny, clean day, in order to sell the goods. If it rains heavily in the middle of the market, it will be considered unsaleable.

Each cart of straw, depending on the type of straw harvested by hand or by machine, good or bad quality, quantity, time, weather, etc., has a price ranging from 80,000 to 120,000 VND. Generally, during the long rainy and cold days before and after Tet, the price of straw is often higher.

In the past, people who went to sell straw often used bicycles to carry straw, one bundle tied on the attic, two bundles tied on both sides, those who did not know how to ride a bicycle would put the straw on a pole and carry it on their backs. Nowadays, people who go to the market to sell straw mainly use motorbikes, which not only make it quick and easy to get there and back, but also carry a lot of straw. They often go in groups of a few people, “both for fun and to help each other when things go wrong.”

A corner of the straw market. Photo: Huy Thu.

Depending on the market day and the quality of the straw, whether it sells or not, those who are lucky will sell early, those who are unlucky will sit until noon and still not selling, sometimes they have to carry the straw back. Ms. Ly said: “Some days, one morning, I sold 3 carts of straw, after selling one cart, I would go back to carry another cart, but there are days when everything is unsold, the sisters have to go out to sell in distant villages. When they go out to sell like that, the people often pressure them, so each cart only sells 60-70 thousand, even if they have to pay for gas, they still have to sell, it’s better than bringing it back.”

Thanh Luong straw market in the lean season in recent years is not as crowded as in previous years. Although buffaloes and cows are no longer the “capital of the business”, they are still raised by many people here for goods and food. However, people’s lives have improved, they have found suitable ways to deal with the lack of feed for livestock during the lean season, such as using land to grow corn, elephant grass, buying more concentrated feed, mixed feed for storage, etc., so there are fewer and fewer people buying straw.

A woman's joy when selling straw. Photo: Huy Thu.

The women of Ngoc Son commune who sell straw all believe that if they can sell straw, the money they earn from selling each sao of rice field is sometimes more than the money they earn from selling rice. Therefore, during the harvest season, in addition to worrying about harvesting rice, they also actively collect and dry straw until it is golden and fragrant to feed buffaloes and cows and sell at the market for a good price. Straw has become a unique product of the people of the communes in the region.

Going to Thanh Luong to go to the straw market, even if you don't buy straw, you will still learn more about the interesting and "unusual" things of the people at Con market.

Huy Thu