Peach Village in Spring

(Baonghean) - On the winding, bumpy red dirt roads, we find lands with noble peach varieties. Many customers come to the peach gardens to enjoy, hoping to find the most beautiful branches to celebrate Spring. Peach gardens in full bloom not only beautify the village and neighborhood every time Tet comes, Spring comes, but also bring in a significant source of income, helping peach growers celebrate Tet more warmly and fully. However, this year the flowers bloomed early, so peach growers suffered some losses...

Peach garden of Mr. Pham Tat Thanh in Dong Ban hamlet, Kim Thanh commune (Yen Thanh).

From elegant hobby to commercial crop

Dong Ban hamlet - Kim Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) has a long tradition of growing peach trees. According to the elders here, when they grew up, they saw peach trees in their gardens blooming with buds, blooming in spring, green leaves, and children eagerly eating the fruit after Tet. Peach trees have become a familiar image of the midland countryside. Then, many people came to Dong Ban, saw the beauty and asked to cut a branch to enjoy the elegant beauty of the fading red color of peaches. Gradually, many families learned to cut peach branches to sell at the year-end market. When they became commodities, people began to grow them in gardens, learn experience and techniques to care for the trees well, or slow down the peach trees to grow moderately and let them bloom right on the occasion of the traditional New Year to sell to customers.

During Tet, Dong Ban peach trees bring a considerable income to the people. Currently, Dong Ban has 163 households, almost every family grows peach trees commercially, the largest household has 5,000 - 6,000 trees, the medium household has 400 - 500 trees, the smallest family has a few dozen trees. Every year, around the middle of the 10th lunar month, traders come to see the garden to buy wholesale, some people order hundreds of trees. As a famous peach grower for many years, Mr. Pham Tat Thanh said: "On average, each year, we earn 70 - 80 million VND from peach trees, unless traders buy the whole garden, the rest we sell retail to tourists from all over, around the 25th - 26th of Tet, we cut the trees and send them to Vinh to sell".

Mr. Dang Huu Dam, 80 years old this year, a veteran peach grower in the village, said: “To have this garden of more than 4,000 peach trees is a whole process. At first, it was just a hobby, then I wanted many people to enjoy the elegant beauty of the peach branches during Tet and Spring, and to increase income…” Mr. Dam was happy to announce that the Kim Thanh peach brand has become known throughout the region. Kim Thanh peach trees do not need to be pruned elaborately, the natural shape of the peach trees is very beautiful and visitors can enjoy them for a whole month just by cutting the branches and putting them in a vase. Not only Kim Thanh commune, but also mountainous communes such as Quang Thanh, Minh Thanh, Xuan Thanh of Yen Thanh district also have villages with thousands of peach trees, which are grown by the people here for commercial purposes, becoming crops with high economic value.

In Nam Anh commune (Nam Dan), which is a crop growing commune, but with the advantage of semi-mountainous hilly land, two hamlets 8 and 9 located at the foot of Dai Tue mountain also have a tradition of growing peach trees. About 10 years ago, peach trees started to have a price, so people in the hamlets actively propagated and planted them for business. Many well-off families became rich from this profession. Currently, almost every house in the two hamlets above grows peach trees, small trees can be sold for 500,000 VND, large and beautiful trees cost up to 1.5 - 3 million VND, there are also trees up to 6 - 7 million VND.

Mr. Phan Tat Duong's family in Hamlet 9 is one of the pioneers in turning peach trees into commercial products and is the household with the largest number of peach trees, with hundreds of trees. Last year, the profit from selling peach trees during the Lunar New Year was more than 50 million VND. In addition, families such as Mr. Phan Huy Minh, Phan Tu Toan, Ho Viet Toan ... are also families with tens of millions of VND in revenue from growing peach trees. According to Mr. Tran Van Nam - Head of the Agriculture Department of Nam Anh Commune, the whole commune has about 150 households growing peach trees. The soil here is very suitable for peach trees. In recent years, Nam Dan district has had many more communes developing peach growing such as: Nam Thai, Khanh Son, Nam Hung .... Peach trees here have become a commodity tree, helping people have a prosperous life and a full Tet holiday.

Loss of harvest due to early blooming

There are still nearly 2 weeks left until Lunar New Year, but in peach growing villages, this year the flowers are in full bloom. Spring has come early but people cannot be happy. Because according to peach garden owners, this year, due to the leap year and favorable weather, the peach blossoms bloomed early, which means the economic value of the peach branches has decreased. Ms. Thai Thi Hoa, Trai Mat hamlet - Kim Thanh (Yen Thanh) said: "My garden was ordered by traders for 40 million VND for 100 trees in October, but when they came back and saw that the peach blossoms bloomed early, they deducted 10 million VND, now there are only 30 million VND left." Sharing the same sentiment, Mr. Pham Tat Thanh of Dong Ban hamlet shared: “Every year, around December 15, the peach trees shed their leaves, then bud and bloom, so we can cut them down and sell them during Tet. This year, there are two leap months in September, so at the beginning of December, the peach trees have shed their leaves, budded and bloomed. Many households have tried every measure but still cannot limit the blooming of the flowers. Everyone is very sad but what can we do?”

Although there is no scale of peach gardens with thousands of trees like in Dong Ban - Kim Thanh, the people of Nam Anh (Nam Dan) are also restless because the peach blossoms bloom early. Entering any household's garden, we see a vast array of brilliant flowers. Many people, thinking we are traders, have come to cut peach trees and come to the alley to offer them. Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien - a peach grower in hamlet 9, Nam Anh commune, sighed: "This year there is no flood, I thought we would have a big Tet because we got peaches, but now that they have bloomed like this, it's no use anymore. We know that in a leap year, peach blossoms bloom early, but we can't find a way to slow them down so they bloom on time. For farmers who stick to the fields all year round like us, a few million VND to buy Tet is very precious, ladies...".

More than 90% of peach acreage bloomed early, causing many people to lose income significantly. Despite the joys and sorrows, peach growers for many years still stuck with the spring flowers. They were still optimistic about "waiting for next year" and felt happy to bring the colors of spring to every home.

Khanh Ly - Thanh Nga