The desire of a craft village

(Baonghean) -Quickly mixing peanuts with honey on the red hot stove, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao only had time to look up at the customer for a moment: "Please wait a moment, I will stir the candy but not too hot!". I stood watching the kitchen, which is also the place that produces famous peanut candy and rice paper from Luong province under the brand name Cong Thao, and saw 4-5 people working quickly and rhythmically: When the candy was mixed on the stove with the right heat, someone spread the rice paper on the mold, someone pressed it evenly with a roller, someone spread sesame, someone cut the candy, someone packaged...

Strangely, the air was hot but there was absolutely no fan, no breeze. As soon as I said: “It’s so hot…”, a woman quickly replied with a hearty laugh, “The job of making peanut candy and rice paper has to be as hot as possible, we’re used to it, if you put a fan in here, the candy will dry out. Look, everyone here is skinny because of the fire.” Oh, so that’s how it is!

Mr. Pham Ngoc Giao, head of block 10, also the temporary head of the Vinh Duc rice paper and peanut candy craft village - Do Luong town (a craft village recognized by the province for 3 years now) "introduced" more: "Cong-Thao's family is still able to use machines to help a little bit, while many people in the craft village still do it completely by hand. This job is so hard, it is said that machines help with some steps, but mainly it still requires people with skills and heart". While watching the remaining batch of candy with me, Mr. Giao told a story: I am also someone who has been away for many years, working in the old Nghia Dan area, but I also grew up with the family's candy and rice paper craft, bringing the craft with me far away, then returning. When I was young, I carried rice paper and rice paper with my mother to all the markets: Chua market, Rang market (Thanh Chuong), Dua market, Veo market (Yen Thanh)...

In the past, the whole village made peanut candy, rice paper, and wet rice cake. There were more workers, but the total output of the whole village was less than that of a good family today. Currently, out of 260 households in the village, 110 households are still engaged in the profession, of which about 66 households have large establishments and produce many products. Besides Cong-Thao, there are also Quang-Thu, Can-Nam, Dung-Binh, Kiem-Hien... who have "brands" in the market. There are also few occupations as busy as this one. From the owners to the workers, from the elderly to the children, everyone knows the job, everyone has to work. I dare anyone to do the job alone. In the family, therefore, there is always a reasonable division of labor: one person grinds the flour, the other sifts the sesame. When the mother-in-law makes the rice cake, the daughter-in-law gets up to light the stove, the children join in fanning the rice cake, in the morning the father gets up to put the tray out to dry the rice cake, when the sun is bright enough, the whole family gathers to peel the rice cake. The cake must be peeled at the right time, otherwise the cake will be curled, wrinkled and discolored. Therefore, the whole family working together has become a tradition in the craft village. The children of the craft village learn the job very early…

Cong - Thao rice paper and peanut candy production facility.

Ms. Thao finished the candy batch, and continued Mr. Giao's story: "In the past, my mother was making a bucket of cakes while breastfeeding me. I grew up with the hustle and bustle of my mother and the whole family. I was born into this profession. At the age of 7 or 8, I already knew how to make candy and cakes. My father was the one who taught me every single way of making them, every secret from the beginning, stirring, packing... to make the candy crispy and meltable. After getting married, he also married a son who had been making candy for 3 generations. This profession cannot be done carelessly. You have to be careful from the stage of choosing peanuts and sesame seeds, not letting any moldy or rotten seeds get mixed in.

Even more elaborate, you have to sift it with water to filter out all the dirt, ensuring hygiene is the first factor. Making cakes is best done on sunny days, while cakes made on rainy days have to be dried with charcoal, otherwise the cakes will not look nice and will not be delicious. The flour for making cakes must be ground the night before, mixed with pepper, garlic, and soup powder; the sesame must be sifted clean, and the next morning the stove must be lit, the pot must be steamed with steam. It is called making cakes but in reality it is steamed, then dried on a bamboo tray. Making candy also requires many steps. Honey candy requires boiling honey, pouring in raw peanuts, mixing them together, adding ginger, and leaving it on the stove for 30 minutes to finish one batch. Sugar candy is cooked, the peanuts must be roasted beforehand, mixed in for about 10 minutes on the stove...

Holding the hot, freshly cut candy bar in my hand, Ms. Thao told me to try it. Biting into the fragrant, chewy, sweet, and rich candy bar, drinking a sip of green tea, to absorb the sweetness that was made with so much sweat, I felt regretful that the Vinh Duc peanut candy and rice paper brand had not reached as far as many other brands. Ms. Thao was very happy to see me praising her: “My family produces all kinds and sizes of cakes and candies depending on the needs of customers. They order a lot as gifts, send them everywhere: not to mention within the country, but also to Russia, Australia, and some countries with many Nghe workers.

However, this is still in the form of families working on their own, contacting to sell products and mostly people hear about it and come to buy as gifts." Struggling with the job, one could say living and dying with the job, Ms. Thao has many sleepless nights trying to find the secret recipe to make soft cu do candy products. Ms. Thao said, in the summer she can still sleep long, but in the winter, she only has a few hours of sleep at night, and has to get up to make it in time for customers' orders. You shouldn't lose customers because of small things. I asked: So you got rich thanks to peanut candy and rice paper? She didn't answer, but recited a poem from her father, a man who spent his whole life devoted to the profession that her grandfather passed down: "Dried cakes have little capital, much profit/ The rain gives them, and then the life of dried cakes". That is to say, this job depends a lot on the weather, and losses and profits are very fragile. "So, it's not an exaggeration to say that few people in the craft village get rich because of candy. Like Ms. Thao here, it's enough to send two children to college, but to become rich is still very difficult" - Mr. Giao added.

Greeting Ms. Thao when customers came to buy goods, we entered the alleys of Vinh Duc village (now block 10 - town). The small, wind-proof kitchens were all lit with firelight and bustling figures. The sweet aroma of honey, peanuts, and sesame wafted through the air. Many old women and men were turning trays of cakes by the fences and porches, smiling kindly in the bright sunlight. It must have been 200 years ago, starting with the Northern residents who migrated to Luong to make a living, to have a craft village that has lasted until today. I still see somewhere, the old features of the people of Hong Hoa ward, Van Sinh people, Vinh village... through the periods still trying to rise up to do the craft and get rich. "Many people bring the craft to other places.

In Vinh, in Nghia Dan, Yen Thanh, or far away..., if you see someone making candy and ask, it's sure to be from Vinh Duc village" - Mr. Nguyen Van Cong, a resident shared. Like Mr. Cong, Mr. Giao, Ms. Thao..., Vinh Duc people are proud of their hometown having "candy-making doctors". Such as Dr. Dinh Viet Hoang (Vinh University), Dr. Vo Thi Quynh (Hanoi National University)... in the past, one day went to school, one day came back to "make candy skillfully". And everyone has the same concern for the profession, always yearning. The best candy maker here, in addition to her husband's family, also hires 8-10 workers to make candy, each year producing about 30 tons of candy, other families about 10 tons. The number seems like a lot, but the profit is not much, and that's why "rarely anyone gets rich from the candy profession".

According to the calculations of the craftsmen, making rice paper is low profit, and they are afraid that the profession will not be sustainable. The way of making confectionery is still mainly manual. Most of the products are not branded, and everyone is "running" for their own consumption. Even the logo of the Craft Village is still in the process of being evaluated, so there are no conditions for promotion. Mr. Pham Ngoc Giao has been the "temporary head" of the Craft Village for 3 years now, waiting for a congress to complete the apparatus, the Craft Village to operate stably, and have the conditions to receive investment and register the products of the Craft Village. Once, he was encouraged by many people, and intended to boldly bring the product to participate in the Thang Long Fair, but because of the lack of a logo and not enough conditions for recognition, he had to... sadly give up.

Besides, the people who do the craft, especially the poor, do not have capital, so they do not know where to invest to expand production. Those who have high educational conditions are not interested in returning to develop in the Craft Village. Loving the craft like Ms. Thao's family, now there is only the second child, who is studying for a master's degree in Hanoi, and trying to find ways to promote the family's candy... After being recognized as a Craft Village, block 10 - Vinh Duc has received investment from the district, but it seems that it is still not enough for people to dare to expand and break through.

There are also many “what ifs” that Vinh Duc people say: If there is a business that guarantees the products, we will not worry too much about the output, then we will feel secure to be producers. If there is research to help us with cake dryers so that we can feel secure making cakes even when it rains. If we can borrow capital so that we can “return” to the profession... That is also the feeling of the writer of this article, tasting the sweet candy here, thinking, hoping...

Article and photos: Thuy Vinh