Hunting season for fireflowers

(Baonghean.vn) - Dot (also known as chit) is a natural plant that blooms in early spring. Dot flowers are the main ingredient to make brooms, a popular item in every household. During the dot flower season, people in the mountainous communes of Thanh Chuong district go into the forest to harvest and trade quite busily.

People have to go into the forest to find dangerous areas such as cliffs, streams... to find fireweed. Photo: Dinh Ha

For many days now, people from Thai and Kho Mu villages in resettlement communes in Thanh Chuong district have been waking up very early to go to the forest to pick dot flowers. People consider this as “forest blessings” because many families have escaped poverty thanks to dot flowers.

Dot is a natural plant that only grows on high hills and mountains. In Thanh Chuong district, it is concentrated in the communes of Thanh Son, Ngoc Lam, Hanh Lam, Thanh Thuy. To get beautiful Dot flowers, pickers must go to the forest areas that were burned last year or search along the hillsides, rivers, and streams. Dot can grow in patches or in individual bushes, perched on cliffs. The plant is not tall and is as soft as reeds, but the leaves are very sharp, so picking the flowers is not easy.

After harvesting, the bamboo shoots are brought home to dry in the sun. Photo: Dinh Ha

Ms. Kha Thi Tinh, a professional picker of bamboo shoots in Ban Kim Lien, Ngoc Lam commune, said: At the beginning of the season or if you are lucky enough to find an area with a lot of bamboo shoots, each person can pick 40 - 50 kg per day, but on average, only 20 - 25 kg per day can be picked. In return, bamboo shoots are very easy to sell.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Tu, in village 9, Thanh Thinh commune - a person who specializes in buying fresh bamboo shoots from the locals, said: In the past, he and many local people in Thanh Huong and Thanh Thinh communes specialized in picking bamboo shoots, but now the forest has been allocated to resettled households, so he only goes to buy. "These days, around 3-4 pm, buyers and sellers are bustling around the forest gates. Currently, the price of one kilogram of fresh bamboo shoots here is about 4,000 VND."

In addition to buying and selling at the forest gate, many households in the broom making villages in Thanh Linh commune also buy and collect brooms from Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Que Phong districts... They bring money there to order local agents to bring them back when they have collected enough trucks. They can also call to order and pay when they receive the brooms, which is very convenient.

Mr. Tran Dinh Sy in Linh Thanh village, Thanh Linh commune, said that every year he buys about 5 tons of bamboo shoots, the average price at home is about 5,500 VND/kg of fresh bamboo shoots, "more expensive than buying at the forest gate but you can buy a lot and the truck will deliver it to your home".

When there are 4-5 bamboo shoots, the process of tying them into brooms begins. Photo: Dinh Ha

Along with buying, drying and storing bamboo shoots, in craft villages, broom making is done all year round. After drying, bamboo shoots are stripped of branches and bundled together, called “cởt”. After having 4 or 5 bamboo shoots, brooms are strung. When stringing, rattan or nylon fibers are used to tie the bamboo shoots together into brooms. Broom making can be done all year round, most effectively during the rainy and windy season, when farming is idle.

According to broom makers, each broom is currently sold for 25,000 - 30,000 VND. After deducting expenses, producers earn about 12,000 - 15,000 VND, each person can make 10 - 15 brooms a day, so the average monthly income for a worker is about 4 million VND. This is a high source of income in rural areas./.

Tran Dinh Ha