The hotter the sun, the more bustling the rice paper village in Nghe An
(Baonghean.vn) - Taking advantage of the long hot days, rice paper makers in Chau Nhan commune (Hung Nguyen) are actively producing and stockpiling goods.
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| As one of the two main products of Dong Nhat craft village, rice paper is produced by the locals all year round, but concentrated in the summer, especially during the hot season. On this occasion, visiting Chau Nhan commune, we saw the locals bustling with activity, rice paper was dried all over the village roads and dike roads. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| According to local people, in the past, when they used to make rice paper in a pot, they had to sit next to a fire on hot days, making rice paper was too hard. Now, most households in the area have bought rice paper making machines, so it is less difficult and labor productivity is many times higher. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| Chau Nhan commune's rice paper products are made from delicious rice and black sesame, spread by machine, are square in shape and dried on traditional bamboo mats. On average, for each kilogram of rice, people here can spread 20 - 25 cakes, depending on the thickness, thinness, size of the cake. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| Mr. Nguyen Van Doan (51 years old) in Hamlet 5, Chau Nhan Commune said: During this period of intense heat, his family makes about 3 quintals of rice each day to make about 6,000 rice paper. The production line consists of 3 workers (2 people specialize in holding the machine to get the rice paper, spreading it on the bamboo mat, and he specializes in transporting the rice paper to dry on the dike). Photo: Huy Thu |
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| Mr. Doan's wife said that in order to finish the cake making process early, the rice for the cake was soaked and ground completely in the evening. At around 3:30 a.m., the cake making line was started, and at 4 a.m., the whole family started making the cake, drying the cake continuously until around 9:30 or 10 a.m. It was sunny, so the sooner the job was done, the better. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuc (60 years old) in Hamlet 6, Chau Nhan Commune said: Making rice paper has many steps, but drying the rice paper is an important step that greatly affects the quality of the product. On hot days of 39 - 40 degrees Celsius, the rice paper only needs to be dried for 2 hours before it can be harvested. Currently, his family uses 200 kg of rice to make rice paper every day. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| Usually, households making rice paper in Chau Nhan commune hire additional workers from the area. They help families with the spreading, drying, and storing of rice paper. The daily wage is about 200,000 VND/person. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| According to people in the profession, the sun is strong, the work is hard, but the cakes dry quickly. Each cake making session requires drying many batches and collecting many times, and families complete the work at around 12 o'clock. During the sun-drying process, the cake-dryer must watch the cakes regularly, calculate the appropriate collection time, and not let the cakes dry for too long, as they will become hard, warped, difficult to fold, and difficult to bake. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| For the people who make rice paper from Dong Nhat village, the long, strong sunshine is a favorable condition for production and drying. Families working in the profession here take advantage of the hot weather to boost production whenever possible. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| Ms. Nguyen Thi Linh in Hamlet 5, Chau Nhan Commune shared: In hot weather, the amount of rice paper consumed is not much, but local households are stepping up production to reserve, in case they cannot make rice paper during the rainy season, but still have goods to sell. Her family alone has 2 warehouses that can store hundreds of thousands of rice paper. In recent years, Dong Nhat village rice paper has been widely consumed in localities inside and outside the province. Photo: Huy Thu |
