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 (fire)!". I stood watching the kitchen, which is also the place that produces famous peanut candy and rice paper from Luong 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 rice paper and peanut candy 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: "The Cong-Thao family is a family that still uses machines to support 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 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 cakes. 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. In addition to Cong-Thao, there are also Quang-Thu, Can-Nam, Dung-Binh, Kiem-Hien... who have "brands" in the market. There are also few professions 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 cakes, the daughter-in-law gets up to light the stove, the children help fan the cakes, in the morning the father gets up to put the tray out to dry the cakes, when the sun is bright enough, the whole family gathers to peel the cakes. The cake must be peeled at the right time, otherwise the cake will be curled, wrinkled and discolored if left in the sun for too long. Therefore, the whole family working together has become a tradition in the Craft Village. Children in 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. I knew how to make candy and cakes at the age of 7 or 8. My father was the one who taught me every single way of making them, every secret from scratch, stirring, and mixing... to make the candy crispy and meltable. After I got married, I also married a son who had been a candy maker 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 with water to filter out all the dirt, ensuring hygiene first. Making cakes is best done on sunny days, if it rains, you have to dry them with charcoal, 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, and the next morning, the stove must be lit and the pot must be steamed to cook. It is called making cakes, but in reality, it is steamed, then dried on a bamboo tray. Making candy is also a lot of work. To make honey candy, cook honey until it is almost boiling, pour in raw peanuts, mix them together, add ginger, and leave it on the stove for 30 minutes to finish a batch. To make sugar candy, you have to cook it, 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 yet 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, sending them everywhere: not to mention within the country, but also to Russia, Australia, and some countries with many Nghe An workers.

However, this is still in the form of a family working on their own, contacting to sell the products and mostly people who hear about it come to buy them as gifts. Struggling with the job, one could say living and dying with the job, Ms. Thao has many sleepless nights to find the secret to making chewy cu do candy. 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 wake 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 working for her grandfather's profession: "Dry cakes have little capital, much profit/ Rain gives them to steal, then life is dry cakes". That is to say, this job depends a lot on the weather, and profits and losses are very fragile. "Therefore, it is 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 2 children to college, but to become rich, there are still many difficulties" - 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 fire 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 Northerners who migrated to Luong to make a living, to have a sustainable craft village until today. I still see somewhere, the old features of the people of Hong Hoa ward, Van Sinh people, Vinh village people... 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 is certain that they are 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 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 the concern for the profession is the same for everyone, always yearning. The best candy maker here, in addition to her husband's family, her children who participate in making candy also hire 8-10 workers, 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 is 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 assessed, so there is no opportunity to promote it. Mr. Pham Ngoc Giao has been the "temporary director" of the Craft Village for the past 3 years, 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 his products to participate in the Thang Long Fair, but because he lacked a logo and did not meet the requirements for recognition, he had to... sadly give up.

Besides, the people who do the job, especially the poor, do not have capital, so they do not know where to invest to expand production. Those who have high education conditions are not interested in returning to develop in the Craft Village. Loving the job 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 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 a cake dryer so that we can feel secure making cakes even when it rains. If we can borrow capital so that we can “return” to our profession... That is also the feeling of the writer of this article, tasting the sweet candy here, thinking, hoping...

Article and photos: Thuy Vinh