Nghe An farmers stay up all night to 'hunt' for earthworms in the fields
Huy Thu•DNUM_BGZBBZCACE 10:47
After many sleepless nights of watching over the rice fields, people in the communes downstream of the Lam River have earned the first batches of "heavenly gifts" of the season. This year, the rice fields emerged late and were still rare, so traders competed to buy them.
These days, farmers in Chau Nhan and Hung Loi communes (Hung Nguyen) stay up all night to go to the fields to watch for worms. In the middle of the tenth lunar month, the tide in the fields recedes at midnight, sohunting wormsquite hard. On the night of November 15, from 1-2am, people carried their nets and went to the fields to sit on the banks waiting for the tide to go down. Photo: Huy ThuLocals said that this year the worms came to the fields late, so this year the people of the "worm village" had to spend many sleepless nights waiting for the worms. Around this time in previous years, the worms would have already come to the fields, but this year, only a few low-lying fields have them. Photo: Huy ThuThe night in the field of rươi is more fun than at home, all over the fields are sparkling with flashlights and rechargeable lamps. In the fields along the Lam River, rươi emerges earlier than other places, people have been busy pouring and scooping rươi. Photo: Huy ThuPeople stay up all night to watch for the worms. Hearing that "the worms are floating" makes them happy, but because the worms are not floating evenly, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, many people wait for hours but can only scoop up a few worms. Photo: Huy ThuIn the rice fields where there are many floating worms, people are busy hunting for worms. Every 10-15 minutes, people pour a batch of poles to collect worms. Photo: Huy ThuHowever, there are also some rice fields with very few worms. A resident of Hamlet 2 (old) of Chau Nhan Commune, who is waiting for worms in a corner of his field, shared that he brought a net and a plastic bucket to the field quite early, but waited for a long time, lying down and sitting down, but his rice field still had no worms, and it was almost dawn when he carried the net and left. Photo: Huy ThuThis season, the riverbanks of the riverbeds are built high by the locals, the entrances to the worm traps are solidly built, and wooden bridges are built... quite convenient for setting up traps to catch the worms. Photo: Huy Thu Many households have poured the first batches of the season, each batch from 2-4 kg of rươi. Mr. Cao Van Tuan, Phu Xuan hamlet, Chau Nhan commune excitedly said that his family's rươi field along the river has an area of 2 sao, and last night he earned more than 100 kg of rươi. Photo: Huy Thu Mr. Vo Van Que - the household with the largest field of rươi in Phu Xuan hamlet, Chau Nhan commune, said that his family has about 1 hectare of rươi field (5 plots) and each rươi season, they can earn hundreds of tons of rươi, but on the night of November 15, only 2 plots had rươi, collecting more than 200 kg. According to Mr. Que, the rươi season will last until the end of the 11th lunar month. People here are hoping for the next waves of rươi. Photo: Huy ThuEarly season rươi is still rare, people have just brought it to the fields and there are customers coming to buy it. Some households have rươi, traders come to their houses to compete to buy. The price of rươi at home is being sold by people in Chau Nhan commune at 350,000 VND/kg. Photo: Huy ThuPeople of Chau Nhan commune (Hung Nguyen) hunt for earthworms at night. Photo: Huy Thu
