Does anyone still have lychee boxes?

"The fabric of the Dien Palace/The longan of the Phung Tien"

Lately, many people around the Citadel have been selling Hue longan. What distinguishes Hue longan from other regions is that most Hue longan is smaller, has thinner flesh, and a mildly sweet taste. Priced at 25,000-40,000 VND per kilogram, it's still very popular. Ms. Duong Thi Hoa, a longan seller for 45 years, explains why she sells her longan early, before harvest time: "Our longan grows naturally without any chemicals, so everyone likes it. We pick a few dozen kilograms each day and sell them gradually. These days, the labor cost for cages is high, and they're easily stolen, so selling early might help us earn a little extra money for groceries."

Similarly, Mr. Duong Van Loi, a seller of longan, shook his head when I asked to buy Hue longan as a gift. "There haven't been any longan available these past few years, ma'am. Nobody's cage-grown them anymore. They just harvest and sell the large ones," he said.

Hue longan has long been famous, not only in literature but also in daily life. The longan from Dai Noi (Imperial Citadel) is one of the three renowned fruits mentioned in the folk verse: "Lychee from Dien Palace / Longan from Phung Tien / Peach from The Mieu Temple".

The mausoleum system managed by the Hue Imperial Citadel Conservation Center currently has over 500 longan trees. Of these, the Imperial Citadel accounts for more than half, and longan trees are also planted at the Tu Duc Mausoleum, Duc Duc Mausoleum, Tam Toa Mausoleum, etc. This season, strolling around the Privy Council, the Royal Family Office, the Imperial Observatory, etc., you'll see branches laden with fruit hanging down over the moss-covered roofs of these time-worn structures. The large longan trees in the Forbidden City, Dien Tho Palace, and Phung Tien Palace are very old, likely varieties that were offered to the imperial court in the past.

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of tasting longan at the Imperial Palace. The sweet, delicate flavor permeated every fiber of my being, leaving me utterly captivated. The aroma was subtle and fragrant even before I peeled the golden skin. The seeds were small, jet black, some as tiny as peppercorns, the flesh thick and translucent, and the taste subtly sweet. Indeed, anyone who has ever tasted the longan from the Imperial Palace will find it incredibly satisfying and delightful.

According to some researchers, it is possible that the ancient longan trees in the Imperial Palace were propagated from longan trees from Hung Yen that were offered as tribute. During the 11th year of Emperor Minh Mang's reign, people from Hung Yen selected delicious longan fruits to bring to the capital as tribute. Perhaps that variety of longan, nurtured by the sun, dew, rain, and wind, produced a fruit with a distinctive flavor that absorbed the life force of the land. From the longan trees within the Imperial Palace, this species was transferred to other gardens and cultivated, spreading throughout the area.

In terms of quantity, the Imperial Citadel boasts the largest and best-tasting longan orchards in Hue. A fruit tree contractor recounted that his father once spent nearly one and a half gold coins buying woven mats to bid for a contract to harvest 3 tons of longan in the Imperial Citadel during the 1980s. Mr. Ho Xuan Dai, owner of a garden in Thuy Bieu (Hue City), recalled that his family used to host traders from other provinces, setting up drying facilities in the Imperial Citadel to transport the longan to the North.

Hue longan trees bloom around March and April and are harvested around June and July. However, in return for their delicious sweetness and the anticipation of connoisseurs, they only bear fruit once every 2-3 years. When the longan seeds turn black, indicating ripeness, people begin to peel the fruit. Nearly a month later, when the longan fruit ripens, it is harvested, yielding delicious, fragrant fruit with a higher selling price.

This year, the Imperial Citadel still has a few delicious longan trees that have been caged for gifts, while the rest still bask in the summer sun. Outside the moss-covered city walls, the people are still bustling with the scene of picking and selling longan brought from Hue's orchards, just like the folk song: "In June, people trade longan and sell hairpins."

No more burden, the ladder

In recent years, it has become rare to find lychee greenhouses due to high labor costs or the willingness to accept a 5:5 or 6:4 split with workers. Only those with well-protected trees, free from theft, or producing exceptionally high-quality fruit invest in this stage of cultivation.

Kim Long district has many mansions, and even today, many ancient longan trees still remain in the area. Walking around the gardens of Phu Mong (Kim Long, Hue City), the vibrant yellow of the longan trees blankets the entire landscape. Along alley 42 in Phu Mong, almost every house has a few hundred-year-old longan trees, but no one bothers to cultivate them anymore.

Mr. Huynh Viet Can's house is one of them. For many years, whenever the longan fruit ripened, he would call people to sell it and buy back a few to offer to his ancestors' altar. Looking at his longan orchard, he fondly recalled the days when the whole family busily worked together making bamboo ladders and weaving palm leaf sheaths to plant the longan trees. Those days are gone. Now, only a few trees remain in the orchard, retaining the old flavor, and no longer possessing the economic value they once had.

When talking about the longan harvesting profession, the people of Kim Long always remember Mr. Mai Khac Tang and his son. Mr. Tang is 62 years old this year. At the age of 10, he helped his father with the work and learned the trade from then on. In the past, his parents and the two brothers' spouses all harvested and harvested longan throughout the Kim Long, Huong Ho, and Thuy Bieu areas…

“We bought the palm fronds in large quantities, ordering from suppliers in My Loi (Phu Vang) to gather a few hundred at a time. Then we soaked them in water and tied them together with bamboo strips. At 4 or 5 in the morning, the women would get up to cook food to take with them. The whole family would walk together, some carrying ladders, others carrying palm fronds, and still others preparing food and drinks. The work of trapping longan trees took all day; we ate and slept in the orchard, only returning home in the evening,” Mr. Tang slowly recounted his memories.

The longan cages were sometimes stung by bees or had broken branches, but luckily, Mr. Tang and his son were unharmed. His mother would bring the baskets of caged longans back home, tying them into bunches to sell to vendors at Dong Ba market. The money from selling longans bought rice, household items, and raised their children. After his father passed away, he and his wife continued the business until they were nearly 50 years old, when they switched to working as bricklayers' assistants because no one hired them to cage longans anymore.

Recalling the busy days he spent working in the profession, he said: "The best longan in Hue is the dry longan. The fruit is as big as a mulberry, with thick, translucent flesh, a refreshing taste, and a light aroma. In the old days, the Kim Long area had orchards with over a dozen longan trees, and it took a whole week to harvest them all. Some trees had 700-800 cages of longan, and it took up to four days to finish. In the past, caged longan was ready for sale by the 15th day of the fourth lunar month, but later, due to unpredictable weather, the harvesting time started later."

Despite working with trowels and cement for over a decade, Mr. Tang still remembers the steps of joining corners and tying the palm leaf sheaths. While chatting with me, he meticulously demonstrated to his grandchildren how to wrap longan fruit in palm leaf sheaths, then regretfully remarked, "Well, that's just how things are; how can you avoid the rise and fall of a craft?"

The writer Tran Kiem Doan once wrote: "Longan fruits are the embodiment of Hue's daughters. One must know how to 'enclose' their hearts during the season of blossoming. No matter how dreamy, romantic, passionate, lingering, or turbulent... they must be 'enclosed' to ripen, become sweet, fragrant, and prestigious." This delicious fruit has entered poetry and literature in such a romantic way, but now, even in the Huong Ngu region, finding truly fragrant, sweet, and juicy longan fruits is no longer as easy as it once was.

Source: https://baothuathienhue.vn/doi-song/ai-con-long-nhan-nua-khong-130807.html