Awakening another custard apple season

Mr. Kieu Thuong Chat's status update on Facebook, posted a few days after the recent Lunar New Year, was simple and unpretentious, yet full of confidence, prompting much interaction: "Taiwanese and Thai custard apples are meaningful gifts for offering during the Lantern Festival or as presents at the beginning of the year." This status update reminded me of a visit to the area nearly two years ago, when the second crop of custard apples in Vo Nhai was still a laborious experiment. Today, I return at a time when off-season custard apples have already established a firm position in the market.

The custard apples from Vo Nhai are famous for their delicious aroma.

The season of sweet fruits stretches across the spring.

On the steep rocky slopes of Phuong Hoang hamlet, Phu Thuong commune (formerly), now Vo Nhai commune, the weather seems even harsher. The jagged, sharp rocks make it difficult for strangers to walk properly. Leading the way, Mr. Kieu Thuong Chat turned back and chuckled, saying: "You'll get used to it if you walk a lot."

The spring breeze rustles through the trees, carrying a sweet, delicate fragrance, as if the mountains and forests here are whispering secrets that a stranger like me could never understand. It's not the usual flowering season for the traditional custard apple variety, but beneath the spreading foliage, the large custard apples, the size of two cupped hands, are plump, vibrant green, and swaying gently. Many have been carefully wrapped in bags, dangling and waiting to be picked. Unlike the main season custard apples which usually sprout at the tips of the branches, the second-season custard apples mostly bloom directly from the trunk and large branches.

Mr. Kieu Thuong Chat plucked a flower from a Taiwanese pineapple custard apple tree for me; a sweet, strong fragrance immediately filled my nostrils. It was the first time I realized that custard apple flowers could be so fragrant. Stopping by a jagged rock, he offered me a sip of water from his water bottle, squinting as he recalled the time 14 years ago when he and his wife switched from being service photographers to carrying heavy loads on the rocky hills.

Mr. and Mrs. Kieu Thuong Chat are harvesting custard apples to send to their customers.

Mr. Kieu Thuong Chat's voice was deep and warm as he recounted the early days of hardship: "Although this land is dry and barren, with lots of rocks and little soil, the custard apple trees thrive here, producing exceptionally fragrant and delicious fruit. Unfortunately, in the past, our family relied solely on one custard apple harvest a year, and that harvest was short, with a long fallow period of 7-8 months, leaving us with insufficient funds. That's why I pondered how to 'force' the custard apple trees to produce another crop. I started in 2018, but failed repeatedly; the fruit would set and then fall, and was ravaged by pests and diseases."

When I realized the key to a successful second custard apple crop was irrigation, I worried because the hundreds of millions of dong needed to build water pipes up the hill was a huge sum. But no matter how difficult it was, we couldn't give up if we wanted to create a breakthrough. At the end of 2021, with 40% government support, my wife and I invested all the proceeds from that year's custard apple crop into building an irrigation system for the custard apple trees on the hill.

With water available, the most difficult problem was essentially solved. His family's 2.5-hectare custard apple orchard qualified for the province's project on applying scientific and technical methods to produce off-season custard apples. But having the tools is one thing; getting the trees to flower and bear fruit out of season requires the grower to understand the tree, grasp its growth stages, and patiently adjust the process each season.

"With human effort, even stones can be turned into rice."

Leading me under the interspersed rows of Thai Queen custard apples and Taiwanese pineapple custard apples, Mr. Kieu Thuong Chat carefully inspected each newly formed young fruit. The custard apple trees must be thinned to allow sunlight to penetrate and stimulate sprouting on the branches. When the sprouts are mature enough, and the trunk turns woody brown, he proceeds to cut them, leaving only 2-3 nodes and stripping off the leaves.

Custard apples with their beautiful appearance, fragrant aroma, and superior taste bring high economic value.

While tenderly tending to a ripening custard apple, he summarized his farming philosophy after years of hard work: "I've realized that no matter what you do, no matter how advanced modern science becomes, the wisdom passed down from our ancestors – 'first water, second fertilizer, third diligence, fourth seeds' – always holds true. But even if you learn from other people's models, no matter how good they are, you can't simply apply them exactly as they do. Only those who grow and care for the plants daily can truly understand the crops and the natural conditions of the area. You have to know how to select and adapt."

After numerous trials, Mr. Kieu Thuong Chat has improved the pollination process for custard apples. Instead of picking flowers and pollinating them immediately as before, starting with the previous custard apple harvest, he began learning how to collect pollen from Taiwanese farmers, bringing it back and letting it ripen the evening before to apply it to the flowers the next day. As a result, the custard apples develop more evenly, reach their maximum size, and have a much more attractive appearance.

The result of continuous learning and diligent effort is the yield of off-season custard apples reaching for the sun. Although the yield of the second crop is only about 50% of the main crop, the selling price is higher, bringing in an income equivalent to or at least 90% of the main crop. Moreover, the new custard apple varieties have harvest times that do not coincide with traditional varieties, helping farmers avoid the situation of "bumper harvest, low prices," while providing a stable income spread throughout the year.

Although the off-season custard apple yield is not as high as the main season, it fetches a higher price and is always sought after by customers.

Mr. Kieu Thuong Chat's joy now extends beyond his own garden. His family's model has spread like wildfire throughout the region. From just 3 households with an initial 1.5 hectares, the area now boasts 20 hectares of custard apple trees, utilizing this method for a second crop.

Standing high above the lush green hills, Mr. Kieu Thuong Chat poured out his heart before carrying heavy baskets of custard apples down the mountain: "Being a farmer today requires not only diligence, but also a willingness to learn and the courage to act. We gardeners now even advise each other to adjust our planting seasons; some plant a few weeks earlier, others a few weeks later, so that when we harvest and sell, we don't face a market glut at the same time, making it easier to sell without worrying about price manipulation."

That simple saying encapsulates the mindset, dynamism, and belief of today's farmers. The story of producing a second custard apple harvest in Vo Nhai is how farmers are finding new paths on their old land. There, farmers know how to use knowledge and scientific and technical methods to skillfully "coexist" with nature.

Amidst the dry, crisp winds of the highlands, the fragrance of out-of-season custard apples floats gently in the air. This sweetness is both a gift from nature and the culmination of the minds and hands of modern farmers who refuse to bow to the harshness of the rocky soil...

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/kinh-te/202603/danh-thuc-mua-na-khac-1c22c8e/