Dong leaves, giang tubes, peach blossoms... race down the mountain

Dong leaves and giang tubes are carefully selected.

When spring is in full swing, it is also the time when people from the highlands of Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, Ky Son, Que Phong, Quy Chau… rush into the forest to find “forest blessings”. Dong leaves, giang tubes, peach blossoms, and bamboo poles are carefully selected by the people, following the flow of people to the city to celebrate Tet.

Dong leaf purchasing facilities are always busy during the days leading up to Tet. Photo: Q.An

Ms. Vi Thi Hue in Chan Nan village, Chi Khe commune (Con Cuong) arranges bundles of dong leaves on a wooden table, placed on the roadside to sell to passersby to buy to wrap Tet cakes. Ms. Hue confided that every year, around the middle of December, her family goes into the forest to look for the most beautiful dong leaves, picks them and sells them to customers. In addition to selling to traders, she also arranges a point along National Highway 7A to retail to passersby.

“Wholesale is 300 VND/leaf, but retail is 500 VND/leaf. Each bundle of 50 leaves has been carefully selected, so customers only need to wash them before wrapping the cake. In total, at the end of each year, the whole family earns about 15 million VND from selling dong leaves,” Ms. Hue shared.

Along National Highway 7 from Ky Son to Con Cuong and National Highway 48 from Que Phong to Quy Chau, you can occasionally come across dong leaf retail points and some facilities that purchase dong leaves in large quantities to transport downstream for consumption by car.

According to the locals, dong leaves usually grow and develop in humid forest areas, the deeper the forest, the more beautiful the leaves, while giang grows halfway up the mountain. Customers most prefer dong leaves about 25 cm wide and 50 cm long because they are used to wrap banh chung and banh tet beautifully. Therefore, people have to take the trouble to find dong bushes with many beautiful leaves.

Dong leaves are carefully selected before being transported downstream for consumption before Tet. Photo: Q.An

Picking dong leaves requires sharp cutting tools, and cutting the leaf stalks one at a time is a beautiful task. Arranging and bundling leaves also requires “skill” to avoid tearing the leaves. Because people believe that “forest blessings” are for Tet, when bundling leaves, torn or bad leaves are not mixed in to sell to customers. “The villagers have been attached to the forest for generations, and every Tet, a part of their expenses depend on “forest blessings”, so everyone is excited,” a local confided.

Along with dong leaves are giang tubes used to split bamboo strips to wrap Tet cakes. Giang tubes must be cut from the forest and sold to traders immediately, because giang must be fresh to be easily split into thin strips. Many people in Ky Son and Tuong Duong also take advantage of their free time to split bamboo strips to sell to customers.

Ms. Luong Thi Nam in Hoa Son village, Ta Ca commune said that due to the demand of customers for pre-split bamboo strips, her husband uses a sharp knife every day to choose long, straight bamboo tubes, split them into paper-thin bamboo strips, and tie them into small bundles to sell to customers. Each bundle usually has 30 bamboo strips, and sells for 10,000 VND. "In recent years, the demand for pre-split bamboo strips has increased. Using her labor as a profit, she also earns 200,000 VND every day from splitting bamboo strips to wrap cakes for customers," Ms. Nam shared.

Giang is used to split bamboo strips to wrap banh chung, which are taken from the forest by highlanders and sold to traders. Photo: X.Hoang

Dig up less moss than other years.

In Ky Son, Que Phong, local peach trees planted by locals for many years, with "moss" and plump buds, beautiful flowers, and green shoots, are brought down to the mountain town to sell to traders. According to Mong men in Muong Long commune (Ky Son), this year the number of stone peach trees sold for Tet is lower than previous years, because families with beautiful peach gardens do not cut them down to sell for Tet but keep them for tourism .

Mr. Va Cha Xa - Chairman of Muong Long Commune People's Committee said: The whole commune has about 10 hectares of peach trees planted in the villages: Muong Long 1, Muong Long 2, Sa Lay, Tham Luc... and Trung Tam village. Based on the beautiful peach and apricot gardens, which have attracted tourists, the commune has also promoted and mobilized people to take care of and protect beautiful peach gardens to develop tourism. Therefore, this year's Tet holiday, many households did not cut down peach trees to sell.

Stone peaches are harvested and transported for sale by people in Muong Long commune (Ky Son). Photo: Xuan Hoang

At the end of the year, “forest blessings” also include banana products for Tet. On Tet holiday, every family cannot lack a bunch of bananas placed with a tray of five fruits on the altar. Therefore, along the roads to the highlands, occasionally you will see people carrying bunches of bananas on their backs from the forest.

According to the locals, bananas are grown in their gardens and along the banks of their fields. Bananas are harvested all year round, but the most is at the end of the year and during Tet. On normal days, people sell bananas for 60,000 - 70,000 VND/bunch, but during Tet, the price increases to 120,000 VND/bunch. As soon as they are harvested, traders buy them right along the roadside. There are families in Luu Kien commune (Tuong Duong) who grow hundreds of banana bushes and earn tens of millions of VND during Tet.

People in Luu Kien commune, Tuong Duong district harvest bananas to sell for Tet. Photo: Q.An

Straight copper trunk meter to make Tet pole

In addition, people in the highlands also go into the forest to select moderately sized, straight and beautiful meter trees with no broken tops to cut down and make poles to sell to traders from the lowlands. Mr. Kha Van Hiep in Tam Dinh commune (Tuong Duong) said: Meters are planted by people in dense forests, so most of the trees grow straight and beautiful. However, to get a satisfactory pole, you have to choose straight trees with a diameter of 5 - 6 cm, leaving both the top and leaves intact.

"There are countless traders buying, they bring large trucks to transport them, so the family has to borrow 3 people in the village to cut down the poles for customers. This year, the selling price is 40,000 - 45,000 VND/pole, the family is expected to earn over 20 million VND from selling poles," Mr. Kha Van Hiep shared.

Tet poles are gathered by people in the highlands on both sides of National Highway 7A, through Con Cuong district. Photo: X.Hoang

“Forest blessings” give us a fresher spring, and enable the people of the highlands to celebrate Tet happily. Therefore, those who enjoy these products must know how to protect the forest and preserve each tree. That is, it is necessary to exploit the forest reasonably, so that the forest can flourish. If there is no awareness of exploiting these products, one day the “forest blessings” will be exhausted.

Tet poles are purchased in large quantities by traders. Photo: X.Hoang

It is impossible to calculate how much money the highlanders earn each year from picking “forest products”, but there will be hundreds, thousands of families who have a more prosperous Tet thanks to the products of the forest. Therefore, at the end of the year, going up to the highlands, we see trucks loaded with goods heading down to the lowlands. On those trucks are green dong leaves, giang tubes, peach branches, and other products that the lowlanders call “specialties” of the highlands, giving us a feeling of excitement when spring comes./.

Source: https://baonghean.vn/la-dong-ong-giang-dao-phai-dua-nhau-xuong-nui-post284078.html