Fruit-growing region

When I was a child, I often wondered why there were so many fruits in the summer. Was it because God was kind, giving us young students a summer full of sweet and sour flavors...?

Back then, a friend of mine in Don Xiem (Thanh, Dien Khanh) had a large garden that stretched out to the stream, a small branch of the Cai River. The garden had a delicious jackfruit tree, with small, sweet, juicy jackfruit segments. After eating the jackfruit, we'd rush out to the stream to wade in the water. That alone made for a magical summer. Another friend, originally from Hue , had a pomelo tree. In the garden, there was a bamboo bench under the pomelo tree. We children spent a summer there, enjoying the sweet, slightly sour taste and inhaling the fragrant scent of the pomelo peel, which shaped our childhood. Another friend of mine in Dien Khanh commune had a large rambutan orchard that we never explored completely. Later, when Vo Nguyen Giap road was built, her rambutan orchard was still full of fruit; in season, she only gave them away, not sold them...

I have many more friends in Dien Khanh whose families have orchards of mangoes, jackfruit, sapodilla, oranges... Those fruit-growing regions are the setting of childhood memories for us students, from elementary school, through high school, to university, and into the real world...

Having traveled extensively, I've come to appreciate the vast, lush, and fruit-laden orchards of the Mekong Delta. During the season, there are sometimes more fruits than leaves. Each orchard grows a different type of fruit: the orange-yellow of tangerines, the purplish-red of plums, the yellow of longan, the purple of mangosteen… This season, I enjoy walking along the country roads of the Mekong Delta, watching the bustling traffic carrying fruit to the cities.

Now, the orchards in my hometown also cultivate distinct varieties on a large scale and with advanced techniques. There are orchards laden with jackfruit, pomelo, and orange trees, and vibrant red rambutan. I remember the rambutan orchards in Dien Khanh, the durian orchards in Khanh Son, the pomelo orchards in Khanh Vinh, and the orange and jackfruit orchards in Nha Trang that I once visited, and I dream of a day when tourism in my hometown will be associated with the names of these fruit-growing regions.

The fruit season is a milestone in the year. Fruit trees bring to life the sweet flavors of memory, the present, and the future.

Everyone has their own little haven of fruit, a place where fathers are busy in the garden, picking leaves and sweeping. Where mothers are seen checking the garden in the afternoon for ripe fruit to pick and bring inside. Where siblings gather to watch mother cut open a jackfruit... Where mothers return from the market and arrange dragon fruit, sapodilla, custard apple... in their baskets.

The fruit ripening season is not only a time of delicious treats but also a season full of love.

DAO THI THANH TUYEN

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/van-hoa/202606/mien-cay-trai-45f14eb/