In the past, sugarcane was the most effective crop for poverty alleviation in Quang Ngai . My childhood was filled with the scent of sugarcane and the joyful sounds of folk songs throughout the moonlit nights. Then, when the dry, sunny rays of the season appeared, and the sugarcane began to sweeten at the top, my heart was filled with mixed emotions. Due to the weather and soil characteristics of the central coastal region, the sugarcane harvest season in my hometown usually only begins in the sixth lunar month. At this time, across the fields and slopes, the sugarcane paddies have begun to dry and crack, their leaves turning silvery and rustling in the wind. In the vast emptiness, mixed with the fragrance of wildflowers along the banks, is the sweet taste of sugarcane sugar lingering on the hands of the young cowherds.
It's unclear exactly when sugarcane was first cultivated in my hometown, but the "Dai Nam Thuc Luc" (Chronicles of Dai Nam), compiled by the National History Institute of the Nguyen Dynasty, indicates that sugarcane cultivation and sugar production flourished during the reigns of the early Nguyen emperors. At that time, the court established a system of purchasing large quantities of sugar annually, sometimes exceeding one million pounds, for both domestic use and export. This was especially true when the Minh Huong people (from China) settled in Co Luu, forming the Thu Xa town, which traded in various goods, including sugar and candy. According to surviving documents, the local people also established sugar processing factories there. Molasses was extracted to produce refined sugar, creating specialties we still hear about today, such as rock sugar, lung sugar, and candy. These sugars were sold, while the molasses was considered a byproduct, used only as a binding agent, a "three-component mixture" (consisting of lime, sand, and molasses) for building walls and pillars before cement was available.
Sugarcane is a high-value industrial crop, so for a time, the sugarcane industry in my hometown flourished. Two sugar factories were built and operated efficiently, creating jobs for hundreds of workers. As a result, the area of land cultivated with sugarcane expanded. The informal, handcrafted sugar processing ceased to exist. During harvest season, instead of carrying bundles or using ox carts to bring them home, people simply piled them on the bank, and the sugarcane company's trucks would come to collect them.
One day, while visiting an acquaintance in the village, I was surprised to find the old-fashioned space still standing in the corner of the garden: a dilapidated thatched hut, the rotating mechanism used for pressing sugarcane, a large pot, and a crumbling clay stove with exposed bamboo cores. I gazed intently, reminiscing about the bustling scene of pressing sugarcane to extract molasses and make sugar. I thought of the buffaloes chewing grass while pulling the rotating mechanism around the fixed crane. I remembered the spoonfuls of dark sugar, the final result, and I could never forget the smiles and glances of the people when the sugar yield exceeded expectations.
There's a type of sweet, sticky sugar made from sugarcane that anyone born and raised in a sugarcane-growing countryside will surely know: young sugar. The sugarcane juice is pressed, poured into a large pot, and sometimes lime powder is added. When it boils, the impurities are skimmed off, the mixture is transferred to another pot to settle, and then cooked again. Young sugar is the product obtained when the sugarcane juice hasn't reached the point of crystallization; it remains sticky, fragrant, and viscous. Because of the careful and meticulous process of making this sugar, many meaningful folk verses have emerged in my hometown: "Even clear sugarcane juice can be made into sugar / If you love me, you know it, but who else knows?"
My hometown is known as the land of sugarcane, and that's no exaggeration. But that was in the past; nowadays, the sugarcane industry is gradually declining. Five years ago, one of the province's two famous sugar factories ceased operations, and the remaining one no longer has the productivity it once did. Many officials and workers were transferred to the An Khê Sugar Factory ( Gia Lai province). And naturally, the land used for sugarcane cultivation has been restructured, with the cultivation of other crops or perennial plants.
Once, while visiting my hometown, I passed by an abandoned sugarcane field, next to a clump of sugarcane withered leaves. I knew the sugarcane industry was over. Where were the calls to each other to go out to the fields to trap birds? Where were the long lines of trucks carrying sugarcane to the factory? Where was the rich, fragrant aroma of young sugar? My heart was heavy with worry, and suddenly I heard the familiar lines of poetry echoing: “Remembering my homeland, green mulberry trees, sweet sugarcane / The fragrant sugarcane shimmers in the golden afternoon” (Te Hanh).
Source: https://baogialai.com.vn/mot-thoi-huong-mia-post328312.html
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