Bustling mint honey harvest season on the rocky plateau

CGTĐT - Every year, when winter comes, purple mint flowers bloom all over the rocky plateau, a flower that brings the sweet taste of the mountains and forests of Ha Giang on cold winter days.

Mint flower, a flower that only grows in the Dong Van rocky plateau.

Peppermint flowers grow along the slopes of four districts in the Dong Van stone plateau, including: Quan Ba, Yen Minh, Dong Van and Meo Vac. The plant has purple flowers, shaped like a weasel's tail, growing wild and without any care from the people. The flower's fragrance spreads everywhere, attracting bee colonies to collect honey. The time when the flowers bloom the most is from October to December (solar calendar), this is also the best time for beekeepers in the stone plateau to set up beehives to harvest pure peppermint honey.

Looking from the mountain slopes, one can see the silhouettes of beekeepers tending to the bees, the sound of honey being turned echoes throughout the mountain slopes to produce drops of thick, delicious yellow honey.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Thinh's bee farm in Lung Phin commune.

According to Mr. Nguyen Cong Thinh, a beekeeper in Lung Phin commune, Dong Van district with more than 20 years of experience in beekeeping, "Every year at this time, my family places more than 100 bee colonies in places where mint flowers bloom the most to harvest honey. Each mint flower season, my family harvests about 450 liters of honey, with the market price starting from 500,000 VND/liter or more. Most of my family's mint honey has been ordered by acquaintances and friends from the beginning of the season, so customers take all the honey as it turns around."

Peppermint honey has a lemon yellow color, sweet taste, and high nutritional value.

As of October 2023, Ha Giang province has 32,450 bee colonies. Of which, the number of bee colonies granted Geographical Indication Certificates for peppermint honey in 4 rocky plateau districts is 21,320 (accounting for 65.7% of the total number of bee colonies in the province). 27 organizations and 4,700 households participate in beekeeping.

In reality, beekeeping not only brings economic benefits to the people, but also contributes to the conservation and development of local natural resources. To protect and develop the brand "Mint Flower Honey" as well as protect domestic bee colonies, creating livelihoods for beekeepers. The authorities of 4 districts in the Dong Van stone plateau and the functional departments of Ha Giang province have promoted propaganda and transferred technical advances to the people, helping to improve knowledge about raising and preventing diseases for bees, how to harvest and preserve honey properly to meet the honey output for the market and the process of increasing the quantity and quality of honey bee colonies every year.

Coming to the rocky plateau during the mint blooming season, visitors will admire the fields of mint flowers blooming with poetic purple color. Every time the mint flowers bloom, the atmosphere here becomes bustling, fresh and sweet.

Visitors experience honey extraction at the bee farm.

Besides admiring the beauty of mint flowers, you also have the opportunity to watch the extremely elaborate and interesting honey harvesting process of the beekeepers here. Although it is not one of the tourist attractions like the buckwheat flower fields, the economic value of this flower brings to the people of the rocky plateau is very high.

Source: https://hagiang.gov.vn/dac-san-ha-giang/nhon-nhip-mua-thu-haach-mat-ong-hoa-bac-ha-tren-cao-nguyen-da-609393