Local fruits in season

As summer arrives, characteristic highland trees such as peaches, "cat melons," plums, wild plums, and pears enter their fruiting season. The abundant harvest improves livelihoods...

Visiting Lai Chau these days, as you travel along the roads leading to the villages, you'll encounter lush orchards laden with fruit. Bright yellow peach blossoms, and plums of various kinds—tam hoa, blood, purple, and small—hang abundantly amidst the green foliage. These fruits from nature bring a fresh, green life, nurturing the people of this borderland, instilling in their souls aspirations, dreams, and a love and attachment to their fields, villages, and hamlets.

From early morning, Ms. Ly Thi Ca from Sung Cho village, Sung Phai commune (Lai Chau city) has been transporting large and small loads of plums to Doan Ket market to sell. The freshly picked plums, still covered in a smooth, velvety white bloom, are plump, juicy, and tempting, inviting customers to stop and buy them as gifts for their relatives. Currently, Ms. Ca's family orchard has 70 15-year-old Tam Hoa plum trees. Every year, her family carefully tends to the trees, cultivating and fertilizing them to ensure the trees grow and produce sweet, delicious fruit. Ms. Ca said: "This year the weather has been favorable, and the plum blossoms have borne abundant fruit. During the plum ripening season, many customers come directly to the orchard to buy, especially during the Dragon Boat Festival (5th day of the 5th lunar month). Some families order up to ten kilograms to send back to their hometowns as gifts. For more than a month now, I've been picking large, ripe plums every day to sell at the market, estimating about 500 kg of plums, priced from 10,000 to 20,000 VND/kg depending on the size of the fruit."

When ripe, the three-flowered plum has a white powdery coating on its surface.

Along with peaches and plums, "cat melon," a native variety grown by the Hmong and Dao people on their hillsides, is also a popular choice for consumers this season. By allowing the fruit to mature over several seasons, the "cat melon" variety has been preserved to this day, becoming a part of generations of Hmong and Dao people. After planting, the melon doesn't require trellises or stakes; it easily grows on the ground and rocky outcrops, sometimes intercropped in gardens or cornfields. As a native plant, it adapts well to the local climate, is resistant to pests and diseases, and its young fruit is light green, turning yellow when ripe, with a sweet, refreshing taste. It's considered a safe and clean food by consumers. The Hmong people recount that in the past, life was so difficult that there wasn't much to eat, so "cat melon" was eaten with rice while working in the fields and during the hot summer months. Recently, they have started selling it at the market. Not only is "cat melon" appealing to consumers within the province, but it has also won over many customers from distant provinces.

Ms. Sung Thi Sau from Bai Bang village, Giang Ma commune (Tam Duong district) shared: "Every year my family grows cat melons, and this year we've expanded the area to over 500 square meters. The small ones usually weigh around 400-600 grams, while the large ones weigh 2 kg. During the melon season, many traders contact me to place orders. At each market, I usually sell all the melons I bring, earning 300-400 thousand dong."

When plum season arrives, farmers prune the plum trees and sell the fruit to traders.

During the harvest season, which also coincides with the summer vacation for students, many children go to the fields to help their parents pick produce. Each child carries a basket overflowing with ripe, juicy fruit, their joyful laughter echoing as they transport it home.

Ms. Vuong Thi Hang, residing in residential area No. 6, Quyet Tien ward, shared: "During the harvest season of local fruits, I often visit some families growing plums, melons, and wild mangoes in the highland villages to buy them as gifts for relatives living in Phu Tho province. My family and I all praise the taste of these local products and feel reassured because the farmers don't use pesticides."

The successive fruit seasons attract tourists from the city. Many orchards are bustling with visitors. From within the lush foliage, flocks of magpies gather to build their nests, hoping for favorable weather, fertile land, and human resources so that the highland villages may prosper more and more each day.

Source: https://baolaichau.vn/kinh-te/trai-cay-dan-da-vao-mua-1232261