Trang Cat dong leaf field seen from above (Photo: Nhat Quang)
Green countryside
In Trang Cat village (Kim An commune, Thanh Oai district, Hanoi) in the last days of the year, the fields are busier than in residential areas because most of the people here are in the fields taking care of and harvesting leaves. dong serves the traditional Tet cake package of Vietnamese people.
Pham Thanh Nhan, 76 years old, who was born and raised in Trang Cat, said that the village’s history was regarding 600 years ago, and dong leaf farming has been around for nearly 500 years. Since ancient times, our village has lived by growing dong leaves, even cultivating this plant is more than rice. Many houses here often go to measure rice to eat in neighboring villages.
Walking around Trang Cat village, I feel the fresh and fragrant air from the dong leaves that are in the harvest. Regardless of the rich or the poor in the village, there is a clump of dong in front of the house. In the field, the leaves are like large, vast sample fields, as green as silk carpets.
Mr. Nhan is harvesting dong leaves. (Photo: Van Cong)
Trang Cat village is not the only village located on the Day River, a poetic and gentle river, bringing an infinite source of alluvium. But perhaps this is the village most favored by the Day River, wrapped in a bend of the river. Since then, the layers of silt are continuously accreted over time along with an abundant amount of water to help make Trang Cat dong leaves of superior quality compared to leaves grown elsewhere.
According to Mr. Nhan, unlike rice or other crops, growing dong leaves is quite leisurely. When the tubers are planted in the ground once, they can harvest dozens of crops, until they feel old and fibrous, they need to replace them with another layer of tubers. Care is also simple, just watering, fertilizing, and weeding periodically will yield beautiful dong leaves for the traditional New Year. Currently, the whole village of Trang Cat has regarding 60 acres of dong leaves, many families have 5-6 sao, less than 1-2 sao.
Ms. Pham Thi Dao, 72 years old, witty: “We often call the profession of growing dong leaves as a profession of earning money. Because apart from the leaves, the dong tree does not give fruit, the tuber cannot be used. The economic value of the tree is only in each leaf. In a year with less sun, the leaves are beautiful and with a lot of sunshine, the leaves are easily burned. Through many ups and downs of the market, dong leaves have always been the main crop in our Trang Cat.”
Mrs. Dao’s family grows more than 5 sao of dong leaves. (Photo: Van Cong)
Many people in Trang Cat said that this year, the weather is stable, there are no long-term heat waves, so the dong leaves grow well. Recently, there have been a number of shipments to go abroad, serving overseas Vietnamese to celebrate Tet, pack banh chung away from home. As for the domestic market, from the full moon of December to the 30th of the New Year, the peak season.
