Cassava leaf silkworm is considered the "ginseng" of the poor. Despite its scary appearance, it is a sought-after dish and is not cheap.
Who would have thought that these creepy-looking, multi-legged, constantly wriggling worms would be a sought-after delicacy, with a price higher than pork? That is the cassava leaf silkworm, an insect that is causing a stir in the food market.
This type of silkworm only eats cassava leaves, a plant grown in abundance in the midlands, unlike the type of silkworm that eats mulberry leaves - often raised for silk - in the plains.
According to nutritionists, cassava leaf silkworms have protein content many times higher than chicken eggs, along with essential vitamins and minerals, so they are considered a natural "ginseng", with the effect of improving health and increasing resistance.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyen (Ha Hoa, Phu Tho) said that the profession of raising cassava leaves for meat in her hometown has existed for a long time, no one knows since when. "Raising pigs means eating while lying down, raising silkworms means eating while standing up", is a saying that refers to the hardship of raising silkworms or pigs. Ms. Tuyen said that each crop of silkworms, if you raise a full house, you will never have a moment to sit down. She has to continuously pick cassava leaves, then spread the leaves for the silkworms to eat endlessly.
To reduce the hardship, Ms. Tuyen often divides the silkworm raising into 3 batches each month, each batch is about 5 days apart. Each batch, Ms. Tuyen starts with 10 grams of silkworm eggs, which cost 80,000 VND. If there are no problems, after about 20 days of raising, the silkworms will be ripe (yellowish in color). At this time, the silkworms will no longer eat leaves, the feces in their stomachs will be completely excreted, preparing to enter the stage of spinning silk and making cocoons. This is also the time when the silkworms are harvested.
10 grams will yield about 10 kg of ripe silkworms, sold for about 100,000 VND/kg. In the off-season, silkworms are scarce and can be sold for 150,000 - 200,000 VND/kg, more expensive than the best pork.
On a small scale, Ms. Tuyen can earn about 3 million VND/month from raising silkworms. The investment cost is 160,000 VND for silkworm eggs, along with the labor of picking leaves, breaking branches and feeding silkworms for 20 days. She said that her village has a large workforce, raising up to hundreds of grams of silkworm eggs per crop, earning up to tens of millions of VND. " But it's very hard. Silkworms in cassava leaves are clean, but if you're unlucky enough to pick cassava leaves that have the smell of pesticides on them, the silkworms will die en masse, and then all your efforts will be in vain ," she said.
Also raising cassava leaf silkworms in Dong Luong commune, Cam Khe district (Phu Tho), Ms. Chu Hue said that her family raises silkworms all year round for meat, supplying to people in the area and some contacts in Hanoi.
According to Ms. Hue, in the past, silkworms were raised for daily food in the family, but as society developed, more and more people knew about and sought after silkworms, so households started raising them in large quantities.
In the summer, it only takes about 18-20 days to raise them for sale. In the winter, the silkworms take longer to grow, so each batch only takes about 20-25 days to raise. The price of silkworm eggs also ranges from 700,000 VND to 1.2 million VND/100gr. However, 100gr of eggs can raise about 1.2 - 1.5 quintals of commercial silkworms.
According to Ms. Hue, silkworms are both easy and difficult to raise. You can make a profit 10 times after 15-20 days of raising them, but you can also lose everything if there is an epidemic.
“ If it’s too hot, it will die, if it’s too cold, it will die. Even though people spray pesticides a kilometer away from our house, our silkworms still die. Therefore, to have a clean food source for our silkworms, my family has to plant 3 more hectares of cassava and castor oil to get leaves for our silkworms to eat, ” said Ms. Hue.
Cassava leaf silkworms can be processed into many attractive dishes such as fried silkworms with lemon leaves, boiled silkworms with chili salt, stir-fried silkworms... This dish is not only delicious but also brings many health benefits.
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