Time to go up the hill to pick blackberries in Thach Ha again

Since the beginning of July, the blackberry has changed from apricot yellow to dark purple, the fruit is plump and juicy. This is the time when many people in Thach Ha district (Ha Tinh) invite each other to go to the forest to collect "forest blessings".

As scheduled, these days, people in Thach Xuan, Ngoc Son, and Thach Ngoc communes (Thach Ha) gather together to go to the hills near their homes to pick ripe sim.

Ms. Hai opened each leaf gap to find ripe blackberries.

To pick a lot of sim, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai (Thach Xuan commune) went up the hill from dawn. “At around 4:30, we started going up the hill. Sim usually ripens a lot in the morning, I brought gloves and sacks to harvest. Sim season usually lasts for 3 months (from July to September), during that time, by picking sim to sell to the markets, we have a decent extra income,” Ms. Hai shared.

Despite the extremely hot weather, Ms. Thuong still traveled 6km to find a hill to harvest ripe sim.

Ms. Nguyen Hoai Thuong (Viet Tien commune) "took the trouble" to ride her motorbike more than 6 km from her house to the sim hill in Ngoc Son commune to pick "forest blessings". In a sim season, she earns about 7 million VND.

"We usually divide into groups, each group has 3-5 people. On a quiet day, each person picks 3-5 kg, on a busy day, a whole bird's nest. After harvesting, we buy from traders at a price of about 25,000 VND/kg. Picking sim is a bit hard work when having to move on high mountainous areas, but if you work hard, you can still earn a decent amount of money" - Ms. Thuong shared.

It is known that the sim variety in the Thach Ha tea region often grows naturally on bare hills or under the canopy of eucalyptus and cajuput trees. The tree bears ripe fruit from late June to the end of September. The ripe fruit is dark purple, sweet, slightly astringent, and has many small seeds.

Wild sim fruit is as small as a fingertip, when ripe it is purple-pink then turns dark black.

As a person who has been working for many years in the job of picking sim on the hills to sell, Mr. Nguyen Van Nam (Luu Vinh Son commune) said: "It is said that they collect products from natural trees, but sim pickers must be familiar with the terrain and topography to know where sim trees grow well, with large, beautiful fruits to be able to pick a lot and sell at a high price. Sim trees with large, juicy fruits often grow in moist, loose soil. Especially, if it rains in the evening, the next morning the fruits will ripen a lot" - Mr. Nam said.

Blackberry pickers need experience and familiarity with the terrain to find areas with large, juicy fruits.

According to many people, picking sim at dawn will have many ripe fruits but also has risks. At this time, wasp colonies often make nests under mounds of soil next to the sim tree roots, some people who are not careful accidentally step on the nests will be chased and bitten by them.

To avoid accidents, the person in front, if discovering a beehive, will break a eucalyptus branch to cover it or mark it so that the person behind will not step on it. The blackberry is quite small, and requires a keen eye to detect it.

People often go picking blackberries in groups of 3-5 people.

The time to pick blackberries can last all day but is usually concentrated in the morning, especially during the recent hot days, when the temperature sometimes reached 39 degrees Celsius. Therefore, many people often go to pick blackberries at 4-5am, ending at 8am the same day.

Picking early not only avoids the sun to protect health but also helps people have more time to do housework and farm work.

In recent years, people's demand for wild sim has increased sharply.

On average, each person can pick 5 - 7 kg of sim per day. Currently, with sim prices fluctuating around 25,000 VND - 30,000 VND/kg, each day, a person can earn from 125,000 VND to nearly 250,000 VND. Each sim season, their income fluctuates from 5 - 7 million VND/person.

According to oriental medicine, sim fruit has a sweet, astringent taste, neutral properties, has the effect of promoting blood circulation, stopping bleeding, nourishing blood, activating the joints, often used in cases of physical weakness, anemia due to blood loss, anemia due to pregnancy; people who are weak after illness, nervous breakdown, tinnitus, spermatorrhea. With these good properties, the demand for wild sim is always high, often used to soak in wine, make syrup, make sim tea...

Ripe blackberries are bought by customers to soak in wine, make syrup or dry and drink.

From the actual exploitation, in the communes of Thach Xuan, Ngoc Son, Thach Ngoc..., each commune has 3-4 agents specializing in purchasing fresh sim. After picking, people bring it to the agents in the commune, the agents select, classify and then export to the markets of the northern and southern provinces.

Mr. Nguyen Hai Tho, an agent specializing in buying sim fruit in Ngoc Son commune, said: "During the sim season, we buy as many as people come to buy. At peak times, there can be up to tons per day. It is currently the beginning of the season, most of the fruit is still unripe and green, but it is expected that in the next few weeks, the sim fruit will ripen, the supply will be abundant and of high quality. Traders are buying sim at high prices, ranging from 25,000 - 30,000 VND/kg."

In the past ten years, sim fruit has become a commodity, purchased by traders at high prices, so more and more people are looking to pick it. Every time sim fruit ripens, people go to the hills to pick sim, bringing in a good income, improving their family's life. Realizing the economic value of this wild fruit, many people in the district have proposed to enclose, protect, and exploit sim trees more effectively and sustainably.

Mr. Tran Xuan Hoa

Chairman of Farmers' Association of Thach Ha district

Cam Hoa

Source: https://baohatinh.vn/nong-nghiep/den-hen-lai-len-doi-hai-sim-o-thach-ha/251344.htm