In the middle of summer, the highlands of Y Ty are still as cool and pleasant as the lowlands in autumn, forcing travelers to wear a thin jacket on their exploration journey. The weather in Y Ty is fickle and erratic like a young girl’s soul; the sun is shining brightly and suddenly it rains. That’s why our trip through the forest to hunt for the “specialty” of green plums with a group of Ha Nhi ethnic girls was constantly postponed by sudden rains.
Sao Mo Go, a young Ha Nhi ethnic girl who has just turned 20, has many years of experience hunting for "specialties". Go said: Few people know that in the forests of the highlands of Y Ty, there are many wild green plum trees. This tree species often grows on the edge of the forest, along the stream banks, and the fruit begins to ripen around mid-June. This is also the off-season, when people have just finished planting, so they invite each other to the forest to hunt for fruit to sell. Many people do not believe that the Y Ty forest has green plums, so every time we go picking, we have to take pictures to prove it to customers. If lucky, encountering a large green plum tree with lots of fruit, forest goers can earn millions.
Around noon, when the rain gradually stopped and the sky was clear and sunny, Sao Mo Go, two friends and I began our journey through the forest to hunt for the “specialty” of green plums. From Mo Phu Chai village, we traveled by motorbike for more than 2 km to the edge of the forest in Phin Ho village. Turning into a trail about half a km, we “parked our motorbikes” in the bushes on the edge of the forest and walked. The route was quite familiar to us because this was the path for athletes participating in the Lao Than Peak Climbing Competition organized by Bat Xat district. At the beginning, the trail was quite easy to walk, but the deeper we went, the more difficult it was to move because we had to clear away the weeds, grass, and weeds. Not to mention the rainwater left behind after the morning rain also made everyone’s clothes wet.
According to the experience of Go and his friends, the plum tree usually grows at the edge of the forest, along streams, and in places with relatively high humidity. While walking, Go and the group had to keep an eye out to spot the ripe red plums peeking out from under the green foliage. Once they found a tree with ripe fruit, they parted the grass and found their way to the plum tree.
Phu Gio Mo, a member of Go's group, said: The green plum trees grow abundantly in the forest, but not all of them bear fruit. Many trees bear fruit, but the previous people have already harvested them, leaving the green fruit unharvested. Therefore, finding trees with lots of fruit, ripe and ready to pick is not easy. Sometimes you have to walk for hours, weave through thick grass, climb over rocks, mud puddles, and streams to find a green plum tree with ripe fruit to pick.
Just as Mo said, on the way into the forest, we saw many plum trees but most of them had no fruit, many trees still had relatively green fruit because the plum fruit season had just begun.
Hunting for specialties in the forest
After more than 30 minutes of going deep into the forest, we found the first green plum tree. The tree was quite small, hidden under the canopy of vines, so it had not been discovered by the previous foresters. Immediately, without being told, the Ha Nhi girls put down the baskets on their shoulders and leaned on the branches to pick the fruit. The green plums are very juicy, so you have to be gentle when picking them, otherwise the fruit will be crushed and difficult to sell. In less than 5 minutes, the ripe, red green plums were neatly placed in the baskets of Go and Mo.
Picking fruit to fill the basket quickly is the job of Ha Nhi girls, but we were very excited to pick ripe green plums in the Y Ty forest for the first time. The taste of wild green plums is quite sour mixed with a little sweetness, with a light aroma. The aftertaste makes anyone who tries it once drool every time they remember it. This type of wild fruit is more suitable for soaking with sugar, making a refreshing drink in the summer than eating it directly.
“This tree is too small, I can’t pick much,” Mo expressed regret. Having said that, everyone put their backpacks back on their shoulders, each person went in a different direction, continuing to look for plum trees with fruit to pick. The group made an agreement: Whoever found a plum tree with a lot of fruit had to call out loudly so we could pick together!
About 10 minutes later, we heard Go calling from afar: “Everyone! Come out and pick some fruit!” Following the call, a few minutes later, the whole group gathered under a plum tree about 4 meters high and about 20 centimeters in diameter. According to Go’s group’s judgment, this plum tree was dozens of years old.
Arriving at the tree, the small Ha Nhi girls quickly climbed up the tree to pick the fruit. Because the plum fruit grows and develops at the top of the branches, they had to lean far away and hold on to the branches to pick the fruit. Although climbing the tree high, Go's group only picked the red ripe fruit to pick, skillfully not breaking the branches and keeping the green fruit for later harvest. Plum harvesters like Go's group believe that if they break the branches, the plum will not produce fruit next year. Although the plum tree is quite large, after a while of harvesting, Go's group only picked about 3 kg of ripe fruit. After wandering in the forest for more than 2 hours, Go's group's result was about 6 kg of ripe plum fruit and they decided to go home early. Go confided: "Going to the forest to pick green plums also requires luck. The forest is public property, everyone can pick the fruit, so sometimes we can pick a lot, sometimes we can pick a little. At most, each person can pick 20 kg of green plums, earning millions of dong."
Back home, the Go group poured the green plums into a basin to select, remove the damaged and crushed ones, and then brought them to Y Ty market to sell to tourists. For regular customers, the Go group will carefully package them and send them to the city, according to the address the customer booked in advance. According to Go, most of the customers who buy green plums are curious about the taste of this "specialty" of the forest. They buy them to soak in sugar, creating a red drink with a slightly sour taste, suitable for quenching thirst in the summer. Sometimes people buy them to soak in wine. Each kilogram of green plums is sold by Go and the locals for 50,000 VND.
The vast green Y Ty forest still has many products for people to exploit. If we know how to protect and exploit the green forest sustainably, not only the green plum fruit but also other “specialties” such as raspberries, wood ear mushrooms, wild mushrooms… will be gifts that nature rewards the efforts of the people here to protect the forest, and a source of additional income during the off-season.
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