One day in early March, without prior notice, many women in their fifties in Thanh Phong village, Tan Thuan commune (Ham Thuan Nam) flocked to a point on provincial road 719 to buy a small fruit with a velvety black skin shaped like a fish oil capsule, priced at 30,000 VND/kg, with rare joy.
One woman exclaimed: “This is the fruit of my childhood”. The fruit is extremely delicious when simmered with sugar, or soaked in wine. People under forty rarely know about this fruit because the season of wild fruit in the forests of southern Binh Thuan is almost gone!”
The story of the xay fruit just exploded among the women who had just bought a kilo or two kilos, or were examining it carefully, preparing to buy it, while the seller of the fruit, a woman over fifty years old, said that the fruit she was selling was picked from the Da Mi forest (Ham Thuan Bac) and brought back. The quantity was not much because March was not yet the peak season for the fruit. The peak season for the fruit was in another month or two. A woman in the group of buyers joined in the conversation. She said that before 1975, she lived in the La Gi area. Surrounding La Gi, Ham Tan, Tan Hai, Tan Thuan... in the past was old forests. Wherever you went, you could see the green color of the forest. Three months after Tet, the season of wild fruit began. First was xay; when it rained, there were gui fruit, nong fruit, and viet fruit; in May, there were thanh tra fruit, bua fruit, and custard apple fruit... The sellers of wild fruit in those days liked to display their goods on nylon sheets on the side of Pham Ngu Lao street (in La Gi market), or at the intersection about a hundred meters from Tan Ly bridge. The sellers of the millet at that time said: Any forest in Binh Tuy province (old, now Binh Thuan) had millet, but the most was in Binh An forest running up Dat mountain, to Tan Hai area. When the millet was ripe, one person would go pick millet, sell millet, enough to live for at least a week. The millet fruit was green when unripe, when ripe the skin gradually turned velvet black. The millet fruit's skin was thin and crispy, just need to press lightly with your hand to break the skin to reveal the flesh. The millet meat was dark yellow, spongy and soft with a sweet taste, favored by many people because it had laxative properties, easy to digest.
The woman's story evokes many memories of the special wild fruit season with the jackfruit, pomelo and pomelo. We who grew up in La Gi in the past all remember: Before 1976, in La Gi market and several neighboring markets such as Dong Den market (now in Tan Thien ward), Tan Hai, Lang Gon (Ham Tan)... in the May and June seasons, there were quite a few people selling jackfruit and pomelo. When ripe, pomelo is red-yellow, has a shiny skin, sweet and sour flesh, and contains some vitamins necessary for the body. The jackfruit is pointed at both ends, the middle part is slightly bulging like a pen tip. The largest jackfruit is as big as an adult's little finger, has green skin, and also contains a lot of vitamin C. And not only our generation, the jackfruit and pomelo are also a world of memories for the soldiers in the extreme South Central region during the resistance war against the US. Mr. Nguyen Huu Tri, Secretary of Tanh Linh District Party Committee (2000 - 2005), said: "When soldiers had malaria, the pomelo was extremely valuable. Thanh Tra fruit thus entered literature: “Love each other, malaria, craving sourness. Friends climb a thanh tra tree thirty meters high” - Thanh Thao’s poem. The most common fruit is in Ba Ta forest (now Gia Huynh). Soldiers on the march, going to get food, often pick thanh tra fruit, thanh tra fruit, and queo fruit (a type of wild mango), eat to quench thirst, maintain strength”.
Nowadays, the people of the West grow and sell pomelos in large quantities, especially from March onwards. However, for many people who have eaten wild pomelos, the pomelos of the West are not as delicious and fragrant.
Perhaps wild fruits were once familiar to many people; there are people who spend several months a year picking wild fruits to earn income. The wild fruit seasons tell us that: Vietnam's nature is very rich and diverse in natural fruits; just as there was a time when we were surrounded by forests with the meaning of natural lungs, helping to balance the environment, reduce the harmful effects of floods, and maintain underground water in the soil. Nowadays, the forest area is shrinking, including the hands of humans. From there, we can draw lessons about protecting forest resources, the green lungs that are at risk of disappearing for many reasons.
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