QUANG NAM – In mid-September, berries (also known as wild berries or chokeberries) in the forest are ripe and golden, and people in Nam Tra My district go up to pick them up and sell them for 20,000-24,000 VND/kg.
Quang Nam province has more than 466,000 hectares of natural forest. In the forest of Nam Tra My district, there are many popular mulberry trees, also known as forest ré, chokeberry, giving a lot of fruit, which people climb to get.
The mulberry tree is a woody tree, more than 15 m high, the trunk of an adult can’t hug. To pick fruit, Mr. Nguyen Thanh De, 52 years old, residing in Tra Mai commune, used rattan and bamboo ropes to tie around the tree, forming a ladder to climb up to pick fruit.
Each left string is usually 10-35 cm long, the fruit is as small as the tip of a little finger, with 50 strings.
Strawberries ripen from August, lasting until early October, growing in clusters on the branches, like linden, mulberry.
The tree is tens of meters high, so harvesting is very dangerous. After climbing to the top of the tree, Mr. De found a firm seat. “The trees that people just hug, they climb up, and the big trees have to be tied with ropes to make ladders to pick them up,” he said, adding that the picking process must be skillful and close. When the bag was full of fruit, he used the rope to drop it and then picked it again.
Mr. De stood on a branch picking fruit. “I have to know which branch to choose for sure, and gently pick each bunch to avoid the fruit falling off,” he said. Large trees can pick up to 30 kg of fruit.
Mr. De’s wife said that in the past, when picking strawberries to eat, recently someone bought and sold them. Every day, the couple went to the forest, Mr. De went to the tree to pick and she stayed below to collect. One day, they can pick 30 kg, at least 10 kg.
When eating, flicking or squeezing the fruit lightly with your fingers, the three-piece skin peels off, the inside has three segments, and the flesh is thin.
Strawberries when ripe are golden, shiny, and succulent, taste slightly sour at first, then sweet, so people like them very much.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hiu, 25 years old, daughter of Mr. De, removed the damaged fruit and brought it to the district market to wholesale 20,000 VND/kg, retail 24,000 VND/kg. “In the past few days, I have sold nearly 200 kg and many people have ordered it,” she said.
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