At 5 a.m. on the first day of June, Ms. Le Thi Nhung, 56 years old, and a group of 5 people in Hang village, Giao An commune, started their journey into the forest to find bitter bamboo shoots. Each person carries a basket, knife, spade and some food such as upland sticky rice or rice balls with sesame salt for the whole day's work.
From the village to the area with many bamboo shoots, you have to walk about 3-4 km through the mountain slopes and winding streams in the Pu Rinh range. During the main season from March to June, going to the forest to dig bamboo shoots becomes a daily job for many households.
"This is the lean season, so many people in the village go picking bamboo shoots. Some days people go like a group," Ms. Nhung said.
Ban Hang is nearly 10 km from the center of Giao An commune, has more than 100 households with nearly 500 people, mainly Thai people. Due to the limited production land area, in addition to farming, people depend heavily on forest resources such as medicinal herbs, mushrooms, honey, stone crabs and bitter bamboo shoots... Among them, bitter bamboo shoots are one of the products that bring the most stable income at the beginning of each summer.
According to local people, bitter bamboo shoots grow naturally under the forest canopy on Pu Rinh mountain. This type of bamboo shoot has a similar shape to bamboo shoots but is smaller in size. When eaten, it has an initial bitter taste that gradually changes to a characteristic sweet taste.
Coming to the area with bamboo shoots, the forester uses a small spade to dig around the base and then separate each bamboo shoot from the soil. Plants that are not yet large enough are often left to continue growing or become mother plants for the following season. "Only take the trees that are old enough to harvest, and leave the small bamboo shoots for next year," Ms. Nhung said.
According to Ms. Luong Thi Su, 39 years old, people in the village have maintained this mining method for many years to protect the natural source of bamboo shoots. "Bitter bamboo shoots are very healthy. If exploited properly, they will still grow evenly next year," Ms. Su said.
In addition to digging bamboo shoots, many people also take advantage of finding wild mushrooms, picking herbs, catching stone crabs or collecting honey to increase their income during the off-season months.
According to the people of Hang village, at the beginning of the season, bitter bamboo shoots are often purchased by traders at a price of 40,000-50,000 VND per kg. Entering the current main season, the price drops to about 20,000-25,000 VND per kg. In the early days of June, nearly 20 people in the village regularly go to the forest to collect bamboo shoots. On average, each person gains 10-20 kg a day.
At current prices, income from bamboo shoots reaches about 250,000-500,000 VND per day. On days when there are many bamboo shoots in the area, a worker can earn about 600,000 VND. A family with two or three people going to the forest together can earn more than one million dong per day.
After about 7-8 hours in the forest, in the early afternoon, people begin to carry bamboo shoots back to the village for preliminary processing and consumption. After harvesting, bamboo shoots are often peeled off the outer sheath and boiled immediately to maintain freshness and natural sweetness.
Not only is it an income-generating product, bitter bamboo shoots are also closely associated with the culinary life of the Thai people in Giao An. Bamboo shoots are processed into many dishes such as boiled, grilled over charcoal, stir-fried with pork or cooked in soup with stream fish.
In Hang village, Mr. Pham Van Quyet and Mrs. Dao Thi Lan are longtime buyers of bitter bamboo shoots for people in the area. Having lived here for more than 15 years, in addition to the grocery business, his family also collects bamboo shoots to supply local contacts.
Mr. Quyet said most of the bamboo shoot output is consumed in the commune and surrounding areas. Because the exploitation output is not large, bitter bamboo shoots are mainly sold in small quantities. "Wherever the bamboo shoots are delivered, almost all of them are consumed. There is very little inventory left," Mr. Quyet said.
Although it brings in significant income, picking bitter bamboo shoots also has many potential risks. The terrain of Pu Rinh mountain is steep, many parts are slippery after rain. People who go to the forest often face the risk of falling, being stung by bees or biting insects... "There are days when we go from morning to afternoon and then come back, it's normal for our limbs to get scratched," Ms. Nhung said.
The bitter bamboo shoot season only lasts about four months of the year. This is the time when many households take advantage of increasing their income before entering the next agricultural production seasons.
For many families in Hang village, trips to Pu Rinh mountain every morning are not only an activity to exploit secondary forest products but also an important source of livelihood, contributing to improving life in the difficult highlands.
