Bustling Trang Cat village in Dong leaf harvesting season
VOV
Chia sẻ
VOV.VN - Located in Thanh Oai district of Hanoi, the traditional craft village of Trang Cat has become bustling over recent days as local farmers are busy harvesting Dong leaves to make chung cake for the Lunar New Year, known locally as Tet.
Trang Cat village is situated around 30km far from the centre of Hanoi. It’s famous for providing La Dong or Dong leaves to other localities across the country for the festive season.
Everywhere in the village is covered with the green colour of Dong (Phrynium placentarium) leaves which is typically used as a wrapper for Banh Chung, the traditional sticky rice cake, to be enjoyed over the Lunar New Year.
Nguyen Minh, a villager and planter of Dong leaves for many years, said that each year she provides tens of thousands of leaves to the market. For each 100 leaves she earns between VND70,000 and VND100,000.
Thanks to the fertility of the land located next to the Day river, Trang Cat is an ideal place to plant Dong trees.
Dong leaves harvested in Trang Cat village are then transported to other localities in order to serve customers’ demand as Tet draws near.
There are approximately 300 households located in the village, planting approximately 25 hectares of Dong trees.
The Dong leaves of Trang Cat village are also exported to other countries for overseas Vietnamese people to wrap Banh Chung during Tet.
Since the beginning of January, the atmosphere in the village has become bustling. While some people pick up Dong leaves, others arrange them in heaps. In addition, business people have also arrived in the area to trade the leaves.
Dong leaves are an essential material in making Banh Chung for Tet.
Dong leaves from Trang Cat village are the pride of villagers, with the item becoming famous both in Vietnam and abroad.
