Compass Travel Vietnam
Unique “exercise buffalo” makes molasses, people collect money and get tired
On this Lunar New Year occasion, some households in Tho Dien commune (Vu Quang district, Ha Tinh province) still keep the tradition, of producing molasses manually by buffalo power.PhátTurn on the sound
Tho Dien commune (Vu Quang district, Ha Tinh province) has more than 100 sugarcane-growing households. For about a month now, people here have been busy with the work of harvesting ingredients to bring home to create delicious and quality honey batches to serve the 2023 Lunar New Year market.
While other households have applied modern machines to production, the family of Mr. Tran Van Long (58 years old), Mrs. Le Thi Quy (56 years old, village 3, Tho Dien commune) still produce molasses by hand. buffalo power. In the past, when science and technology had not been applied to production, this was a common stage not only in Tho Dien but also in any molasses production area.
Accordingly, in the middle of the kitchen, Mr. Long placed a sugar cane press (also known as a sugarcane cover). These are 2 cylindrical steel blocks (cover pipes) about 60cm high, placed parallel to each other and rotated. One of the two shafts is connected to a wooden rod more than 2m long and tied to the buffalo’s neck.
When the buffalo goes around, it will pull the spindle. Mr. Long in turn put each cane into the small slot between the two shafts to squeeze the juice. This stage is done until nearly 8 am, the buffalo is now allowed to rest. After that, Ms. Quy filtered the sugarcane juice residue.
“Like other households in the commune, my family has a long tradition of making molasses. In the crop, we usually get up at 5-6 o’clock every day to collect sugarcane into the press kitchen. The buffalo chosen for this job must be healthy. In the past, everyone in the commune pressed honey in this way, but now we have modern machines, and my family works as a small business, so I don’t want to spend more money on hiring. In addition, we also want to keep a little bit of traditional flavor,” said Mr. Long.
Sugarcane bark after pressing is brought out to the open ground to dry as fuel.
In the afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Long will cook molasses in the kitchen. They have to stay by the stove to keep the fire burning and make the pan to cook sugarcane juice continuously. Along with that, the cook picks up the scum and leaves it out to clean.
After 3-4 hours, Mr. and Mrs. Long and Mrs. Quy had delicious, thick batches of honey. “Honey after cooled, we put it in sealed jars. If customers come to order, we will pour it into cans and plastic bottles for sale,” Ms. Quy said.
In this case, the price of honey is 50,000 VND/kg of honey, and Quy’s family is estimated to earn 15 million VND.($1=25,000 VND)
According (Dan Tri)
Unique “exercise buffalo” makes molasses, people collect money and get tired
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