Southern farmers create unique fruits for Tet

Southern farmers create unique fruits for Tet

Watermelon and grapefruit are two typical fruits that are indispensable in the ancestral altars of Vietnamese families during the Lunar New Year or Tet.

Photo: VNA

Mekong delta farmers have created watermelon and grapefruit with special shapes, making the traditional ancestral altars more beautiful.

Vietnamese farmers have cultivated watermelon for a thousand years, when the sweet fruit was discovered by Mai An Tiem in the old legend of the nation.

With their creativity, farmers have made the fruit more attractive and unique. Square and gold-bar or wine gourd-shaped watermelons are now familiar with consumers. They represent prosperity and luck for Vietnamese people.

According to watermelon farm owner Trần Thanh Liêm in Bình Thủy district, Cần Thơ city, normally it takes 75 days to grow a watermelon into a shape. In order to produce beautiful wine gourd-shaped watermelons for Tet, farmers have to cultivate the tree two months prior to the occasion. They are closely watched every single day. One small mistake will ruin the shape of the fruit.

However, the success of the production process also depends on the weather conditions. Extreme weather like heavy rain or too much sun may also lead to a slim harvest.

This year, Liêm expects to produce more than 300 pairs of gold-bar-shaped and square watermelons for Tet.

If uniquely shaped watermelons are loved by customers nationwide, so too is Năm Roi grapefruit of Hậu Giang, which has developed its own strong trademark. Grapefruit also helps farmers in the province improve their income remarkably.

Thanks to the initiative to make wine gourd-shaped grapefruits of Võ Trung Thành, a farmer in Hậu Giang province, the value of Năm Roi grapefruit is growing even higher.

Thành even thought that if a grapefruit engraved with the two words ‘Prosperity’ and ‘Luck’, it would be very meaningful in Tet. So he started to think about realising the idea and succeeded.

However, it is costly to make the special-shaped grapefruit, not to mention the long growing time and subtle technique. And is why such a unique grapefruit has a high price of about 400,000 VND each.

With wonderful weather conditions and fertile farmland, the southern region is the fruit hub for the whole nation. The special fruit not only makes the ancestral altars of Vietnamese people more meaningful and beautiful, but also affirm the unlimited creativity of Vietnamese farmers. Their efforts have helped the southern region flourish.-VNA

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