Leaders of Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Environment visited Bach Huong Xuan dried fruit booth (a product certified with 4-star OCOP). Photo: NVCC
Returning to the ancient land famous for being the land of hundreds of crafts in the capital Hanoi, we had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Nguyen Xuan Diep, 94 years old, Cao Vien commune, Hanoi city to listen to him talk about the "legend" of Bach Huong Xuan dried fruit in the traditional land of many famous craft villages.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Diep told about the difficult time when he was looking for a way to make a living. He realized that his hometown had many wild fruits that needed to be processed to preserve them for a long time and serve as snacks for urban people.
Thinking is doing, he went to study everywhere from far away provinces to artisans in the heart of the old town and found rich, abundant, clean sources of raw materials to bring back and process.
Collecting the essence of all kinds of delicious fruits to put sour, spicy, salty, sweet flavors into each dried fruit, after many failures, he successfully found his own recipe, meeting the demanding culinary needs of the people of Hanoi. Thanks to that, the amount of his products was consumed as soon as they were made, from retail stalls to wholesale stores on the street.
After nearly a hundred years, to promote the family's traditional profession, his descendants continue to make dried fruit and have achieved many successes.
From simple, familiar dried apricots, now Mr. Diep's family's dried apricot products have a brand and meet the 4-star OCOP product standard - the only dried apricot product in Hanoi to achieve this certification.
Raw materials are cleaned before processing. Photo: VGP/Thien Tam
Ms. Nguyen Thi Le (Mr. Diep's niece) is the current owner of the Bach Huong Xuan dried fruit brand. She said that growing up and witnessing the hardships of the profession, there was a time when she changed her career path to another one. But as if by fate, she still returned to find the familiar fruits of her hometown, associated with her childhood, and continued the journey of developing the traditional dried fruit profession.
According to Ms. Le, to make delicious dried fruit, the selection of ingredients is very important, it is necessary to choose the right harvest time to get the best ingredients. Like summer star fruit, to make young star fruit dried fruit, it is necessary to choose the first fruits of the season, when the seeds are just the right size and not hard. Then bring them home to process and wash them, do not score the fruit but use a spike board to prick the fruit so that the spices are evenly absorbed... The stages of making dried fruit are mainly done by hand to create the best flavor and follow the most standard traditional recipe.
Due to the large amount of dried fruit produced every day, like this year's apricot season, Ms. Le's family makes from 1 to 2 quintals of apricots every day, so the facility has used additional fruit filtering machines and hired local people to produce to meet the consumption demand. Thereby also creating more jobs for the surrounding people.
Bach Huong Xuan dried fruit products are now available in many provinces and cities across the country. Photo: VGP/Thien Tam
In 2022, 10 of Bach Huong Xuan's apricot products were evaluated and recognized as 4-star OCOP products. These products are: Special sweet and sour rose apple jam; sweet and sour seedless ginger-fried plum; fresh plums stir-fried with ginger; fresh plums stir-fried with sweet and sour ginger; sweet and sour candied plums; sweet and sour ginger apricots; seedless candied apricots; special sweet and sour apricots; sweet and sour and salty apricots and sweet and sour and spicy apricots.
Currently, Bach Huong Xuan dried apricots are available in many provinces and cities across the country such as: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, supermarkets, e-commerce platforms and Noi Bai airport. Not only that, this dried apricot flavor is also available abroad, a traditional gift from the capital Hanoi to tourists and people living far away from home.
Soft, fragrant, sweet, sour and spicy in harmony - each piece of dried fruit is the crystallization of love for the profession, of meticulous hands preserving the traditional recipe through many generations.
Kindness
Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/o-mai-truyen-thong-goi-tron-huong-vi-tram-nam-102250723173320851.htm
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