The people of Cat Hai district (Hai Phong) are always proud of being a place to maintain and develop like a giant round gourd weighing up to 15kg, thick flesh, rich taste.
Cat Hai district (Hai Phong city) is considered the capital of giant round gourd, many weighing up to 15kg. Not only has a unique shape, but this gourd also has a rich “unique” flavor. In front of Mr. Tran Hieu’s house (Nghia Lo commune, Cat Hai district) is a green gourd platform, which is both an income source and a hobby of his husband and wife. Mr. Qua said that at some point, his house had 40-50 gourd pods, all of them were big, and the big ones were small one after another. Mr. Qua used to go many places but found nowhere like big gourd like in the land of Cat Hai his hometown. When the fruit is about 2kg large, he uses a wooden piece to tie it on the truss as a support because the fruit grows quickly, stalks will not be able to hold the fruit. Until the fruit grew tens of kilograms in weight, his family cut and sold it. At the beginning of the season, Mr. Qua’s family sold 20,000 VND / kg, the price then fluctuated according to the market, sometimes down to 10,000 VND / kg. Traders come to their homes to buy and then bring them to the market to sell. Sometimes when visitors come to play, he brings gifts to people far away, the closest people can enjoy the rich taste of Cat Hai gourd. This is a gourd fruit that Mr. Qua has reserved seeds for, so that in June and July of lunar calendar, he will be elected to prepare crops for the next season. “This kind of gourd just needs a low trellis, about over 1m, does not like to stay high on wind. The gourd can climb on the truss or the roof. The gourd can be eaten,” said Mr. Qua. According to Mr. Doan Quang Chiem, one of the households with the largest potting area in Nghia Lo commune, the round gourd variety has been left since the time of his father, passed down through many generations. Previously, people planted pots to make pots to draw water to serve the production of salt water and fish sauce manually. In recent years, when the craft salt making in Cat Hai has eroded, gourd has been used for daily food processing. In order to get the wrong fruit rigs, each fruit is as big as the mouth of a cone, the farmers of the district put a lot of effort into it. From seed nursery, tree planting, tree care, scaffolding. However, Mr. Chiem said that many friends and his daughter had also brought gourd seeds to grow in other lands but were not suitable for the soil and climate, so the result was only 4-5 kg, but not as big as planted in the land of Cat Hai. Gourd Cat Hai has thick pulp, picked at the right time, the cakes will be delicious. Gourd can stir-fry with garlic, dip hot pot but the best is to cook soup with fresh shrimp. In particular, many Cat Hai people, when cooking this gourd soup, add a little amaranth rice, the soup will be very sweet. Although the economic value gourd is not high, the farmers here maintain planting and fertilizing year after year. Being charming with the giant round gourd from a young age, Mr. Chiem also worries about the risk of losing gourd varieties when the urbanization process develops rapidly, the land is shrinking, and only a few households maintain planting this variety.
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