Clam season along the Day River

When the winter-spring rice crop is ready for harvest, it is also the time when people living along the Day River, Khanh Cong Commune, Yen Khanh District, enter the main clam harvesting season of the year. Every day, some families catch up to 15-20 kg of clams, earning millions of dong.

Fragrant bait to attract fish

Having enjoyed many delicious dishes made from clams, I was curious about how farmers harvest clams. One day in mid-May, I was lucky enough to have farmers in Khanh Cong commune let me "witness" this process.

From 4am, I was present at the riverside area of the Day River to set traps and catch clams with the locals. According to the locals, the reason I had to go early before the sun rose was because clams like the cool weather, if I went late they would die from the heat. Although I had to wake up early, the locals taught me the most important secret of clam catching, which is the technique of mixing bait.

Clam season along the Day River — The bait for crabs is mixed by people from fragrant roasted rice bran, fresh fish and yeast.

Ms. Pham Thi Soi, a resident of Hamlet 5, Khanh Cong Commune, shared: It is not simply fragrant roasted rice bran, minced fresh fish, but also me - a traditional spice in Vietnamese cuisine . We came up with this method of making bait and trapping crabs, and then passed it on to others. In general, it does not take much effort but is highly effective. When crabs smell the bait, they will crawl out of the hole to eat the bait. Once they crawl in, they cannot crawl back out.

After mixing the bait, I quietly followed Mrs. Soi to collect the crabs. While walking, Mrs. Soi whispered: There is a folk saying "as timid as a crab", it is true that crabs are very timid, as soon as they see a human shadow or hear a noise, they will hide in their holes, so when collecting crabs, you have to walk very gently, avoid talking loudly. After saying that, holding a bucket in one hand, bait in the other, she waded into the field, the bamboo crabs had been placed along the edge of the field since the day before, evenly spaced 50-70 cm each, now she just had to lift them up, pour the crabs into the bucket and spread new bait on them, then put them back in the same place. Perhaps because she was so familiar with this job, her operations were quick and agile, in just 15-20 minutes the plastic bucket containing crabs was full. A moment later, a trader came to the field to weigh the clams. They said: The clams in this area are small and not as red as the ones in coastal areas, but they don't smell bad and are much sweeter, so they are very easy to sell.

We continued to move to the field of Mrs. Pham Thi Linh's family (Hamlet 11, Khanh Cong). After more than 2 hours of collecting clams, Mrs. Linh collected a net bag full of clams, about 15 kg. According to Mrs. Linh, May and June are the months when the clams are most abundant and this is also the time when the clams are plumpest and tastiest. Her family harvests clams almost every day, only occasionally resting for 1-2 days. On a good day, they get 15-20 kg, on a bad day, they get 6-7 kg. Despite the large output, the price of clams is always maintained at 70-100 thousand VND/kg, because in the hot summer, there is nothing better than eating a bowl of clam soup with jute.

"In the commune, there are about a dozen households that contract riverside land like my family. Since switching to organic rice cultivation combined with collecting earthworms and crabs, our lives have become much more prosperous," said Ms. Linh.

"God's blessings" do not come for free.

Lying along the Day River, possessing a large area of land, often filled with alluvium, along with earthworms, clams are also natural specialties that Khanh Cong commune is blessed with by nature. Compared to earthworms, clam exploitation time is longer. The clam exploitation season usually starts from March and ends in November every year, with the focus being from May to the end of July. People often compare this to "heaven's blessing", but "heaven's blessing" does not come naturally. For decades, people have worked hard to nurture the soil, improve and preserve the environment so that these creatures can thrive.

Mr. Pham Van Xuyen (Hamlet 11, Khanh Cong) shared: Every year, his family only grows one winter-spring rice crop, applies organic production processes, says no to pesticides and chemical fertilizers, most of the farming activities are done manually. In May and June, after harvesting the rice, the soil is plowed again, ditches are made, water is drained, then compost and rice husks are sprinkled to create nutrients for the soil. In addition, it is necessary to regulate to ensure that the tidal water flows in and out continuously, not stagnant. After several years of persistently doing so, the clams and earthworms gradually appeared and have a stable yield as it is today.

Mrs. Pham Thi Soi also added: We had to eat and sleep day and night, attached to the shore, constantly monitoring the water flow up and down, and if we felt the river water was not clean, we had to immediately block the drain to prevent pollution from overflowing, because just a little negligence could cause the aquatic resources to disappear. In addition, when harvesting, whenever I saw any clams carrying eggs, I would release them back into the wild to reproduce.

Just through the above sharing, it is enough to see how much the people here cherish nature and every inch of land. It is good that people have abandoned the mindset of fragmented production, turning their inherent advantages into greater, more sustainable values. This approach is completely consistent with the orientation of developing a multi-layered, multi-value agricultural economy , linked with tourism that our province is aiming for.

It is thought that in the coming time, it is necessary to have more participation from specialized sectors to support localities in researching, investigating, evaluating characteristics, soil quality, water sources, and clearly identifying areas with potential to continue expanding the area of rươi and crab farming. In addition, diversifying products, building brands for local organic rice, crab and rươi sauce, and establishing tourism products to serve tourists for sightseeing and experience... Thereby, contributing to the development of local socio-economics.

Nguyen Luu

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