Experience northern Vietnam’s enchanting buckwheat harvest

For travelers, vast fields of buckwheat are a joy to the eye, but for locals, it's just food - plain and simple.

Experience northern Vietnam’s enchanting buckwheat harvest Year-end is the time when ethnic people in the northern highlands of Vietnam, such as Ha Giang Province, roll up their sleeves to harvest buckwheat, a type of grain they use to make cakes and wine.

Experience northern Vietnam’s enchanting buckwheat harvest Buckwheat is common across Vietnam's northern mountainous region, but in recent years it has become famous thanks to photos and videos of the delicate flowers posted online that have lured more and more travelers to the region.

Experience northern Vietnam’s enchanting buckwheat harvest A buckwheat crop grows from September to December, and this is why autumn is the most crowded season in the region, when visitors flock to drive motorbikes through mountain passes for a sightseeing tour of buckwheat flowers in white and pastel pink.

Experience northern Vietnam’s enchanting buckwheat harvest But for locals here, mostly ethnic people, the plant is purely a source of food. They usually pick young buckwheat plants to serve as vegetables.

Experience northern Vietnam’s enchanting buckwheat harvest One month after sowing, buckwheat plants blossom and the flowers stay open for a month before the grain is born. Thanks to the sightseeing boom, locals here have another source of income from charging visitors a small fee to take photos of their buckwheat fields.

Experience northern Vietnam’s enchanting buckwheat harvest Mong ethnic people in Ha Giang Province harvest buckwheat grain by using a stick to smash the plants.

Experience northern Vietnam’s enchanting buckwheat harvest "My family usually harvests 30 kilograms of buckwheat grains each year. We store it for food at home rather than selling it. For the past three years, we have been expanding our field to attract more tourists,” said Thao in Dong Van District.

Experience northern Vietnam’s enchanting buckwheat harvest A farmer tosses the grain in the air so the wind blows away the chaff.

Experience northern Vietnam’s enchanting buckwheat harvest According to local people, buckwheat is good for the digestion and other health problems. Northern Vietnam is not the only place where buckwheat is popular. In Japan, people use the starch from the grain to make Soba noodles.

Experience northern Vietnam’s enchanting buckwheat harvest After separating the grain, people use whatever is left of the plants to feed their cattle and make fertilizer for their farms.

Source: VnExpress