Every day when there is still drizzle and cold wind, people on the street have to wrap their cotton shirts, scarves, and hats. Then suddenly, the rain gradually subsided, the weather sometimes treated them to a temporary, warm and bright sunshine. It's March, the grapefruit flower season has arrived.
Strolling around the streets of Hanoi at this time, it is not difficult to see street vendors, with a rusty iron bicycle filled with grapefruit flowers arranged very cleverly behind. The clusters of beautiful white flowers, along with a few green grapefruit leaves lying neatly on the mat, the strong scent of the scent spread in the space. The smell of grapefruit from street vendors in the middle of the busy streets is not enough.
When I remember the Dien grapefruit gardens in Phuc Dien ward (Bac Tu Liem district, Hanoi) that were also in the blooming period, I went back to look for them. From Cau Dien Street to Van Tien Dung Street, going up a few hundred meters, my friend and I sat in the same car, although we had not seen the flowers, but we could smell the grapefruit scent covering the entire long road. After days of drizzle and wind, the weather is dry, and the grapefruit gardens in Phuc Dien ward are also blooming more freshly.
When I visited the garden, white flowers were spilling all over the roadside, I met the grapefruit garden owner - Mr. Nguyen Gia Dung who was enthusiastically welcoming guests to take photos. vua pointing me to a place with low grapefruit trees for easy photography, Mr. Dung said that his garden is about 4 hectares wide with nearly 2,000 grapefruit trees, most of which are over 30 years old. "As soon as it was sunny, I reopened the garden door for customers to come in and take photos with the flowers. Grapefruit flowers bloom for only about two weeks, so the number of visitors is not as crowded as the ripe fruit season, said Mr. Dung.
The vast grapefruit garden, sparsely populated with chickens and ducks, Mr. Dung released more. Most grapefruit trees in the garden are blooming, pure white covers the entire tree, giving off a filling and pleasant scent, when standing nearby, you can feel the scent mixed with the charm. "On sunny days, the scent of grapefruit flies further, which is also a favorable condition for the flowers to easily produce fruit when fertilizing," Mr. Dung added.
In the garden, each herd of butterflies wandered under the blooming grapefruit flower clusters, and a few were soon planted with loach bees. In addition to customers coming to take photos, there are also teachers and uncles who are carrying potted grapefruit flowers from all over the roots. They are pollinating the flowers by hand so that the plants can soon bear fruit. Each person took a comb as a decoration comb, swept out pollen from male flowers in a pot and dipped it in the sticky rice flower stems in the plant, then gave out all the grapefruit trees in the garden. The grapefruit flower season here is associated with a bustling working life and the anticipation for the upcoming bumper ripe grapefruit crop.
Not only the grapefruit garden in Phuc Dien, if you have the opportunity to wander to some provinces around Hanoi such as Hung Yen, Hai Duong, Bac Giang..., it seems that every time you visit any village in late spring, you will smell the scent of grapefruit momentarily, waiting in the wind. Through the brick walls, grapefruit branches extend out, leaves and flowers are planted on the road. Each cluster of heavy flowers, interwoven with closed flower buds, is like a small light waiting for the day the golden plow to shine.
In rural areas, grapefruit is a garden leafy plant, associated with the rustic life of the people. Therefore, suddenly I could smell the scent of grapefruit flying from wherever it flew, so bustling, I remember the corners of the yard, the garden, remembering the simple moments in my hometown.
In the third quarter, grapefruit flowers bloom, the weather warms up, the village roads, small hamlets, and alleys are also flooded with many other types of flowers. Here are the beautiful white lemon flowers and flowers grown by the well. Then there are mango flowers, fabric, and longan blooming in clusters. Grapefruit flowers fall, the sound of flowers falling in a row. As for mango flowers, they just keep falling in the wind, not paying attention to how long they have been covered with thick carpets.
During the grapefruit flower season, women in the countryside often pick flowers and add them to shampoo. On warm sunny days, every grapefruit tree next to the wall of the house, I took a bunch of flowers that were blooming with fragrant aroma and boiled them with the bunch. The trays of pork belly stored in the house are from the days of high sunshine, dried the fruit until it is dry, then roasted in a pan, then pounded.
The broth when made with hair conditioner is put into a homemade cloth bag, tightly tied, released into super boiled water with a few grapefruit flower branches. This fragrant drink gently marinates the hair, leaving it under the late spring sunlight, when the hair is just washed, it will gradually dry out, starting to let off the scent of the bunches of grapefruit flowers blooming on the branches.
Then the flower season ended, in the sunlight, there was no more smell of grapefruit, the young fruit appeared, as small as a crab, as dark green as leaves. Every day, the weather and rain are dry enough, through the red fabric ripening season in Hai Duong and Bac Giang, through the sweet and creamy longan season in Hung Yen, it is the ripe grapefruit season. This is the happy season for grapefruit growers, each grapefruit tree can produce hundreds of fruits, people are busy harvesting.
In the countryside, the pace of life is still peaceful and quiet, only the children are the happiest, when they wait for the grapefruit to ripen like lanterns, the signal of the Mid-Autumn Festival to break the feast and return.
