Vietnamese Agriculture

Rain pattered on the metal roof “tap tap tap”, I knew that we were going to get completely soaked during the tour that we were scheduled for this morning. After quickly eating and getting ready for the day we met our tour guide outside, she had brought bikes with her. Our tour guide also provided a poncho and water bottle but we had our own rain jacket already. As we began our bike ride I quickly realized that I should have worn the poncho that went down to my knees because my shorts were so wet they were clinging to my legs. Biking in Vietnam was chaotic, there were hardly any bike paths so we had to bike along the street with motorcycles zipping past us.

Rice

Rice fields are often flooded because rice are semi aquatic-plants, flooded rice fields are known as rice paddies. The water also helps keep pests and weeds away because most plants can not survive in that much water and pests would drown. It is kind of like natural pesticides reducing the use of chemicals.

Our first stop was at a rice field, including a ride on a water buffalo! To really experience what local farmers do in their everyday life we took a ride on a water buffalo.  Local farmers ride water buffalos in everyday life to transport crops and to get around the fields. Water buffalos are a symbol of hard work and strength in Vietnamese culture. It was a little bit scary because the water buffalo did not even have a saddle to hold on to so we just had to balance ourselves.

Steps we did to plant rice

1. Loosen soil
   Soil is loosened to ensure that the rice’s roots can grow easily. A traditional method of loosening soil is attaching a plow to a water buffalo, but the farmer still has to hold the plow while the water buffalo pulls it forward. As an interactive experience we got to go into the rice paddies and hold the plow while the water buffalo pulled it around the field. The ground was very muddy and it sunk beneath our feet making it hard to lift our feet back out and it felt kind of gross.
   
   Me pushing the plow
   
2. Smooth soil
   The next step in growing rice was smoothing out the soil, we did this by taking a bamboo harrow which is like a bamboo pole with a flat metal slab at the bottom. To smooth the soil we pulled it along the surface of the mud making it flat.
   
   Smoothing out soil
   
3. Plant rice
   Lastly the longest step that can take a farmer a whole month is planting the rice. To plant rice you take small sprouts of the rice and push it down into the soil, you must plant the rice plants in rows until the whole field is covered. We only did a small amount but it was still hard, I was not very good at it every time that I placed the sprout into the mud it fell over. The farmer was not very impressed.
   
   Planting rice

Market
When we were finished at the farm we biked to a local market where we got avocado smoothies! They were very creamy and delicious, I was not sure that I would like it but I really did. Our tour guide gave us a tour of the market she let us try many fruits that we can not get in Canada. Some of the fruits we tried were:

• Longan
• Jackfruit
• Star apple
• Plum (not like ours)

Lunch
When we were done at the market we headed to a local restaurant and made our own fresh spring roles. We put vegetables and meat onto a sheet of rice paper and rolling it up.

Coffee

Earlier in the week we had gone to a coffee making class, Rylee and I just went to learn how to make good coffee. I really enjoyed making all the different types of local coffee, coffee is very important to Vietnamese culture. Vietnam is the world’s second biggest coffee producer after Brazil. We made the 5 most popular types of coffee in Vietnam, we made:

• Black coffee 
• White coffee
• Salt coffee
• Egg coffee
• Coconut coffee

Phin machine
All Vietnamese coffee is made with robusta coffee beans which have a really strong intense flavor. In our coffee class we used a phin, a phin is a sort of tool that makes drip coffee. These are the steps to using the phin:

1. Put coffee beans into the phin
2. Gently compact the coffee beans with a press
3. Put the filter plate and phin over a cup
4. Pour hot water into the phin
5. Put the lid on
6. Wait a few minutes until the coffee stops dripping out of the phin

White coffee
All we had to do for the white coffee to add sweet and condensed milk to the black coffee with ice and then added black coffee that we foamed on top . I thought that the White coffee would be a lot better than the black coffee but I was wrong.

Salt coffee
We made salt coffee by foaming milk with salt and pouring it over the black coffee and ice. The salted foam was amazing, and I tried one sip of the coffee but it was awful.

Egg coffee
To make the egg coffee we foamed egg yolk, vanilla, honey and sweet and condensed milk, coconut sugar, rice wine and poured it into a glass. Then we added black coffee which sunk underneath the foam. To cook the egg we put the glass into a bowl of hot water for five minutes. Rylee and I just tried the foam without the rice wine which was delicious.

Coconut coffee
We made the coconut coffee by shaking coconut cream and milk together in a cocktail shaker and pouring it over ice. We also added toasted coconut to the top, Rylee and I just did not add the coffee, so it was iced coconut foam.

Our Favourite
My dad’s Favourite was the egg coffee, Rylee’s Favourite was the egg coffee foam. I liked the coconut coffee (minus the coffee). My mom really enjoyed the salt coffee. My dad said that it is the best coffee he has ever had and it has opened his eyes to “real coffee”.