In these days in Hue, the foggy weather immediately brings to my mind the menu of stir-fried khuyet (Sergestid shrimps) with tomato accompanied by raw vegetables. This experience was passed down by my mother.

The recent serious flood in mid-November caused significant damage to many vegetable-producing areas. Racing against the time, right after the water receded, local famers took advantage of dry days to quickly clean up the mud, join hands to rebuild their fields, trim and replant new vegetables to meet the agricultural schedule.

This season is when herbs are high in medicine and bees make honey. People in the highland of A Luoi then start their hard and dangerous trips looking for vegetables, mushrooms, honey, creek fishes, and so on.

At the ward of Kim Long, a garden has become a gathering place for farmers who love organic farming. Farming together and giving each other instructions for how to grow and care for clean vegetables, they created Kim Long Community Garden (Hue city) as a destination for people to visit, purchase clean vegetables and learn about eco-friendly vegetable farming.

With the vegetable growers, taking care and harvesting vegetables, especially the year-round-harvested ones on the rainy days and Tet days are the same. They always leave their homes from 11:00 p.m., and come back on around 2:00 a.m., on the day after with the sleepless faces and calloused hands covered in mud.

In recent years, a garden of more than 30 square meters, which belongs to Ms. Tran Phuong Trang in Tay Loc Ward (Hue City), has provided a regular source of vegetables for her family. By using Styrofoam boxes and plastic pots, she grows plenty of kinds of vegetables, including: lettuce, cabbage leaves, cilantro, cucumber, and bitter melon, etc.