The special process of making sapodilla hanging in the wind by Lam Dong’s students

As a teacher for many years with career guidance activities for students, Ms. Hang (Chemistry teacher) said she always thinks about how to help them soon identify a career that is suitable for their abilities and interests. contribute to building the local economy and can stay and get rich right on their beloved land.

Ms. Hang and 2 students

Sharing about the idea of ​​​​implementing the project of air-drying persimmon, Ms. Hang said: “In one time taking students to visit the city’s air-drying persimmon facility, I realized that this is a product that brings many successes. Lam Dong people. But persimmon only has one season, so the output is not high, the rest of the time the factory is left to dry. Meanwhile, sapodilla fruit has similar characteristics to persimmon, which is grown all year round but has not been exploited according to the wind drying model.

The three girls started to learn from the persimmon drying facilities and implement the project. “At first, the group encountered many difficulties and frustrations because sapodilla fruit often had problems such as moldy fruit, spoiled, sour, less eye-catching color… Sometimes finishing a batch until the last stage. After all, just because the temperature is not enough, it will be damaged, so the risk is quite high”, said Ngoc Anh – a member of the group.

With passion, persistence and everyone’s encouragement, after many failures, the team completed the production process which took about 15 days, depending on the temperature and humidity of the air. Besides, Ms. Hang revealed that on the 7th day of the process, each sapodilla fruit will be massaged to help the bile in the fruit secrete evenly, with a sweet aroma and eye-catching color.

According to the Japanese wind hanging persimmon process, after peeling, persimmons will be soaked in an alcohol solution with an alcohol concentration of 30-35% for 2-3 minutes or sprayed with alcohol on the surface to prevent mildew. However, Ms. Hang said that this method is not really effective, spraying alcohol will blacken the surface of the fruit, affecting the flavor and color.

After many trials, the three students found a method of preservation by smoking sulfur (the type used in food processing permitted by the Ministry of Health) with a formula calculated so as not to appear residues, ensure consumer safety. This is an important step for the air-dried sapodilla to have beautiful colors and be better preserved when the humidity is high.

The first successful air-dried sapodillas were tested by the three girls at the Lam Dong Technical Center for Standards, Metrology and Quality. The group’s project has left many impressions in the 13th Provincial Science and Technology Competition for high school students in the 2020-2021 school year and reached the final round of the 2021 Rural Youth Entrepreneurship Project Contest organized by China. organized by the Union.

Combining experience travel

“Besides cherishing the intention of developing a wind-drying sapodilla facility to improve the economy for farmers in Lam Dong province. We want to tell the story of our products combined with local experiential tourism. Visitors to the sapodilla garden can witness the process of soaking and composting for cultivation, can pick ripe fruits to eat in the garden, buy fresh fruits as gifts for their loved ones and experience the stages of the production process. sapodilla hanging in the wind”, Ms. Hang shared.

Through the above combination model, the three girls hope to be able to diversify their income sources, promote local economic development in association with eco-tourism and build a clean and sustainable agriculture. Besides, the model gives customers interesting experiences about the process of planting, cultivating, harvesting and producing sapodilla hanging by the wind.

Bao Tram said: “My local production is mainly for direct consumption in the country or for export to China, the selling price of sapodilla ranges from 7,000-15,000/kg, so very few households grow it. For the past few years, due to the influence of the Covid-19 epidemic, the source of agricultural product consumption is not stable, sapodilla has a good season but loses its price.

Therefore, the three students want the project not to stop at the model but to optimize the process and materials to bring high economic efficiency to apply in practice. In the immediate future, the group will continue to find ways to solve the mold problem of sapodilla fruit when air-dried, as well as remove worries about how to preserve it so that consumers can use it with peace of mind.

Ngoc Linh

Photo: NVCC