Huyện Bảo Yên

Before leaving on Wednesday we had the opportunity to see the cinnamon farm. It has been in their family for 20 years, built up by the father after fleeing north from the War. We also had some cold cinnamon ginger honey tea which was so tasty.
Many people don’t know that cinnamon is the inside bark from the cinnamon tree. They can harvest them after the trees are 5 years old and are cut until they are 20. When the bark is cut the tree dies and is cut down, so they put the seedlings closer together on a hill and then cut them at different ages to make space. The harvest is done by hand in 45cm long pieces. The bark is then peeled off the tree which we were allowed to try. It smelled heavenly and tasted like fresh cinnamon. It’s harder than it looks. You try to not break any pieces because that gives less money. They get 2USD$ per kg. The bark is then dried for 1 day in the sun and rolls up. To get the brown rolls we are used to they need to do an additional step and shave the bark, which we also tried. So a lot of work goes into it. As you can see we were quite sweaty. Then the shaved bark is left to dry for 3 days and gives a yield of 7USD$ per kg. The stems of leaves are edible too and used to make cinnamon oil.
We were given a few rolls of cinnamon and honey to make tea on the way.
It was a really unique experience.Read more