Special present from the ground

After recent rumours regarding earth eating Vietnamese minorities, a seminar “The Habit of Eating Earth in Vietnam - Facts and Scientific Explanations” was officially opened, presenting ideas from scientists.

 

Mrs Lac eats earth at the seminar.

Eating earth has been a dietary trait of certain minority groups in

Vietnam for thousands of years. The seminar examined reasons for eating earth, analysing similar habits among animals and pregnant women craving the substance.

 

The seminar’s participants presented various scientific explanations based on chemical, nutritional, medical, geological and cultural analyses.

 

Nguyen Thi Lac, 81, from Lap Thach District, Vinh Phuc Province, has maintained a habit of eating soil from when he was 25 years old. At the seminar she shared her insights, and expounded a few tricks on selecting and preparing the earth.

 

Story of the “earth eaters”

 

Mrs Lac, once lived near Long Tu Hill, 50 km northwest of Hanoi, an area rich in edible earth. She is a healthy, benevolent and hearty look women. She started to eat earth from age 25 when she was pregnant for the second time.

 

“When I was pregnant, earth was as precious as gold. If I had some pieces, I had to hide them in different places so as to enjoy them slowly. I could not forget the dish until it was completely finished. My husband tried to stop me from eating the earth, he was afraid that it could destroy my viscera. But I’ve been doing it since I was a girl – now I’m 81. It is not poisonous,” Mrs Lac smiled.

 

“In the past, when women were expecting a child, we did not have much to eat while we still had to work very hard. Earth was available everywhere, and was a favourite for almost all pregnant women in my area”. She further explained that not every type of dirt is edible. Only what is known as ngoi, or ‘liver earth’, is good to eat.

Earth was a popular dish in Lap Thach. It was available at markets as a snack. Many people, both men and women become addicted to the dish. Mrs Lac said each time she went to market, she would buy three tails of earth, hide them in her pocket and eat them on her way home. She would almost finish the earth before arriving.

 

Sometime, she craved earth but had no time to go to the market, so she would go to the hill behind her home, gather some earth and cook it herself. As addicts, the scent of brick or tile-kilns also makes Mrs Lac and her friends swallow whenever they pass by.

 

When the habit become popular in Lap Thach, local people started to sell earth to make a living. They dug three to four metre holes on a hill in Lap Thach, call Doi Cong An (the hill where local police stay), then brought the earth, similar to kaolin clay, to process and sell. These days people who continue processing and eating earth are few, but who ever tasted it could not forget it.

 

A neighbour of Mrs Lac’s, who died some years ago, was also addicted to earth. When she was old, she wanted to quit the habit. In order to do this she shaved the earth to powder, later mixing it with honey, gradually decreasing the volume of earth. “She was successful but it was very hard” said Mrs Lac.

 

Recently, Mrs Lac had the opportunity to showcase her edible earth expertise, following an invitation from VTV 3 to demonstrate the process and then munch on the snack on television. After the television show was broadcast, many people asked her for the dish. Some orders even come from Ho Cho Minh City, requesting a kilogram of the dish. “Originally I thought that only my homeland people had the habit, but now I know that many others also like earth”, said the old lady.

 

Mrs Lac is getting earth at the Doi Cong An.

How the habit developed

 

Many locals say the last time they saw edible earth for sale at Lap Thach markets was in the late 1980s. Today, only a few old women in the locality still eat it.

Lap Thach has long been known as one of the poorest regions in Vietnam. As a local saying goes, it’s a place “where dogs eat stone and cocks eat gravel”. According to scientists, the town’s earth contains minerals such as iron, manganese, calcium and magnesium.

 

The research did not conclude whether earth is good for one’s health or not. It did report that in the northeast region of Vietnam, some ethnic minorities like Ha Nhi and Khomu also have a tradition of eating earth.

 

Residents of this township are still familiar with the age-old habit of eating earth, even thought it’s hardly done anymore. The earth is still there and easy to extract, but only members of the older generation remember the days when there were two or three rows of shops selling edible dirt in the local market, just as if they were selling rice or sweet potatoes.

 

Nobody knows exactly when or how the habit eventuated, locals just know that for generations a hill located about two kilometres from the township of Lap Thach was rich in edible soil. After a long time, and generations of people “eating”, the once large hill is now much smaller. Eaters sometime got the soil themselves, but mostly bought it.

 

Exploiting the earth is not easy work. Exploiters had to dig five- to seven-metres deep, through layers mixed with gravel, to reach deposits of tasty terrain. There they’d find a clay-based rock – a type of kaolin – gray or white in colour and rather soft, with no grit at all.

 

The earth could be eaten right after it had been unearthed but it is “really not very tasty”. It is better after a ‘professional processing formula’, according to Mrs Lac’s son-in-law, who follows her to the seminar. He said the first step in this process is to cut the earth into little pieces, about two or three fingers thick.

 

The pieces are then dried in the sun for several hours. After that, they are placed on a woven bamboo mat and covered by a layer of sim (tomento rose myrtle), or che tuoi (fresh tea) leaves, plants that are found growing on almost every hill on the region.

 

The dirt is then covered with a basket and fumigated with rice straw, a type of grass that is also common to the region. The smoke from the plants gives a special perfume to the pieces of earth. Finally, they are arranged in a basket and ready to be sold. At the seminar on June 28, Mrs Lac brought a box of the earth to perform cooking and invite participant to joint.

 

Mrs Lac shares the dish with her neighbour friend.

Other eaters

 

According to Do Doan Hoang, a journalist from Lao Dong (Working) Newspaper, who has researched the habit extensively, the habit of eating earth existed not only in Lap Thach. On a business trip, Mr Hoang discovered the Khmu (another Vietnamese minority) in Pa Te Village, Tram Tau District in Yen Bai Province, 180km north-west from Hanoi.

 

In a forest behind the village, local people dig into earth to get the edible soil, making a hole large enough for people to enter. Almost every woman there has eaten soil at the cave, but most were unwilling to admit it. For them, eating soil is something they are ashamed of, and have to keep a secret.

 

For generations, pregnant women in Nam Ban have eaten soil in the cave, believing that it will make them healthy, and bring luck to their babies. Nobody can give a more satisfactory explanation.

 

Incoming second chapter: Ideas from scientists.

 

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