Feeding the silk worms
Along the river at Hoi An
A street in Hoi An
To coincide with our science unit on insects, today we visited a silk worm business in the town of Hoi An ("hoy ann"). It is known as "The Ancient City" and is full of shops selling all things silk, art, shoes, jewelry, etc. Very touristy. It is about a 30 minute motorbike ride from Danang. We were quite a caravan on our bikes: Duc, Linh, Sally and Elizabeth; our friend Chau with Jillian and Joy; Bee with Anna Mei; Tony with our American guest Chris; and me with Faith.
Silk production is very interesting. It takes more than 100 silk cocoons to make just one tie.
The girls were able to see silk worms at 2 days, 2 weeks and 4 weeks old, plus the cocoons in all states of progress. Then we saw how the silk thread is removed, and woven together. We also learned about three different qualities of silk and what makes the taffeta silk so special, and the raw silk so rough.
Our textbook credit Christian monks with sharing the secrets of silk making with the world. Chinese emperors carefully guarded this knowledge and executed anyone who tried to export the knowledge. The monks carved out the inside of their walking sticks and put some silk worms inside, then walked out of the country. Pretty smart, eh?
The Vietnamese people love to eat the pupa, the silk caterpillar inside the cocoon. It is killed when the cocoon is place in hot water to make it easy to get the thread off. The people then fry the pupa and eat it.
Up through about 3 weeks of age, when they are mature, the silk worms are fed mulberry leaves every three hours. The worms are kept in a heap on a large, round, flat basket. The woman at the plant brings out a large cutting board, a butcher knife and a pile of leaves. She chops the leaves into tiny bits and covers the worms with the food. They literally eat their way back to the top! They are fed every 3 hours during the day, and twice through the night.
After the thread is removed, it is woven into cloth. Using a handloom, a person can make about 3 yards of cloth per day. With the automated version, they make about 10 yards per day. They also use the silk thread to make needlepoint-like pictures. They are exquisite.
So, that was our day. Before we came home, we all enjoyed a bag of iced sugar cane juice. Most cafes put cold drinks into a baggie with ice, then rubberband it to a straw--no cup needed!
The wonders of God's creation are truly amazing. What a creative and brilliant mind He has! May we all notice His handiwork with new eyes today.
Grace and peace.
