On May 11, Zheng Jianxin, a villager in Xinlan Village, Dongshan Township, Wuzhong District, and his companions were busy salvaging weeds in a huge terraced lettuce planting pond. Here is the village's use of the fourth round of weak village project funds to build a "Luanyuan" base, the base with the famous overseas lettuce to set up a platform, but also the introduction of "fruit and cauliflower tea" and other compound planting structures, not only will attract people to the village's characteristic agricultural products, but also help Dongshan explore a new model of integrated development of agriculture and tourism.
Located in the hinterland of Dongshan, Xinluan Village has planted nearly 1,000 acres of lettuce, accounting for more than 90% of the town's planting area. Almost all the lettuce on the table of Suzhou people comes from here. Traditional lettuce farmers often crawl in a diamond bucket, use the barrel as a boat, use their hands as oars, dip their hands into the water, take the young sprouts of lettuce and put them in the basket hanging on the front of the barrel, and the output of working in the hot sun is very limited for a day. Such a dangerous "operation" also makes lettuce "delicious and not pickable", restricting more people from approaching lettuce and understanding lettuce.
In 2018, Taihu lettuce was listed as the "one village, one product" project of Xinluan Village, and Xinluan Village formulated the development idea of "taking the lettuce base as the starting point, focusing on building a comprehensive production base integrating germplasm resource protection, demonstration planting, leisure and tourism, through cultural construction, creating the Taihu lettuce brand, driving growers to increase income, and strengthening collective assets", the number of lettuce growers increased from more than 60 to more than 120 households, and the planting output value increased by about 2 million yuan. On the west side of Binhu Avenue, Xinluan Village built a "Luanyuan" base of more than 160 acres here, the core of which is this pond with an area of 8.5 acres, which is divided into three layers from the outside to the inside, the height is decreasing layer by layer, and there are several boardwalks between the layers to connect, dividing the water surface into multiple areas, and a large number of lettuce is "settled" in the pond shaped like a terraced field.
The special shape of the terraces allows people to have a "close encounter" with lettuce, regardless of whether they have experience in picking or not. The reporter saw that the terraced pond water surface is clearly distinguished, after entering the harvest period in the spring, as the water level rises, the young leaves of lettuce float from the bottom of the pool to the bottom of the water, and the picker can easily pick the upper layer of lettuce at this time standing on the next layer. The pond center still needs to use the traditional lettuce picking method, which can also preserve the history and feelings, so that the public can experience the traditional picking technology and gain an in-depth understanding of the development of the local lettuce industry.
Lettuce itself has no other flavor and can only be highlighted when cooked with other ingredients. In the "Luanyuan" base, patches of mulberry, peach, pear, orange and loquat trees also "add luster" to the lettuce. It is the turn of spring and summer, and the mulberries are hung with mulberry branches, among which the black and shiny mulberries have matured and put them in the mouth, and the juice is sweet and full. Jin Xing, a member of the Party Committee of Xinlun Village, introduced that the base will further plant fruit trees and flowers in the later stage, optimize the design of the park, and open to the public for business. Here, visitors can not only experience the fun of picking lettuce, but also "punch in" in various landscape belts, taste seasonal vegetables and fruits, and enjoy the delicious scenery all year round.
(Su Bao Rong Media reporter Lu Yuqi/Wen Yang Haishi/Photo)