#中国地道风物 #
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The fiery and brilliant hawthorn fruit, warm and unrestrained, is a symbol of love in the Chinese literary circle, whether it is the poignant promise of "I will wait for you for a lifetime" in Amy's "Hawthorn Tree Love", or the "fiery red hawthorn tree" that gives the poet dependence in Haizi "Hawthorn Tree", but the small size can bring people a spiritual shock, which is the unique charm of hawthorn.
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In fact, the charm of hawthorn is much more than that. As a sweet and sour and refreshing berry, hawthorn is very rich in nutritional value. It contains a variety of organic acids and nutrients such as vitamin C and potassium, which can play a role in eliminating food and strengthening the stomach, reducing turbidity and lipids, and dispersing qi and stasis, and its sugar content is very low, which is simply the leader of anti-aging. The ancients recognized this early on, so since ancient times, hawthorn has not only been a fruit to quench thirst, but also a traditional Chinese medicine to help people health.
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Hawthorn is a wild mountain fruit native to China, also known as red melon seeds, hawthorn, snot balls, ratthorn, monkey hawthorn, sheep grass, mountain fruit, tiger's palm, mountain cha, sea red, tang zizi, etc., once used the name to say less than 20, the earliest documentary records appeared in the Warring States period dictionary "Erya", in the book "hawthorn" written "樝", Guo Pu said that it can "cure ze", that is, quench thirst, and the name "hawthorn" first appeared in the Yuan Dynasty's "Materia Medica", and later Materia Medica's books gradually took this as the correct name.
Southern Song Dynasty "Red Fruit Green Bulbul Map", the red fruit is hawthorn. Lu You has a poem "Mountain children bear to sell red fruits, village girls pick blue flowers on the fence", which shows that in the Song Dynasty, hawthorn was very common in people's lives. ©Internet.
Before the Ming Dynasty, there was basically no record of hawthorn in agricultural books, indicating that for a long time, hawthorn was in an undomesticated wild state. "Qi Min Zhishu" "Xi... "Variety is salary", and the record of "Guangzhi" "Wood is easy to grow, many kinds are paid, and fertilizer fields are used", indicating that hawthorn trees could also be used as firewood for burning firewood and fertilizer for strong fields at that time.
After the Ming Dynasty, agricultural books such as "Encyclopedia of Agricultural Politics" and "Time Teaching General Examination", botanical books such as "Qunfang Spectrum", "Guangqun Fang Spectrum", "Plant Name and Real Map Examination", and records about hawthorn in local chronicles around the world began to increase, and people even noticed the difference in the quality of hawthorn from different origins, according to Wang Xiangjin of the Ming Dynasty "Qunfang Spectrum Fruit Spectrum Hawthorn" recorded: "(Hawthorn) Chuzhou, Qingzhou is the best". Chuzhou is the area around present-day Chuzhou, Anhui Province, and Qingzhou is the area around present-day Qingzhou, Shandong Province.
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Because it is gradually cultivated as a fruit tree, the status of hawthorn in the diet has also risen, hawthorn cake, dried hawthorn, hawthorn wine, sugar gourd and other common eating methods today, in the life of people since the Ming Dynasty is very common. Take hawthorn cake, whether it is Fujian in the south or Shandong in the north, there are food customs for making hawthorn cake. And today's popular Chinese snack industry rock sugar gourd, ancient festivals during the size can be much larger than now, folk poem: "Three feet shake the wind is about to break, half of the gourd is dipped in rock sugar", is a must in Beijing.
Hawthorn fat sausage © photo network
Hawthorn, which is used as a traditional Chinese medicine, began to flourish in the Jin Dynasty. The Arya Notes says, "The tree ... Edible. And he said, "But the clouds are edible,...... And medicine has flourished in recent times." In the era of low medical level and lack of medical treatment, hawthorn bears a very heavy responsibility, such as "New Herbal Medicine" said that it "stopped water dysentery", "Famous Doctors" has a record of "boiling juice to wash lacquer sores, more than a worria", indicating that it can cure sores, "Compendium of Materia Medica" even said that it can cure low back and leg pain, small intestinal hernia, stagnant blood pain and swelling, and food accumulation and other physical discomforts.
In the Compendium of Materia Medica, Li Shizhen clearly divided hawthorn into two types for the first time, saying: "Hawthorn... There are two species, both born in the mountains. A kind of small one, the mountain people call it Tangjizi, thatthorn, monkey hawthorn, can be used for medicinal purposes. ...... A kind of big one, the mountain people call it a sheep machine. ...... At the beginning, it is very sour, and the cream is edible, and the function should be the same, and the medicine collector does not accept it. ”
Before the founding of New China, the small hawthorn that could be medicated was basically wild hawthorn, and some of them came from Yunnan hawthorn in Yunnan Province, and after the founding of New China, with the expansion of cultivation area and area, the production area of medicinal hawthorn also increased. As a traditional Chinese medicinal material, hawthorn is included in the 1963-2020 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and hawthorn is one of the 87 Chinese medicine varieties with the same origin of medicine and food first announced by the National Health and Family Planning Commission in 2002.
Medicinal hawthorn dried © photo network
Hawthorn is the fruit of the genus Hawthorn in the Rosaceae family, and in May and June every year, the white and elegant hawthorn flowers bloom in turn, and after bathing in the summer sunshine, in September and October, the sweet and sour hawthorn fruit is ripe one after another. According to different origins, hawthorn can be divided into south hawthorn and north hawthorn, and there is no difference in nutritional content between the two. But due to different varieties, the taste of hawthorn is very different, some are full of sourness, some are sweet and sour, but no matter which flavor you like, the noisy fruit on the branches will not disappoint you.
Not all hawthorn flowers are white, and the red flowers in the picture are the flowers of the hawthorn "Paul Scarlet". ©Pinterest
In fact, even sweet hawthorn is not completely sour, but its sweetness is relatively stronger, and it tastes less sour. Sweet red seeds, large five ridges, etc. are very representative sweet hawthorns.
Nanliuquan Village, Liu Du Town, Xintai City, Shandong Province, is the origin of sweet red hawthorn, here by the mountains and water, the spring water is abundant, the growing sweet red hawthorn is bright red color, fleshy pink, soft and hard, is the sweet hawthorn "little sweetheart", sweeter than most sweet hawthorn, is a certified national geographical indication product.
Sweet red hawthorn © network
There are five prismatic protrusions around the large five-sided hawthorn, it is huge, the maximum weight can reach more than 30 grams, you must know that an ordinary egg is only about 50 grams. The peel is bright red and shiny, the flesh is yellowish-white, sweet with sourness, after ripening in mid-to-late October each year, it can be stored at room temperature until May, when the sweetness will become more intense as the sour taste decreases.
There is also a large-fruited hawthorn called "hawthorn", Xinyi hawthorn, its taste is very sweet, the main production area is in Xinyi, Guangdong, but it is different from the general hawthorn because it is an apple plant. Locals use it as the main raw material to produce a wide variety of foods, in addition to the common hawthorn cake, hawthorn cake, hawthorn strips, there are also hawthorn dew, hawthorn cola, hawthorn champagne, hawthorn soda and other special drinks, and the honey hawthorn extract produced by Xinyi Food Factory is the first in China. In addition, the locals also make a variety of flavors of pickled hawthorn through the pickling method, which is thick and crunchy, and is a hometown taste that touches the taste buds of Xinyi Yuzi.
Shingi pickled hawthorn © network
However, the more popular is the sour hawthorn, the common sour mouth hawthorn has crooked red, Venus, large cotton ball and other varieties. The stalk is slightly raised, as if a small sarcoma is crooked red, it is the most suitable hawthorn for rock sugar gourd, the sour taste of the fruit can be neutralized by the sweetness of the icing, and the large size makes its flesh fuller.
Great Venus is larger than crooked red, and is planted in Shanxi, Shandong, Hebei and other places, and is known as a "northern treasure". Its meat is hard and firm, and it tastes particularly sour, and can be made into hawthorn wine, hawthorn cake and other foods. The flesh of the large cotton ball is yellow-green, the fruit is soft, and it tastes soft and fluffy, but the acidity is moderate and it can be eaten directly, and its skin is not red like the general hawthorn, but orange (orange) color.
Big cotton ball hawthorn © JD Mall
In fact, hawthorn is not all red tongtong, some varieties grow yellow and clear, some collide with oranges, don't think that they have faded when you encounter such hawthorns. The former such as Altai hawthorn in Xinjiang, Rhubarb Mianhawthorn in Shandong, Little Yellow Mianhawthorn and Huang Tian in Shanxi, the latter such as sweet red and early red in Shandong, Wuling red in Hebei, orange and yellow fruit in Shanxi, and orange hawthorn.
Altai Hawthorn © network
Altai hawthorn, also known as yellow fruit hawthorn, is the main planting area in central and northern Xinjiang in China, it looks like a small golden ball, which can be eaten fresh and medicinal. Because of the beautiful shape of the trees, whether it is the flowering period in May and June, or the ripening period of the best fruits in August and September, the Altai hawthorn tree with swaying flowers and fruits is a beautiful scenery of Xinjiang that cannot be missed. The orange-red hawthorn, as its name suggests, is orange-red throughout. It grows mainly in the northern regions of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and Hebei, and the fruit ripening period is August and September. In addition to being eaten and used as ornamental plants, wood can also be made into furniture, stationery, wooden cabinets, fences, etc.
Hawthorn not only has a variety of skin colors, but also different varieties of flesh color. For example, the flesh of the large cotton ball is yellow-green, the flesh of the great Venus is yellow-green or pink, the flesh of the sweet red seed is pink, and the flesh of the large five-sided fruit is yellow-white.
Atlas © of common varieties of hawthorn Chinese style
Hawthorn adaptability is very strong, cold and high temperature resistance, light love can also be shade tolerant, drought resistance and soil requirements are not high, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jiangsu and other places are planted, mainly concentrated in Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning, Henan, Shanxi and other provinces, Xinglong hawthorn, Qingzhou open hawthorn, Huixian hawthorn, Linzhou tea shop hawthorn, Tian'e Daguo hawthorn, Jiangxian hawthorn, etc. are all high-quality local specialties.
Map of © Hawthorn in China Chinese style
Shandong is an early area of large-scale cultivation of hawthorn in China, here not only has a long history of hawthorn cultivation, the quality of the abundant hawthorn is also very high, Ming Dynasty Wang Xiangjin "Qunfangpu Guobu Hawthorn": "(hawthorn) Chuzhou, Qingzhou is the best" mentioned in the Qingzhou area of today's Shandong Province. In addition, hawthorn in some places in Shanxi and Henan has also been transmitted from Shandong, such as hawthorn in Jiangxian County, Shanxi, and hawthorn in Huixian County, Henan.
As a "hawthorn prosperous place", Shandong's famous hawthorn is very rich, and the landmark products alone are on the list of: Qingzhou open hawthorn, Boshan hawthorn, Sitou hawthorn, Xiangcheng hawthorn, Linqu Sanshanyu big hawthorn, Tianbao mountain hawthorn and other "hawthorn top stream", in addition, Changyi hawthorn, Laixi hawthorn, Xintai sweet hawthorn, Feixian hawthorn and other powerful players are also quite eye-catching.
Qingzhou Open Hawthorn © network
Qingzhou hawthorn praised by Wang Xiangjin, the most famous is Qingzhou open hawthorn, which is the best quality variety of large hawthorn, its fruit is flat and round, the skin is attached to dense yellow-white fruit spots, sweet and sour, because the calyx is deeply sunken into the mouth of the cylinder, so it is called open hawthorn.
Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Tianbaoshan hawthorn has been planted, from Pingyi County, Linyi City, and there are many hawthorn trees more than 100 years old in Luohuanya, Zhaojiazhuang and other places in Tianbaoshan Township today, and the average annual output can still reach more than 300 jin. Tianbao Mountain Hawthorn is mainly cultivated with Tianbao crooked red, Tianbao big five-edge, and Venus, and the hawthorn fruit of these varieties is on the large side, and belongs to the sour hawthorn, but there is also a hint of sweetness in the acid. In addition, Tempo large cotton ball is also a common variety, its skin is orange-red, the flesh is orange-yellow or light yellow, the taste is soft, sweet and sour is moderate.
As a province rich in hawthorn, Shandong has also formed a complete "production-sales-processing" integration model. For example, in Sitou Town, Linqu County, when the hawthorn is ripe every year, local fruit farmers sell the picked fresh hawthorn to other places, and at the local hawthorn processing factory, the fresh hawthorn is made into special hawthorn sticks, hawthorn strips and other snacks.
Workers making hawthorn sticks © Weifang Fusion Media
Shanxi not only has black and shiny coal, but also red and glowing hawthorn, the latter can become Shanxi's famous and special products, inseparable from the local convenient water conservancy conditions and nutrient-rich soil. Shanxi, which spans the two major river systems of the Yellow River and the Haihe River, is very rich in river resources, which also provides unique and superior conditions for local hawthorn cultivation.
Zezhou County, Jincheng City, where Zezhou red hawthorn grows, has the second large river in Jincheng - the Dan River, and its tributary Laonan River flows through the hawthorn planting area of Zezhou County, which provides sufficient and clean water for the growth of red hawthorn in Zezhou. According to the inscription of the ancient temple in Yangping Village, Chengou Township, Zezhou, during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, due to the large number of mountains and little land in the local area, "food and clothing were rogue", so people planted hawthorn trees as a source of subsistence. Zezhou red hawthorn is large red, the single fruit weighs about 20 grams, the flesh is pink, sweet and sour, and has the reputation of "hawthorn king".
Danhe Taiji Lake © in Zezhou County, Jincheng City Zhang Shaoyi
But in fact, not all the hawthorn planting areas in Shanxi have a long history, but this does not affect the quality of hawthorn. Hawthorn from Wenxi County has proved with its own excellent strength that even if there is no family education, it can still achieve outstanding results.
The history of hawthorn cultivation in Wenxi County is only more than 40 years, but the water system in the territory belongs to the shallow water-rich area of Shanxi, which is very rich in water resources, and the production area of Wenxi County's specialty Qilipo hawthorn is buried in a medium-rich sub-area, providing natural and pure water resources and convenient water conservancy conditions for the growth of hawthorn. In addition, although hawthorn has strong adaptability, but fertile soil can provide hawthorn with a more excellent growth environment, Wenxi County Guojiazhuang Town soil types are diverse, containing phosphorus, potassium and other trace elements of the aquifer soil accounted for a large proportion, which is very conducive to the cultivation of hawthorn.
Farmers picking seven-mile slope hawthorn © The sound of mountain sight
Like Wenxi County, there is also fertile soil in Jiangxian County, which mainly has brown soil rich in potassium content, and moist brown soil with medium organic matter content and mineral nutrients, of which more than 80% is brown soil. According to the "Records of Jiangxian County", in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a farmer in Zijiayu Village in Jiangxian introduced hawthorn scion from Shandong, grafted it with local wild hawthorn, and cultivated hawthorn with better quality than wild hawthorn. In 2015, Hawthorn became a national agricultural product protected by geographical indications.
According to the records of "Guangxu Shuntianfu Zhi", as well as "Changli County Records", "Gu'an County Records" and other local records of Hebei, since the Ming and Qing dynasties, many places in Hebei have been hawthorn planting areas, and today Hebei not only has Xinglong hawthorn, Qinghe hawthorn with the title of "national character", but also Longhua hawthorn, Luanhong hawthorn and other local famous specialties.
Speaking of Hebei's "big hawthorn producers", it is inseparable from Chengde, where there are not only high-quality hawthorn fruits, but also hawthorn products brands such as Yida, in recent years, Yida Food has created a hawthorn town with the theme of hawthorn in the Yingshouyingzi mining area of Chengde City, so that people can not only understand hawthorn culture, taste hawthorn cuisine, but also get close to nature in a comfortable environment without scorching heat in summer and cold in winter.
The China Hawthorn Museum in Hawthorn Town is currently the only thematic museum © in China with hawthorn culture as the background Yida Group official website
Xinglong hawthorn from Xinglong County, Chengde, has been a certified Chinese National Geographical Indication product since 2016. Located in the southern foot of Yanshan Xinglong, has the reputation of "the hometown of Chinese hawthorn", here is the "nine mountains and half water and half field" mountainous area, forest coverage rate ranks first in Hebei counties, is the natural oxygen bar for hawthorn growth, in addition, here is high altitude, sufficient light, day and night temperature difference, very conducive to the accumulation of hawthorn sugar, so the sweetness of the grown hawthorn is also high, the harvest period can last from mid-September to mid-October.
In Matun Township, Qinghe County, Xingtai City, when hawthorn flowers converge into a "sea of snow" in late April, a hawthorn flower festival will be held locally, and people who come here to participate in the event can not only participate in the "collective wedding" accompanied by the fragrance of flowers, but also adopt hawthorn trees and buy hawthorn products such as hawthorn wine and hawthorn cake, after all, there are not only the largest hawthorn production areas in the Chinese plains, but also Qinghe hawthorn that has obtained the "National Geographical Indication Certification Trademark".
Blooming hawthorn flowers © Soybean beans
"The fragrant breeze is ripe all over the yard, and the monkey sun is sitting on the withered tree." When hawthorn is on the market, it's the perfect time to feast on it. If you like refreshing fresh fruit, the seasonal flavor is indispensable on the fruit paving; If you like sweet and sour hawthorn products, hawthorn lantern festival, hawthorn milk skin roll, hawthorn cake, hawthorn wine and other delicious. The autumn breeze is bleak, do you see the rock sugar gourd on the street more tempting?
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Bibliography:
[1] Yang Yichen et al., "The Historical Evolution of Medicinal Hawthorn", Asia-Pacific Traditional Medicine, 2022.09.
[2] Yan Wanying, "Hawthorn History", Agricultural Archaeology, 1993.09.30.
[3] Han Dequan et al., "The History, Current Situation and Prospect of Mountain Plant Production in Mainland China", Journal of Henan Vocational Technician College, 1988.09.
[4] Science World, Hawthorn: From Firewood to Fruit, Tencent.com, 2021.05.08.
Wen 丨 Chen Manfei
Encyclopedia editor丨 Shi Stantong, Xie Zhihang
Photo editor丨Brother Xue, Tea Mo'er
Sealing the picture丨Photo Network