Under the warm sun of April, the big cherries in Zhangjia Village, East of Los Angeles, entered the ripening period. At a glance, round and full red cherries dot the forest, bright and attractive under the sunlight, and the bursts of fruity aroma are refreshing, making people can't help but pick and taste them.
East Zhangjia Village is a famous greenhouse cherry "star village", the village began to plant cherries in 1995, and developed greenhouse cherries in 2000, mainly with red light, Meizao, pioneer, Labins and other representatives of early, medium and late ripening high-quality varieties, the whole picking period can last until the end of May. At present, there are 19 cherry growers in the village, 37 cherry greenhouses, and a planting area of 135 acres.
When I came to the cherry greenhouse of Zhang Guanbin's house, the fresh and sweet fragrance of cherries came to my nose instantly, gently brushing off the green leaves, and strings of red and fiery cherries hung on the branches. Zhang Guanbin came to his cherry shed early in the morning and was busy picking some ripe fresh fruits. "My family planted Meizao, Pioneer and Samito, because this year's maturity period is more than ten days later than in previous years, and now only the early-maturing variety of Meizao is ripe, although the daily picking amount is still relatively small, only about 300 catties, but the price is really attractive. Zhang Guanbin had a smile on his face, according to the size of the fruit, the price of a pound of cherries is between 25 yuan and 45 yuan, and the price of special fruit has reached 55 yuan per catty.
As the saying goes, "cherries are delicious, but trees are hard to plant", and the reason why cherries are so precious is not only because of their delicious taste, but also because they require a lot of energy in the whole cultivation process. Zhang Guanbin introduced, "Cherries are more sensitive to temperature during the growth process, and the temperature requirements for the whole growth cycle are different, so we have a special person responsible for temperature measurement and adjustment every day." "Not only that, but in order for cherries to taste sweet, it is necessary to ensure that all the fruits receive sufficient light, so after planting the fruit trees, they must be carefully pulled and the branches are fixed with ropes so that they are evenly distributed.
Cherries are not only "difficult to plant", but also "difficult to pick". Since the cherries are thin and fragile and cannot be picked by pruning, each one needs to be carefully picked by hand when it is time to harvest to ensure the integrity of the fruit. "I now employ more than a dozen people in my own orchard who specialize in picking, all of them from our village. Zhang Guanbin said.
The sweet cherries that ripen under careful care are widely loved by consumers as soon as they are listed. "Our cherries are of high quality, naturally have a good reputation, and there are many regular customers, and customers from all over the world come to me to order. Zhang Guanbin happily introduced while carrying a basket for customers to pick, "The yield of an acre of land is about 2,000 catties, and on average, you can earn about 40,000 yuan per acre." I planted 10 sheds and planted 42 acres of land. ”
"The characteristics of cherries in our village are big, thick and sweet, and they don't lose cherries at all!" Zhang Guanqiang, secretary of the party branch of Dongzhangjia Village, said that the village will invite experts from the fruit and vegetable station of the Agricultural Bureau to go deep into the greenhouse every year to take the pulse and support the whole process to provide strong technical support for the development of the cherry industry.
Cherries are the matchmaker, and small fruits bring big benefits. Dongzhangjia Village will further gather factor resources, promote the scale of the cherry industry, improve the quality and increase the efficiency, continuously improve the gold content and added value of the cherry brand, and accelerate towards a strong agriculture, beautiful countryside and rich farmers.