Recently, there was a busy scene in the original vegetable planting base in Liutang Town, Lingui District. The seedlings of the horn peppers have been transplanted into the ground, and the celery planted for the next season has been replanted.
Horn pepper, celery, zucchini and eight-sided gourd are all unique "original vegetables" in Liutang Town. Their planting has strict and specific specifications and requirements, and it is also the direction of the development of vegetable planting industry in Liutang Town in recent years. Nowadays, the original vegetables have a certain planting scale and industrial model, and appear on the tables of more Guilin people.
The original pepper seedlings in Liutang Town. Photo by reporter Liu Jingling
Raw vegetables are "demanding"
At present, in the original vegetable planting base of the Daolian Village Committee of Liutang Town, Lingui District, growers are busy, intensively cultivating the unique local original vegetables.
This planting base covers an area of about 1,000 acres and only grows original vegetables. According to a staff member of the Lingui District Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, the so-called "original seed (zhǒng) vegetables" actually refer to agricultural products harvested according to the standard of "original seed (zhǒng) original seed (zhòng)". This is a new form of business that has emerged in the agricultural product market in recent years, and it is also a new model tried in Guilin's agricultural production.
From ancient times to the present, Liutang Town, Lingui District, has been mainly planted with vegetables and fruits, and has rich vegetable planting resources, which also provides a foundation for the development of the "original seed and original seed" industry.
The staff of the Lingui District Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau gave a brief introduction: It must be a "native plant" that has a complete local growth environment; it must be a seasonal crop, and it must be sown, managed, and picked according to the natural form of crops and traditional agricultural production methods, and the use of farm fertilizer must be advocated; and seeds that have been bred for five generations without reducing yield must be selected. Vegetables grown according to the above three standards are commonly referred to as "original vegetables".
It's not easy to meet these standards. The first is "seed selection". The local "origin" crops in Liutang are corroborated by the "County Chronicles" and other materials, and have a history of hundreds of years of planting. "This is a natural variety that has been cultivated by local farmers for a long time. Qin Yufu, a cadre of the Daolian Village Committee, said that there are hundreds of kinds of vegetables suitable for planting in Guilin, and there are seven or eight kinds of original vegetables in Liutang Town.
After three or four years of promotion, the original vegetable planting industry in Liutang Town is booming. According to a statistic released by the local authorities in 2023, the output of original vegetables grown in Liutang Town accounts for 30% of the total output of Guilin City, and has become an important development direction for vegetable cultivation in Liutang Town.
Qin Shunfu shows the original celery planted by the villagers. Photo by reporter Liu Jingling
What's so good about the original vegetables?
"This is our homegrown horn pepper, which is a regular horn pepper. Just looking at the pictures doesn't seem to make a difference, but behind the scenes there is a big difference. Qin Yufu took the photo and told reporters that from the appearance, it is also a horn pepper, and the "original species" and "non-original species" are almost the same on the surface, but the "connotation" is different.
Local growers and agricultural and rural workers further explained that "the difference in eating is obvious". According to the locals' description, the "non-original" horn pepper has a lighter "chili flavor" than the "original" pepper. Liutang people like to eat "pickled peppers", and the "original" horn peppers will not peel off after pickling, and the meat is thick and juicy.
Since the local fresh horn peppers have not entered the harvest period, the reporter tasted the "original" peppers made into pickled peppers, which have a crisp taste and tight skin and flesh.
In Chenggui Village, Liutang Village Committee, there are also many farmers who grow original vegetables. Qin Shunfu, a cadre of the village committee, told reporters that in addition to horn peppers, the original celery in the village is also a special agricultural product.
Qin Shunfu took the reporter to a farmland, where celery was planted in a small area, and the strong aroma of celery was smelled from afar.
"It's past the celery season, which the villagers use to keep for planting. Qin Shunfu said that the villages around Liutang Town have been planting celery for hundreds of years, and from ancient times to the present, everyone has selected the previous generation of celery seeds with better growth to sow seeds by keeping seeds, "never buy hybrid celery seeds." ”
There are pros and cons to doing this. Qin Shunfu said that people who have been engaged in agricultural cultivation for a long time know that the yield of vegetables grown from hybrid seeds is usually higher than that of "original seeds". In the process of planting the original vegetables, it is necessary to operate in strict accordance with the requirements, only apply organic fertilizer, but also manual weeding, and use physical insect repellent methods without pesticides. This is a relatively "laborious" thing for farmers. Therefore, large-scale "original seeds" are mainly carried out in the base.
The original vegetable planting base in Liutang Town last summer. (Photo courtesy of correspondent Jiang Siyu)
Native vegetables can be purchased in these places
In fact, more than ten years ago in Liutang Town, the scale of planting original vegetables was actually gradually decreasing. At that time, there was no unified planting management model, and there was no external market.
Qin Shunfu said that in recent years, Liutang Town has a planting base of original vegetables, and has organized many tasting meetings of original vegetables, and brought out gourds, eight-sided gourds, horn peppers, celery, etc. for consumers and dealers to taste, so that everyone can understand their advantages.
On the other hand, the products of the original vegetable planting base are distributed online and offline through supermarkets, Jingdong network platforms, and Guilin local vegetable wholesale markets, and are jointly sold in combination with agricultural tourism and agricultural experience models, gradually having a brand and a market.
Qin Shunfu calculated an account, taking last year as an example, when the retail price of ordinary celery was 3 yuan per catty, the local original celery could be sold for 3.5 yuan - 4 yuan per catty. "Some wholesalers will come to book in advance, as long as they meet the quality requirements, there is no worry. ”
Nowadays, in addition to the harvesting and selling of finished vegetable products, in the Daolian Village Committee, the original horn pepper seedlings have also become an industry. "Every year from April to May, when pepper seedlings are planted, farmers in Lingchuan, Jeonju, Hung Yen and even Hunan come to Daolian to buy seedlings. We can sell two or three hundred thousand trees a day. Qin Yufu said, "Now, consumers with conditions love to eat 'organic' and 'natural' food, and the original vegetables meet this requirement from planting to selection." ”
According to some local villagers, the original vegetables have become the main varieties planted by farmers, and in the summer and autumn vegetable and fruit picking seasons, you can see large trucks entering and leaving the planting base, and continuously transporting high-quality products out.
"There are also consumers who know the way to drive to Liutang to catch the market and buy raw vegetables from the villagers. According to a villager, the original vegetables can be bought at the intersection of Fengmushu Road, Lanyan Village Road, and Bao'an Road in Liutang Town.
The staff of the Liutang Town Government said that they can directly visit the original vegetable planting base to experience it, and there are picking experience activities in Lanyan Village, which guarantees that it must be the "original seed", and everyone can observe and compare. It should be reminded that the harvest season of gourd, eight-leng gourd and celery is usually in the second half of the year, and you can pay attention to the relevant developments of the official account of the town government at that time.
Source: Guilin Evening News