Right now, it's the harvest season for red matsutake mushrooms. Early in the morning of April 22, I walked into the Hai'an Laichan Sericulture Family Farm located in Duntou Town, Hai'an City, and saw a cluster of red matsutake mushrooms in the east and a pile in the west, the growth was gratifying, and the workers wore gloves and carried baskets to shuttle through the forest, skillfully picking ripe red matsutake mushrooms, a vibrant scene.
Red matsutake mushroom, also known as red bulb mushroom, large bulb mushroom, the cap is gray-brown, the stipe is white, nutritious, delicious, is the rising star of the mushroom market in recent years, favored by consumers. In 2023, Xia Guixiang, the person in charge of Laichan Sericulture Family Farm, aimed at the scarcity of matsutake mushrooms in the local market and the strong demand, decisively planted 5 acres of red matsutake mushrooms, and officially entered the red matsutake harvest period at the end of March.
"Our red matsutake mushrooms are grown in an all-natural way, and the quality of the red matsutake mushrooms is excellent, and the proportion of special grade mushrooms is more than half. Since its listing, supply has exceeded demand, and people have placed orders from online platforms every day. We mainly sell fresh goods, mainly to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and the market prospect is very good. Watching baskets of harvested matsutake mushrooms being transported away, Xia Guixiang's face was full of smiles. "It is estimated that by the end of the harvest in early May, about 3,000 catties can be harvested per mu, and we not only pick and sell, but also make them into dried mushrooms, which can bring about 2,000 yuan of net income per mu. Xia Guixiang told reporters.
It is worth mentioning that red matsutake mushrooms are planted among the rows of mulberry trees. According to Yan Haijun, an agronomist at the Xiahe Regional Agricultural Service Center in Hai'anli, compared with other fungi, red matsutake mushrooms have the advantages of being more drought-tolerant and cold-tolerant, and can make full use of the winter fallow period of mulberry orchards. The yield of open-air red matsutake cultivation is higher than that of greenhouse cultivation, and it can also develop additional industries such as picking and tourism to further increase income. "During the promotion process, we regularly invite experts to the farm for technical guidance. At present, there are 6 sericulture farms in our Lixiahe area that have carried out interplanting of red matsutake mushrooms, with a planting area of nearly 50 acres. Judging from the current growth, our promotion has been successful. Yan Haijun said.
The cultivation of red matsutake mushrooms has also brought a new way to increase the income of local left-behind middle-aged and elderly people and women. "These are light physical tasks, which require care and patience, and we pick a stubble at 7 o'clock in the morning every day, and another stubble in the afternoon, and we can earn 60 yuan a day. Luo Mingxi, a left-behind woman in Qianbu Village, Duntou Town, said.
Xia Guixiang said that the cultivation of red matsutake mushrooms has a low risk and a quick return, and her farm has ushered in a bumper harvest on her first attempt, which further strengthens her belief and determination to continue to develop. In the next step, she plans to expand the scale of planting, actively use the mechanism of joint agriculture with agriculture, continue to provide employment opportunities for surrounding villagers and increase their income, and contribute to rural revitalization. Correspondent: Li Renxia
Proofread by Xu Heng