#我来唠家常#
▲ Winter is coming, let's eat oranges! Photography / XuVision, Picture / Picture Worm Creative
-The Legend of the Gentleman of Things-
Navel oranges, rock sugar oranges, jelly oranges
The "Three Kingdoms" of the orange world
Winter is the "golden age" of oranges.
"A good year must be remembered, it is the time of orange, yellow, orange and green", most of the Chinese oranges in October, against the frost and wind, began to be listed on a large scale - from the north foot of Wuzhi Mountain in Hainan in the south, where the colorful Qiongzhong green orange grows;
▲ Hainan Qiongzhong Green Orange Planting Demonstration Base. Photo/Visual China
As far north as Yichang in Hubei Province along the Yangtze River, Ziguilun, which has "excellent patience", will not mature until the spring of the following year.
▲ In Yichang, Hubei, villagers in Zigui County are transporting navel oranges. Photo/Visual China
Oranges have accompanied us through a long winter.
Among the vast "orange empire", oranges located in southern Sichuan, southern Jiangxi and southern Hunan are the most popular - these places are located north of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the golden belt at 30 degrees north latitude, with abundant rain and heat, and suitable temperatures; There are many mountains, rivers and hills, undulating hills, and many low slopes suitable for the growth of oranges at an altitude of 100-400 meters.
▲ Map of China's main orange producing areas (incomplete version), sales ranking from Pinduoduo orange rankings. Cartography/F50BB
These three peak areas have cultivated the "three kings" of the orange industry that occupy the e-commerce sales list - Gannan navel oranges in Jiangxi, Mayang rock sugar oranges in Hunan and Ehime jelly oranges in Sichuan, and led the orange army to "divide the world" on the map of eating oranges in China.
Gannan navel orange: the "umbilical cord" connecting the hometown
Navel oranges are probably the most powerful side in the orange army.
In fact, oranges are "indigenous" to China – archaeological finds suggest that oranges were cultivated on the mainland more than 4,500 years ago. However, in order to add to the Chinese recipes, the ancient orange crossed the ocean, from the Mediterranean coast to the American continent, and after returning from "studying abroad", it became popular on a large scale on the mainland.
▲ The navel oranges in Chongyi County, Ganzhou are ripe. Photo by Li Ruoyu
China's navel oranges are mainly derived from Washington navel oranges, and many excellent varieties we eat today, such as Newhall oranges, Fengjie navel oranges, and Ziguilun late navel oranges...... All belong to the descendants of Washington navel oranges. Among them, in 2020, with a brand value of 67.834 billion yuan, Gannan navel orange, which ranked sixth among regional brands and first in the fruit category, is definitely the top brand among navel oranges. (In fact, Gannan navel orange does not refer to the navel orange variety, but to the place of origin.) In addition to Washington navel oranges, Ganzhou also introduced varieties such as Newhall, Pengna, Forfrost and Nevelina. ）
Ganzhou, the hometown of Gannan navel oranges, is located in the southernmost part of Jiangxi, accounting for nearly a quarter of the entire Jiangxi. There are Wuyi Mountains in the east, Jiulian Mountains and Da Yuling in the south, Luoxiao Mountains in the west, Yu Mountain in the north, and the mountains and hills surround Ganzhou; Nearly 1,000 rivers of all sizes in the territory converge to the center into Zhangshui and Gongshui, and go north after merging into the Ganjiang River.
▲ Schematic diagram of the terrain of Ganzhou. Cartography/F50BB
The nurturing of mountains and rivers makes Ganzhou grow in "swaddling", and the climate is mild, which can not only avoid frost damage of fruit trees, but also prevent "sunburn" caused by excessive sunshine. In Ganzhou's 39,400 square kilometers of land, the planting area of navel oranges has reached about 1.64 million mu (average value in the past 10 years), ranking third in the world and first in the country in terms of annual output.
As the "old powerhouse" in Chinese oranges, Gannan navel oranges win in an all-round way -
The peel is orange and bright, darker than ordinary oranges, and the texture is smooth and delicate; The full juice is like a naturally blended juice, the flavor is just right, if you subtract one point, it is too sour, and if you increase one point, it is too greasy; The most amazing thing is the unique aroma, which fills the room with fragrance before it is cut, teasing the tip of the nose and taste buds.
▲ The juicy Gannan navel orange is mouth-watering. Photography above/Yang Tianxin, photo below/Liu Yanhui
For most people, the memory of teenagers eating oranges comes from navel oranges, Gannan navel oranges, and they can't help but swallow saliva when they hear it. In the past, the older generation needed to carefully choose navel oranges - "the sweetness of the big navel or the sweetness of the small navel" (in fact, it doesn't matter much), "whether there are spots on the oranges", and the children often snatched them up as soon as they were put on the table when they went home.
For Ganzhou people, navel oranges are the "fruit confidence" that shines on their eyes when they are mentioned, and a friend from Gannan described the process of eating oranges locally, writing:
"Eating by yourself or entertaining guests is to cut two large plates, with a beautiful orange flesh to show people, after cutting each piece of orange peel and orange flesh separated, but a fingertip pick, what is a little orange juice on the hand...... "I think it is quite a "navel orange market" pride;
▲ The children in Ganzhou couldn't close their mouths while holding the big navel orange. Photo by Li Ruoyu
As for the Gannan wanderer in another country, whenever his hometown sent navel oranges, even "the peeled orange peel was not thrown away immediately, but put on the radiator, and there was always a faint fragrance of navel oranges in the bedroom that winter......"
Think about it, for Gannan people, navel orange is more than a fruit? It is clearly an umbilical cord that is far connected to the homeland.
▲ Duoer Manor, Ganxian County, Ganzhou, the villagers returned with a full load. Photo by Yang Tianxin
Mayang Rock Sugar Orange: The "Sweet Crit" of the Orange World
No one can resist the temptation of oranges, unless they are afraid of acidity.
But for Hunan's Mayang rock sugar orange, there is no such problem at all, and you can laugh sweetly when you eat it with your eyes closed. is also the "grandmaster" of the orange world, if it is said that Gannan navel orange relies on comprehensive ability, the appearance, interior, and aroma are comprehensive; Then Mayang Bingtang Orange is good at playing "sweet crit", which can be described as "one trick is sweet, eat all over the world".
▲ Fresh Mayang rock sugar orange. PHOTOGRAPHY / PAOPAOANFANG, PICTURE / PICTURE WORM CREATIVE
Orange, is a cross between an orange and a grapefruit. In a family of citrus fruits, which are as complex as Greek mythology, grapefruit and broad-skinned tangerines are crossed at once to form limes – how sour? It is the mother of lemons; When the two crossed many times, the genes of pomelo continued to infiltrate into the wide-skinned orange, and the sweet orange was born. Rock sugar orange, on the other hand, is the preferred sweet variant of mainland sweet orange.
Rock sugar orange is native to Hongjiang City, Hunan Province (formerly Qianyang County), and today it is planted in a large area in Mayang Miao Autonomous County in the north of it - here is at the junction of Hunan and Guizhou, the "mountain province", not far from the famous Phoenix Ancient City, and is located between the Xuefeng Mountain and the Wuling Mountains, which is the traffic point of the Guizhou Plateau to the Jiangnan hills.
▲ The scenery of Mayang Mountain Village. Photo courtesy / Propaganda Department of Mayang County Party Committee
The peaks and peaks in Mayang are undulating, there are many streams, the forest is dense, the terrain is surrounded by mountains in the south, west and north, the opening is inclined to the east in the form of a "dustpan", the hills crisscross between the towns and villages at all levels, the terraced fields are layered, the citrus is all over the field, as if it was born to "plan" a good land for oranges, the rock sugar oranges produced in Mayang, the output accounts for nearly one-third of the country.
▲ The citrus base in Taoyi Village, Mayang. Photo courtesy / Propaganda Department of Mayang County Party Committee
The advantages of the variety, coupled with the shaping of the environment, make the rock sugar orange reach the ultimate in sweetness. Generally speaking, the sugar-to-acid ratio of Washington navel oranges is about 10:1, even the outstanding Gannan navel oranges are about 13:1 on average, while Mayang rock sugar oranges can reach 41:1, and there is almost no sourness in the mouth, only the fragrance and thick sweetness of citrus.
In the local area of Mayang, rock sugar orange is called "rock sugar bubble" by Miao villagers, hanging in the field orchard one by one, from the point of view, "rock sugar bubble" is smaller than navel orange, but each one is juicy, very sweet "sugar water bomb", in the taste buds wanton conquering the city, invincible.
▲ Living in the hometown of rock sugar oranges, Miao Township people have a sweet career. Photo courtesy / Propaganda Department of Mayang County Party Committee
The charm of rock sugar oranges, in addition to being planted in a large number of places in Mayang, Hongjiang, Yongxing and other places in Hunan, is that it has already gone out of Hunan - the famous Chu orange in the Ailao Mountains of Yunnan Province is actually a rock sugar orange introduced from Hunan.
Ehime Jelly Orange: The youngest "King of Oranges"
The youngest Ehime Jelly Orange is probably a collection of the best of a hundred schools.
Jelly orange, more accurate should be called "Ehime No. 38 orange", in fact, it is no longer an orange, but the product of orange and orange after many times of hybridization, tracing back to the roots, the famous Wenzhou tangerine in the mainland, the Klimedin red orange in the United States are its ancestors. If the bloodline of the citrus family is as complex as the Olympian gods, then Jelly Orange must be Zeus, the "king of the gods".
▲ "King of Oranges" Ehime No. 38 orange, take a bite, it's like sucking jelly. Photo by Wu Xuewen
Jelly orange is an almost perfect blend of the best of tangerine and orange –
The first is that the skin is extremely thin, which saves the only drawback of the orange - it is difficult to peel. There is no need to put oranges in a plastic bag and knead them like the traditional one, and you can directly tear off the "golden coat" with your bare hands, and you can enjoy the plump and bright flesh. With Jelly Orange, you can peel a round orange like an orange anytime, anywhere.
What's more, the juice of jelly orange is extremely rich, just holding it in your hand can feel the juice swaying inside, and you can drink it directly by plugging in a straw; Cut in half, the air seems to be sprayed with a citrus perfume with a base note; With a gentle pinch, you can squeeze the juice with your bare hands, an orange and a glass of juice.
▲ Hold it, and it will have the effect of a juicer.
In addition to the regular way of eating, ripe jelly oranges can be inserted directly into a straw and sucked like orange juice. You can also cut it in half and eat it with a spoon like a watermelon. The plump and crystalline flesh of the fruit is as if you have eaten the whole autumn in one bite.
The foothold of jelly oranges in China is Sichuan, the land of abundance. In particular, Meishan, Sichuan, is located in the southwest of the Chengdu Plain, leaving a wide and fertile valley plain with the Min River and Qingyi River; The Longquan Mountains and the Zonggang Mountains are like two green barriers, which embrace the Meishan Mountains from the east and west respectively, forming a basin topography.
▲ Schematic diagram of the topography of Meishan, Sichuan. Cartography/F50BB
Coupled with the geographical location in the subtropical monsoon humid climate zone, the latitude is close to 30 degrees north latitude, which makes Meishan have four distinct seasons, mild climate, 1722 hours of sunshine per year, and a frost-free period of more than 300 days, which is extremely beneficial to the growth of all kinds of fruits and grain crops, showing the heritage of being the "land of abundance".
▲ Above: An orange grove in Huangfeng Town, Pengshan District, Meishan City, Sichuan Province, and below: Villagers in Huangfeng Town are sorting freshly picked citrus. Photo/Visual China
Every year in October and November, large jelly oranges begin to ripen on the branches, and the orchards of Sichuan are filled with the aroma of oranges and oranges; As a new "Internet celebrity fruit", Ehime jelly oranges, which have long dominated the top three of Pinduoduo's "orange rankings", have also been sent to the north and south of the country with strong logistics, "occupying" the fruit baskets of thousands of households across the country.
The "local complex" of oranges
"Good food has roots", for oranges, the mountains and rivers of the hometown, the sunshine and rain are always difficult to give up, and it is very difficult to pass them on to the diners.
For a long time, most of the fruit farmers in these producing areas are through the large fruit wholesale market in the local "agency" to carry the goods, before the products are sold to consumers, they often have to go through the layers of price increases at each node of the fruit supply chain, coupled with the loss of logistics, warehousing and other links, which virtually raises the cost of sales of products and hinders economic development.
▲ In Xinli Village, Dao County, Yongzhou, Hunan, fruit farmers are loading navel oranges. Photo/Visual China
Therefore, although the "thousand-mile horse" of oranges is good, it needs more Bole to discover. In recent years, with the improvement of basic logistics facilities and the development of the mobile Internet, the e-commerce channel has become a new "Bole", among which, the rise of Pinduoduo is the most obvious - only during the "Double Eleven" period, the official flagship store of Pinduoduo in Huaihua, Hunan Province, can sell more than 100 tons of rock sugar oranges in a week.
The fruits on Pinduoduo are not only fresh, but they are also very, very cheap. The reason for this is, first of all, the innovation of the production mode of agricultural products. Like most fruits, oranges are also "rustic" and only grow in specific areas, while Pinduoduo has established a supply chain from the place of origin, promoting agricultural products from the field to directly connect to the "last mile" consumer table.
▲ Pinduoduo Love Farming Project, farmers are carrying oranges down the mountain.
With the new farmers in the main agricultural production areas across the country as nodes, the new farmers (platform merchants) are mobilized to receive goods from the place of origin, that is, direct procurement from the source and direct delivery from the place of origin, and through market-oriented means, mature agricultural products are directly sold from the production area to the user's kitchen, which greatly shortens the supply chain of agricultural products and reduces the sales cost. Growers can increase their incomes locally, while consumers can buy high-quality fruit at affordable prices.
The second is to shape the agricultural products containing China's "local taste" into "star fruits". Pinduoduo started with agricultural products, which have a very high strategic position on the platform. At present, Pinduoduo's product information flow recommendation mode, as well as social sharing and purchase methods, can help consumers discover a lot of seasonal fruits in time.
▲ Pinduoduo Love Farming Project, farmers are harvesting Chu oranges from Ailao Mountain in Yunnan.
It can bring a lot of natural traffic to agricultural products, and help all kinds of agricultural products accurately find suitable potential consumers - among them, rock sugar oranges, navel oranges and Ehime oranges are the best among the "agricultural stars".
Since the beginning of this year, Pinduoduo's "10 billion subsidy" has also increased subsidies for rice bags and vegetable baskets. At present, rock sugar oranges, navel oranges, and Ehime oranges are all covered by tens of billions of subsidies, and the platform's assistance to high-quality agricultural products will continue to improve, and the taste of "small places" will be promoted to the kitchens of people across the country.
▲ Fruit farmers in Sanjiang Township, Ganzhou Economic Development Zone, Jiangxi Province, are preparing to box the picked navel oranges for listing. Photo/Visual China
The consumption of oranges and oranges in the mainland runs through a history of agricultural development. From Qu Yuan's "Ode to Oranges" to Liu Bowen's "Words of the Orange Seller", from the geographical environment of "oranges are oranges in Huainan and oranges" to the "most orange, yellow, orange and green" that is closely integrated with the season, agriculture is closely related to the lives of the people.