Image source: Image China Draft: Zhang Danfeng
In March, walking on the mountain road in the countryside of Meizhou, a breeze blows through, and a strong fragrance comes to the nose. This is not the fragrance of roadside peach blossoms, nor the fragrance of field rape flowers. This is the fragrance emitted by the grapefruit flowers that have been nurtured for a year, and are stimulated by the warm spring breeze. The fragrance of the grapefruit flowers has long been spread towards the wilderness and rising towards the sky.
White and elegant grapefruit flowers, warm pulse, shy answer. Such a petite grapefruit flower, I don't know, where does it hide the strongest and most lush fragrance?
At this moment, in Meizhou, casually walk into a teak garden, full of dark green, let people feel as if they are in a green ocean. The grapefruit flowers on the tree, hidden between the leaves, are clustered in bunches, and the makeup is pure and light. In the event of a breeze, the grapefruit flowers gently sway, decorating this splendid spring with extra prosperity.
Standing under the tree, the sweet fragrance of a tree of grapefruit flowers slowly invades the skin and merges with you.
Meizhou has many mountains and few fields, and is known as eight mountains, one water and one field. In the 1980s and 1990s, planting teak trees became the first choice of farmers, in front of the house, behind the house, on the side of the ditch, on the hillside... Teak trees are planted in every household. Professional households have opened up mountains and reclaimed land, opened up teak gardens, and even had a grapefruit village and a golden grapefruit town mainly planted with golden grapefruit. Meizhou grapefruit fruit is large, smooth peel, sweet flesh, rich in nutrients, has high medicinal value, is an ideal food for patients with cerebrovascular diseases and diabetes.
My neighbors, the Ah Chao Apping brothers and the Xia sister Chunhua Concubine, planted teak trees in the mountains, and golden grapefruit became one of their main incomes. The teak trees start to bloom, March is our time to enjoy the flowers, and for them, it is the beginning of the farming, busy with flowers, busy pollination. Picking off some of the grapefruit flowers that are too densely squeezed and squeezed, this flower thinning link is to "sterilize" the teak trees so that the fruits are fuller and fuller. The grapefruit flowers of each tree are sorted out to the most reasonable state, and then pollinated. From some of the sour grapefruit flowers picked from the previous morning or the same morning, take one and click on each blooming grapefruit flower stigma to complete the creative process of conceiving the female flower. Pollinated grapefruit flowers are more likely to attract buzzing and flying bees. These clever elves, sucking on this flower, and then staying in that flower for a while, pollination will naturally be balanced, the fertility rate of grapefruit flowers will be significantly improved, and the magical charm of nature is really everywhere.
Flower thinning and pollination are just the beginning, and the next weeding, fertilization, shoot control, pest control, wrapping, fruit picking, and branching are not labor-saving tasks. All year round, the figures of the Ah Chao Ah Ping brothers and Xia Sister Chunhua Concubines are shuttled under the teak tree, and they are also like a group of industrious little bees, trying to cultivate their own happy life. During the autumn harvest, the piles of golden grapefruit are their hopes, their joys. They rely on it to raise their children, and let them go to primary school in the town, middle school in the city, and university in the provincial city. They rely on it to serve the elderly and let the elderly live in peace. They also rely on it to satisfy themselves and live and work in peace.
The scent of grapefruit flowers is intoxicating. Meizhou's grapefruit flowers have become a reserved program for people's spring excursions. Generally speaking, in March, people in the city will go out of their homes, or threes and twos, or in groups, walking in the mountains, watching the light wind and dancing, and enjoying the blossoming of hundreds of flowers. Although the flowering period is not long, the grapefruit flower from the blossom to the flower, but it can always make people indulge in the blooming spring light, making people feel light as clouds and linger.
Historically, there have been too many literati and inkers who write about flowers, plum blossoms, peach blossoms, peonies... People use the most beautiful language to compare them and praise them. But it is rare to see a psalm about grapefruit. Is it because it has no plum blossom elegance, no peach blossom, no peony yan? Maybe, maybe not. I prefer to believe that the literati and inkers did not find the elegance of the grapefruit flowers, did not smell the sweet fragrance of the grapefruit flowers, so there are fewer beautiful poems describing the grapefruit flowers...
People's Daily ( 2020-04-04 08 edition)