Sugar osmanthus flowers in Li Ao Village, Longguan Township Some villagers can sell for 2,000 yuan a season

Hong Sudi (left) making sugar osmanthus flowers. Photo by reporter Liu Bo

Due to the weather, this year's osmanthus bloomed a month later than in previous years. Yesterday, the reporter came to Longguan Township, Haishu District, which is known as the "Hometown of Chinese Osmanthus Flowers", and walked into the Osmanthus Tourist Park in Li Ao Village, where the osmanthus blossoms are in full bloom. However, the villagers said that in a week at most, the osmanthus flowers will be thanked. In other words, for citizens who want to appreciate osmanthus flowers, this weekend should be the last chance of this year.

Longguan has four major osmanthus varieties: golden laurel, silver laurel, dangui and four seasons of gui. The tourist park in Li Ao Village is the largest base for viewing gui in Ningbo, planting more than 1,000 acres of osmanthus trees. On the ground of the tourist park, there are golden or silver osmanthus flowers, paving a flower road. The reporter noticed that many of the flowers of the golden laurel have been very few, and the flowers of the silver laurel are still bright.

"This is because the flowers of the golden gui can bring some income to the villagers." The relevant person in charge of Li Ao Village said. On the bridge from Li Ao Village to the Osmanthus Tourist Park, Hong Sudi, a 67-year-old villager, sells fresh osmanthus and sugar osmanthus flowers. Whenever tourists come over, they will stop in front of her stall to watch, and many tourists will bring back a few bottles of sugar osmanthus flowers.

Seeing the arrival of the reporter, Hong Sudi warmly invited the reporter to her home, and she wanted to show the production process of sugar osmanthus flowers.

The first step is naturally to "beat the osmanthus flower". Hong Sudi brought a piece of plastic sheet and a bamboo pole and came to a golden laurel tree in her house. After laying the plastic sheet, she used a bamboo pole to beat the osmanthus flowers. This process also attracts many tourists to stop and watch.

After collecting these osmanthus flowers, Hong Sudi also had to pick out the leaves, branches, blackened flowers and various impurities. Put the picked osmanthus flowers in a pot, then put a little salt into it, press hard, squeeze out the water, and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

Then, Hong Sudi poured the osmanthus flowers in the pot into a brown cloth bag. "I started using this cloth bag 6 years ago, and it was originally white." While introducing, Hong Sudi twisted the osmanthus flowers in the cloth bag hard to squeeze out the water that had turned yellow. Then put the osmanthus flowers in the pot, sprinkle the appropriate amount of sugar, stir evenly by hand, and you can bottle.

"In the past, when we made sugar osmanthus flowers, we also needed to use the program of 'steaming'. A few years ago, experts at a well-known snack bar in Ningbo taught us that we can also do this canola. Hong Sudi said that every year, she can sell about 2,000 yuan of sugar osmanthus in the two-week osmanthus flowering period.

The nutritional value of sugar osmanthus is very high, because there are osmanthus flowers, so it has the effect of coughing, relieving asthma and removing bad breath, and is a food suitable for all ages. In Ningbo, many citizens also like to use sugar osmanthus flowers to fry rice cakes, sweet and unique flavor.

In addition to sugar osmanthus and osmanthus tea, Li Ao Village and even Longguan Township have also developed osmanthus products such as osmanthus wine, osmanthus soap, osmanthus essential oil, and osmanthus candles. Interested residents can also come here to try a new taste.

Reporter Lin Wei Correspondent Li Yuan