Guangxi Shatian grapefruit is native to Rong County, Guangxi, Shatian grapefruit was originally named "sheep forehead seed", during the Qing Dynasty, There was a Xia Jigang who was an official in Shatian Village, Rong County, brought back two "sheep forehead seed" seedlings, planted on the fertile soil by the pond, and instructed his family to take good care of it. In order to change the quality of the fruit, the "sheep's forehead seed" was originally sour and astringent, and after painstaking cultivation, it was finally cultivated into a crisp, tender, sweet, honey-flavored fruit. Later, when the emperor went out on a tour to the place where Xia Jigang was an official, Xia Jigang offered this fruit to the emperor, and after the emperor ate it, he couldn't help but praise it: "Delicious, delicious!" He summoned Xia Jigang and asked if it was He Jiaguo. Xia Jigang replied: It is called "sheep's forehead seed." The emperor said, "The name of this fruit is not good, so it should be given another name." A minister said at the side: Xia Guan's family is in Sha Tin, thousands of miles away, and sends good fruit to the emperor by mail, according to the foolish opinion of the minister, "post" is homophonous from ", and therefore the fruit is born of trees, and it is appropriate to use the word "grapefruit" next to the wooden word, called "Sha Tin grapefruit". When the emperor listened, Long Yan was overjoyed and casually praised: "Sha Tin grapefruit, Sha Tin grapefruit, good, good!" Therefore, the Qianlong Emperor gave the name of "sheep's forehead seed" "Shatian grapefruit" and became a precious fruit of the tribute court, which became famous all over the world.
Rong County Sha Tin grapefruit
Sha Tin teak tree has a tall trunk, up to four to five meters tall, and has lush branches and oval leaves, and blooms small white flowers in spring with a fragrant fragrance. Spring is a key time period for Sha Tin grapefruit, one is to complete artificial cross-pollination in this season, and artificial cross-pollination is to be used in the local sour grapefruit tree species of flowers, and the flowering period is short, and the workload is large; second, this time period is the spring rain invariably season, gentle drizzle, a few days, the drizzle will just be taught pollen to pieces, the ground is in disarray, then the previous people's work will be in vain, and this year's harvest of Sha Tin grapefruit will be greatly reduced.
In summer, it is the growth period of Sha Tin grapefruit. During this period of time, people's workload is relatively small, but it also requires people to take good care, properly water, apply farm manure, shape and prune, etc. In the autumn, the fruit slowly ripens, and the color of the fruit gradually changes from green to yellow and golden yellow, with frost falling as the time point, marking the full ripening of Sha Tin grapefruit. Ripe Sha tin grapefruit, the skin is yellow, from the appearance, it is pear-shaped or gourd-shaped, the upper end is a short neck, the lower end is large and round, the bottom of the fruit often has a bronze coin large ring-shaped seal, commonly known as the "money bottom"; the skin of the Sha Tin grapefruit is very thick, it is difficult to break, even if it is broken, the skin will be fragmented, and make their hands particularly uncomfortable, and the local people are with the help of a knife to peel, first on the skin from the top to the bottom of the carved four marks, and then put the bottom on, peel off the skin in four directions, you can take out the grapefruit. Grapefruit meat generally has 12 pieces of petals, shaped like an eyebrow moon, thick and uniform, its flesh is shrimp-colored, the juice is crisp and tender, and the honey taste is sweet. Due to the thick skin, the moisture of Shatian grapefruit is not easy to volatilize, so it is extremely resistant to storage, but also easy to carry for a long time, can save the grapefruit meat for a long time without deterioration, the fruit can be stored for 150-180 days, the taste is particularly good after storage, and it is known as "fruit treasures" and "natural canned food".
Fruit groves
The characteristic attributes of this fruit make it one of the traditional export fruits of Guangxi, one of the most famous fruits in Guangxi, as early as the 30s, it was exported to Hong Kong, Nanyang, Europe and the Americas, and has a strong competitiveness in the international market. In 1953, after Premier Zhou Enlai sent Shatian grapefruit to leipzig for exhibition, it won high praise from international friends, regarded as a rare fruit of China, and was well-known at home and abroad.
Sha Tin grapefruit is so sought after not only because of its sweet and delicious flesh and crisp juice, but also because of its nutritional value. Grapefruit has a high nutritional value, rich in protein, sugars, organic acids, vitaminS A, B1, B2, C and calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium and other nutrients, of which, per 100 grams of grapefruit meat contains vitamin C 57 mg, 10 times higher than pears, containing 519 mg of calcium, greatly more than other fruits. Chinese medicine believes that grapefruit meat is sweet and acidic, cold and non-toxic, and has the effects of rationalization, lung and intestine, blood and spleen. Fresh grapefruit meat contains similar insulin components, has hypoglycemic effect, is very beneficial to diabetes, cardiovascular disease patients, can cure less food, light mouth, dyspepsia and other symptoms, often eat to help digestion, remove phlegm and quench thirst, rational qi dissipation effect. In addition, grapefruit also has the effect of strengthening the stomach and spleen, moisturizing the lungs, replenishing blood, clearing the intestines and facilitating the stool, which can promote wound healing and has a good effect on leukemia. Modern medicine has also found that grapefruit has the effect of preventing cerebral thrombosis, anti-cancer, weight loss, etc., and is most suitable for middle-aged and elderly people to eat. Grapefruit contains physiologically active substances such as peel glycosides and hesperidins, which can reduce the viscosity of blood circulation and reduce the formation of blood clots. If the elderly have cerebrovascular diseases, eating grapefruit often helps prevent the occurrence of stroke. Grapefruit contains a lot of vitamin C and calcium, which helps prevent the occurrence of bowel and stomach cancers.
In fact, Sha Tin grapefruit is a "treasure" all over the body, in addition to the nutritional value of the above flesh, its peel is also very useful, and even become a delicacy on people's tables, the above mentioned do not use your hands to break the peel to avoid the reason for the peel to break is also here. In general, the peel of the fruit can not play any role, the peel of the peel has to be thrown away, and the peel of the Sha Tin grapefruit is different, it can also become a delicious dish, let the jun taste.
Stuffed with grapefruit peel
This dish is known locally as "yuzu stuffing" and its practice goes like this:
The first step, peel the grapefruit, after peeling the skin, divide the skin into four pieces equally, first use a knife to cut off the yellow part of the surface layer of each small piece of grapefruit skin, and then divide each small piece of skin into three to four small pieces, and finally draw a knife in the middle of each small piece of skin, forming a slit, so that the knife passes through the middle of the skin, with appropriate strength, do not completely wear the bottom, and finally resemble a clothing pocket;
The second step, because the skin of Sha Tin grapefruit is rich in essential oils, with astringency, on the basis of the first step, you need to put the skin in a basin with boiling water for a minute, and add the appropriate salt, squeeze and rub it with your hands after the time comes, squeeze and squeeze the astringency inside, and then repeat it four to five times with cool water, basically squeezing out the astringency.
The third step is to make the filling. Locals basically chop pork belly, leeks, coriander, perilla, shrimp and other ingredients to organically blend together until the various flavors penetrate into each other. Of course, you can also make the filling according to your own taste. After making the filling, the filling is stuffed into the seam of each small piece of grapefruit skin, so that the original dry skin is full of swelling.
Step 4: Steam. Add spices and cook for 10 to 15 minutes according to your taste. After cooking, a dish overflowing with fragrance will be presented in front of your eyes, you can't see that this is a dish made of peel, nutrition is also very matched, meat and vegetarian combination, bite off, soft and not rotten, sweet and not greasy, fresh filling and juicy grapefruit skin chewed in the mouth, what a "hungry" word!
In addition, the grapefruit peel can also be used as fuel, and the dried grapefruit peel is very easy to burn. Grapefruit can also be used as a deodorant in the refrigerator, the peeled grapefruit peel is placed in the corner of the refrigerator, and the fragrance of the grapefruit peel can effectively eliminate the odor in the refrigerator. In recent years, due to the demand of the market, a series of foods such as grapefruit skin candy and honey grapefruit tea have also been listed one after another, becoming new foods in the streets and alleys and becoming popular.