History of Winter Vegetables

Tianjin winter cuisine began in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, and originated in the south of Jinghai County, Tianjin, on both sides of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. It is a traditional export food in China, and is known as one of the four largest pickles in China. Great Wall brand winter dishes are golden in color, rich in fragrance and delicious, and have a long-standing reputation at home and abroad. According to legend, during the reign of Qing Qianlong, the "Yifeng Garden" sauce garden in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, used cabbage with salt, mixed with sugar and garlic, and made it into "assorted side dishes" for sale, which was the first "vegetarian and winter dishes". Later, zhi gu's "Guang Mao House" sauce garden was transformed into "spiced winter vegetables", which were sold exclusively in Taiwan Province Province and Hongkong. Since then, Dongquanju, Dongluju Sauce Garden and Dazhigu Hotel in Zhigu have also started to produce winter vegetables. 1920, Zhigu Yijuyong Hotel bought cabbage in Ji Zhuangzi, Jinghai County, and set up a field to cut vegetables, which spread the technology of making winter vegetables from Tianjin to Jinghai County. 1923, Zhuangzi Guangchangde Sauce Garden also opened a winter vegetable workshop named "Mountain Spring", and made a sign of "People" for winter vegetables, with the words "Mountain Spring always makes 3,000" on the label.

"Yi Juyong" set up vegetable fields in Jinghai County because Jinghai County has the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal running through the whole territory; Canal water moistens the vegetable fields on both sides of the river, and the cabbage produced is "small walnut-patterned green hemp leaves", which is the highest among all kinds of Chinese cabbage. Every year when beginning of winter cuts vegetables, "Yi Juyong" will send people to Jinghai to pick vegetables, send them to the nearest workshop for processing and brewing, and then transport them to Tianjin for sale. After the rise of "mountain spring" in Jinghai County, the business was booming, and the packaging was first changed from oil basket to porcelain jar. Since 1930s, Tianjin's winter vegetables, represented by mountain spring and residential use, have been exported in large quantities. At that time, the annual sales volume reached more than 300,000 packages, which was about 1.800 tons. Besides Hongkong and Taiwan Province, Tianjin winter vegetables are also exported to Indonesian, Singaporean, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Thai and other Southeast Asian countries. In addition to the large number of local Chinese, it is also very popular in Southeast Asia because there are many islands and the climate is humid. Winter dishes are soaked in garlic, which has the functions of dehumidification, decontamination and detoxification. 1937 After the Japanese army occupied Jinghai in September, the sales of winter vegetables dropped sharply, and the production of winter vegetables was seriously damaged.