The Qi family’s toon dream

? Qijia Village is a pocket village hidden deep in the mountains of South Taihang, at the intersection of Anyang, Hebi and Linzhou. There are neither mineral deposits nor enterprises in the village. There are more than 30 households and more than 50 people living in the village. They guard more than 200 acres of mountainous land. Relying on more than 200 acres of mountainous land, they vigorously develop toona cultivation and make toona buds. Big industries and big brands have achieved the goal of the whole village getting rid of poverty and becoming prosperous, and have taken an impressive step on the new journey of rural revitalization.

? 1

? Qijia Village is backed by Nanshan Mountain and faces a deep stream in front. It is located halfway up the mountain. A cement road that can only accommodate bicycles is the only link to the outside world. Along the village road, which goes up and down, with twists and turns, you can see small farmland scattered in the bottomless ravines, some are two or three steps square, and some are more than ten steps in a circle. But every piece is laid neatly. There are pear, peach, apricot and other fruit trees growing on the hillside. The most numerous are Chinese toon trees, which are as tall as a handful of meters and as thick as a thumb, and as tall as two or three people can surround them. They stand upright in the crevices of rocks, on rocky banks, and on hillside. In the field, there are trees next to each other, densely packed and full of vitality.

On the way to Qijia Village, I saw a wooden sign with an eye-catching advertisement: "Qijia Toon, a tribute from the Ming Dynasty." I thought it was interesting and asked the villagers if this was really the case.

? It is said that in the Ming Dynasty, Qijia toon was presented to the emperor as a tribute. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River to visit his mentor Yuan Xun in Nangou Village. After tasting Qijia Toon, he praised the color, aroma and taste of Qijia Toon. He once again named Qijia Toon as the best in the mountains and enshrined it in the court. From then on, Qijia toon entered the royal dining room of the palace and became a delicacy in the palace.

? Toon is the golden rice bowl of Qijia Village, but for a long time, there has been no food to eat from the golden rice bowl. How to expand the toon industry, revitalize the rural economy, and make the villagers' pockets richer as soon as possible? After several inspections and a lot of thought, the Qi family finally chose a toon culture promotion model of "tourism, picking, tasting, and sales". , gourmets, tourists and photography enthusiasts came here in droves, and Qijia Toon became famous all over the world.

? 2

? Toona trees are not uncommon in the Taihang Mountains, and they are not a rare plant. Toona buds, as a kind of tree vegetable, are also very popular. They can be picked and eaten fresh, blanched and pickled into pickles, frozen and stored for year-round consumption. In the past, during the famine years, people in the mountains often ate it to satisfy their hunger. But Qijia Toon, as a tribute to the emperor in the feudal era, is now sought after by people of different levels. It is incredible. What is the secret?

? Qijia Village was built in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, it was either to avoid war or to beg for food. Perhaps they lived here in seclusion for more than a thousand years because of the fragrance of toon. Nowadays, the village still has well-preserved Qing Dynasty architectural courtyards, stone tables, stone benches, and stone streets. The houses are located on the mountain, scattered high and low, antique, elegant and unique.

? In 2019, Qijia Village was approved as a folk village, and the ancient residential buildings were restored, recreating the original life of the farming era such as stone-walled thatched cottages, dry well fences, stone mills, spinning wheels and looms. state. There are also modern cultural squares, Internet celebrity bridges, farmhouses and other places. The folk village attracts many tourists to come for leisure sightseeing and enjoy the peaceful pastoral scenery. A special snack, scrambled eggs with Chinese toon sprouts, stimulates the taste buds of tourists and makes them linger. Tourism has stimulated the rapid development of the village's economy. Authentic and original agricultural products such as millet, sweet potatoes, and soybeans, which were previously ignored, are loved by urbanites.

? My personal guess is that the unique geographical environment has formed the closed microclimate of Qijia, which breeds toon that germinates early and tastes fragrant. The Qijia family was originally located on a shady slope in the south of the mountain. The hillsides and fields had short sunshine hours. According to common sense, the Chinese toon trees should sprout later than those outside the mountain. However, the crisscrossing and irregularly arranged mountains blocked the northeast wind in winter and the strong wind in spring. The incoming warm air flow is reacted by the reaction force of other mountains and enters Qijia's mountains and ridges. The warm air is blocked by the mountains and mountains, and stays there for a long time, causing the temperature to rise in some areas. Local farmers call it "Return Wind Bay". Therefore, Qijia toona germinates about two weeks earlier than the toona outside the mountain.

? The black soil layer in the soil of Qijia Village is thick, and the high-quality humus has become a natural fertilizer for the toona tree, which promotes the development of the toona tree's root system, luxuriant branches, rich flavor, and rich nutrients. Known as "ginseng on the tree".

Some people have done experiments and transplanted Qijia’s toona trees to other places. The germination time and taste of the toona trees will be very different from those of Qijia’s native toona trees. I think this is the same reason as "oranges born in Huainan are oranges, and those born in Huaibei are oranges."

Three

? In early spring in February, a week before the Qingming Festival, the peach blossoms are scorching and the magnolias are dancing. The toon buds outside the mountain are still tightly wrapped, with no signs of splitting or budding. However, the buds on the toon tree in Qijia Village have sprouted, and are 15 to 20 centimeters long. There is an endless stream of people coming to watch and buy, which once blocked the traffic.

? Clusters of young buds, shiny and oily, stand on the treetops and dance in the wind. Under the sunlight, the brown-red toon buds shine with little golden light and exude a faint fragrance, much like The bow on the little girl's head beautifully dressed up the toon tree, which had been depressed all winter. The big and small trees released all the energy accumulated over the winter and grew vigorously to show off the beauty of spring. come out.

An uncle on the hillside was busy peeling Chinese toon. While peeling, he skillfully tied them into bundles and placed them neatly. We stepped forward and chatted with the uncle: "Uncle, how are the toona growing this year?" The uncle smiled and said, "It's growing well, but this tree is not like a crop and easy to take care of." We asked: "Does this tree also need chemical fertilizers?" The uncle said He glanced at us and said: "No, just use farmyard manure. The sprouts grown with chemical fertilizers will not taste good." We asked with concern: "Can so many toona be sold out?" the uncle said cheerfully. : "No problem, we all make reservations now, and demand exceeds supply." I don't know who said jokingly: "Uncle, we don't have a reservation, can you give us some to try?" Without thinking, the uncle quickly grabbed the toon on the ground and offered us two for each person. 梱, let us have a try, we hurriedly said: "I'm kidding you." We bought the toon from the uncle, but the uncle pushed and pushed us and gave us a 桱 each.

? What a warm, kind and honest person, I will come back to him next year to buy toon.

? On the side of the road, there was a simple sister-in-law looking at the passing vehicles. Next to her were fresh and tender toona buds that had been peeled. Her slightly tired face showed uncontrollable excitement. . She is waiting for the scheduled client. We asked her how much she earned from selling toon in a year. She shyly said that her family divided the fields and hillsides between four people, and she could earn more than 40,000 yuan from selling toon every year. Seeing that we had already bought the toon, she wanted to give it to each of us. We tasted the two pounds and agreed to advertise for our Qijia. We asked suspiciously, your two-pound bundle is not short of a pound, right? She took out a bundle on the spot and put it on the scale to show us, it was a full two and a half pounds. We blushed and thought it was too childish to ask such a question. .

Four

? We were fortunate enough to meet the Party Secretary Qi Aimin in the village. Party Secretary Qi is young and promising, with high ambitions. Talking about Qijie toon, he said with emotion that in the 1980s and 1990s, due to insufficient publicity and lack of awareness, the toon cost one yuan per catty, and the villagers had to take buses to Hebi, Anyang, and Linzhou. The village committee advocates that the villagers leave their fields to raise toon trees and sell toon sprouts to get rich. The villagers say that toon can only be eaten as a vegetable and cannot fill the stomach. If you can get rich by growing toon, it is just a dream. Therefore, we only limited ourselves to planting in the fields, in front of and behind our houses, and on the tops of hills and slopes, as long as it was enough for our own enjoyment. We were satisfied with selling whatever was left for pocket money.

? Party Secretary Qi continued to say that after two thousand years, the villagers' ideas have changed greatly. The villagers began to realize that relying on the land to grow food can only solve the problem of food and clothing, but cannot make them rich. They rely on the mountains to eat, tap local resources, make great efforts from toon buds, and implement intercropping of crops and toon trees. The villagers took out the fertile soil in the village to plant toon trees. After peeling the toon trees every year, they sawed off the roots of the trees and planted them with food crops. Plant crops and toon. Because the buds on the young trees are peeled every year, they taste delicious. In recent years, the toon market has been booming and has risen to 20-30 yuan per pound. The village's annual output value is at least more than 1 million yuan, and the per capita toon single income is more than 10,000 yuan.

? Talking about future development, Secretary Qi is full of confidence. The next step is to establish a toon cooperative, build cold storage, greenhouses, implement online sales, extend the industrial chain, deep process toon, etc., to help farmers go ** *The same road to prosperity,

? In the cultural square in the village, I saw an eye-catching title: Lucid waters and lush mountains are mountains of gold and silver. Qijia Village adjusts its industrial structure and takes the road of characteristic agriculture. It relies on green waters and green mountains and uses toon as a platform to strengthen and expand the toon economy, toon tourism, and toon culture, so that farmers can benefit from the tide of rural revitalization.

? Spring is the season when flowers bloom, and spring is the season when dreams are released. The toon dream of the whole family flies farther and farther in the colorful spring, getting bigger and stronger.