Watermelon in the summer food market, has a special important position, not only because of its beautiful flavor, popular, but also in the high temperature hot days, after eating cool thirst, diuretic heat dissipation, is a cool cool food to cool off the heat, very conducive to the human health of Futian. Since the founding of New China, the party and the government have been very concerned about the production and marketing of watermelons and have taken various measures to meet people's needs.
Watermelon is also known as water melon, summer melon, ancient name han melon. Egypt and China have been planted in ancient times: Tao Hongjing, a medical scientist in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, once said, "Yongjia has a melon that is very large", and in the fifth generation, Hu Zheng introduced seeds from Xinjiang to the interior for cultivation, and gradually spread throughout the country. Raw eaters are collectively called watermelons, and those who specialize in picking melon seeds are called seed melons, also known as melons.
Watermelon is an annual herbaceous plant in the genus Watermelon in the family Cucurbitaceae. Sowing is ordered by regional temperature differences: between the two Cantons and the spring equinox, The suzhou, Zhejiang and the suburbs of Shanghai are raining from Qingming to Guyu, and the north of the Yellow River is even later. Tendrils and leaves (vines also known as vines) grow on the vines, and the leaves have fur and pinnate notches, and both the main and side vines can bear fruit. The flowers are yellow, and the hermaphrodites are the same plant. A watermelon stalk can bloom more than 200 flowers, and female flowers account for 10 to 20%, but only 1 to 3 can bear melons. From the nursery to the opening of the female flowers and the melon, it takes about 60 days, and then after 30 to 40 days, the melon is ripe and can be picked. The ripening time, south early and north late, the earliest is Hainan Island, ripening at the end of April, the latest is Heilongjiang Province, until September, while most of China is more mature between July and August.
Origin and variety. China's watermelon production areas are widely distributed, Guangdong, Guizhou, Fujian, Zhejiang, Henan, Hebei, Shaanxi, Jin, Lu, Gansu, Xinjiang and other places can be transferred to other provinces, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai production is also quite a lot. In recent years, common varieties in the market are:
Zhongyu No. 1, with red plum as the mother and Xudong as the offspring of the father hybrid, is an early maturing variety that matures in the Jiangnan region in late June. The fruit is nearly round, and the single fruit weighs about six pounds. The melon skin is thin, the background color is light green, there are 16 emerald green broad stripes, the melon is peach red, and the milky white child. The meat is tender, juicy, sweet and clear, containing 11 to 13% soluble solids, and the quality is extremely high. It is a promising variety.
East China No. 24, Jiangnan region referred to as Jiefang melon, Guangdong called flower peel melon, medium ripe varieties. Guangzhou suburbs mature in early June, and Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang mature in early July. The fruit is nearly spherical, 5 to 7 pounds of single fruit, the melon skin is medium thick, the background color is yellow-green, there is a dark green stripe pattern, the color is big red, the melon seeds are small, light brown, the taste is sweet and juicy, containing soluble solids 9 to 11%, and the quality is superior. The production area is wider, and the products of Sanshan and Guoju in Zhenhai, Zhejiang Are the best and can be introduced. In recent years, some production areas in Jiangnan, such as the Shanghai area, have degenerated due to the impurity of melon seeds and similar varieties such as pumpkins, and the melon shape is not round, the skin is thick, and the sweetness is insufficient.
Honey Treasure (Taihei), a medium-ripe variety, matures in the Gangnam region at the end of early July. Melon shape nearly spherical, weighing 6 to 8 pounds, large up to more than 10 pounds; melon skin is thick and tough, resistant to crush collision, dark dark green color, occasionally dark ink stripes, melon dark red, dense flesh, sweet and juicy, containing soluble solids 9 to 11%, quality is superior; small seeds, light brown. It is mainly produced in Suzhou, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Sui. It is the main variety of supply market. There are many other varieties of watermelons, and I will not list them all.
In addition, there are black-skinned round melons, East China No. 26, seedless watermelons (triploid), Xinjiang watermelons, Gansu Lanzhou watermelons, Fujian Dingqing, Guangdong Xinqing, Beijing, Shandong black bungee tendons, northeast Xingcheng red and Indonesian watermelons in the south. As for the la muggles in Dezhou, Shandong, the three white melons produced in the north and south, and the traditional melons such as the Shanghai Sanlintang bangua have rarely been listed in recent years and need to be restored and developed.
Quality and inspection. The quality requires color, aroma, taste, shape and four beauty, mainly taste, juicy to be more and more concentrated, the taste to be sweet and not greasy, not sour; the meat should be fine and less fiber, the quality should be sticky and refreshing, slightly fragrant and umami, and the advantages of this variety should be. Whether it is mature or moderate is also the key to determining quality. There must also be no dead vines, no moisture, no acne spots (anthrax spots, etc.), no sunburn spots and inverted spots. As for the lack of maturity, it will inevitably affect the flavor and become a sub-melon; such as white seeds and white gourds, which are all raw melons, have no edible value, and should not enter the market.
Sold nearby. Eight ripe is appropriate, such as East China No. 24 melon eight ripe, should be melon color big red, no light red radial line in the middle, melon seeds are all light brown, only allowed to have a very small number of flowers at the junction of the skin, the middle part of the sand, food is not hard. Overcooked, hollow groove in the middle of the gourd, reduced moisture, reduced sweetness, soft flesh; over-raw melon has no sweetness, the meat is hard, the color is lighter, there are also dark and light phases, flowers
In the majority.
Inspection methods. Visually detect melon vines curled, from thick to thin; guati, melon navel deep concave, no fur. The melon is plump and flat and open at both ends. The skin is shiny; the melon belly (the side of the watermelon that lands when it grows in the field) is dark yellow. Most of these signs are good melons.
Listen, hold the melon in your hand, tap it with five fingers, and make a crisp sound of puffing or winter as a good melon, Dengden as a raw melon, and a simple melon as an overcooked melon or a thick-skinned melon. But this is not exactly the case, such as the tight skin melon makes a dengden sound, not a raw melon but a good melon.
Hold the melon with both hands against the ear, with two thumbs slightly the central part, feel the cortex hard, and you can hear the light crisp sound of rustling, it is a good melon; if you feel soft skin, you can't hear the sound is raw melon.
Hand contact, hand touch melon skin has a slight convex feeling of stripes; melon belly yellow has a rough feeling; with the hand to sweep the weight of the melon, feel floating, then for the good melon, such as the feeling of heaviness, hand clapping melon body has a dull sense of inelasticity is raw melon.
Bo, a teacher with many years of experience in selling melons, summarized the symptoms of mature watermelons into the following four key points in an anthropomorphic manner:
The braids are bent thick to thin, the shoulders are open and the waist is fat; the surface is yellow, and the tendons are clear and the umbilical eyes are deep.
There is also the water floating method, which is to float one-third of the watermelon on the surface of the water as a mature melon.
There are also trial x-rays to determine maturity.
Therapeutic and therapeutic diet. Folk in our country, watermelon is used as an auxiliary medicine, and all fevers are suitable for eating. Common ones such as:
Heat stroke dizziness, weakness and weakness of the whole body, thirst and nausea: watermelon juice 500 ~ 1000 ml, divided into two drinks.
Short, yellowish urine, painful urethra: 500 to 1000 grams of watermelon, eat two to three times a day.
Dry mouth and thirst, hot stomach, bitter mouth, bad breath: watermelon 500 ~ 1000 grams, once or twice a day.
Melon seeds and melon peels can be used in medicine after drying. Watermelon sauce made from melon peel as the main ingredient is also sold well in tropical areas abroad.
conscience
July 19, 2021