Peninsula all-media reporter Wang Yongduan
The gourd is not only loved by children, but also by adults in recent years.
When the harvest season arrives in early autumn, Mr. Liang, who is a doctor at a hospital in the island city, often takes his wife and children back to his hometown Guhe Street. Every time he goes back to his hometown, in addition to picking fruits, he will also pick gourds and bring them back to Qingdao to give to friends. Nowadays, like Mr. Liang, there are many people who pick gourds to send to relatives and friends in this autumn.
It is precisely because of this that some growers plant gourds in front of and behind their houses or take out special plots to plant, and the "gourd baby" turns into a "money gourd" to make the farmer happy and become one of the ways for villagers to increase their income.
Picking "gourd babies" in the garden
"In the past few years, my children liked it, and in the past two years, my wife and I have also liked gourds." Mr. Liang said.
On September 15, the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, Mr. Liang returned to his hometown from Qingdao with his wife and children. After arriving in his hometown, he took his children to a picking garden near Qujiazhuang in Guhe Street, which not only has grapes, dates and apples, but also nearly 100 gourds planted next to the vineyard. At this time, it is the season when the gourd is ripe.
"There are many varieties of gourds grown, and they are of different sizes." Mr. Ge, a farmer, told Peninsula All Media reporters, "The smallest is like a thumb, and the largest gourd is more than half a meter high. ”
After enjoying the sweetness of grapes and jujubes in the picking garden, Mr. Liang and his children locked their eyes on the ripe gourds hanging from the gourd vines next to him.
Facing the gourd in front of him, it is obviously the child who is the happiest. Mr. Liang's children looked up at the elf-like gourds above their heads under the gourd vines and began to choose.
"This is the eldest baby among the gourd brothers, that is the second baby, and the third and fourth babies......" After saying this, the children laughed at the tourists in front of them.
After selecting 4 gourd babies, Mr. Ge moved the ladder, and the child climbed the ladder and cut off the four gourd babies one by one with scissors. ”
Coming down the ladder, Mr. Ge hurriedly handed over a convenient bag, and the child put the four gourds into the convenience bag like treasures.
"Money gourd" is also popular with adults
It's not just children who like gourds.
Under the gourd vine, in addition to some children picking gourds, there are also some adults holding scissors to choose their favorite gourds under the vine.
Ms. Zhang, who also works in the city, stepped on a ladder and cut six large gourds in one go. Ms. Zhang said that she had also been to this gourd planting base in previous years. The year before last, she picked 3 gourds here and gave them to her colleagues, who were very happy.
"A gourd costs 30 yuan, and 6 are only 180 yuan, and they are very happy to send them to colleagues and friends." Ms. Zhang said that the gourd, with the homonym of "Fulu", friends like it, she picked the six, keep two for herself, and the other four are ready to be given to friends after the festival.
Mr. Ge told reporters that in the early years, he only planted grapes, but later he found that there was some open space on the edge of the grape field, so he planted gourds. Every autumn, when the gourd is ripe, it always attracts some people from the city to come and pick it.
"Last year, more than 200 were picked on site, and more than 300 were later picked and sold." Mr. Ge said, "Seventy or eighty gourds were sold for a total of more than 10,000 yuan. ”
While everyone was picking gourds in Mr. Ge's vineyard to give to relatives and friends, some villagers living in Houzhai Village, Aoshanwei Street, Jimo District, picked ripe gourds at home and dried them for sale.
Houzhai Village has a tradition of growing gourds. Every spring, the villagers here plant gourds in front of and behind the houses, and then build shelves or let them climb on the roof, and in the autumn the ripe gourds are picked and dried, some villagers sell them in the market or roadside, and some traders come into the village to buy.
Good condition, sixty or seventy yuan apiece
Unlike Mr. Ge from Laixi, when Mr. Ge used the idle land to make money, Ms. Li from Houzhai Village took out the thin mountain land where her family did not grow crops and planted gourds.
"In summer, snow-white gourds attract swarms of bees and butterflies." Ms. Li said, "In autumn, the gourds are ripe and hung on the shelves one by one, some large and some small, which are particularly beautiful." ”
While some gourd growers in Laixi and Jimo were busy picking gourds and drying them in the sun, some gourd growers and planting bases in Pingdu failed to harvest this year.
In previous years, dozens of gourd growers were concentrated in a town in Pingdu, but due to the excessive concentration of local rain this year, the gourd harvest planted by these gourd growers has decreased.
"In the summer, the rain was too heavy, and the gourds planted were blistered with water." A local grower said, "Because of the blisters, the gourd vines wilted." ”
The person in charge of a gourd planting cooperative in Qingdao told reporters that in previous years and this year, they sent some gourd seeds to growers' homes, commissioned planting, and then purchased them according to the quality and size of the gourd in autumn. However, due to excessive rains this year, some growers have planted less gourd harvests.
"Some families plant in the courtyard or in front of and behind the house, and the soil is well drained, and there will be a harvest." The person in charge said, "Compared with previous years, the amount of local gourds is less, but the market will increase prices, which has little impact on the income of gourd growers." ”