Riding the wind of rebirth

The sandworm is a rare edible and medicinal insect that is well-known to everyone in the Panliang area. It is actually the larvae of the "Broad-ptera, Chrysopidae" insect. It looks extremely ugly, a bit like a centipede, but only half the length of a centipede.

It is said that this worm is effective in treating nocturia in children and frequent urination in the elderly in the Panliang area, as well as in replenishing the kidney and qi. It has different nicknames in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan and Guangxi, but in this area it is called the sandworm, known as the "Anning River Local Ginseng" or "Insect Ginseng". It has always been sold at a very high price, sold by the piece, and now one piece costs several yuan.

Later, after meeting people from Japan and South Korea, Zhou Zhi realized that this thing also exists there, especially in the island countries, where they call this worm "Suntaro worm". They believe that it is very effective in treating "infantile malnutrition" and it is sold in many Chinese medicine stores at a higher price.

Hearing this, Zhou Zhi couldn't help but laugh and said, "No, I was talking about mushrooms, as well as fruits and flowers."

"As for fruits... the Huili pomegranates in our province are really good, with soft seeds. There are also Leibo navel oranges, Yanyuan apples, and Puge cherries, all of which are very high-quality fruits."

The climate in this area is quite special, with long sunshine hours. There are nearly 300 sunny days a year, and the temperature difference between day and night is quite large, but the temperature difference between the four seasons is not too large. Therefore, the sugar content of fruits is higher than that outside the region, comparable to Hetao and Northern Xinjiang.

The only problem is that they can't be shipped out. The leaders of the autonomous prefecture must have been troubled by this problem for a long time. Li Yutang continued, "Among these fruits, pomegranates, navel oranges and apples have a longer shelf life. Now that we have wax spraying preservation technology, the shelf life is even longer. We are organizing rail and road transportation."

"As for cherries, there's nothing we can do about it. Their shelf life is too short, so we can only consume them locally."

"But even if it's cherries, there's no need to use air transport, right?"

"As for mushrooms, the most expensive one here is the chicken mushroom, which can be sold for eight yuan per kilogram. The shelf life of this thing is indeed very short, but this problem can be solved by processing it into canned chicken mushroom oil."

Zhou Zhi was also very inspired. It seemed that local officials had really put a lot of thought into local economic development.

"Brother Li, there are two kinds of mushrooms in the autonomous prefecture. They are very expensive overseas. I wonder if you have heard of them."

"Is there anything more expensive than chicken mushroom?" Li Yutang thought hard but had no impression.

"Matsutake and truffles." Zhou Zhi said, "Black truffles to be exact."

"I know about Matsutake, but it's cheaper than Chicken Mushroom. It's about the same price as Porcini, five or six yuan."

Five or six yuan is not cheap anymore. This is the price of a pound of meat now. But Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "I have been to Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong Island. In those countries and regions, the prices of matsutake and truffles are very expensive."

"Zhou Zhi, you've been to so many places?" Wu Renzhong was quite surprised: "We don't think we've heard of the truffles you mentioned, but we know about matsutake mushrooms. How much do they sell for outside?"

"I really don't know the whole story." Zhou Zhi smiled bitterly and said, "In restaurants in the island country, matsutake mushrooms are sold by the slice. One slice costs about five or six yuan."

“One piece?!” Wu Renzhong was stunned. “Then we are not poor. We sell by the pound. How much do we eat in a year…”

"Renzhong, don't talk, we are talking about business!" Li Yutang frowned and stopped Wu Renzhong from making jokes, and asked Zhou Zhi: "Zhou Zhi, is this information true? Even if there is a price difference between retail and wholesale, the price of matsutake in this island country is too different from the price here. Are you sure it is the same variety?" "There is no difference in shape and taste." Zhou Zhi said: "But they have very high requirements for quality, especially freshness."

"How long can Matsutake mushrooms stay fresh?" Li Yutang, who was probably not in charge of the household, turned around and asked Liu Mei'e.

"Two or three days is fine, right?" Liu Mei'e said, "If you put it in the refrigerator, it shouldn't go bad in three to five days. If you're not sure, ask Old Sun from the Agricultural Science Institute, he'll definitely know."

  A pound of matsutake can be cut into hundreds of slices. If what Elbow said is true, then matsutake can be sold for hundreds or even thousands of yuan per pound in the island country? Even if there is a double premium from the wholesale market to the diners, the wholesale price will not be less than one or two hundred yuan!

With such a high profit margin, it would be well worth it even if the air freight costs were taken into account.

"We don't have the habit of consuming truffles here." Zhou Zhi saw that Li Yutang was already interested, and continued to introduce: "Because this kind of mushroom is a truffle, it only grows underground, and the smell is very unpleasant to us, but foreigners like it very much, and the price is more expensive than Matsutake."

"If you say truffle, you may not know it, but if you say 'motherless fruit' or 'pig arch mushroom', you may have an impression of it, right?"

"Oh, is it that thing?!" Shama Ricong's nose wrinkled when he heard it: "Can that thing be eaten?!"

"We think it's not tasty, but foreigners think it's precious." Zhou Zhi said, "There is a special profession abroad called 'truffle hunters'. These people have a treasure map passed down from generation to generation in their families, which records the location, time and size of truffles their parents found. They go to collect them from November to March every year."

"The harvesting method is also very interesting because truffles have a smell very similar to the male hormones in boars, so sows have a special preference for them."

"Pigs have a very keen sense of smell. They can smell truffles 30 to 40 centimeters underground from a distance of six meters." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "But sows are also very greedy for truffles, so hunters have to be very careful. If they are not stopped in time, the sows will frantically dig them out and eat them when they find the truffles. That's why we call this thing pig digging fungus here."

"If this is true, it's too weird." Shama Ricong couldn't stop laughing. He felt that it was unimaginable that foreigners would specially raise pigs to look for mushrooms just for this "pigs digging for mushrooms" thing.

"We don't really know what you're talking about." Li Yutang couldn't help but smile: "But if it's true, it's worth it to use air cargo."

"But then again, even if these can be accomplished, the scale is bound to be small. Zhou Zhi, let's talk about fruits and flowers."

"Just now Brother Li said that our Puge cherries have a short shelf life, so they can only be consumed locally." Zhou Zhi said, "But I know there is another kind of cherry that is at least three to five times bigger than local cherries and has a much longer shelf life than local cherries. It can be transported by cold chain aviation and delivered to the capital, Hong Kong Island, Japan and other places."

"This cherry is a hybrid of European sweet cherry and sour cherry. The annual production in the United States can now reach 200,000 to 300,000 tons. my country also introduced it to Yantai for cultivation a few years ago.

"I think the places in our autonomous prefecture that are suitable for growing local cherries must also be suitable for growing such cherries. Moreover, the local cherries in our autonomous prefecture are of much higher quality than those from other places. The quality of these big cherries must also be much higher than that of other places."

"This kind of cherry is called cherry in Europe, Duke cherry in the US, and Shandong cherry in Shandong." Zhou Zhi said: "If we grow it, we should give it a unique name to distinguish it from other cherries of ordinary quality."

"How about just transliterate it and call it 'Cherry'?" (End of this chapter)