Highland red wolfberry, you don't know pain

Coordinate Golmud, in July, I took a friend's car and went with him to pick just ripe Lycium barbarum fruit in his hundred acres of Lycium barbarum field.

Planting plants in the plateau desert is a very difficult and arduous task. There are yellow sand and gravel everywhere, sandstorms are raging from time to time, and the weather is dry and rainy. Even plants such as willow and camel thorn are on the verge of extinction, and Lycium barbarum is benefited from the careful service of human beings, which makes its life vigorous and tenacious on this harsh plateau.

Along the way, the yellow sand is endless, the car bumps forward, and there are medlar in the sand sea. Unlike the lush crops in the mainland, Golmud's wolfberry is full of saline-alkali land. The Lycium barbarum tree is a little pale, with blue and white leaves, and only the branches covered with red lanterns, such as the trackers pulling boats, grow up with their heads held high.

I was so excited to see the red wolfberry on the ground that I immediately picked it in a small bucket. Ah, the small and hard Chinese wolfberry stung me off guard. I picked it and chatted with my friends who watered it in Abel Tamata. He told me which are fake Lycium barbarum trees and which are ripe sweet fruits, and how to distinguish them by fruits. Every year, when planting trees, some fake trees will be mixed in, and they will not be seen until the results are obtained, and then they will be marked and dug up one by one.

I saw a large group of people shivering in the field in the distance. My friend told me that they are migrant workers picking Chinese wolfberry. They came all the way to Qinghai to pick Lycium barbarum, live in tents, eat the same pot of rice, work under the strong ultraviolet rays of the plateau, and go back to work for two months, all of which are comparable to African blacks.

Looking at the vast wasteland, in addition to the blue sky and white clouds, the red wolfberry is the most gorgeous ornament between heaven and earth. Look at that red one. It's bent the branches and covered with leaves. I squatted in front of a Lycium barbarum tree and picked it to eat. The thin-skinned fruit broke in my mouth with fine dust. Red wolfberry is too sweet. To be honest, it bothers me. Some friends say this is the taste of plateau red wolfberry. Wind-blown sand, little rain, strong ultraviolet rays, large temperature difference and strong temperature confrontation produce high concentration of sugar, and Lycium barbarum can be sweeter than Golmud fruit anywhere.

The picking period of Lycium barbarum is very short, only about a week. Immediately after picking, send it to the drying room for drying. This is a very important process, which determines whether the Lycium barbarum we eat is harmful to our health. Dry red wolfberry will turn dark red. Generally, two methods are used: edible alkali rinsing and Yana powder rinsing. Because edible alkali is not as bright as Yana's dry color, many growers use Yana to extend the storage time and sales meeting of red wolfberry. The fruit looks good, but its taste and efficacy have changed. The taste is bitter and astringent, which is harmful to health.

Friends began to plant in the wasteland. They devoted great efforts and planted the first wolfberry in the desert. Lycium barbarum seedlings died, and lack of water led to full coverage drip irrigation. Others use ordinary chemical fertilizer, and he uses expensive organic fertilizer. I said he really kept the land as a treasure. He said that we should make products different from others to develop organic agriculture, otherwise, the land will be hardened and the product will have a poor reputation, and everything will be finished.

On the way back, many friends sent me WeChat asking about the price of Lycium barbarum, and I didn't know how to answer it at the moment. Golmud has tens of millions of Chinese wolfberry. Some people simply sell it as a commodity and don't eat it themselves. Some people try their best to give them to relatives and friends to taste fresh. Some people regard developing green food as their future career. Different values produce different products, and we can't set a unified price for different products. I can only tell my friends that I won't eat, and I will never send it to you, no matter what it is.