Eight things to avoid when picking and sun-drying goji berries
Goji berry is a perennial deciduous small shrub of the genus Lycium in the Solanaceae family. Its tender shoots and leaves (also known as goji tips) are eaten as a vegetable and can be stir-fried, served cold with dressing, or made into soup. They are nutritious, tasty and refreshing, and are well liked by consumers. Lishui County in Jiangsu Province began introducing and cultivating it in 2002, with the product mainly sold to large and medium-sized cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuxi...
Goji berries have the function of nourishing the liver and kidneys and improving acuity of vision and are mainly used to treat liver-kidney yin deficiency, insufficiency of essence and blood, soreness and weakness of the waist and knees, diminished vision, dizziness and blurred vision. Besides medicinal use, goji berries can also be made into beverages, eaten raw or soaked in liquor for drinking, but in all cases first-grade berries that are whole, bright red and free of black spots or black patches should be used. To raise the commercial value of goji berries, the following 8 points should be noted when picking and sun-drying them.1. Do not pick them unripe. After the flowers fall, goji gradually develops into green young fruit, then the fruit grows larger and turns orange, at which point the flesh is still firm. The fruit then gradually turns bright red, the fruit stalk loosens and the flesh becomes slightly soft; this is the best time to pick goji berries. If picked too early, that is, if the orange fruit is picked, the goji berries will turn into yellow-skinned fruit after drying, affecting their quality and grade.
2. Do not pick them wet. Goji berries should not be picked in the morning when there is dew or after rain when the surface of the fruit has not dried. If wet fruit is picked, the surface stays damp for a long time, making it prone to bacterial contamination, and the dried fruit will be dark in color.
3. Do not bruise them. When picking goji berries, pick and place them gently. The containers used to hold goji berries should be basins, buckets, baskets, crates and the like; plastic (11275, -40.00, -0.35%) bags and similar should not be used, to prevent squeezing or bumping during handling. Injuries from bumping, squeezing, pressing, dropping or piercing will all turn black after drying.
4. Do not expose them to blazing sun. The fruit can be spread out to dry after sunrise, starting with weak light and low temperature and gradually moving to strong light and high temperature; fruit dried this way is bright red. If exposed to blazing sun at hot noon, the fruit color easily turns black.
5. Do not leave them sitting too long. Freshly picked goji berries should be dried in the sun or by machine promptly and should not be left sitting too long. Freshly picked goji berries respire strongly and easily heat up and give off moisture; if left too long, the dried fruit will be dull gray and not fresh.
6. Do not turn or stir them. During the drying process, turning goji berries injures the flesh, and they turn black after drying. Therefore, after the goji berries are spread out to dry, they should not be turned or stirred in between; they can be collected only after they are completely dry.
7. Do not fumigate them. Goji fruit should not be fumigated with sulfur. Although fumigation with sulfur makes the fruit look fresh, it is easily contaminated. Therefore, to raise the grade of the fruit, attention must be paid to every step of drying, so as to achieve no contamination, high sugar content and excellent quality.
8. Do not mix them together. After the goji fruit is dried, while it is still dry, pick out the fruit stalks, fruit stems, black-spotted fruit, yellow-skinned fruit, misshapen fruit and other impurities, then grade and package it and store it in a ventilated, dry place to prevent insect damage, moisture regain and mold.