The hollow fruit tops the list of America's three great fruit kings, yet despite huge imports into China, no one dares to grow it.

If the internet has narrowed the distance of the world, then Taobao and JD.com can, to a certain extent, be said to have narrowed the distance between food lovers and the world's delicacies, especially for fruits with short shelf lives and short freshness windows. If in the past you didn't fly to the place itself to eat them, you absolutely could not get a taste; even if you used the express delivery technology of the time to mail them over, after half a month, when you opened the package, the look of them would definitely be too painful to behold. Technology changes life: fresh fruits and vegetables from far across the ocean can now appear before you fresh and plump.

Among them, the most popular is one of the leading stars of the American fruit world, and also the head of America's "three great fruit kings": the cranberry. (America's "three great fruit kings" are the cranberry, the blueberry, and the Concord grape.)

In China, the scientific name of the cranberry is "large cranberry"; its most famous original name is "crane berry," and some people also call it "little red berry" or "sour cranberry." If one insists on classifying it, it is the fruit borne by an evergreen shrub, mostly used for jam, and now, as its fame has grown, it has been designated a specific food pairing for Halloween.

Despite her bright, dripping red fruit, her growing environment is extremely picky: she grows only in North American wetlands, with a total global growing area of just 40,000 mu. Aside from its regional characteristics, its growth cycle requires 3-5 years or more before it bears fruit, and its harvesting method is also one of a kind, a real eye-opener.

The center of the cranberry is hollow, so it can float on water. When the cranberries are ripe, the entire shrub is covered in bright red fruit, with an astonishing yield. The day before harvest, the growers first flood the entire thicket with water, and the cranberries naturally float to the surface. Then mechanical water wheels are used to stir things up so the fruit detaches from the branches, and then the water wheels are used to scoop up the cranberries, and that's it.

It is precisely because of this unique harvesting method that it has become a major tourist attraction: on a broad expanse of river surface, countless cranberries, plump and translucent under the sunlight, form a magnificent sea of fruit. So the cranberry is a magical fruit that has been watched by crowds from the moment it is picked.

As a berry, it holds a seat of honor at Halloween; as a medicine, it draws even more attention. According to reports, it can reduce the incidence of urinary tract infections in women, lower the occurrence of gastric ulcers and stomach cancer, and its unique bioflavonoids can help prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease; it also has effects such as beautifying the skin and preventing cardiovascular disease. As a health food for middle-aged and elderly people, it is an excellent choice.

A tiny berry that reaches several hundred per jin is indeed rare, yet ordinary farmers seldom grow it. From this editor's introduction, you can see: the land requirements are so strict, the harvesting technique so bizarre, and the growth cycle so slow. If we really wanted to use it as a money tree, we'd first have to dig a man-made lake!

Dear friends, have you ever eaten a cranberry? You're welcome to leave a comment and share!