Wild softshell turtles burrow into muddy ponds as soon as winter comes, and pig liver is the best bait for catching them, but they are on the verge of disappearing.

I grew up in the countryside as a child, and back then the rivers there were full of fish and shrimp, the water quality and environment were free of pollution, and life was very pleasant. The fun of country kids was nothing more than catching fish and feeling for shrimp, fishing for crayfish in summer, and feeling for river mussels in autumn and winter; these were joys you could never experience from books. And farmers would join in during the slack farming season, catching loach, rice field eels, turtles and other animals, which let them taste something fresh and added another source of income.

Today I will introduce a kind of aquatic animal, and that is the softshell turtle. When it comes to softshell turtles, everyone probably finds them familiar; as the saying goes, a thousand-year softshell turtle and a ten-thousand-year tortoise, and this "softshell turtle" refers to the softshell turtle. When winter comes, the softshell turtle burrows into the muddy pond to hibernate, and during this time it can make it through the winter without eating, because it is also very afraid of the cold, so it hides in the muddy pond and waits for the cold winter to pass. Catching softshell turtles is a skilled job; some bold adults catch them directly with their hands, but you must be careful when catching them, otherwise your fingers can easily be bitten by the softshell turtle. Later, some people specialized in angling for softshell turtles, and the bait for softshell turtles is different from the bait for fishing; the best bait for softshell turtles is pig liver, because that fishy smell of pig liver is especially attractive to softshell turtles, and it works every time.

The softshell turtle has high nutritional value, especially softshell turtles that have grown for a long time in a natural environment; they are rich in minerals and also have very strong tonic effects, and stewing them into soup is the most nourishing of all. For some people with weak constitutions, drinking some softshell turtle soup is also helpful for recovery. Although softshell turtle meat is tender and rich in collagen, the softshell turtle is a highly nourishing food and should not be eaten in large amounts, otherwise it can also have negative effects on the body. It is precisely because people know the effects of the softshell turtle that they began to catch large numbers of them for food, and together with pollution of the natural water environment, the number of wild softshell turtles has now dropped sharply.

Now, in order to meet market demand, some farmers have begun to breed softshell turtles artificially. Farmers give the softshell turtles the most suitable growing environment; artificial breeding of softshell turtles requires proper control of water temperature and a sufficient supply of food, which can promote the growth of softshell turtles, shorten the hibernation period, and allow them to reach the market quickly. Nowadays this excellent tonic is becoming more and more popular, and sales of softshell turtles are rising day by day; softshell turtle soup is not only delicious but the nutrients in the broth have the best nourishing effect, so this softshell turtle once commonly seen in childhood is still, and even more, loved by people today.

Wild softshell turtles are rarely seen now. Although the market price can reach two or three hundred yuan per jin, they are now on the verge of disappearing in the countryside and are basically nowhere to be seen. Have you ever seen one?