The Blueberry Queen leads villagers to prosperity, and a farmer woman has bought herself a car
When it comes to blueberries in Wuyi, one cannot fail to mention Zhang Qunying, the "Blueberry Queen" of Xu Village, Datian Township. Thanks to her efforts, more than 30 households in Xu Village and the surrounding villages have planted blueberry trees of several varieties, and the township's blueberry planting area has reached more than 500 mu. Today, Zhang Qunying's blueberries have not only achieved further deep processing of the products, but also helped the surrounding villagers grow rich together. Farmer women who once earned a monthly wage of less than 2,000 yuan at part-time jobs have now bought cars worth over 100,000 yuan.
In mid-to-late May, Wuyi's blueberries entered the fruit-setting and picking season. At Zhang Qunying's Ziguan Family Farm, the reporter saw plump berries hanging on bush after bush of blueberry plants, some deep purple in color, others alternating green and red, each one lovely and mouth-watering. Blueberries are sweet and tart, pleasant and refreshing, and are known as the "Queen of Fruits" and the "King of Berries." Not only local tourists from Wuyi, but also visitors from Jinhua, Yongkang, Wenzhou, and Hangzhou came in droves to pick to their hearts' content and eat their fill.
Since 2014, Zhang Qunying has been deep-processing blueberries. At that time she launched products such as blueberry wine and blueberry enzyme, and she has kept expanding a richer product line; at present there are also portable snacks such as dried blueberries. In addition, Zhang Qunying also thought of developing seasonal specialty products with strong seasonal characteristics. Last autumn and winter, combining Wuyi's local specialty foods, she launched blueberry rice cakes, blueberry steamed buns, and blueberry dumplings, which sold extremely well through WeChat; blueberry rice cakes in particular sold more than 30,000 jin in just over a month. Having tasted success, before this year's Dragon Boat Festival she also developed blueberry-flavored zongzi, with professional technical guidance from a well-known local enterprise. The reporter asked curiously, are blueberry zongzi sweet, and would the market be rather limited? Zhang Qunying said with a smile that these blueberry products are not what people imagine, simply wrapping blueberries in as filling; the zongzi and dumplings are savory, but have a rich, fresh blueberry fragrance and are very refreshing and delicious.
It is understood that Zhang Qunying was the first to grow blueberries in Wuyi County. Now, driven by her efforts, Datian Township's blueberry industry is growing more and more prosperous, and the villagers' wallets are getting fuller and fuller. In particular, many rural women who in the past could only farm, work as waitresses, or work as laborers in factories have seen their incomes multiply several times over after planting blueberries. There is a 50-year-old rural woman who, with the income from growing blueberries herself, bought a car worth 150,000 yuan.
Zhang Qunying said that the Wuyi County Agriculture Bureau, the county science and technology association, and the rural commercial bank all gave great support to her blueberry business. Last year, in order to further build up the blueberry brand, Zhang Qunying also held a blueberry-picking music festival at her doorstep. Now, her Ziguan Family Farm is busy arranging its landscape and leisure areas. By then, this place will become a comprehensive ecological park integrating specialty planting, afforestation, and agroforestry sightseeing and other multifunctional zones, further expanding and strengthening the blueberry industry.