Spending the New Year in a shiitake mushroom greenhouse, Zhou Hongqi stays on the front line of production

In the rural areas of northern Liaoning, as long as the first lunar month has not passed, it is still the New Year. Every household has red lanterns hung high, filled with laughter and joyful voices, and everywhere is brimming with a strong festive atmosphere. In the shiitake mushroom greenhouse of the Binglashan Edible Fungi Professional Cooperative in Zhenxing Town, Xifeng County, Zhou Hongqi is busy in the mushroom spawn-running greenhouse. Rows of spawn bags are neatly arranged. Zhou Hongqi carefully observes the size of the mycelium while wiping the sweat from his forehead. Ever since the day the edible fungi professional cooperative was established, the greenhouse has become Zhou Hongqi's home. This Spring Festival, Old Zhou and his family spent New Year's Eve accompanying hundreds of thousands of spawn bags.

When it comes to edible fungi, Zhou Hongqi opens up. Zhou Hongqi, a man with a quick mind, was in business in his early years, traveling extensively. Starting in 2005, he began to "deal in" edible fungi, often going to Hebei, Jilin, Henan and other places to purchase edible fungi, which he then sent south to sell. He knew the ins and outs of growing mushrooms and selling mushrooms like the back of his hand. He discovered that the climate conditions in Zhenxing Town were very suitable for cultivating edible fungi, and so he came up with the idea of leading the villagers to develop edible fungi cultivation. He returned to his hometown and mentioned this idea to his old classmate Shi Jie, and the two hit it off immediately.

In the spring of 2014, Zhou Hongqi and Shi Jie initiated the establishment of the Zhenxing Binglashan Edible Fungi Professional Cooperative, investing more than 3 million yuan, contracting 100 mu of land, building an edible fungi production base, and cultivating greenhouse shiitake mushrooms. After two years of development, the cooperative has absorbed more than 150 member households, built 700 shiitake mushroom greenhouses, with an annual output of more than 6 million jin of fresh and dried shiitake mushrooms, and the average income increase for participating farmers is 100,000 yuan. "Every year around the Spring Festival is the peak season for shiitake mushroom sales. Many distributors concentrate on looking for new sources of goods after the festival. In order to let our cooperative's shiitake mushrooms catch the good sales opportunity, we prepared for production early. Now the shiitake mushrooms are running spawn, and they will fruit around May, just in time for the good season. In the past two years, our shiitake mushrooms have come to market early and are of good quality, attracting many customers, so we don't worry about the price or about selling them." Zhou Hongqi said while checking the temperature of the spawn room, his eyes full of confidence.

During the Spring Festival period, cooperative member Zhu Yeping has been busy working in the greenhouse, assisting Zhou Hongqi. He not only learned the techniques of ingredient mixing, spawn making, spawn running, and disease prevention and control, but also became a spokesman for getting rich by growing shiitake mushrooms. Last year, he built 10 new greenhouses and placed 100,000 mushroom sticks. Under the cooperative's business model of full-process guidance, centralized management, and unified sales, he only had to build the greenhouses well, place the mushroom sticks, harvest when mature, and send the mushrooms to the cooperative, leaving him with nothing to do but count the money. "Last year, I earned more than 200,000 yuan growing mushrooms with Zhou Hongqi. In the past, this was something I wouldn't even dare to dream of." Speaking of last year's harvest, Zhu Yeping was grinning from ear to ear.