Off-season cultivation of wild vegetables blazes a new trail to prosperity in forest areas
Outside, the trees are adorned with jade-like snow and frost; inside, greenery flourishes. When the reporter visited the greenhouse of Cui Xuedong, a worker at the Dangshuhe Forest Farm of Changbai Mountain Forest Industry Group Daxinggou Forestry Co., Ltd., he was cutting fresh tender Aralia elata shoots, packing them into boxes, and preparing to deliver them to customers who had placed orders.
"Bringing wild vegetables to market at this time of year not only enriches consumers' dining tables but also commands a good price!" Right now, the Changbai Mountain forest area is still blanketed in white snow, but Cui Xuedong's greenhouse is filled with the warmth of spring: large-leaf parsley and wild garlic are growing vigorously, and tender buds are sprouting from each Aralia elata stem.
"I spent this Spring Festival in the greenhouse. The first crop of Aralia elata shoots sold out around the Lantern Festival." While selecting Aralia elata shoots for packing, Cui Xuedong told the reporter, "Nowadays people care about healthy eating and enjoy wild vegetables, especially fresh off-season ones. Even though the market price exceeds 60 yuan per kilogram, they are more popular than rich meats."
Cui Xuedong, 43, is in his second year of growing Aralia elata in a greenhouse. Building on the success of last year's trial greenhouse cultivation of Aralia elata, this year he has put his entire 200 sq m greenhouse to use.
"I'm currently growing Aralia elata in only three-quarters of the greenhouse area. The remaining 50-plus sq m is an experimental zone for new varieties. I'm trial-growing four or five kinds of wild vegetables, including environmentally friendly large-leaf parsley, wild garlic, and dandelion. Now that commercial logging has been halted, there are plenty of usable resources in the mountains. For every additional variety I can trial-grow in the greenhouse, there's one more path to prosperity," Cui Xuedong said with a smile.
On the road to transformation after commercial logging of natural forests was completely halted in key state-owned forest areas of Northeast China, Cui Xuedong did not wait or rely on others. While building his own prosperous business, he also motivated 2 workers to take up greenhouse cultivation of wild vegetables. Each greenhouse can bring workers an income of 40,000 yuan, exploring a wealth-creating path of not "hibernating" through the winter.
At present, while fully developing and utilizing under-forest resources and developing industries such as Korean pine nut forests, forest frogs, ground-cultivated wood ear mushrooms, and Chinese herbal medicine cultivation, workers at Dangshuhe Forest Farm are constantly broadening their paths to prosperity and extending the green industry chain, with 40 households achieving a 100% entrepreneurship rate. In 2016, workers have pre-ordered 10,000 blue honeysuckle seedlings for cultivation trials.