Developing raspberry cultivation, Yang Jun leads the people onto the road to prosperity
On November 3, our newspaper's grassroots reporting team arrived at Xiaoying Village, Zhonghe Town, Huojia County. Talking about the village's specialty crops, village Party branch secretary Zhang Baiyou smiled and told reporters: "Our village's Yang Jun has a raspberry cultivation base. Nearly 200 mu of raspberries have not only made him rich, but also created many job opportunities, letting the village folks earn money too. I hear he is now preparing to build a raspberry deep-processing base, to make the raspberry industry bigger and stronger."
Yang Jun's raspberry base is located to the southeast of Xiaoying Village. Standing in the vast raspberry garden, gazing at the endless raspberries, the reporter felt especially relaxed and happy. Speaking of raspberries, many people may find them unfamiliar; they are the raspberries in Lu Xun's work "From Baicao Garden to Sanwei Study".
Talking about his experience of returning home to start a business, Yang Jun was full of emotion. At age 8, Yang Jun left Xiaoying Village and went with his parents to study and live elsewhere. Although he later founded a factory elsewhere and his business was thriving, his attachment to his hometown meant Yang Jun could never forget every tree and blade of grass in Xiaoying Village and its villagers.
In September 2013, Yang Jun returned home to start a business. In addition to growing conventional grains such as wheat and corn, he also grew medicinal herbs, and invested more than 3 million yuan to establish the Huojia County Yingkai Raspberry Professional Cooperative, building a raspberry industry base integrating high-quality raspberry cultivation and planting, sightseeing and picking tourism, and production and processing. At present, Yang Jun's raspberry industry base has planted nearly 200 mu of raspberries, with an income of nearly 10,000 yuan per mu per year.
According to Yang Jun, raspberry fruit contains a variety of nutrients that are easily absorbed by the human body and indispensable to it. Raspberries can be eaten fresh or processed; processed products mainly include juice, jam, and fruit wine. Raspberry leaves can be developed into raspberry tea, which has the effect of protecting the liver, relieving hangovers, and lowering blood lipids. Raspberry roots soaked in wine can serve as a medicinal agent for nourishing tendons and invigorating blood, and reducing redness and swelling. Because raspberries have strong disease resistance and require no chemical fertilizers or pesticides during the production period, they are truly green food and are deeply loved by consumers. At present, the raspberries Yang Jun grows are not only liked by local people, but many consumers from other places also come to pick them after hearing about them.
While making himself rich, Yang Jun did not forget the villagers. As he developed raspberry cultivation, nearly a hundred nearby households came to work at the base. At the busiest times, more than 200 villagers worked at Yang Jun's raspberry garden doing raspberry planting, maintenance, and preliminary processing services, and each person could earn several hundred yuan a day at most.