Kiwano flesh can be eaten as a snack or made into salad. Have you ever tried it?

Do you know kiwano? Have you seen it? Have you tried it?

Hong Huiyang, the village-stationed first secretary dispatched by the Fujian Provincial People's Procuratorate to Houlong Village, Pingcheng Township, Pingnan County, recommended it, saying that Zheng Guisong in their village has planted it, and there are now nearly 8,000 kiwano fruits.

In 2014, 23-year-old Zheng Guisong of Houlong Village resigned from a foreign company in Fuzhou and returned to his hometown to grow specialty fruits using Pingnan's unique high-mountain ecological environment. At the beginning of this year, he introduced more than 4,000 kiwano plants from outside the province and planted them on abandoned corner plots and mountain land in the village.

Zheng Guisong said: he had done very little farm work before, and chose to give up the company's stable and comfortable job to return home and start a business, mainly because he wanted to spend more time by his parents' side and help them share some of the things he could. Although his parents verbally opposed him returning to the village to do the hard and tiring work they had done for most of their lives, they were still very happy about their son returning home to accompany them.

Of course, Zheng Guisong also wanted to realize his own entrepreneurial dream, wholeheartedly wanting to build a healthy ecological fruit and vegetable plantation, growing old varieties rarely seen on the market, wild varieties, or imported fruit and vegetable varieties.

For Zheng Guisong's cultivation of kiwano, village-stationed Secretary Hong Huiyang acted as a bridge, contacting Director Cai Shenghua of the Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute of the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Professor Wei Xiaoxia and other experts to guide Zheng Guisong on cultivation techniques.

To ensure the fruit is green and healthy, Zheng Guisong followed the methods guided by experts, applying organic fertilizer and treated chicken and duck manure to the kiwano planting land. Even the weeds in the field were removed manually, and under the experts' guidance he used biological pesticides to prevent and control pests and diseases.

A round of cultivation should have brought a round of harvest, but the August typhoon caused heavy losses to the kiwano. Originally it was estimated that 60,000 kiwano fruits could be harvested, but now, with harvest imminent, there are only nearly 8,000.

It has been only one year since starting the business, and sales channels have not yet been established. At present, Zheng Guisong is pre-selling through WeChat Moments at 10 yuan each, but has sold only more than 700.

Secretary Hong Huiyang hoped that "Zhu Cun" would help promote it. Zhang Shujian, secretary of the Party Committee of Pingcheng Township, also said that Zheng Guisong is the first person to grow specialty wild fruit on a large scale, his visibility is not high, and marketing platforms such as WeChat are still being developed. He hoped more people would come to discuss purchasing, sales, cooperation and other matters, to support Zheng Guisong, a young man returning home to start a business.

Kiwano flesh is delicate and gelatinous, with a flavor similar to a mix of banana, cucumber and lemon. It is suitable as a snack or for making fruit salad, and it stores extremely well, keeping for 2 to 3 months at room temperature.

Zheng Guisong introduced that at present it sells for nearly 20 yuan each in Fuzhou supermarkets, while his price is only 10 yuan each.