What do the bizarre vegetables grown by Huangpi farmer Zhang Benshun look like?

    The eggplant looks like an egg and has a milky taste when cut open; the golden spaghetti squash does not need to be cut, as one tap turns it into strands of squash... Yesterday, Huangpi farmer Zhang Benshun successfully cultivated "exotic vegetables" originating from Europe.

    Yesterday, in the "experimental field" of Zhang Benshun's farm, reporters saw yellow-skinned watermelons (golden watermelons) and black-skinned bitter melons all over the ground. One type, the "milky egg eggplant," is even more distinctive: the eggplant closely resembles a peeled boiled egg and has a milky scent after being peeled open (as shown in the photo). It is understood that these exotic vegetables have very high yields; for example, a single black-skinned bitter melon plant can produce 60 kg.

Zhang Benshun introduced that in June 2007, he went to Switzerland, Denmark and other countries to inspect local crops, and after returning he introduced 18 varieties through the Ministry of Agriculture and other channels. After more than 1 year of practice, he cultivated 12 varieties. Zhang Benshun said these vegetables are very "delicate": they die once the temperature exceeds 35°C, so air conditioners must be installed to cool them; before each planting, the soil also needs to be turned over and treated with potassium permanganate to kill insects; the "milky egg eggplant" is irrigated with expired milk, so the eggplants that grow have a milky taste.

According to Liu Wei, director of the Hengdian Industrial and Commercial Office in Huangpi, when these exotic vegetables had just been successfully tested, two large hotels in Wuhan expressed interest and asked for exclusive supply, but Zhang Benshun did not agree.

Zhang Benshun calculated for reporters that the output value of one mu of ordinary tomatoes is 2000-3000 yuan, while growing "milky egg eggplant" can reach 30,000 yuan, 10-15 times that of the former. Once the industrial chain of this specialty agriculture is formed, from production, packaging, distribution and sales to management, a large amount of manpower and material resources will be needed, and it can also drive the employment of more than a thousand laborers nearby. "Within five years, conservatively estimated, the output value can reach 100 million."