Cut the cabbage into 1cm-thin slices, no need to worry about slow winter sales
Once winter arrives, news of cabbage prices crashing and farmers painfully plowing their crops back into the soil plays out like a rerun, year after year without fail. To solve the "vegetables are dirt-cheap, vegetables are worth gold" problem, the College of Bioresources at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) isolated a highly active plant lactic acid bacterium from the wild. After one month of fermentation, a cabbage instantly becomes a 1 cm-thin slice with a shelf life of up to one year, and it even has anti-cancer properties. The fermentation time has been shortened to one week, and it can be eaten directly without being flattened, turning green soil into gold.
Injecting lactic acid bacteria extends freshness for up to one year
Whenever a typhoon hits, cabbage prices soar, with a single head reaching 100 yuan, and even buying half a head still makes people feel the pain. But once the winter peak season arrives, its value drops to ten yuan a head with no takers, and farmers' harvesting costs exceed the price, forcing them to painfully plow the crops back into the soil. Because farmers mostly treat cabbage as a winter "side income," overplanting leads to a price crash, and even the Council of Agriculture's early-warning mechanism is useless.
National Pingtung University of Science and Technology spent two years and in 2011 developed the "Low-Cost Agricultural Product Active Ingredient Enhancement Technology." Using a device, they isolated and purified a highly active plant lactic acid bacterium from the wild. A hole is dug into the center of a cabbage, enzymes are inoculated to soften the cabbage fibers, and after being placed in a barrel to ferment for one month, it transforms like magic into an instantly concentrated 1 cm "cabbage cake."
Wu Ming-chang, dean of the College of Agriculture at NPUST, said that lactic acid bacteria are a natural preservative and are very good for the human body. Once injected, they can extend the shelf life to one year. Pressed into thin slices, the product is easy to carry, similar to kimchi, and can effectively regulate the production season, yet while the volume shrinks, the weight does not change, and of course the nutritional content is not compromised.
However, flattened cabbage is too challenging for people's senses, so the year before last, NPUST made further efforts and developed a whole-head technique. Lactic acid bacteria are injected and the cabbage is placed in a barrel, with the fermentation time shortened to 2 or 3 weeks. The cabbage looks about the same on the outside, yet it can be stored for one year.
Wu Ming-chang said he once saw similar technology in Croatia. Cabbage with added lactic acid bacteria is cooked no differently from ordinary cabbage: just wash it, slice it, and stir-fry it, and you can still take in the nutrients at the same time.
