See you next year, Biaowai May peach; honey peaches are about to hit the market
Why is the season over so quickly?
The two main groups of residents who supply Biyaowai May peaches and Hakuhō peaches to everyone are Elder Yuhao and the mother-and-son pair in the tribe, Maliya Da and A-Zhong. Elder Yuhao's orchard is located at a low elevation of 700 m in Biyaowai, so the fruit ripens first; next comes Maliya Da's orchard in the Wurao area at a mid-elevation of 1200 m, which ripens afterward. Usually, once the fruit is ripe, the season lasts only about 2 to 3 weeks, and after that only a few scattered fruits are left.
This year, just as Elder Yuhao's May peaches finished, one late night our staff received a call from Maliya Da. On the other end of the line she said: "Jiawen, my Hakuhō peaches are ripe." The Hakuhō peaches that should have followed the May peaches ripened first this year for unknown reasons, which seems to foretell that this year's climate differs from previous years. In the week that followed, the May peaches ripened, and Maliya Da, who should have been delighted, could not feel happy, because days of heavy rain greatly lowered the peaches' sweetness; even when harvested, they could not fetch a good price at the market, and the already delicate peaches dropped from the trees even more severely. This is also why this year's May peach pre-order campaign ended suddenly ahead of schedule.
Hard-to-predict weather factors: rain seeped into the soil, but also carried away the sweetness in the peaches
For a crop as hard to care for as honey peaches, growing them completely without pesticides or chemical fertilizers is a great challenge for farmers. When the people of the Biyaowai tribe abandoned conventional farming methods, they also gave up the high yields and so-called "efficiency" control brought by pesticides, chemical fertilizers and ripening agents, and natural factors played a very important role.
For fruit like honey peaches to be sweet, besides a whole year of care and management, another major factor is the climate during the fruiting period, like the final sprint for all fruit: ample sunlight but less water lets the sweetness cling tightly to the flesh. Four consecutive days without rain is the most perfect weather. Unfortunately, the heavens did not cooperate this year, making this year's fruit less sweet than before.
Where the sunlight reaches, there is still hope
One day, we roughly calculated for the tribe's farmers the income this year's May peaches brought in. After the calculation, without deducting the fallen fruit, it was actually less than a few tens of thousands of yuan, and this price was still calculated at a promotional price higher than last year's. If sold to wholesalers, it is even harder to imagine such an income for a whole year of hard work being so disproportionate.
Everyone's support and encouragement is like sunlight to the people in the tribe. With every order they receive, the people in the tribe think of hurrying out to pick the fruit and deliver the freshest honey peaches to everyone's hands the next day. Perhaps this year's results are not as sweet as expected, but we and the tribe have always believed that these difficulties are like the very little rain that sweet fruit must endure to produce the best results. We also hope that everyone can keep walking forward together with the farmers in the tribe.
May peaches are only the skirmish before the whole honey peach season. The latest news we received today is that Elder Yuhao's early-ripening honey peaches have begun to ripen, but because the quantity is not large, this week we will deliver them directly to the Friday and Saturday 248 Agriculture Market (Section 4, Zhongxiao East Road) to help sell them. On site we can also pack them into gift boxes for everyone. You are welcome to come and show your support!