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Celebrating the 'donut' and 'saucer' peaches of Jinshan
By Tan Weiyun |
July 18, 2009, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
The Peento Peach Festival -- celebrating that funny, flat, "donut" peach -- runs from Monday through August 10 in Luxiang Town, the hometown of peento.
The town is China's biggest peento-growing center and the sweet saucer-shaped peaches will be ripe for the picking.
This is the first year the public is allowed to pick fruit. It will cost six to eight yuan (88 US cents to US$1.17) to pick 500g.
In Chinese mythology, the peento (pantao or twisted peach) was the fruit of immortality grown by the Heavenly Queen Mother.
The queen lived in the Jade Pool in the Kunlun Mountains in western China and grew 3,600 peento trees yielding magical fruit that gave immortality.
It was said that it took 3,000 years for the peento trees to blossom, another 3,000 years to bear fruit and another 3,000 for fruit to ripen. Every 500 years the queen invited the Eight Immortals to her Peento Banquet.
This celebrated fruit, in reality, is small and cute, sweet and juicy, with a sunken center, small pit.
Every year they are harvested in remote Luxiang Town which holds a peento festival at this time of year.
The fruit is best picked from late next week to early August, according to festival director Peng Xuehua.
This year's peento gala will be bigger and better than last year's and for the first time visitors will be allowed to pick peentos from the trees.
Around 50 trained volunteers from agricultural colleges will be on hand to help "one-day farmers" pick the fruit.
Just give it a slight twist. Scissors not allowed.
The Ma brother farmers have been crowned the "Peento Kings" for the past two years. Ma Jinlin was crowned last year and his elder brother Ma Jinshou, 57, took the honor in 2007.
Growing peento peaches is a town-wide industry.
During the festival, the Shanghai Peento Research Center will be opened by the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Science. It's China's first peento research institution.
A peento trading market will also open. From July the town's peentos are available in Shanghai NGS Supermarkets.
Last year each mu (about one-fifth of a hectare) produced 1,000kg of peentos, with a value per mu of 8,000 to 10,000 yuan. Output reached 6,000 tons.
This year's output will be smaller by a third because of unseasonably cold weather in April and May, says Peng.
Prices depend on output and peach size. Gift packages are priced from 120 yuan (12 peentos, each under 200g) to 180 yuan (six peentos, each over 250g).
Visitors can also enjoy viewing the natural scenery, fishing, picking vegetables, tea tasting and entertainment in nearby resorts.
How to get there
A4-A30-A6 (get off at Luxiang Exit)-Zhulu Road
A9-A5-A30 (drive toward Xinnong and get off at Luxiang Exit)-Zhulu Road
The town is China's biggest peento-growing center and the sweet saucer-shaped peaches will be ripe for the picking.
This is the first year the public is allowed to pick fruit. It will cost six to eight yuan (88 US cents to US$1.17) to pick 500g.
In Chinese mythology, the peento (pantao or twisted peach) was the fruit of immortality grown by the Heavenly Queen Mother.
The queen lived in the Jade Pool in the Kunlun Mountains in western China and grew 3,600 peento trees yielding magical fruit that gave immortality.
It was said that it took 3,000 years for the peento trees to blossom, another 3,000 years to bear fruit and another 3,000 for fruit to ripen. Every 500 years the queen invited the Eight Immortals to her Peento Banquet.
This celebrated fruit, in reality, is small and cute, sweet and juicy, with a sunken center, small pit.
Every year they are harvested in remote Luxiang Town which holds a peento festival at this time of year.
The fruit is best picked from late next week to early August, according to festival director Peng Xuehua.
This year's peento gala will be bigger and better than last year's and for the first time visitors will be allowed to pick peentos from the trees.
Around 50 trained volunteers from agricultural colleges will be on hand to help "one-day farmers" pick the fruit.
Just give it a slight twist. Scissors not allowed.
The Ma brother farmers have been crowned the "Peento Kings" for the past two years. Ma Jinlin was crowned last year and his elder brother Ma Jinshou, 57, took the honor in 2007.
Growing peento peaches is a town-wide industry.
During the festival, the Shanghai Peento Research Center will be opened by the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Science. It's China's first peento research institution.
A peento trading market will also open. From July the town's peentos are available in Shanghai NGS Supermarkets.
Last year each mu (about one-fifth of a hectare) produced 1,000kg of peentos, with a value per mu of 8,000 to 10,000 yuan. Output reached 6,000 tons.
This year's output will be smaller by a third because of unseasonably cold weather in April and May, says Peng.
Prices depend on output and peach size. Gift packages are priced from 120 yuan (12 peentos, each under 200g) to 180 yuan (six peentos, each over 250g).
Visitors can also enjoy viewing the natural scenery, fishing, picking vegetables, tea tasting and entertainment in nearby resorts.
How to get there
A4-A30-A6 (get off at Luxiang Exit)-Zhulu Road
A9-A5-A30 (drive toward Xinnong and get off at Luxiang Exit)-Zhulu Road
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