Xinhui custom, in the winter solstice, to worship a few red oranges to god, pray for the next year's citrus fruit harvest. In the eyes of Xinhui people, a bumper harvest of citrus is a bumper harvest year!
1 It's incredible! Orange peel is more expensive than orange meat 10 times.
It's the ripe season for Xinhui oranges again. If you visit the Fruit Street at this time, you will see a situation that you can't see anywhere else: there will be three price tags at the booth selling Xinhui oranges: 65438+ 0.5 yuan per catty of citrus fruit, 0.6 yuan per catty of citrus meat and 8 yuan per catty of fresh citrus peel. Strangers who are new here always stare at each other: Is it possible? Orange peel is more expensive than orange meat 10 times? It's incredible!
How expensive is Xinhui Chenpi? According to Mr. He Zhuojian's research, before liberation (except during the Anti-Japanese War), the local price of Xinhui Chenpi was 10-20 times higher than that of rice. If shipped from the new club, its price will double. For example, before the Anti-Japanese War, the purchase price of Xinhui red skin was 60-70 silver dollars per load (rice was only 3-6 silver dollars per load). After being shipped to Shanghai, the price per load is 140- 150 silver. Mr. Liu Peng also confirmed that during May and June of 1947, the price of dried tangerine peel in Xinhui, Hong Kong rose from HK$ 400 per ton to over HK$ 1000, which also set a sky-high price of HK$ 1600, equivalent to over HK$10 ton of rice. After liberation, the price of orange peel was included in the national plan management. The price of first-class orange peel is per ton 1.20 yuan, while the purchase price of rice is only 9.80 yuan, which is still more than 1.2 times that of rice.
Because orange peels can be exchanged for money, people collect leftover scattered orange peels, pick them up on the ground, dry them and sell them. Before liberation, during the harvest season of citrus fruits, many "orange peelers" went to the countryside to exchange oil and sugar groceries with farmers to buy orange peels. 5-6 Jin of sugar can be exchanged for each Jin of dried tangerine peel, or 6 Jin of crude oil, and the highest sugar can be exchanged for 15 Jin. The "orange peel guy" sold the orange peel he bought to the dried tangerine peel merchant in Huicheng, earning ten dollars and eight dollars, but also got two meals.
The peel of a new citrus has been around for more than 700 years.
Dried tangerine peel is stored for many years.
According to different picking seasons, Xinhui Chenpi can be divided into scarlet (Touhong, Extremely Red, Su Hong, Erhong and Jian Hong), green tangerine peel and jujube water. Red skin is the skin produced by citrus that matures around winter, and green skin is from Mid-Autumn Festival to Chongyang. Citrus has grown up, but the skin is still green, so it is called green skin. Jujube water is the skin of the fruit in June and July.
Xinhui dried tangerine peel is usually dried by fruit farmers themselves. The method is to cut the picked citrus fruit into three petals, remove the flesh, open the endothelium, dry it in the sun and store it in pottery. Orange peel can be used after drying. After many years of storage, it is dried tangerine peel, and its value is ten times that of dried tangerine peel.
When and with whom will Xinhui make tangerine peel into tangerine peel? It remains to be verified. "Xinhui Local Records" published by 1908 records: "Orange is as big as orange, flat in body and its skin can be used as medicine, so it is called dried orange"; "(Chenpi) Lingbei people are very heavy, covered with frost and snow in the north, and the fragrance is twice as good as usual." Lin said in "Scenery of Xinhui": "According to legend, there was the name of' Chenpi' in the Tang Dynasty, and Xinhui has a history of more than 700 years."
How expensive is Xinhui Chenpi? It is said that there was a big family and three brothers in Huicheng during the Republic of China, and one of them worked abroad. When brothers grow up, it is natural to split up. The two families discussed selling their ancestral home and then splitting the money, so they asked their brother abroad to come back. When the foreign brothers came back, they went to their ancestral home and found a jar in the corner, which contained old orange peels. He said to his brother, "I want this orange peel, but I don't want this room!" " "It turns out that this altar dried tangerine peel is worth at least half a big house abroad.
I also heard that at the end of the Qing Dynasty, a new group of people went to work in Nanyang. According to the rules, the newcomer should be the team leader (husband) and wait until the newcomer arrives before standing and bunking. There is a rule in the shop that soup is cooked once a week. On this day, the boss gave him a pile of money to buy? ? Making soup, he didn't know what to buy, so he asked the outgoing Wang. The man told him that it would cost half to buy dried tangerine peel and the rest to buy soup. He said, why do you need so much skin to make soup? The man said: in Xinhui, so much money is enough to buy a load, but here you can only buy two petals (two-thirds of the peel). Only then did he know that Xinhui Chenpi had crossed the ocean and was worth a hundred times.
Xinhui Chenpi can be used as medicine and seasoning.
Xinhui Chenpi can be used as medicine, and the prepared Chenpi Banxia Decoction and Erchen Decoction have the functions of resolving phlegm, relieving cough and strengthening stomach. At present, most of the dried tangerine peel used in traditional Chinese medicine pharmacies all over the country comes from Xinhui, and the dried tangerine peel used in the production of snake gall dried tangerine peel liquid and Chuanbei dried tangerine peel liquid by pharmaceutical factories is purchased in Xinhui. The "Erchen Decoction" prepared by the great doctor leaves in the Qing Dynasty specifically indicated that "Guang Chenpi", namely Xinhui Chenpi, should be used. Hesperidin extracted from natural orange peel has the effect of lowering blood pressure. The famous antihypertensive drug "Maitong Capsule" contains hesperidin.
Pericarpium Citri Tangerinae can also be used as seasoning to cook various dishes. Cooking with dried tangerine peel has become a traditional habit of new people and even all Cantonese people. Whether it's steamed ribs, fried fish, stir-fry, soup or sugar water, everyone likes to add a little tangerine peel to taste. Chenpi duck cooked by Xinhui Chenpi has become a famous local dish. In 2005, the program "Strong Taste in My Hometown" broadcast by Hong Kong Asia Television introduced Xinhui Chenpi Banquet, including local famous dishes such as Chenpi Duck, and especially introduced Chenpi red bean paste.