It smells so good! The first bowl of lotus root soup in autumn is ready

September breeze is getting cooler and autumn roots are ripe

The first bowl of lotus root soup in autumn is served to Wuhan people

A section of watery lotus root

Out of the wetlands

Transformed into the top-ranked Jingchu delicacy in autumn and winter

Today, let's go "eat the lotus root"

This tweet has a high deliciousness index

Recommended to be eaten with rice

# Huaqiao Village, Caidian Jurchen

Sun Zhicai, 58, put on a waterproof suit and was in waist-deep water

Commanded his wife on the shore to turn on the high-pressure water gun meal

In Caidian Jurchen Huaqiao Village, 3:00 a.m., 58-year-old Sun Zhicai put on waterproof clothing, wearing a headlamp, holding a water gun in the dark to the pond. In the waist-deep water, he plucked away the lotus leaves and slowly shuttled through. 20 years of experience in digging roots, so Sun Zhicai can roughly determine the location of the lotus roots with his foot sense.

"Turn it on!" He commanded his wife on the shore to turn on the high-pressure water gun, nearly ten meters of water column fierce up into the sky, and immediately by him into the water. He skillfully touched the lotus root along the lotus pole with one hand, and washed away the silt nearby with the water gun with the other hand, and then a whole lotus root surfaced with a gentle pick. After a simple breakfast at 6 or 7 a.m., Sun goes into the water again until lunchtime.

Sun Zhicai can dig more than 1,000 pounds of lotus roots a day, load them onto his small wooden boat, drag it to the shore, and then load it into a truck to be transported to the fresh goods processing area on Caidian Street, where it is washed with water, cut into small sections, and vacuumed into foam boxes. After that, it is sold to various e-commerce platforms, community fresh produce, wholesale vegetable markets, restaurants ...... In this way, the autumn root begins its journey to the national table.

Like Sun Zhicai, there are 50 villagers who make their living by digging lotus roots in Jurchen, Caidian District. Cultivating 1,100 mu of lotus ponds, the annual production of lotus roots can reach 600 tons. Every year, starting in June, you can dig the early lotus root suitable for summer eating, non-stop for one day, until the autumn lotus root is on the market, and then busy in April or May next year to pump the lotus root belt. "Wuhan people love to eat lotus root, different varieties of lotus root for different purposes, can not stop all year round."

# East Lake by the lotus pond

" Lotus root powder is not powder, the variety and parts are important! "

Restaurant chef making Wuhan people's favorite lotus root soup in autumn and winter

By the lotus pond at East Lake, just after 12 noon, diners are coming into the restaurant one after another, with their backs to the lotus pond, drinking a bowl of lotus root soup, with a strong autumnal taste. With the recent cooler weather, the table rate of lotus root soup in the store is obviously higher, and after the winter, it is one lotus root soup per table.

"Xinzhou, Hanchuan and Jiangxia have our lotus root picking bases, and the workers go to the bases to pick according to the daily demand of the restaurants. Picked at 6:00 a.m., it will arrive at the store at 10:00 a.m." The restaurant chef, known as "Master Lei", has been engaged in catering for 30 years, he introduced: "Lotus root powder is not powder, variety and parts are very important, do not use the root tip. The meat simmered with the lotus root is best to choose pork ribs and tube bones, so that the simmered soup grease is not too thick. He said, he also made the lotus root clip and lotus root ball that Wuhan people often eat in autumn and winter.

Cut the lotus root into two pieces that are not completely disconnected, stuff the middle with ground pork, wrap the batter with egg and flour, put it into the frying pan with chopsticks and fry it until it is fluffy and golden, and the lotus root clip is ready. The lotus root is then rubbed into puree, mixed with minced pork and mixed well with white onion and minced ginger, and formed into a ball with boiled lotus root juice.

Wuhan people's stomachs cannot live without lotus root all year round. Summer lotus seed rice, crispy lotus root slices, lotus root belt, to the autumn lotus root soup, lotus root folder, lotus root rounds, preserved duck stewed lotus root, and the accompanying snack halved lotus root, lotus root powder ...... to lotus root-based ingredients of the cuisine, is a regular guest on the table.

The person in charge of the restaurant introduced that from September until February of the year, the bowl of lotus root soup, Wuhan people can "drink" half a year. At the time of the New Year's Eve, the store can consume nearly 500 pounds of lotus root a day, guests will eat and send directly to the country to purchase lotus root, to send to friends and relatives.

Reporters learned that the main production areas of Wuhan City lotus root in Caidian, Xinzhou, Jiangxia and other new urban areas, including Caidian District, the largest planting area of nearly 100,000 acres. Wuhan Academy of Agricultural Sciences Institute of Aquatic Vegetables researcher Li Shuangmei introduced the national lotus root planting area of 8 million mu, of which Wuhan City, the Academy of Agricultural Sciences to cultivate excellent varieties of planting area of no less than 6 million mu.

Li Shuangmei said that the excellent varieties cultivated by the Municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences have been ranked from E lotus No. 1, all the way to E lotus No. 12. Among them, the largest planting area is E lotus No. 5 and E lotus No. 6.

E lotus No.5 is an early to medium maturity and high yielding variety of pink lotus root, characterized by strong adaptability, which can be planted in both the south and the north and has a very pink taste. E lotus No.6 is a representative of crisp lotus variety, with white skin, crisp in stir-fry, but not powder in simmering soup, more suitable for northern cultivation. "White Jade Hairpin No. 1" is the first variety in China that specializes in lotus root extraction, with a lotus root up to 1 meter long, and can be extracted and sold in the early stage.

The newest variety, E lotus 12, is "ten-hole lotus", a "pink lotus" developed for Hubei people who love simmering soup, which has been promoted in the market and is in the expansion stage. Li Shuangmei laughingly said, "In the future, the public buy lotus root by counting the holes, you can identify it is pink lotus root."