Lingping Sugarcane

Lingping Sugarcane

　　With a cultivation history of over a thousand years, Lingping sugarcane was listed as a tribute item as early as the Southern Song Dynasty. There are two varieties of Lingping sugarcane: purple-skinned and green-skinned, with the purple-skinned variety being the primary one. It is generally planted around the Qingming Festival and harvested around the Beginning of Winter.

　　China is one of the original birthplaces of sugarcane, boasting a very long history. Even before written records, wild sugarcane forests already existed in southern China. As far back as primitive society, people were already harvesting sugarcane stalks to “chew and extract the juice.” By the Tang Dynasty, eating sugarcane had become quite common.

　　 Sugarcane is fresh, tender, crisp, sweet, juicy, and highly nutritious. Compared to most fruits, it is especially economical. It is commendable that its sugar content (17–18%) mainly consists of sucrose, fructose, and glucose—all of which are easily absorbed by the human body.

　　 Sugarcane is also a well-known traditional Chinese medicine and industrial raw material. Medically, sugarcane juice is an excellent remedy for quenching thirst, promoting saliva, moistening dryness, and nourishing the body. It helps invigorate the spleen, relieve hiccups and vomiting, facilitate urination and bowel movements, and detoxify alcohol. Industrially, sugarcane bagasse can be used to make paper, fiberboard, alcohol, monosodium glutamate, yeast, as well as wood alcohol sugar, plasticizers, resins, and more.

　　 Lingping sugarcane has been cultivated since the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Southern Song Dynasty, and was listed as a tribute item. It is famous for its rich sucrose content, tender and crispy flesh, and sweet, juicy taste. The main varieties are purple-skinned and green-skinned, with the purple-skinned variety being the primary one. It is generally planted around the Qingming Festival and harvested around the Beginning of Winter.

　　 The main producing areas of Lingping sugarcane are the rural areas surrounding Lingping. Locals often boil sugarcane and water chestnuts together for consumption, which is said to have the effect of clearing heat and soothing coughs.