Guinea Fowl Store Garlic

Guinea Fowl Store Garlic

　　Guinea Fowl Store Town is bordered by the Yellow River to the west and Dongping Lake to the east. It boasts vast, fertile soil and abundant water resources, making it highly suitable for garlic cultivation. Garlic has been grown here since the early days of the People's Republic of China. Since the 1990s, the planting scale has expanded year by year. To date, the town has over 40,000 mu of garlic fields, typically yielding 20,000 tons of garlic sprouts and 80,000 tons of garlic bulbs annually. During harvest season, merchants from other regions flock here to purchase the produce, which is then distributed to cities and provinces such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, and Jilin, and exported to countries including Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and Germany. This has made it one of the province’s most influential “Hometown of Garlic.”

　　Before 1960, the garlic grown in Guinea Fowl Store Town was local varieties with relatively low yield and average quality. To improve production, hybrid garlic was introduced from the former Soviet Union in the 1960s. After successful trial planting and years of cultivation, this hybrid variety demonstrated strong growth advantages. Its main characteristics include tall plant stature, purple-red outer skin, and early maturation. Each garlic bulb contains 4–8 plump and neatly arranged cloves. The garlic sprouts are high-yielding, with green, blemish-free (i.e., no yellow spots) stalks. The mashed garlic offers a fragrant taste with moderate spiciness. When used as sprouting greens, it produces abundant garlic sprouts. In 1991, Guinea Fowl Store Garlic was awarded the Quality Agricultural Product Prize by the Ministry of Agriculture, making it the only garlic product in Shandong Province to receive this honor.

　　Garlic is a premium pungent vegetable and seasoning that helps enhance appetite, inhibit pathogens, improve microcirculation, supplement nutrients, and safeguard health. It is estimated that every 100g of garlic contains 4.4g of protein, 0.2g of fat, 23g of carbohydrates, 0.7g of crude fiber, 5mg of calcium, 44mg of phosphorus, 0.4mg of iron, 0.24mg of thiamine, 0.03mg of riboflavin, 0.9mg of niacin, 3mg of ascorbic acid, as well as the anti-mutagen selenium and active compounds such as diallyl trisulfide and ethyl allyl sulfonate, which can kill cancer cells. Modern pharmacological research confirms that garlic has significant inhibitory effects on various pathogenic bacteria, such as staphylococcus, pneumococcus, meningococcus, diphtheria bacillus, E. coli, dysentery bacillus, tuberculosis bacillus, and cholera vibrio. It also helps prevent cancer and improve skin health, lowers blood lipids and cholesterol, and enhances immunity. It is often referred to as the “penicillin that grows in the earth.”

　　According to garlic farmers, garlic thrives in loamy soil and flood-deposited land, and prefers potassium sulfate fertilizer. The arable land in Guinea Fowl Store Town consists of clay soil on alluvial fans, which is rich in nutrients. Farmers mostly use organic manure when growing garlic and generally avoid chemical fertilizers and pesticides containing harmful substances. As a result, the garlic has high yield and excellent quality. Garlic has become an important pillar industry in Guinea Fowl Store Town and an effective way for farmers to increase their income.