Persimmon cakes, green plums, and bird pears

Persimmon cakes, green plums, and bird pears

　　Persimmon cakes are a renowned specialty both at home and abroad. The production of persimmon cakes began in the Ming Dynasty. Thanks to the region’s unique soil, water, and climate conditions, the finished persimmon cakes feature a frost-white exterior, a dry yet moist texture, soft golden-yellow flesh, and a sweet, mellow flavor reminiscent of syrup. They are rich in various types of sugars, vitamins, amino acids, and other nutrients essential for the human body, and also offer medicinal benefits such as lowering blood pressure, relieving hangovers, treating stomach ailments, and stopping bleeding while moisturizing the intestines. As a result, persimmon cakes from Luhe have long enjoyed a stellar reputation and are exported to Southeast Asian countries as well as to regions like Hong Kong and Macau.

Everyone knows persimmon cakes taste good, but few are aware of how intricate their processing is. Before processing, they start out as green persimmons. The season for harvesting green persimmons and making persimmon cakes falls around the eighth and ninth months of the lunar calendar. The persimmons should not be overly ripe—those that are too yellow yield lower-quality cakes. Once they turn red, they’re no longer suitable for processing and can only be eaten fresh. The best ones are those tinged with yellowish-green. After picking, the first step is “undressing.” Using a specially made curved hook knife, four flaps of the persimmon skin are carefully peeled off. Be careful not to remove the “persimmon shoulder”—the area where skin and flesh connect—along with the peel, as doing so will result in poor-quality cakes that spoil easily. The second step is “peeling.” The skinned green persimmons are then scraped clean with a special plane and placed upside down in bamboo persimmon sieves, which are set out to dry on persimmon racks erected beforehand. The third step is “kneading.” As the sun-dried persimmon pulp gradually softens, it is continuously and gently kneaded by hand while being dried. Once the pulp forms a belly-button-like shape, the fourth step, “smoking,” begins. The belly-buttoned persimmons are stacked sieve by sieve into a pre-prepared smoking room for roasting. After smoking, they are placed back on the persimmon racks to “catch dew” overnight and are sun-dried again during the day, with continual kneading until the belly buttons develop into full cakes. The fifth step is “blanching the cakes.” Boiling water is prepared in a raw rice pot or aluminum pot, and the persimmon cakes are placed in a mesh bag and blanched in the hot water briefly before being removed and returned to the bamboo sieves. The exposed persimmon skins are then kneaded back inside and left to dry in the sun. In the afternoon, they are collected and placed in bamboo baskets for the sixth step: “seeding.” Seeding involves taking a few snow-white persimmon cakes covered in frost from the previous year—these act as “seeds”—and placing several of them in the basket. The basket is then shaken repeatedly from side to side and up and down, after which the opening is tightly covered with a sackcloth to “seal” it, a process called “steeping.” The next day, the cakes are placed on the sieve to dry in the sun, collected back into the basket in the evening, shaken and steeped again, and this is repeated until the persimmon cakes are covered with a thick, white frost—thus becoming top-grade persimmon cakes.

Green plums, bird pears, oil oranges, and pineapples are also specialties of Luhe. In the past, green plum cultivation in rural areas was limited, with only a few old trees passed down from ancestors yielding small fruit with a bitter, astringent taste. Later, as people continuously improved cultivation techniques—especially over the twenty years following the reform and opening-up period—rural areas vigorously developed fruit production, expanded planting areas, introduced scientific methods, transformed inferior varieties into superior ones, increased yields, and boosted incomes.

Bird pears, also known as sugar pears, are a unique and rare fruit in Shanwei City. When pickled, they have heat-clearing and thirst-quenching properties, aid digestion, and relieve food stagnation, making them a popular market item. (Shanwei)