Dongbei Water Chestnuts

Dongbei Water Chestnuts

　　The famous Dongbei water chestnuts are actually a specialty of Dafutou Village. Dafutou Village now belongs to Fengyang Town, while Dongbei Town is dozens of kilometers away from Dafutou. So how did the water chestnuts from Dafutou come to be known as "Dongbei water chestnuts"? This is the shrewdness of the merchants in Dongbei. Dongbei Town has been a bustling commercial hub since ancient times, with merchants buying high-quality water chestnuts from Dafutou and then transporting them for sale to Southeast Asia, branding them as "Dongbei water chestnuts." In this way, the water chestnuts from Dafutou gained fame overseas under the brand name "Dongbei water chestnuts." Every household in Dafutou Village grows water chestnuts. The reason why the village produces such uniquely delicious water chestnuts is due to a nearby paddy field called "Bantian Dong." Spanning over ten hectares, this land features a yellow mud surface and a white clay subsoil—its soil structure is remarkably unique. Villagers say, “It retains both nutrients and moisture well.”

　　Other paddies in the vicinity of Dafutou also produce water chestnuts, but none are as good as those from Bantian Dong. In fact, even the fields on either side of the same ridge may yield chestnuts with differing flavors. No wonder every household in Dafutou grows water chestnuts. Thanks to the consistently excellent quality of the Dafutou water chestnut variety, people from Nanhai County in the Pearl River Delta would come specially to purchase its seeds, and even return every two years to buy anew. "Dongbei water chestnuts" remain popular year after year thanks to their tender skin, sweet and refreshing taste, and lack of fibrous residue.