Jinkouhe Prickly Ash

Jinkouhe Prickly Ash

　　Jinkouhe Prickly Ash is a specialty of Jinkouhe District, Leshan City, Sichuan Province. The prickly ash from this area features plump grains, thick skin, rich flesh, vibrant color, strong aroma, and a moderate numbing flavor, making it a truly enjoyable taste.

　　The fragrant and numbing Daolinzhi Prickly Ash, commonly known as “Baby Pepper,” is particularly notable. Local farmers explain that each seed of this type of pepper is carried by a larger one, resembling a mother carrying a baby, hence the name “Baby Pepper.” Located at the border between Xichang and Ya’an, Shengli Village in Yonghe Town, Jinkouhe, sits amid steep mountain roads at elevations ranging from 600 to 1,600 meters, where vast areas of prickly ash groves thrive. In previous years, before the tourism industry in the Jinkouhe Grand Canyon was extensively developed, the price of prickly ash was low—dried prickly ash sold for only 30 to 40 yuan per kilogram. As a result, mountain farmers neglected their management, and the originally over 1,700 mu of prickly ash fields shrank to just over 500 mu. However, scarcity drives value. In recent years, as production has decreased, prices have gone up. This year, Yu Fuyou, a villager from Group 7 of Shengli Village, harvested over 150 kilograms of dried prickly ash from the intercropped plants on his contracted land of just over 6 mu, earning more than 20,000 yuan. Leveraging market forces, the town has seized the opportunity and planned to develop an additional 2,000 mu of prickly ash plantings in Shengli Village. In two to three years, the average annual income of households growing prickly ash is expected to exceed 30,000 yuan, and the prickly ash industry is becoming the “green bank” of mountain farmers.