Xinghua Duotian Taro

Xinghua Duotian Taro

　　Xinghua Duotian Taro

　　Outside the eastern gate of Xinghua lie the “Thirty-Six Duotian.” Legend has it that this was where the “Eight Trigrams Formation” was set up to defeat the Jin army, and the area is now known as Duotian Township. The township has over 16,500 acres of arable land, with about half planted with taro in summer. The annual taro yield exceeds twenty million jin.

　　Many places across the country grow taro, but none tastes as good as Duotian’s. Why? Taro requires water throughout its entire growth cycle—it can’t survive without it, yet it also fears waterlogged conditions. Taro grown submerged in water won’t cook properly.

　　The Duotian fields are shaped like the “Eight Trigrams.” The larger plots are seven or eight tenths of an acre, while the smaller ones are just two tenths. Surrounded by water on all sides, they are long and shaped like winter melons floating on the water. The water is easy to irrigate, the soil rich in nutrients, and the plants easy to manage. After the Busy Planting season, Longtan taro needs watering every day, while Zishu taro needs watering every other day. For the forty-five days from Lesser Heat to End of Heat, watering must be done daily, and for Longtan taro, even twice a day—truly a case of “Who knows that every grain on the plate comes from hard toil.”

　　To keep the soil around the taro roots moist, loose, and fertile, water plants are generally laid down twice at the base of the taro, or a layer of mud slurry is poured, or mud from the ridges is scooped and heaped around the roots. This prevents the taro from turning green at the top, as green-tipped taro doesn’t taste good.

　　Every year in autumn around August, when taro comes to market, locals transport it by boat to cities and villages along the rivers for sale. Taro is both cheap and delicious, serving as both a staple and a side dish. Locals often say, “Ten jin of taro equals eight jin of rice.” Taro is a beloved delicacy among both urban and rural residents, and some even regard it as a symbol of prosperity, saying that eating taro on New Year’s Eve will bring “encounters with good people” in the coming year, and “biting into a big taro brings great wealth.” Nowadays, thanks to the establishment of the Xinghua Freezing Plant, Zishu taro is processed to be about the size of sticky rice balls—about twelve or thirteen per jin—and is a bestseller in cities like Nanjing and Shanghai.