La! La! La! Today Little Tangerine will take you to fruit picking! Our teacher helped us reserve the schedule of picking citruses and invite Leader Gu of Dakeng’s fruit marketing team to be a presenter for us. He was very familiar with Dakeng’s plants and agricultural products. He was expert in the plentiful natrual ecology. On the way to the fruit garden, he could tell us much splendid knowledge concerned with the flowers and trees we met such as bamboo shoots, Custuta, Mikania micrantha, alocasia odora and oranges. He let us know that there are still numerous plants waiting for us to  understand and appreciate in the nature.

Activity’s subject：

Pick fruits happily

Activity’s place：

Leader Mingjia Gu’s Citrus Garden

Date & Time：

8 a.m., Thursday, November 30^th, 2006

Activity’s content：

Pick citrus and the ecological guidance of citrus and bamboo shoots

Attending members：

Sihen Chen, Yiling Ke, Yawen Lin, Yinsyuan Liao, Yajhu Hu, Yijie Huang, Shuyuan Jhang,Weiling Chen, Zihsing Huang, Teacher Huijhen Cai, Teacher Bijhu Li, Teacher Peishan Cheng

Activity’s process：

  As soon as we arrived at the schoolwe all lined up to get on the bus. After we arrived our destination, Uncle Gu kindly picked us up by himself. Because the road was too narrow for driving, we got off the bus and hiked to the mountain. Uncle Gu pointed at green roof and said,” The shorter house beside the green roof is my house.” Well, it didn’t look far, so we took hiking as an exercise.

  Seeing the beautiful view along the way, we saw a lot of citruses at the far.  Everyone yelled happily, but Uncle Gu told us they were all oranges. How come they looked alike? Uncle Gu pointed to a scrap of paper and let us guess what it was and its function. Originally it was a flycatcher. Beacause  the drosophila especially liked yellow and carophyllene, so the fruit farmers applied it on the paper first, pesticides later and finally completed the flycatcher.

  Walking out of the orange garden, Uncle Gu was busy introducing us mango trees, banana trees and cordia dichotoma, which was unsually seen in winter. No wonder he was the leader of the fruit marketing team.

 Walked to Uncle Gu’s fruit garden.What an excellent view!

 This is a citrus instead of an orange !

The homemade flycatcher hanging on the tree.

This is a mango tree.

Beautiful bananas

The peach tree also bloomed a flower under the sunshine.

  Uncle Gu pointed to the destroyed rock by the bridge and told us it was caused by the 921 earthquake. He also pointed to a yellow plant like a spider’s web and said, “ This is Cuscutae and the white one is Mikania micrantha. The Mikania micrantha looks white when it is blooming, but it is the bane of agricultural products.” Cuscutae survives by attaching the trees and plants. It will suck the nutrition from the plants on the tree and finally cover the whole plant to keep the plant from photosynthesizing. Mikania micrantha is like Custuta. These two kinds of plants can’t remove easily. In additon, their seeds will spread away by wind and occur the ecological catastrophe.

Question:

What is Cuscutae? How does it afftect other plants?

Answer:

Cuscutae will bring the ecological catastrophe in the future. It can live without the dirt, so it is also called “ cassytha.” It attaches the plant with a formidable life, so it is very difficult to get rid of and threats other plants’ life.

Question:

Is it possible to get rid of Mikania micrantha completely?

Answer:

Mikania micrantha is also difficult to get rid of. Even though it is not troublesome as Cuscutae to take away, its seed will spread by wind. It is difficult to clean Mikania micrantha at one time. In the fruit garden, special people likely clean it thorooughly, but it is impossible to do it in the field.

This is the stuff for grandma’s congee.

You can found the ruin by the bridge for the 921 earthquake.

The Cuscutae covered the whole agricultural product.

Mikania micrantha can also cover the whole agricultural product.

Question:

Can you introduce the appearance of Thorny bamboo?

Answer:

There is no thorn on it at the first sight, but there are many small thorns on its root. In the agricultural society people used to take it as the construction material or the carrying pole, or whatever. Finally peole can recycle it for making paper.

Question:

When does the bamboo shoot end its life?

Answer:

At the bottom of the bamboo shoot are small slices of the leaves. That means it is the time to produce bamboo shoots but it is almost the end of its life.

Question:

When does it produce ?

Answer:

Well. Uncertainly. Sometimes it needs to plant for four or five years and sometimes it would produce soon after the harvest.
There are two big bamboo problems—one is the blooming and the other is a poison disease commonly called “ bamboo shoot tack,” which is the black tough spot in the bamboo shoots.
Take a look! The joints of the bamboo are the place to produce bamboo shoots. Each maternal bamboo must be left for producing more than twenty bamboo shoots from its both sides.

Bamboos must《Leave Three, Remove Four, Abandon Seven》

Uncle Gu introduced us the kinds and characteristics of the plants attentively. He let us understand that there are so many plants in Dakeng and the harvest period of the citrus in the soutern Taiwan is earlier than the central Taiwan. Uncle Gu spoke out one Taiwanese phrase freely--“Leave three, Remove four, Abandon seven.”  It was so insightful. Everone was dmbstruck after hearing that.  It means the bamboo shoots can keep in the third year, but they must chop down in the fourth year. In the seventh year, they are all abandon for the useless. Uncle Gu said the place to produce bamboo shoots is on the joits. They will still keep producing after chopping. The stock must be left so that its both will keep producing continually. On bamboo can produce twenty bamboo shoots at one harvest time. Uncle Gu still told us to cover black cloth on bamboos to prevent the water in bamboo shoots from evaporating and yielding grass. This way can save many human resources and make bamboo shoots better. This is really the treasure from farmers’ experienced intelligence.

 Bamboo shoots must be covered with the black cloth.

This is the bamboo shoot.

Yellow bamboo refers to the third year.

This is a stock.

Wow! We saw the bamboo shoots.

The bamboo is producing.

Question:

Eh... What is that black round stuff?

Answer:

Guess.

Question:

What is it for a tiny seed?

Answer:

Well. That is a bitter seed, the material for the tea seed oil. After bearing a baby, the woman needs it to nourish the body in the postpartum rest and recuperation.

Question:

How come there is a board on the citrus tree?

Answer:

Because the citrus is afraid of raining, then it is not scared anymore.

Question:

Why is the citrus afraid of raining?

Answer:

Because the ripe citrus’ skin is thin and fragile, it is afraid of getting hurt by water. That’s why it is so afraid of raining.

Question:

Is the harvest time of the citrus here as the same as the other place?

Answer:

The southern citrus is ripe earlier. The ripe time in the central Taiwan is almost the same. But the green citrus is sold now.

Question:

What is the green citrus?

Answer:

The green citrus means the premature citrus starts to be sold. Some fruit farmers store the citrus after harvesting and sell it after Chinese New Year for the better selling price.

Question:

What is that big leaf like a taro?

Answer:

Oh. That is wild taro.

Question:

What is the wild taro for?

Answer:

Its juice belongs to alkali. If you were stung by insects or bees, you can apply it. Sometimes you can use its leaf to keep out rain or to be a pad.

Question:

Is the taro of the wild taro eatable?

Answer:

Some people eat it. The aboriginal would cook it for surviving in the mountains. They have to cook many times for it is poison, at least four or five times. In addition, people need to pour the water out for each time to remove the poison  so that they can start to eat.

Question:

Is its taro very big?

Answer:

The roots of the wild taro are mostly on the ground, rarely under the ground. Its root is very thick and attach to the ground fixedly.

Question:

Can the wild taro bloom?

Answer:

It can also bloom, but the flowers are not beautiful.

Guess what? Originally it is a bitter seed.

 The excessive bright red banlangen during the SARS period

Coffee beans

Poison wild taro

The pomelo tree

This is the green bamboo shoot

  Finally we could start to pick the fruit. Everyone tried to look for the biggest and the reddest citrus everywhere. I eventually found a fat and red citrus, so I pulled the citrus directly. Uncle Gu said, “ Don’t hurry. Be patient. There is a correct way to pick the citrus to keep it from being destroyed.”
We had to pick the citrus with its stem about two centimeters and the seveal leaves on it. If we didn’t follow this direction, then ants would eat it from the hole of the stalk. Therefore, I decided to pick another citrus and must follow Uncle Gu’s direction this time. After several minutes, everyone’s hands were full of the big citruses. We couldn’t wait to peel them.  It really tasted sweet after taking a big bite!

Uncle Gu taught us the correct steps to pick the citrus as the followings.

1.

Aim the target firstly : Choose the the color of the fruit skin which turns into the glisteningly yellow. If the bottom area is bigger, the fruit skin is rough and it feels heavy while holding it, then it is the fleshy and juicy citrus. 

2.

The correct way to pick the citrus: One hand holds the citrus and the other scissors it’s stalk above two centimeters.  After picking the fruit, cut the stalk flat with the scissor. Never pull or grap the fruit  lest harm the fruit tree or the citrus.

3.

Place the citrus in the shaded area with the air. It is because the citrus would still respire and have metabolism after being picked, so the higher temperature it has in the place, the yellower the citrus will become. In addition, the vatamin C in it would lose more quickly. If place the citrus in the shaded area, then its flesh will taste sweeter and more delicious.

We saw the citrus abounded in the mountains and the valleys.

This is the citrus-Ponkan. The harvest is duringChinese New Year.

The citrus-Maogu produced less.

It’s the productive period of the citrus-Ponkan.

The beautiful citrus tree.

This is neither the citrus nor the lemon but the lime.

This is so red that it must taste very sweet.

 I wanted this one.

Uncle Gu, did I pick right?

Took a bite quickly. Wow! It’s so sweet.

This is the new type—“Goregeous red.”

I hold a citrus by myself and took a picture with Uncle Gu.

The learning remarks of “Dakeng soybean sauce” team

Sihen Chen

Remember to “eat readily after picking.” It was great! It was super juicy!

Yiling Ke

The citrus tasted sweet and delicious. You must regret if you don’t eat it! Bravo! It tastes more delicious if you pick it by yourself.

Yawen Lin

Dakeng’s citrus tasted sweet and enchanting. Next time when you come to Dakeng, remember to pick the citrus first.

Yinsyuan Liao

It was surprisingly that the banlangen could prevent SARS. It is so magic!

Yajhu Hu

Dakeng’s bamboo shoot is the most delicious. Next time if you want to eat bamboo shoots, remember to think of Dakeng!

Yijie Huang

In fact, I don’t like eating the citrus at all. But Dakeng’s citrus is the exception because it has sweet flavor and let people enjoy it so much as to forget to put it down.

Shuyuan Jhang

I am used to eating the citrus. But it was the first time for me to pick the citrus by myself. It was so touching.

Weiling Chen

I felt sweeter after eating the citrus from the fruit farmers’ attentive care.

Zihsing Huang

I really like eating the citrus, especially Dakeng’s citrus was unique delicious. Bravo!

Huijhen Cai

The citrus picked by myself was the most delicious and the most sweet.

Bijhu Li

I felt the enjoyment of Taiwanese farmers’ harvest by their hard working when I saw the plentiful golden citrus.

Peishan Cheng

After this fruit picking activity, the children and I had a better understanding of Dakeng. It was really not easy.