Autumn brings refreshing breezes and abundant fruit. Walking into Shahe Village in Fule Town, water persimmon trees across the hillsides and around the houses are ripening in succession. Plump orange persimmons hang from the branches like little lanterns, reflecting the smiling faces of villagers celebrating the harvest and telling the sweet stories passed down through generations in these villages.
Shahe Village has a long history of water persimmon cultivation, with about 100 years of growing tradition. Through a century of selection and inheritance, the water persimmons here have developed unique and excellent qualities: the flesh is tender, sticky, sweet, and aromatic, with a delicate and dense texture and very few fibers. One bite releases rich juice that is refreshingly sweet without astringency. It is an authentic local delicacy and the taste of home remembered by many.
Century-old trees rooted in fertile soil absorb the essence of the mountains. The fruit they produce not only tastes superb but also carries the local farming culture and rural sentiment. The Party branch secretary of Shahe Village said: "Almost every household in Shahe Village has a few persimmon trees. The village has planted more than 1,000 water persimmon trees in total, with annual output stable at around 300 tons. Local growers use traditional, original ecological management methods, without ripening agents or excessive pesticides, preserving the most authentic flavor of water persimmons. Thanks to their unique taste, water persimmons are very popular in nearby markets."
Some farmers in Caiyuan and other villages also grow them. Persimmon trees can be seen around houses, at the edges of fields, and in corners of the land. Every ripening season, persimmon trees light up the villages, enriching people's fruit baskets and enhancing the rural landscape, becoming a unique and beautiful countryside scene.
When the water persimmon season arrives, growers in the village become busy. Villagers usually pick ripe, plump persimmons three to five days in advance, carefully sort and basket them, add wild sour docynia, and leave them until golden and translucent before eating. On market days, they set up stalls in the town to sell them. Freshly basketed water persimmons are bright in color and excellent in taste, becoming hot-selling items at the market.
Granny Luo from Shangtuanqing Village, now over seventy years old, is an experienced water persimmon grower in the village. With just a few trees, she reaps steady happiness year after year. "My family grows seven or eight water persimmon trees. The varieties have been passed down from our ancestors. They grow well and bear lots of fruit. This year, the most productive one can yield more than 300 kilograms," Granny Luo said with a big smile, holding freshly picked water persimmons. "The water persimmons in Shahe taste so good, soft, sticky, sweet, and fiberless. Everyone loves them. On market days, I pick two baskets to sell at three to four yuan per kilogram, and they sell out quickly. Not only can our family enjoy them, but we can also earn real income."
These small water persimmons are both a century-old delicious传承 and a "golden fruit" that increases villagers' income, as well as a moving picture of beautiful rural life. In recent years, relying on its unique natural conditions and century-old cultivation heritage, Shahe Village in Fule Town has continued to protect old varieties and improve quality, allowing this distinctive local fruit to leave the village and enter the market. Currently, during the peak harvest and sales season for water persimmons, bright red persimmons hang on the branches, and busy market stalls welcome a steady stream of customers. Villagers in Shahe and surrounding villages are enjoying the full joy of harvest thanks to this sweet water persimmon, and on the road of rural revitalization, their lives are becoming more prosperous and broader.
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