The Jingtang Lotus Root is a root vegetable, usually brown in colour. The plant probably originated in Jingtang Town,Huadu District,Guangzhou City,Guangdong Province ,and was originally cultivated for its bodys and seeds. The most commonly eaten part of the plant is the taproot, although the greens are sometimes eaten as well. This plant is an aquatic perennial. Under favorable circumstances its seeds may remain viable for many years, with the oldest recorded lotus germination being from that of seeds 1,300 years old recovered from a dry lakebed in northeastern China.
History edit
Jingtang Lotus Root has a history of more than 800 years ,which is in a 20 acres large lotus root ponds. Lotus root production history is more than 200 years.
Myths and legends edit
One day, Eight Immortals ① wandered through here to go to Xiangu’s ② home to eat green litchi . Suddenly they felt an evil air rushed up. Tieguai Li smell and said, "It is bad, there must have a plague." Eight immortals had a look, only to see the barren hills ridge and dried field cracks. Hundreds of villagers were skinny with weakness and some collapsed on the ground. Some were trying to run away from the village. Eight Immortals looked very anxious, Tieguai Lee smiled: "Do not worry, I have a idea." He took out a Dan from one side of the gourd, put into his mouth and bite. Then with saliva he sprayed, at the moment, it was raining which made the barren hills and fields became green and ponds was full of water. At that moment, the powerless villagers rushed to the side of the ridge to collect wild vegetables. After seeing Eight Immortals calmed down. However, Xiangu still worried. Because the villagers were thin and weak and had no food. She remembered the merciful Avalokitesvara gave her a few lotus seeds and said to her: "When see the human suffering, you can throw the lotus seed to save the world .”So she quickly took out lotus seeds from the sleeves, throw them down, which just fell into a large reservoir. In a while, the pond grew lotus flowers, lotus leaves. After seeing that the Eight Immortals left. This year the winter coming, when the lotus leaf withered. The experienced peasants knew that the lotus root was ripe and led the villagers to dig the lotus root and eat it. It’s unexpected that everyone who eat this lotus root became strong and healthy, generations are also thriving. Note: ① Eight Immortals: Chinese immortals including Tieguai Li, Guolao Zhang, Lizi Han, Guojiu Cao ,Dongbin Lv , Xiangzi Han , Caihe Lan and Xianggu He,who often wander together. ②Xiangu He : One of the Eight Immortals, Guangzhou Zengcheng people, the green litchi is from her.
Appearance edit
Its section is about 4 to 5 cm, each little part is about 40 cm.
The shape of the plant is the same as that of a common lotus root. However, the plant's body is weird. The lotus root produced from the pond looks rough, thin and long, the rough is slightly thicker than a thumb, and the length is more than 1 meter, or even 2 meters,which looks like the tree roots or firewood.And its sections are slender.
Botany edit
The lotus roots are planted in the soil of the pond or river bottom, while the leaves float on top of the water surface or are held well above it. The flowers are usually found on thick stems rising several centimeters above the
leaves. The leaves may be as large as 60 cm in diameter, while the showy flowers can be up to 20 cm in diameter.
Production edit
The former lotus pond is about 20 acres, so every year lotus root produced 20000 kilos. But from the end of 2008, the village set up an agricultural development company to expand the production to 70 acres, the planting area reached 66667 square meters. When the production rose, the output became about five or six million kilograms. The lotus roots' stems make with water.When volatilize water,it concentrated all the nutrients.But 18 kilos of fresh lotus root can only make 1 kg dry lotus root .
Usage edit
Lotus roots are often pickled with rice vinegar, sugar, chili or garlic. It has a crunchy texture with sweet-tangy flavours. In Asian cuisine, it is popular with salad, prawns, sesame oil or coriander leaves. Lotus roots have been found to be rich in dietary fiber, vitamin C, potassium, thiamin, riboflavin, Vitamin B6 phosphorus, copper, and manganese, while very low in saturated fat.
Storage edit
In ordinary air it will store l-2 days.After the lotus root is harvested, it becomes easy to wilt and decay and becomes brown.
Features edit
It has three features which are different form common lotus root. The first is that the lotus root growing in the pound is thin and long, looks like withered branches, very ugly. Although this lotus root does not look good, it cooks and tastes delicious. Particularly, the nutritious can cure some ill, so it was called "plant antler." When harvest, many people come in from all directions to buy lotus root, the price per kilogram sold more than 20 yuan, sometimes more expensive than the average prize. Some people wanted to remove the lotus root elsewhere, but when harvest it changed, the taste is not as good as the original pound produced.
The second is that after lotus root harvest in winter , people no need to plant it again. As long as putting water into the pond .Next spring, lotus leaf will grow up and full of the pond .Besides, people do not have to fat and do not have to spend time to manage, as long as you don’t dry it. Wait until the winter when you can dry yield again, the same great harvest, almost a thousand kilograms per 666.67 square meters. So some people call it "immortal lotus."
The third is that this lotus pond is belong to the whole village. Every year after the winter solstice, the village set a day for drying water and digging, the whole village regardless of men, women and children, everyone can dig lotus root, who dug it who own it. When digging, people do not use the hoe, because the lotus root is thin and long. Also, they grow in the middle of the deep mud, so people should dig by hand in order to dig it all out. Because the lotus root here can sell high price, everybody is very careful to dig, the longer it is ,the higher prize it sells. Usually one can be meter long. The longest was two meters, weighing four to five pounds.
