Photo: Lin'an Release
By Zhu Jingning
The spring thunders woke up a kind of green "fairies" on the mountains—the bamboo shoots.
The industrious farmers get up before dawn and set off to the bamboo forests with their hoes to look for these "fairies". Despite the continuous drizzles and slippery trails, they are happy to be bamboo-shoot hunters in this harvesting time.
Families in Lin'an always have bamboo shoots on their dinner tables in spring, either braised or stir-fried, in soup or on rice. Tender bamboo shoots are not so picky about their partnering ingredients, from poultry to pork to fish, all making a good dish. To preserve this unique delicious food all year round, villagers will boil the fresh bamboo shoots with spices and dry the finger-wide shreds by a charcoal fire.
Lin'an District is a major producing area of the bamboos in China and its people have learned to process and cook bamboo shoots since the Southern and Northern Dynasties (AD 420-589).
The "100 bamboo shoots banquet", including more than 100 elaborate dishes made with bamboo shoots and vegetables either hot or cold, has been included in the "Famous Chinese Banquets". Salted pork and spring bamboo shoots soup, a Lin'an specialty, was identified as one of Hangzhou's famous dishes in 1956.
How can you succeed in digging up the bamboo shoots? Here are some tips.
Time:
It is the best time to dig up spring bamboo shoots from late March to Qingming Festival every year.
Place:
Spring shoots usually grow around adult bamboos, especially those that look healthy and have lush green leaves.
Tools:
A hoe and a pair of gloves
Process:
1. The shoots usually grow on the slender underground stems of bamboos. Attention should be paid to whether there are bamboo shoots in the direction of bamboo stems.
2. It is not easy but if you find that soil appears soft and slightly uplifted, there may be new bamboo shoots underneath. Fresh shoots often grow about two to three centimeters out of the ground. You have to dig the whole thing out.
3. To dig them out, you need a hoe. Keep digging the soil lump around until you see the roots of the bamboo shoots.
4. Cut them at the bottom and fill the soil back on.
Notice:
1. Be careful not to hurt the new shoots, old shoots or bamboo stems while digging.
2. No excessive digging. Get the permission of the host before doing so.
The Tianmu Mountain is located in Lin'an District, some 1,500 meters above the sea level. Its subtropical monsoon humid climate is perfect for the growth of bamboo. Why don't you try a hunting or banquet of fresh bamboo shoots on an agritainment farm at the Tianmu Mountain?