Xinjiang Cherry
9 min readIn Xin jiang, the spring bringing warm wind touches the big streets and small alleys of the city in April; the chill of winter fades out gradually from people’s halving clothes. The endless crowd on the streets and lanes, and their brisk and wide steps, imply that spring is coming and the weather is warming all the time. If you wander in these bustling crowds, it s no big deal to find that, there is always a kind of crystal clear red far away on the petty dealer’s cart, reflecting attractive luster, and this is Xinjiang’s typical fruit-cherry.
As for the cherry, people are familiar with it. Bright in color, blackish red fruits, acid in sweet, these are all cherry’s descriptions. Indeed, the beauty of the cherry lies in its brightappearance; the freshness of the cherry is because of its being produced in the early spring.
However, the specialty which makes cherry collect myriad love in one is probably connected with a plaintive and affecting story.
It is said that, long time ago,a beautiful girl named Yingying was in love with a scholar who had failed the imperial examination. They concealed their names and lived an unconstraint life, working at sunrise and resting at sunset. Three years just passed as things never changed. One day, the scholar suddenly noticed that because of the laborious cultivation these years, Yingying’s physical condition was much worse than ever before. Consequently, the scholar made up his mind to study hard again, and go to the capital to take the imperial examinations. Before setting off, Yingying told the scholar lovingly,”No matter one year, five years or even ten years,I’m willing to wait for you under the tree in front of the gate.”The scholar reluctantly went to the capital for examination with the girl s missing. As expected, for god’s blessing, the scholar won the first place in the examination. The emperor called him in, and awarded him a title of nobility. The princesswas deeply attracted by his brilliance, and she told the emperor her admiration for the scholar. Thereupon, the imperial edict fell which ordered the scholar to marry the princess. When the scholar got the edict, he would rather die than submit because he knew that a girl is always waiting for him stilly. As a result, he was sent to prison. When Yingying got the news, she came to the capital day and night without rest, after got through the relationship she saw the scholar, and entreated tearfully to ask the scholar to marry the princess and it didn’t matter if she becomes a concubine or even a servant girl. But the scholar refused to agree all along, so the girl had to go back home. When the princess heard about this incident, she hit upon an idea. She sent her underling to tell the girl that the scholar had been forced to suicide for his unyielding. The girl became dumbstruck immediately, and then, she raised a sword and cut her throat under the tree in front of the gate. When thescholar heard about the girl’s death, he realized that it was the princess’s trick, so he implored the emperor to degrade him as a civilian. After going back home, the scholar stood under the tree in front of the gate. The deep missing of the girl and the past rose in his mind and turned to tears dropping down to the ground. Suddenly,a small sapling came up, blossoming fruits. The scholar looked at it and found that the fruits were the same as the lips of the girl which seemed to be saying something. Therefore, the scholar named this tree the”cherry tree”, and waited under the tree for his remaining years. At that, the parlance of “the small mouth is as red as the cherry”came into being.
The uncommon legend must be connected with the elegant fruits. It is not a bit excessive to describe cherry as elegant. Cherry, or you can call it Yingtao or Jingtao, belongs to the rose family deciduous tree. When maturing, the fruits are with bright red color, dainty and exquisite, tasty and good looking, full of nutriments and high medical care value. Cherry matures in the mid of April every year,a period when few fruits will appear on the market, and it is just the “temporary shortage”period, the crusted fruits are lack of freshness feelings, while the current year’s fruits have not born fruits yet. The taste budsof the people who have not tasted fresh fruits for a long time may be sort of baldness and vapidity. Just like providing timely help, cherry brings deep spring flavor, attracts people’s attentions, and stimulates the secretion of gastric acid. If you see cherry placed on the carts of the petty dealers, you may as well walk there and pick one or two and have a taste.
It doesn’t matter if you buy or not, the passionate peddlers won’t bother about it.
Cherry enjoys warm and light, and grows in the sunny side of the mountain slope or ditches’ edges. It is suitable for being planted at a height of 300-600 meters above sea level, between northern latitude 33 and 39°. It shall be prevented from water logging, drought, wind and freezing, and is suited to be planted in the areas where the annual average temperature is above 10℃, the temperature change is not severe in the early spring, it is cool and dry in summer, and where there is moderate rainfall and abundant sunlight.
Xinjiang has appropriate and special climate and water and soil conditions, so that the cherry sources from there has high sugar, sweet and delicious, the meat is thick and juicy with unique flavor and eutrophy. The climate of Kashgar is very dry with long summer but short winter; it is almost sunny everyday from June to September, when it just is a season for fruits and melons to be mature. Cherry is mature a little earlier, which is honored as the “first fruit in early spring”, but the cherry from Kashgar matures at the latest time in China, being on tree for a long time, it is more sweet than other cherries.
Cherry seems always be continuously connected with grace, charm and sweetness.
When seeing the binate fruits, you may feel that you are seeing a couple of shy lovers hand in hand. Wandering in the cherry trees, lower your head to dodge the tree branches, wave your hand to drive the bees away, and you will find the tender fruits on the branches and leaves just like the rubies inlaying on the jadeite. You may feel like the Monkey King rushing into the Flat Peach Garden of the Queen of Heaven, picking from this tree, andtasting on another. When finding a tree where the cherry tasting good, you just need a whistle to gather the others. Although the momentum is fearsome, people will pick the fruits gently so as not to triturate the coy fruits. Put one into the mouth, slipping over the lips, only chewing for one or two times, and the delicacy following the fruit juice melts in the lips and teeth, with a feeling of kissing in the wind.
The taste of cherry is sweet with slightly sour, little fresh in the sour. It is fresh with richness, and it is also full of nutrition. The short bar and green lining leaves bringa refreshing and sanguine feeling. Accustomed to seeing the murky grey in the whole winter, at first sight of this light green, you will feel really comfortable. Pick up a dark red cherry and put it into the mouth, do not eager to bite through the pulp, hold it in the mouth for a moment, let the after flavor melt in the mouth, have a bite, the pulp will rapidly release the sour and sweet juice after being extruded, and dye the full mouth fragrant and sweet. The cherry pulp is soft and abundant, the inner core is full of aspartame which is not the heart-penetrating sweet, and the light sour can be appetizing. In a word, the taste is very good. According to the analysis by the nutritionist, in every 100 grams cherry fresh fruit, there are 8 grams of carbohydrate,12 grams of protein,6 grams of calcium,3 grams of phosphorus and 5.9grams of iron, and the content of vitamin C is higher than that of apple and citrus. Since ancient times, cherry has been named as “beauty fruit”, and some Chinese medical books say that cherry can “moisten skins”,”make people good appearance and beautiful”, and frequently eating cherries can make skins smoother and moister. This is mainly because of the extremely rich iron content in cherry; the iron content in 100 grams of the cherry pulp is 6 times of that in strawberry,10 times of jujube,13 times of hawthorn, and 20 times of apple with the equal weight, so it is the top one among all the fruits.
Except for its rich nutrition, cherry also has high medicinal value. Cherry’s roots, leaves, branches, fruits and cores can all be used as medicine. The fruits are warm in nature and sweet in taste, which have the functions of conditioning the medium and benefiting the spleen, regulating breathing and activating blood, calming the liver and removing heat. The seed cores are neutral in nature and bitter in taste, and can promote eruptions and detoxify.
Cherry also has the function of promoting the regeneration of the hemoglobin, which can bring benefits to the anemic patients; its iron content is higher than that of any other fruits, which can prevent anemia.A nice-looking color is not the only advantage of cherry. Eating more cherries can make people become beautiful and prevent gynaecopathia, so cherry is the”minion”of women. For the gout patients, cherry is quite effective on eliminating muscle soreness and inflammation. It contains abundant anthocyanin, anthocyanidin and vitamin E, which all can promote blood circulation, contribute to the excretion of the uric acid, and remit the discomfort caused by gout and arthritis, and they are all effective antioxidants. Especially the anthocyanin in cherry, it can reduce the inflammation probability and play a role in detumescence and alleviating pain. Because of the short tim on market of the fresh cherry, people recommend to steep cherry in the wine so as to eat constantly. However, wine is a diet contraindication for the gout patients, so you’d better juice the fresh cherry, or put the cherry directly into the hyperthermia infusion bottle andboil in the pot with high temperature for disinfection, and this can ensure the preservation of the cherry for one year. But such method also has its disadvantage, which is losing some effective constituents. So when you eat, you can eat more than usual. Note that even though cherry has the function of remitting the arthralgia, it still cannot replace the drug therapy. People who frequently use computers may feel aching pains of their fingers joints, wrists, shoulders, necks and backs, while the nutrients contained in cherry are all effective antioxidants, which can eliminate muscular soreness, and is beneficial to human bodies.
People who need not prohibit against alcoholic drinks, such as non-gout patients, can steep cherry in the wine and drink. Pay attention to the choice of the mild grain brewed wine, such as rice wine, millet wine and kaoliang spirit. Storing in the light-tight and shady place can extend the shelf period of the cherry wine, which can be about 8 months to one year.
Immerse cherry into the rice vinegar for a week, drinking with proper amount in the morning and evening is very effective to alleviating the symptoms caused by long-term using of computers.
Skills shall be mastered to select fresh cherry. Choose the cherry with pedicel, bright color and full epidermis as far as possible. If you cannot eat up all the cherry at once, you’d better store the surplus part at a temperature of -1℃. Cherry belongs to berry, and it is easy to be damaged, so be sure to handle gently.
On the delicate cherry, one dewdrop slips gently and the slight fruity smell haunts around you. Until the midsummer, you can still see cherry on the market, and it still holds a special status among the entire fruits feast. That’s why there is a saying,”Kashgar’s cherry bears comparison with pearl”.
