Jun Qianzi——Fruit Knowledge

When it comes to Jun Qianzi, some friends may not know what it is. If it were said to be soft dates, everyone would probably understand. It is a close relative of persimmon and the rootstock of most persimmon trees, which means that most persimmon trees are grafted on Junqianzi. Everyone must have eaten Junqianzi. The fruit is small and meaty, but there is not much meat. The persimmon tree is just the opposite, with large, fleshy fruits and no seeds.

Junqianzi is also called soft jujube, black jujube, black jujube (note), persimmon jujube, and white knot jujube. It is the dried fruit of the Junqianzi tree. Nearly round or oblong, about 1.5 cm in diameter, black with white fruit frost, high quality, sweet and glutinous, for food, and can also be used to make wine. It is used as medicine in traditional Chinese medicine to treat thirst and relieve irritability.

Junqianzi is a deciduous tree belonging to the family Persimmonaceae. The tree is about ten meters tall and has oval leaves. It blooms light yellow or light red flowers in summer. The fruit matures in October and is yellow at first, then turns black. , there are several seeds. When the fruit matures and leaves the tree, it is basically dry and can be dried after being lightly exposed to the sun. Due to its poor color and aroma, as a dried fruit, its sales nationwide are not large. In some places, it is fried and dried and ground into powder to replace grain. It is sold well in Inner Mongolia, Northeast and other places. After the Qingming Festival, the climate in the south of the Yangtze River becomes warmer, so it is easy to deteriorate and should not be stored for a long time.

Junqianzi is native to the Yellow River Basin and has been the main rootstock for propagating persimmon trees in northern my country since the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Origin and variety Junqianzi is mainly produced in Shandong, Hebei and Henan provinces. Shanxi, Shaanxi, Liaoning, Beijing and other provinces and cities also have production. The distribution areas of each province are basically the same as the persimmon production areas. The distribution of main producing provinces is as follows.

Shandong: Yidu, Linqu, Laiwu, Pingyi, Yishui, Feixian, Junan, Licheng, Zhangqiu, Tai'an, Juxian and Tengxian.

Hebei: Zanhuang, Shexian, Wu'an, Neiqiu, and Xingtai counties.

Henan: Lin County, Hui County.

The main sales areas of Junqianzi varieties are generally divided according to the number of seeds. The appearance characteristics and qualities are as follows:

Seedless: Most are oblong, the fruit is large and thick, and the taste is good. Sweet and waxy, the core has degenerated into a thin film.

Semi-core: oblong or round, with thicker flesh, sweet and glutinous taste, and 1 to 3 hard cores inside.

Whole core: Most of them are round, the fruit is small and the flesh is thin, and there are more than five hard cores.

The specifications and grades of the main origins are as follows:

Soft dates (unified goods)

(1) Solid core: uniform size, no impurities in the body and no Broken head, each grain has more than six cores.

(2) Half-core: uniform size, no impurities in the body, no broken heads, and more than five cores per grain.

(3) Seedless: uniform in size, with no impurities or broken heads in the body, and no more than 20% of the fruit with less than two cores is allowed.

The varieties should be distinguished first during the inspection. The proportion of seedless grains in seedless varieties should be above 80%. If the system goods or varieties are mixed, the price should be based on quality. The key points of sensory inspection are as follows:

Dry humidity: The normal moisture content of Junqianzi is 18-20%. The dry and wet grains are separated normally and there is no adhesion or agglomeration.

Color: Normal, dark with fine wrinkles and slight white frost, and vice versa for poor.

Grain: good, the grain size is uniform, the pedicle is off (shaped like the sepals of persimmon), and vice versa.

Meat quality and taste: good meat is thick, sweet and soft, bad meat is thin, light or sour, astringent, and stiff to eat. In addition, check for various impurities.

Note: In some areas, black dates are also called black dates, so avoid confusion.

Tianliang

December 6, 2021