Yanshi Silver Stem Vegetable 偃师银条

Yanshi Silver Stem Vegetable (偃师银条) is a long, white vegetable grown in Yanshi (偃师), a district of Luoyang (洛阳) in Henan, and a geographical-indication product of Yanshi.

Where it comes from

The crop grows on the alluvial plain of the Yi (伊河) and Luo (洛河) rivers. Shi Yaxin (史亚欣), general manager of a leading Yanshi silver-stem processor, told the district's media centre that it is translucent, leaves no residue and has no stringy fibre, that it is nicknamed the "world's wonder vegetable" (世界奇菜), and that it has come down from its days as a tribute to the imperial court. He also presents it as rich in stachyose (水苏糖), a sugar.

Yuetan Town (岳滩镇), where the district government's report is set, credits its flat, fertile land, good irrigation and sandy riverside soil for crops including silver stem, and the industry now reaches several towns and subdistricts including Yuetan and Yiluo (伊洛).

Harvest and processing

Harvest comes in winter. At a growing base in Yuetan Village, tractors turn the soil while growers sort and bag the stems; digging them out is fiddly work that needs a large number of hands each season.

Shi's company works with contracted farmers and automated lines to turn fresh stems into canned goods, meat-free sauces and more than a dozen other products, sold across China and exported to countries including Russia and Japan.