CHANGSHA: By the vast Yanzhi Lake, villagers cut the roots of mushrooms and put them into sorted baskets in preparation for sale.
These mushrooms are nothing out of the ordinary, yet they grow out of something special: fermented reeds.
The lake is located in the city of Yuanjiang, central China’s Hunan Province. The city is next to the Dongting Lake, China’s second-largest freshwater lake. Thanks to rich water resources, the city is home to huge areas of reeds.
In the past, reeds were used to manufacture paper, and paper-making was once a major industry in the city. However, paper-making pollution saw the industry shut down in Yuanjiang in late 2018. To dispose of the huge number of reeds, the local government came up with a novel idea: to turn them into the base materials for mushroom growth. This year, about 30,000 tonnes of reed mushrooms will be turned out, the government said. “Reeds contain about 15 amino acids, and are perfect for mushroom cultivation,” said Yang Xiangguang, who heads a mushroom-making company in Yuanjiang.
The abundance of reeds in Yuanjiang once gave rise to a sprawling paper-making industry.
According to official figures, Yuanjiang produces about 370,000 tonnes of reeds each year, accounting for about 50 percent of all reed production around the Dongting Lake. – Agencies
