Basic Introduction to Sweet Sorghum
Sorghum, also known as sweet sorghum, is a variant of the high-growing variety, reaching heights of over ten feet. It is as delicious and refreshing as sugarcane, referred to as a “living beverage.” Varieties include “Sugarcane” sorghum, “Sugar Heart” sorghum, and “High粱” sorghum. It is a common and ordinary native plant in sandy areas such as Dongtai, Qidong, Haimen, and Chongming. The “Chongming County Gazetteer” compiled during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty has records of sorghum. The main vein of the sorghum leaf is bluish-green.
Nutritional Value
In recent years, Huayuan Village in Burg Town on the island has become a major grower of sorghum, with over 300 households cultivating around 400 acres of it. The “Huayuan” brand of sorghum is gradually gaining a reputation. “Sorghum is rich in various amino acids and other nutrients. Eating sorghum is like getting an amino acid infusion,” explained an elderly farmer growing sorghum, perhaps somewhat exaggeratedly. However, in the minds of the locals, sorghum does indeed have the effects of relieving summer heat, quenching thirst, and clearing heat and detoxifying.
Product Characteristics
Sorghum is most afraid of typhoons; once they hit, the sorghum stalks bend and fall. Each section of the sorghum can be more than 30 centimeters long. Strangely enough, once the sorghum bends, its interior becomes hollow and unsweet, making it unsellable. Therefore, before the typhoon arrives, farmers rush to trim the sorghum panicles to prevent the stalks from bending or toppling due to being top-heavy. Chongming sweet sorghum has green stems and long nodes, is juicy and sweet, has tender flesh, and is convenient to eat.