阿凡达

From an online "weight-loss hack" to protective manicures: The humble bean that connects harvest, community and home in Shandong_我的网站

安娜情欲史

一 | 　　长治8月23日电题：三代人与一颗青椒见证山西长子农业变迁　　作者刘盼刘小红　　在山西长治长子县，一颗青椒，连着李家三代人的岁月，也串起当地特色农业一步步成长的全过程。从田间摸索改良种植法子，到建起智慧大棚科学种养，再到打通更广的市场销路，李生贵、李强、李家奇一家人，一辈接着一辈干，陪着长子青椒产业走过数十年发展之路。

A farmer harvests green beans at a vegetable production base in Yantai, East China's Shandong Province, on August 21, 2024. Photo: VCGA viral internet joke about eating raw green beans for weight loss has recently put the humble vegetable in the spotlight. After news reports that a guy lost weight following food poisoning caused by undercooked beans, Chinese netizens jokingly dubbed them a "forbidden weight-loss hack." Others took the joke even further, asking — tongue firmly in cheek — exactly how undercooked the beans needed to be to achieve the "best weight loss effect."
For residents of East China's Shandong Province, however, green beans have never been a miracle diet food or an internet meme. Instead, they are an unmistakable sign that summer has arrived — and, for many families, the beginning of weeks of eating them, giving them away and wondering how on earth there are still more waiting to be picked.
The season of endless beans
For Zhao Qian, a Shandong native, summer has always had a familiar color: green.
"When I was little, the moment different bean dishes started appearing on the table day after day, I knew summer had arrived," Zhao told the Global Times. "No matter how many we ate, there were always more. It was as if the vines kept producing beans overnight."
A Chinese saying goes, "Eating beans in summer is better than eating meat." Heat-loving green beans have been cultivated in China for more than one thousand years. Originally introduced from abroad, they gradually found a permanent place on Chinese dining tables thanks to their versatility, nutritional value and ability to fill hungry stomachs, according to an article published by People.cn.
Today, with the rise of greenhouse farming and an increasingly sophisticated cold-chain logistics network, fresh vegetables are available year-round across China. The old rule of eating produce only in season has largely given way to year-round abundance. Yet in Shandong, China's largest vegetable-producing province, green beans remain inseparable from summer. More than an endless seasonal harvest, they have become the taste of home for generations of locals.
One of Zhao's strongest childhood memories wasn't eating the beans, but preparing them.
"Every summer, the adults would hand me a basin full of freshly picked beans and ask me to strip off the tough strings along both sides," she recalled. "I'd sit on a little stool and work through the whole pile. It looked like an easy job, but after peeling bean after bean, my fingertips would start to hurt. By the time I finished one basin, there was always another one waiting."
For many families in Shandong, summer means an endless cycle of picking, eating and sharing green beans. In vegetable gardens, rows of trellises are soon covered in climbing vines. When the peak harvest season arrives, the beans need to be picked almost every day before they become old and fibrous. Those that cannot be finished at home are packed into bags and given to relatives, neighbors and friends.
"Your family has beans, and so does mine, but we still give them to each other," Cao Yu, a Shandong native who grew up on the Jiaodong Peninsula in East China, told the Global Times on Wednesday with a laugh.
A plentiful harvest also brings what locals jokingly call "bean freedom" to the dinner table. Sesame-dressed beans, braised beans with pork ribs and, above all, bean-filled steamed buns — a dish mentioned by almost every Shandong native interviewed by the Global Times. For many people, these dishes are no longer simply seasonal food, but the familiar taste of summer, family and hometown.
The hands that harvest summer
Behind the seemingly endless harvest is another busy summer ritual — picking. For many elderly farmers, harvesting green beans means spending hours each day moving from one trellis to another, reaching through dense vines and picking bean after bean by hand.
A nail salon in Jining, Shandong Province, recently went viral after offering free "bean-picking manicures" to residents aged 60 and above. Instead of fashionable designs or glittering decorations, the salon applies thicker, longer nail extensions that make it easier to pinch and snap off the beans while protecting fingertips from pain. A coat of colored polish is added simply to help conceal stains left by vegetable sap, according to video clips circulating on Chinese social media platforms Douyin and Sina Weibo.
The salon owner, herself the daughter of farmers, said thumb injuries and damaged fingernails are common during the bean-picking process. In videos posted on her Douyin account, many elderly women said the manicures made picking beans much easier. Even more amusingly, some older men initially refused to get a manicure, only to change their minds after hearing enthusiastic recommendations from the "grandmas' group."
For perhaps the first time, beauty took a back seat to practicality, and a manicure became another way of caring for hardworking hands.
While the internet continues to joke about undercooked beans as a shortcut to weight loss, doctors stress there is nothing amusing about eating them raw. Liang Jiajing, a clinical nutritionist at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, said raw or undercooked beans contain naturally occurring toxins that can cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea, but the toxins are destroyed through thorough cooking, according to a Jimu News report.
The internet may remember green beans as the latest viral "weight-loss hack." In Shandong, however, they tell very different stories — one of overflowing harvests, bags of beans exchanged between neighbors, family recipes passed down through generations, and hardworking hands that quietly bring the harvest to the table. Long after the online jokes fade, the taste of summer — and of home — remains.
。长子县地处上党盆地西侧，土层深厚肥沃、昼夜温差大、光照充足，十分利于青椒养分积累。刘盼摄　　长子县地处上党盆地西侧，土层深厚肥沃、昼夜温差大、光照充足，十分利于青椒养分积累，种出的青椒个大肉厚、耐储运，天然适配外销市场需求。作为传统农业大县，该县多年来将青椒确立为“一县一业”核心主导产业，接连出台全产业链惠农补贴、设施大棚建设扶持、良种培育、品牌推广等配套政策，持续撬动资源，为本土种植能手深耕田间、做大产业搭建广阔平台。　　最早扎根田间的，是父辈李生贵。早年长子青椒零星种植，农户种地多靠经验、看天气。看到青椒蕴藏的增收潜力，李生贵于1979年一头扎进田间试验。他结合本地气候、土壤条件，反复改良大棚结构，研发“生贵移动大棚”，把无土育苗、防虫管护、水肥科学施用等多项技术整合落地。他没有把技术留作自家窍门，主动走到各村田间，手把手教周边农户搭建大棚、规范栽种。

二 | 　　在李生贵的带动下，短短几年间，长子青椒种植范围逐步覆盖全县300多个村，远销全国各地，成为中国北方最大的青椒生产基地。同时，青椒也成为长子县经济发展和农民增收的主要产业。

三 | 1998年，长子获评“中国青椒之乡”。　　依托本地冷凉气候优势，李生贵和农技人员一同摸索出“春青椒秋西葫芦”一年两茬种植模式，精准抓住南方蔬菜上市空档，让长子青椒顺利走进广州、深圳等南方市场。当各地纷纷复刻同款种植模式，本地春茬青椒销路遇冷后，李生贵又牵头开展越夏青椒种植试验，通过采取利凉遮阳降温剂技术措施，实现了青椒夏季种植秋季采收，拉长供货周期，错开各地上市高峰，留住外来采购客商，稳住了农户的种植收益。

四 | 接过父辈锄头与产业心愿的儿子李强，走出了传统种地的旧模式。

五 | 刘盼摄　　接过父辈锄头与产业心愿的儿子李强，走出了传统种地的旧模式。

六 | 深耕农业超30年，他建起现代化农业产业园区，告别“靠天种地”的老路子。大棚里装上传感器、智能控制阀，搭建物联网管控系统，工作人员在手机上，就能完成通风、灌溉、棚体管护等各项操作。　　李强一边守住长子青椒本土招牌，一边引进彩椒、香椿等新品种，完善种植品类；严格落实绿色种植标准，拿到绿色基地认证，带着长子青椒打入北京新发地，拿下深圳“圳品”认证，让本地蔬菜走向更大的市场。

七 | 　　据了解，李强所在的产业园建于2016年，拥有8座温室大棚、103座高标准覆被式大棚及2800平方米育苗温室，配套物联网实验室、田头市场、秸秆处理站等设施，是集种植创新、品种示范、质量追溯、农民培训于一体的综合性园区。目前，园区带动150余人就业，认证绿色基地436亩，年产绿色蔬菜8400吨，产值超2100万元，先后获评2023年国家现代农业全产业链标准化示范基地、2024年省级龙头企业等称号。　　如今，年轻一代李家奇回到家乡，加入家族的青椒事业。年轻人带来新思路，他扎根园区田间，一边学习祖辈留下来的种植经验，一边活用新的传播方式，通过线上推介、直播展示，把长子青椒的种植过程、产品优势分享给各地消费者，为线下外销渠道补上线上新通路，让更多人认识长子青椒。小小的青椒，不仅成为李家代代传承的念想，更化作长子农户稳定增收的支柱。