Ripe strawberries attract fruit lovers

People flock to the Hele Fruit Picking Garden to pick strawberries. [Photo by Liu Lei for chinadaily.com.cn]

The Hele Fruit Picking Garden in Qihe county, Dezhou, East China's Shandong province, has recently attracted numerous local residents, including students, with its ripe strawberries.

"We want our students to go out into the fields and witness real natural scenery and experience farm work," said a local teacher named Liu Xia, who led a group of students to Hele.

Hele has taken advantage of its ripe fruit and launched fruit picking activities. It has offered a series of unique experiences to students, including making sugarcoated haws on a stick, making tofu, and learning about local farming culture.

People flock to Hele Fruit Picking Garden to pick strawberries. [Photo by Liu Lei for chinadaily.com.cn]

Hele has also cooperated with Shandong Agricultural University and other institutions to introduce new agricultural techniques and species, which will be promoted after some screenings involving suitability, yielding, and quality.

The fruit farming garden has also offered local fruit growers guidance in growing seedlings, cultivation, management, picking, packaging, and transportation and mobilized more than 600 local households to grow strawberries, providing more than 1,200 locals with jobs and adding over 3,000 mu (200 hectares) of strawberries to Qihe. (Edited by Gong Jun)