Farmers in Zhangsitan Village gather mushrooms under the forest to "pick" the road to prosperity.

"Today, we have picked more than 100 baskets of fresh Lentinus edodes, more than 3000 jin. At most, we can get 10,000 jin a day. Most of these mushrooms are sold to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Guangzhou and Shenzhen." A few days ago, Jia Jinping, head of Lentinus edodes planting base in Zhangsidan Village, Xindian Town, Yexian County, Henan Province, said. The shiitake mushroom base is in a large poplar forest. Rows of shiitake mushroom greenhouses are lined up one after another, bags of mushroom sticks are neatly arranged, flower mushroom stalks display umbrellas, and employees are busy picking shiitake mushrooms and watering shiitake sticks.

"more than 70 greenhouses are all built on poplars, and the skeleton of the greenhouse alone has saved more than 280000 yuan." Jia Jinping said that at the peak, the shiitake mushroom base needed more than 100 people a day, almost all of them were local villagers. Each worker was 40 yuan a day, and he could earn another 20 yuan for overtime work at night, thus finding a way for many local families to get rich.

Jia Jinping calculated such an account for the author: they planted 500000 bags of mushroom sticks, which can produce mushrooms ranging from 2.5jin to 3jin on average. According to the current average purchase price of 6 yuan per jin of fresh Lentinus edodes in the market, excluding the cost of a bag of mushroom sticks, a season of Lentinus edodes is conservatively estimated at 500000 bags, and the annual net profit excluding labor costs and other costs is also more than 500000 yuan.

Jia Jinping also said that in addition to making full use of the land, planting under the forest also uses poplars as a skeleton and leaves as a sunscreen. While reducing costs, growing poplars also increase farmers' assets year after year. At present, their products have been exported to many neighboring provinces.