There is an old saying in the north, "The eyes that play Umi are looking upwards", which describes a person who wants to make friends with the upper class, but doesn't know how to do it.

Now many young people do not know what umi is, let alone eat umi, while in the food scarcity of the 70s and 80s, playing umi, eating umi is a great joy on earth.

In those days, food was very scarce, especially in the countryside, and for young children at that time, finding something to eat was their daily routine. When the sorghum is about to come out of the ears, it is the best time to eat umi, for the experienced people, they can tell which is the sorghum bag, which is umi, and for the inexperienced children, it is always necessary to break open the sorghum bag.

A large group of children running in the sorghum field, looking at the target, they use their hands to pull the sorghum poles to bend, a quick look to see if it is not, if not, quickly release the hand, run out of the ground, pretending to be as if nothing has happened, and go to look for the next target.

Randomly break open the sorghum bag, this spike of sorghum will not grain, commonly known as "blind", which is also a very serious matter, if found by adults, will certainly be scolded very badly, so we are always careful. This is a wonderful childhood memory that belongs only to the 70s and 80s, and it's fun for the younger generation to hear their stories.

Umi, generally refers to sorghum umi, and on corn and millet (shǔ) will also grow umi, just not as influential as sorghum umi.

General sorghum can only grow sorghum, not umami, while when a fungus called black powder fungus infests sorghum, it has the potential to produce delicious umami. Sorghum that is parasitized by the black fungus gets sorghum silky scab, a serious disease that can cause huge yield losses in sorghum.

Sorghum umi is rich in protein, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients, especially the body's eight essential amino acids, fungal polysaccharides and dietary fibers and other active polysaccharides, minerals potassium, iron, selenium, vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C and other content are all high, it is an ideal natural health food.

Among them, dietary fiber is one of the main components of carbohydrates, modern research has confirmed that it has enhanced intestinal function, favorable fecal discharge, reduce blood cholesterol, regulate blood glucose, weight control and weight loss, and prevent the role of colon cancer. The content of selenium in sorghum umami is very rich, selenium deficiency areas with significantly higher incidence of tumors, so sorghum umami is a good food for human selenium supplementation.

Although umi in sorghum cultivation in the production rate is very low, today are difficult to see, but because it has a high nutritional value and medicinal value, can enhance immunity, has a prolonged life function, in recent years at home and abroad by a wide range of attention, edible and medicinal areas are hot research and development, it is said that there are specializing in the cultivation of umi enterprises.

There are many ways to eat umi, people used to like to peel directly out of the white stick to eat raw, made into umi sauce, or with potatoes, beans, zucchini, eggplant mixed to make stew, delicious flavor.

In recent years, the birth of sand flour as the main raw material, sorghum umami powder as the main additives, developed a loose texture, flavor, nutrient-rich sorghum umami nutritional cookies and cakes, at the same time, umami drinks, umami noodles and so on have been launched.

Q&A session

1, what is umi?

"Ummi" is the product of sorghum black spindle disease, the black spindle disease of sorghum stalks will no longer bear sorghum, in the spikes that should be borne sorghum is "Ummi".

2, why called "rice"?

Peel back the green leaves, revealing a white cigarette-like thickness and length of the "umi". After peeling, the inside is black and black, so it is called "ume".

3, how to identify the sorghum knot is umi or sorghum bag?

"Walking along the sorghum ridge and ditch, eyes looking up,揑揑聙聹揑聙聺 hard, you twisted"，the real sorghum spike, is soft, bulging belly is gently, and the umi is a hard gang gang, the lower part of the steeper, with the Lingjiao.

4, umi eat taste how?

It is said to be very tasty, sweet, cool, only after eating, full of mouth, full of teeth are black.