Fushan Small-seeded Peanut Roasting Craft

Name and place of production

The public notice of January 2024 lists the Fushan Small-seeded Peanut Roasting Craft under traditional crafts among the newly included projects of the recommended list for the fourth batch of district-level representative items of intangible cultural heritage; the applying area or unit is Baima Town and the recommended guardian unit is the Baima Town Culture and Sports Station. Among the fourth-batch items held in this library, it is the only one belonging to the roasted-snack category.

"Fushan" in the title is the name of a hill on the northern side of Baima Town, and the peanuts are grown around Fushan Village. A description by a correspondent of the Lishui District Media Centre places Fushan Village in the north of Baima Town, bordering Jurong. Among the items held in this library, the peanut craft is the only one applied for by Baima Town in the fourth batch.

Variety and soil

As to what the name "small-seeded" refers to, both reports describe it without saying whether it is a variety name or a grade. China Jiangsu Network, drawing on the Nanjing Daily, reported in September 2021 that the Fushan small-seeded peanut has a red skin, is not large, but has full kernels; and that the soil of Fushan is peculiar, a night-tidal soil, which gives small-seeded peanuts that are plump, hard and crisp to eat and rich in several vitamins. A piece by a district media correspondent of April 2022 says that the soil of Fushan Village was formed by ancient volcanic eruptions and is a night-tidal soil. That account of its origin is a local tradition, is cited here with its source and is not offered as a geological conclusion.

Whether "small-seeded" is a variety or a grade is not settled by any source used here, and no claim is made.

The roasting

As to what "roasting" in the title refers to, the district media correspondent wrote in April 2022 that the Fushan small-seeded peanut is "roasted slowly over a gentle fire by the old method", and that the product won a gold award at a provincial tasting and promotion event for fresh food products and was selected for the "Jinling Famous Kitchens".

This is the only material found here that speaks directly of the roasting, and it goes no further than "the old method, roasted slowly over a gentle fire". It gives neither the medium used in roasting, nor the standard of heat, nor the duration, nor how the product is cooled and kept, so the details of the process remain to be added and must not be worked out from it.

Industry and marketing

The September 2021 report records that the Fushan small-seeded peanut has appeared more than once in online retail livestreams; that Zhang Ming and Lü Li are among the persons in charge of the Fushan peanut cooperative; and that, when farmers sold on their own, the peanuts fetched only five or six yuan a jin, whereas under unified sales and with livestreaming and mini-programmes the return per mu of farmland rose by at least about 500 yuan. The April 2022 piece states that the village party branch set up a peanut cooperative three years earlier, that is in 2019, drawing in growers and building a unified brand.

A field research log published in November 2025 by the College of Economics and Management of Nanjing Agricultural University records that the "Nanjing Lishui Fushan Small-seeded Peanut Professional Cooperative" was founded in 2019 on a "party branch plus model households plus farmers" model with fifty-eight model households taking part, and notes that the village is "applying for the intangible cultural heritage roasting craft and for old-brand status". That account of applying is at a different date from the public notice, which lists the project as newly included, and the two are given side by side.

Uncertainties

First, what "small-seeded" denotes is undecided. The two reports describe small, full, red-skinned kernels but say nothing about whether the term is a variety or a grade, and the notice adds no note.

Second, almost nothing is available on the roasting. Only the phrase about the old method and a slow fire survives in the sources; there is no record of medium, heat, duration or the like, and the process must not be expanded here.

Third, two accounts of the project's status stand side by side. The public notice of January 2024 lists the project as newly included in the fourth batch, while the research log of November 2025 says the village is applying for the intangible cultural heritage roasting craft. Each is reproduced with its own date; they are not merged, and no later stage of the application is inferred.

Fourth, honours and brand statements. The gold award at a provincial tasting and the selection for the Jinling Famous Kitchens are as reported in the press; the awarding body and the original lists have not been verified here, and the source is named when they are cited.

Fifth, the origin of the soil is uncertain. The statement that it was formed by ancient volcanic eruptions is a local tradition found in one source only.

Sixth, the recommended guardian unit is the Baima Town Culture and Sports Station and the applying area or unit is Baima Town. These are two different columns of the notice's table and must not be used interchangeably.