Buddha Shaped Pears

Gao has been working on his pear-growing technique for six years and this season he managed to grow 10,000 Buddha-shaped baby pears. Each fruit is grown in an intricate Buddha mold and ends up looking like a juicy figurine. The ingenious farmer says the locals in his home village of Hexia, norther China, have been buying his Buddha pears as soon as he picks them from the trees. Most of them think they are cute and that they bring good luck. Hao Xianzhang owns an orchard in northern Hebei province of China, and is growing these holy Buddha shaped pears by attaching baby-Buddha shaped fiberglass and plastic molds to the young pears for about six months.

The farmer spent nearly six years this way, perfecting the shape of baby pears, crafting and growing each one carefully inside an individual mold. The video on right is a ABC News report of these Buddha shaped pears growing in the orchard of Hao Xianzhang. The video footage also shows a supermarket shop assistant eating the Buddha shaped pears and checking its genuineness for ordering.It is interesting to note that in the year 2009, Hao sold almost all the 18,000 pears that he has cultivated for a hefty price of 50 Yuan ($7) a piece. Hao also received orders for about 70,000- 80,000 pieces of this Buddha shaped fruit for the year 2010. Despite a hefty cost of £5 each at present, the locals in Hebia have been buying these holy Buddha shaped pears, considering it as a good luck fortune. Lately, the farmer is also planning to export this novel idea to the UK.