The annual rings of memory are the feelings carved deep in the heart. As long as you experience it, it will leave traces, and this trace will be awakened from time to time, bringing you back to the scene where he was carved. This feeling is nostalgia.

Although the life in childhood was difficult, it still left us with many unforgettable memories. A few days ago, I spent a small year in Lianxiang and Taihang Water Town by Yishui Lake, which brought back my childhood memories.

Before entering the water town, I saw a long line of farmers selling local products on the side of the road. They sold firewood eggs, persimmon cakes, sweet potatoes, dried peanuts, walnuts, vermicelli, and white potato noodles. The local products with the smell of rural sorghum stalks smell so familiar and so strange, as if seeing an old friend who has not seen for many years, it is exactly the taste of eating in my hometown when I was a child. That memory immediately came to mind. Especially the sweet potato noodles, and the mill in the town.

The real push roller when I was a child

I remember that when I was young, I often followed my grandma to push the roller. The stone roller was on the side of the road in the middle of the village. The roller was shared by the village. When no one was using it, a group of old men and women leaned on the roller to chat with Zhang’s parents and Li’s family.

Grandma always hunched over and carried a bag with grain to be milled, a dustpan in her hand, and a broom for sweeping the kang in the dustpan. I followed grandma with a wooden pole, pretending to be Monkey King all the way. When I came to the mill, grandma first used a broom to sweep the surface of the mill to clean off the dust and bird droppings on it, and then evenly sprinkled the grain she brought on the mill, and then inserted the pole I was holding into the stone roller hole in the wooden frame. Then grandma and I started to push the roller. The stone roller was so heavy that it was too heavy to push on the grain. Fortunately, as the grain is crushed, the roller turns more and more smoothly. While pushing the roller, grandma used a broom to sweep the grain that had been squeezed out of the roller back to the inside that the roller could press. In this way, my grandma and I kept pushing, pushing, and turning around the mill until all the grain we brought was ground into slag or powder, and then we used the broom and dustpan to put the ground grain into our pockets and carry it home.

I remember that old corn and dried sweet potatoes were the most ground at that time. Most of the corn was ground into granules, called stick grits, which were used for porridge and steamed rice. When it is ground into powder, it is mostly porridge and steamed buns. Rice and white noodles were rarely eaten in the countryside at that time. Wotou made of corn is the staple food of the family. Today people eat corn as a delicacy, but at that time it was a staple food, and everyone didn’t like to eat it all at once. At that time, rice and flour were called fine grains, and others were called coarse grains.

Dried sweet potatoes are usually pressed into noodles, called sweet potato noodles, and some people call them sweet potato noodles, but they cannot be called sweet potato flour, because sweet potato flour is a kind of vermicelli. Sweet potato noodles are the kind sold by farmers in the picture. There are two kinds of dried sweet potatoes, one is raw sweet potatoes cut into slices and dried, and the other is steamed sweet potatoes and dried. Cooked dried sweet potatoes are usually steamed in a pan and eaten until soft. They are very sweet and delicious. Rural children often don't steam them, but put hard cooked dried sweet potatoes in a bag and eat them while playing. In the era of food scarcity, dried sweet potatoes were the most common snacks for rural children.
Dried raw sweet potatoes can be crushed into sweet potato noodles. Sweet potato noodles are usually mixed with cornmeal (corn flour) and steamed to eat. Although the sweet potato noodles are white, once they are cooked, they will turn black. The steamed bread made of pure corn flour is golden yellow, not sticky and easy to fall apart. The steamed steamed bread mixed with sweet potato flour is like a different kind. The stickiness has increased and it seems to bounce off the ground. It tastes a little sweet. , the color seems to have come to Africa from Asia.

In my memory, I always push the rollers in winter, and I push the most during the twelfth lunar month, because I have to prepare for the New Year's food. It seems that there is also something similar to millet that needs to be ground into noodles. This kind of thing is called millet, also called yellow rice, and it is very sticky when steamed. During the Chinese New Year, put jujubes and use it to steam rice cakes. The jujubes are produced on their own jujube trees. That kind of rice cake is yellow and has a thicker taste, but it is only eaten during the Chinese New Year.

Childhood memories of rice cakes

This time I also ate rice cakes in Lianxiang. Taihangshui Town. It was given by the owner of Baijiabao Bakery for free. They made it for themselves. The boss immediately gave us a bowl of rice cakes for free. This kind of rice cake is made of glutinous rice flour, glutinous rice is also called Jiangmi, white, taste much better than yellow rice. The rice cake can be cut into pieces when it is cold, and once it is hot, it will be sticky and can only be eaten in a bowl. Probably because of the stickiness of the year, this kind of sticky pasta is called rice cakes. Chinese people have the habit of eating rice cakes during the New Year. This is Yixian County, not far from here in Yuxian County, Hebei Province, there is also a kind of "yellow cake", that is pure yellow rice cake, without jujube, it is not as delicious.

The Chinese New Year has always been the most important festival for Chinese people. In the past when food was scarce and logistics was underdeveloped, people looked forward to the New Year because they could eat a lot of food that they could not usually eat or could not eat openly. There is a market before and during the Chinese New Year, which means that people go to a market at an agreed time to exchange goods. People from all over the world have followed this rule from generation to generation. When it’s time to go to the market, people will come to the market, just like today’s temple fair. There is also such a market in Lianxiang. Taihang Water Town. Because this is a newly developed scenic spot, there is no entrance fee. In fact, it provides an authentic rural market for merchants and tourists. Not only does it have Taihang Mountain-style New Year’s goods, but it also attracts special food and culture from many parts of the country. Let tourists feel the feeling of going to the New Year's market every day, and come here to remind them of their childhood.

The bird's nest that was dug out in those years

There is a Xiangtao yard here. Except for the characteristic wooden house buildings, which are high-grade at first glance, the rest of the yard is exactly the same as the front and back of the houses in the countryside. Pigs, horses, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks and geese are all in the yard. The stove bellows and the big iron pot are no different from the ones my grandma used to cook when I was a child. Corn grains and peppers were hung to dry on the fence wall. There are no more birds in the bird nest on the tree at the gate of the courtyard in winter, but a wooden sign reads "Go up the tree to dig out the bird's nest", which immediately reminded me of the mischief I had when I was a child.

I still remember digging out bird nests when I was a child. Summer is the season for birds to hatch eggs. The bird nests are all built on tall trees. We naughty children only wore vests and shorts and climbed up the tree trunk. A group of children climbed the tree alone. Look up. The tree-climbing child clasped the tree trunk between his legs and exerted force with his hands and feet, leaving white marks on his legs from the bark. When I climbed to the bird's nest and saw four or five eggs lying in the grass nest, I was so excited.

The most difficult part of digging out the bird’s nest is when you come down, because you only wear a vest and shorts without a pocket, so the bird’s eggs can only be brought down the tree with your mouth. Fortunately, the bird’s eggs are much smaller than eggs, so it’s not a problem to hold a few in one bite. Even climbing and rubbing down to the tree, the arms and legs are covered with blood streaks, but the happiest moment is when the bird eggs are spit out from the mouth. But what awaited after the fun was the adults yelling and scolding: "This damn kid is out of the ring! What if he falls down?"

I remember that when a little friend was climbing a tree, his father passed by under the tree. His father didn’t say anything, but told him to slow down and don’t worry. After he came down, he happily showed his father the results he got. "Well," he said, "Let's go home." As soon as he entered the house, his father locked the door, and then there were his heart-piercing cries and the broom and stick hitting his flesh Voice.

From then on, the child would look for a tree far away from the village when digging out the bird's nest again. His father never saw him climb a tree again, and his father thought that the beating had worked. But only we know how the kid kept up the good work.

The old people have been telling the story of a certain person falling from a tree and breaking his waist in the old life to scare the children, just like they didn't climb trees when they were young. But the bear children still enjoy it for generations. In fact, the taste of boiled eggs is not too different, but the children just love this bite. In fact, it is not for eating, but for the disobedient ones. a feeling of. The more you get beaten, the more you have to climb. Being able to climb the tallest tree without being known by the parents is the brilliance among the bear children.

Watch the consequences of slaughtering pigs during Chinese New Year

During the Spring Festival in Shuizhen, I also caught up with the slaughter pig. A large group of people resisted a big pig weighing more than 400 kilograms, walked through the streets and alleys, beat gongs and drums, and came to the gate of the city to pick up a car and send it to the slaughterhouse. This car carried two fresh pork back to Shuizhen. This custom is found in many rural areas in China. In the past, people were poor and only willing to eat meat during the Chinese New Year, so the slaughter of pigs during the New Year has become a symbolic activity of eating meat. Everyone was naturally elated.

I remember watching a pig slaughter when I was a child, and saw a live pig howling miserably, being stabbed in the throat with a knife, bleeding out and then dying without moving. The stick went in through the opening, repeated several times, and then an old man blew air through the opening with his mouth. Someone next to him said: This is the first bite of meat that the old man took first. Then tie the legs tightly with rope to prevent air leakage. Put the whole pig into a steaming cauldron that was half-opened. After entering the hot water, the air blown in will expand, and the whole pig will be bulging, so I start to scrape the pig with a scraper. It is said that at this time the folds on the skin are stretched out for easy shaving. After the black hair is shaved off, the pig turns completely white, and then the internal organs are taken out. After the pork is divided, it becomes a new year's commodity that everyone can rush to buy. The pot of pig blood was sprinkled with salt, and after a while it solidified into blood tofu.

Because I was so engrossed in watching the slaughter of pigs at that time, I didn't even feel the frostbite on my feet. After returning home, I haven’t had a good time for the whole year. My feet are so red and swollen that I can’t walk. At night, I can’t sleep because of the pain. Nowadays, people already have meat, and killing pigs during the New Year is just a nostalgic ritual. Seeing this scene again today, I feel pity for pigs in my heart. Poor pig!

The big fish king only sold for 400 yuan, which is amazing!

There is also the head fish, Yuwang, which was just salvaged from the ice of Yishui Lake. The fish king has a good omen every year. Because it is the first Taihang Water Town Daji Temple Fair. Not many people know about it. The 35-6-jin big fish was auctioned off by a Mr. Zhang from Beijing for only 400 yuan. Mr. Zhang said it was bought for his old mother. , I thought Yuwang would sell tens of thousands of yuan, but I didn't expect to get it for more than 400 yuan, which is simply too cheap! While talking, Mr. Zhang excitedly picked up the big fish and left. Even the host didn’t need to help him deliver the fish to the car, he still felt comfortable carrying it by himself.

This trip to Lianxiang. Taihang Water Town made me recall too many past events at once, as vivid as watching a movie. Love Township. Taihang Water Town is a place where you can retrieve your childhood memories, and it is also a place to look back at the countryside in your early years. What is rare is that many old objects, old food, and old customs can be found here. I heard that every table, chair, and bench that customers eat here are old objects collected from nearby villages. It's very worth seeing here, it's very Chinese, it's Hebei, it's rural, it's Taihang.

Heizi Zhai Jianfeng wrote in West Beijing on January 30, 2019.

Heizi Zhai Jianfeng
Panorama Photo Library, Hetu Creative Photo Library, China Gallery contracted photographers, and provided photography training for Shanghai Stock Exchange Group, China Water Affairs Group, Lenovo Group, Capital Development Group, State Forestry Administration, Central Asia Pipeline and many other large enterprises.
He has won many awards in national photography competitions. super traveler.

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