Chapter 26 Chapter 26 The Terraced Fields in My Heart

There are two rivers in Zhangmu River, one originates from the high mountains in the southwest, where the clouds are covered all the year round, and the water flows from the clouds, winding down the mountain valley with a cool taste; the other originates from the mysterious northwest It flows out of the mountains, merges into a river downstream of my house, flows to Zuo'an Town, flows into the Suichuan River, and then joins the Gan River.On the platform between the confluence of the two rivers, there are several hundred-year-old pines, straight and verdant, as thick as three people hugging each other, with mottled bark and dark red scales all over the body. The villagers think it is a sacred tree.

In the middle of the mountain between the two rivers of Zhangmu River, there are terraced fields rising successively according to the gentle waves of the mountain, to the top of the invisible mountain, which is called Meiziling, and is said to be haunted by tigers.Meiziling, I only went there once during the harvest time. Several small fields were newly cut, the sun shone warmly, filled with the fresh and sweet smell of rice, green grasshoppers were jumping on the piles, red dragonflies were flying, spiders and Ants crawled around the cracks in the soft mud, and flower frogs jumped to the mountain stream beside the field. The fields were surrounded by tea trees, fir trees, thatch grass, and occasionally bamboo.The hillsides other than the terraced fields are mostly planted with tea trees, which are evergreen all year round.On a sunny day, looking down at the terraced fields from Meiziling, the terraced fields are inlaid with half-cut half lemon slices. Looking up at the terraced fields from the door of the house, the terraced fields are like the dense knots of bamboo shoots peeled off, layer by layer, It is palpable.

Terraced fields are where rice and soybeans are grown.In millet, there are white rice, red rice and glutinous rice.Since I was a child, I have eaten white rice and red rice milled from millet. Glutinous rice is the substance used to make rice wine, glutinous rice cakes, zongzi, glutinous rice balls, rice bubble candy, and sesame candy. I love glutinous rice.Soybeans are also delicious. Soybeans are planted in the fields. From eating edamame in summer, to frying soybeans in autumn, boiling soybeans, frying soybeans, making tempeh, sprouting bean sprouts, and grinding tofu; grinding tofu also produces soy milk, tofu brain, and so on. Yuba, tofu dregs; tofu is made into boiled tofu, fried tofu, fried tofu fruit, and stinky fermented bean curd.There is always hope growing in the terraced fields.

The terraced fields also need to be tidied up. In spring, we use a splitting sickle to split the fields. The splitting sickle is a foot long, triangular, thick in the middle and thin on both sides.When splitting the field, a person stands on the field facing outwards, bows his waist, holds the handle of the sickle with both hands, and raises it to the right. Like a pendulum, a silvery arc is drawn, and the splitting sickle will split towards the field, and the miscellaneous things in the field will be smashed. The grass is cut off with a thin layer of mud, so that the new soil is exposed in the field, which is bright and clean.That grass just rots and fertilizes in the field.The chopping sickle is thick and blunt, and it cuts off the grass and soil layer according to the gravity of the swing. Novices are often like apprentices who shave their heads, chopping the hair thickly.Split the fields, and then use the fields to hoe the fields.In the field, safflower grass (milax vetch) is planted in winter, and cow dung, quicklime, chaku (oil residue from pressing tea oil) and plant ash are piled up as fertilizer.After splitting the fields and hoeing the fields, they plowed and harrowed the fields, leveled the fields, and built ditches, which were used for drainage.The field ditch is raised against the field, and the field mud is dug up with a wide four-toothed iron rake, and it is piled on the inside of the field to hold down half of the field. Arc, and the last step is to use the five toes of the feet to wipe out five imprints along the Tiancheng for beauty.At this time, the fields inside and outside the fields were completely new, and the rice seedlings were planted.

When plowing the field, there is a beautiful thing, that is, catching loaches.I love this job. I have a loach tube at home. It is a bamboo tube with a length of one foot and a diameter of three inches. For drainage.I was wearing crotch trousers and high trousers, and I followed behind my uncle with great interest. As soon as he plowed out the loach, I quickly caught the loach and put it in the loach tube. When the tube was full, I flew home and filled the water tank. For raising, the water tank is placed on the side of the patio, but not many times when it is full.It seems that people in Zhangmuxi love loach more than eels.The loach has been raised for a few days, and the mud can be spit out before it can be eaten. Usually it is dry-stir-fried, with pepper oil and mint leaves, which is cool and fragrant.

After planting seedlings, each family will choose the field to release fry.Usually at this time, there are fish fry sellers walking through the village, which can be seen from a distance. They wear bamboo hats and carry drum-shaped bamboo baskets. The baskets are brushed with several layers of tissue paper, soaked in tung oil and dried. Water-tight.Fish fry are water, and it is extremely difficult to see fish fry with the naked eye. It seems that two large baskets of water have been picked up, and the baskets are tied with short ropes, so as not to sway.The fish fry seller has a wooden spoon that can hold a medium-sized bowl of water, and the wooden spoon costs two yuan. When buying fish fry, you just stare at him to scoop the water, and if you say it’s full, the fish fry seller says it’s enough When it was full and full, it was still swaying and sprinkled. A spoonful of water was poured into the field, and nothing could be seen, except that the field gap for drainage had been inserted with a bamboo grate, and it was tightly blocked.Fish fry sellers usually work in pairs, one basket is crucian carp fry, the other is grass carp fry, the other is green carp fry, the other is carp fry, and the carp is red carp (I haven’t eaten white carp for a long time), so available.At this time, I am always worried that he is empty of water, and there is nothing, just waiting for the field to be moved (with a bamboo pole in hand, draw a circle around the seedlings with your feet, and push the water plants together into the mud. Weeding. Move around in the field (called "moving the field"), and the fish fry have grown to an inch. According to the local regulations and customs, the missing fields are blocked with dustpans, and ducks cannot be released.When the rice grains are headed and dried in the field, several fish breeding ditches will be dug in the field. When the grain is cut, the fish will be picked up and raised in ponds or deep water fields. The fish of several families will be raised together, and they will be marked. Cut a small triangular slit on the tail or fin of the fish, and when the fish is caught during the Chinese New Year, you can distinguish whose fish it is.

There is still a winter in the terraced fields, which is not a season of inactivity.There is water in the terraced fields all year round, so there are some small fish and shrimps, mostly shrimps.There is a small fish, its shape is like a small tilapia crucian carp, only one inch long, colorful.There are also dragonfly larvae, like wingless praying mantises, which are also green and can be eaten.Shrimp catching is women's work, and men don't do it. Only a man like me has done it.The Hakka people have many rules, such as chopping firewood, men are not allowed to do it, so my uncle will not chop firewood no matter how busy he is, and one of the reasons why my grandma wants him to marry a wife is that he can’t chop firewood.Women fishing for shrimp also have a set of luggage, wearing embroidered aprons, embroidered headkerchiefs, sloping shrimp baskets, using small porcelain bowls as covers, and setting off with shrimp nets on their shoulders, as if they were going to collect insect specimens.The shrimp net is a gourd-like frame stretched from bamboo slices, about one foot to one foot five inches wide, with a dense net, a small round bottom, and a long bamboo pole at the back of the frame.The process of catching shrimp is very simple. Put the mouth of the prawn net forward into the ditch inside the field. The person is slightly ahead and the prawn net is behind. In this posture, step forward evenly, from one end of the field to the other, put away the shrimp fishing net, dig in the net with a small porcelain bowl, dig up the shrimp and small fish, and put them into the basket. unanimous.Gai Xiaoyu Xiaoxia is dexterous and often bounces away from the nets of the people in front, so there are still shrimps to catch in the nets behind.For the sake of fairness, when changing a hill, the person who walks behind should go forward instead. Walking from one hill to another, the pace and posture are roughly like walking on a balance beam with a balance pole. Returning is always rewarding.I think that there are all kinds of wonders in the terraced fields, and you can get what you want.Men can also hunt hares, wild ducks, and crakes from the terraced fields.Once my uncle and his hunting friends drove a wild goat into the field and trapped it. They got three catties of wild goat meat. I ate it. It was delicious!That was my first time eating lamb.

My grandma wants to catch shrimp for me every year, and she invites someone to go there.I like to eat shrimp. The field in Zhangmuxi grows a crop of rice without applying chemical fertilizers or pesticides. My uncle said that scientifically, there is not much grain harvested, the cost has increased, and people still have to work harder.Therefore, the shrimps are clear water shrimps, roasted in a pan, the shrimps turn up, it is a kind of bright red, roasted and dried, fried with green garlic, only put a little salt, a few peppercorns, a few slices of ginger, crispy and crispy.You can also cook white radish with dried shrimps. This soup is sweet and fresh.

The time when the terraced fields moved me the most was after the rain in spring.After several spring rains in a row, the river swelled. Lying on the bed at night, I could hear the roar of the waves. When I woke up in the morning, it was clear after the rain, and the sun was shining brightly on the mountain. There was fog on the lush forest Diffuse, the terraced fields on the mountain, each hill has a gap for drainage, but they are all staggered, one hill has a gap for drainage on the right, the next hill has a gap in the middle, and the next hill has a gap on the left Que, so scattered, there is a silver waterfall hanging on the field, so there are countless silver waterfalls hanging on the terraced fields all over the mountain, a rainbow on the top of the mountain, mist drifts gently from the forest, and a big silver waterfall is drawn by the mountain stream. The waterfall runs through from top to bottom, birds are singing in the old woods behind the house, dogs are barking above the drying ground in front of the village, looking at the terraced fields, I feel that spring is brought by the mountain rain.