Chapter 27 Chapter 27 Tea ears and tea buds

Both tea ears and tea buds grow on tea trees. Tea ears are a metamorphosis of tea leaves. They are white, tender, shiny, and chubby. They grow on new branches of tea trees, usually on the waist of the tree. The tea buds hang on the tree crown, mostly in the center of the tree crown, and some hang on the edge branches. The tea buds are the size of an apple, white, hollow inside, and there is a small hole at the bottom. It looks like a white steamboat from a distance. lampshade.I still don't understand how these two magical substances on the tea tree are produced, and there is no record in "The Concise Encyclopedia Britannica".Tea trees are also called Muzi trees in Zhangmuxi, tea seeds are called Muzi, and tea oil is called Muyou.People in Zhangmuxi eat oil, all of which are tea oil. Therefore, apart from terraced fields, there are large areas of tea trees on the mountain. There are only steep peaks and cliffs that are difficult for people to climb. Stone hills, both sides of mountain streams, valleys and shady slopes are secondary forest areas. There are subtropical woody plants such as pine, fir, camphor, bamboo, lacquer, tung, chestnut, Qinggang, Huaxiang, dove tree, Chinese tallow, vitex, rose, etc., as well as herbs such as fern, bamang, and lion hair grass. plant.Grandma said that the tiger likes to live on the hills with lion hair grass lying on the rocks, but it does not want to be in the woods, because there are birds in the woods, and the tiger is worried that the bird droppings will stain its noble fur.

The tea tree is three to four meters high, evergreen tree, bark yellowish brown, buds with loose scales, leaves alternate, leathery, oval or oval oblong, apex acuminate, base wide wedge-shaped, with small serrations on the upper Shiny.Flowers white, solitary or parallel on branch tops, sessile; flower diameter about 4 cm; sepals round, outer silky; petals 5-7, obovate, apex deeply 2-lobed, outer sparsely hairy; stamens numerous; Ovary densely filiform tomentose, style apically 3-lobed.Capsules are nearly spherical, about 2.2 cm in diameter, 2-3-lobed, with thick woody petals, and 1-8 seeds.Some have 2 grains, which are two small hemispheres, with a hard shell and black. We use them to play divination, throw them up and down, and the best hexagram is to raise one petal and buckle the other, that is, one yin and one yang. And double buckle, are bad hexagrams.In terms of playing, tea tree branches are used to make slingshots. It is not easy to choose a good slingshot. Tea trees are hard and can only be processed in a small amount. Natural growth is better.

The flowering period of tea trees is long, about February. The first year they bloom in late October, and they bear fruit in the second spring. Picking tea seeds is October again.When picking tea seeds, there are already flower buds on the tea branches.The flowers of the tea tree are honey-scented, with a strong and sweet fragrance. If you pick a flower and inhale it, you can inhale a little sweetness.When the tea trees in Zhangmuxi are in bloom, the mountains and plains are all white, a vast expanse of whiteness, and when you look at it suddenly, you think it is snowing.At this time, the whole Zhangmu River is fragrant.In autumn, picking tea seeds is the most noisy, because some people sing tea-picking tunes, some people sing folk songs, but they are all love songs, so bachelors sing the most joyously.There is a set of tools for picking tea seeds, one is a back basket, the other is a tea hook, and another basket is needed.The tea hook is made of moso bamboo shoots, one end is big and the other end is small, and a bamboo branch is left on the big end, which fits into a hook, and the small end is held in the hand, and a person stands on the ground or climbs a tea tree, and hooks off the tea seeds one by one. , The low branches are directly hooked and bent to pick.Pick tea seeds and put them in the basket, and when the basket is full, put them in the basket.

Tea ears and tea buds mainly grow in summer, but I don’t usually go to the tea forests on the mountain, so I seldom pick tea ears and tea buds, unless I pass by for chopping firewood.But when you go to pick tea seeds, you can also encounter them by chance. Picking tea seeds is the job of adults, and picking what they miss.Hakka people have extraordinary rules when doing things. For example, when we meet a teacher while walking on the road, we must stand sideways to the side of the road and say hello, sir. Only when the teacher passes by can we move forward.The same is true for picking tea seeds. Adults will pick all the tea seeds on the tree and leave none on the ground, and will not consider us waiting for their mercy.Therefore, it is not easy for us to pick up a small basket of tea seeds to change the oil.To pick tea, one has to climb to the top of the tree to find it. It is not easy for adults to go to the top of the tree. It is those tea trees with dense branches and leaves, and occasionally there is one or two tea seeds.Then look in the grass and fallen leaves, like the fallen leaves in a puddle, you can often find a few early-falling tea seeds.Also, just look for it in the mouse hole.I found a mouse hole once, but it wasn’t really a mouse hole. The hole was more than two feet high and a foot wide, and there were some lion hair grass and ferns around it.I walked over alone and looked inside. An oval gray-haired face was embedded in the hole, with two faint green eyes. There was a wild cat squatting in the hole, which scared me out of my wits. Holding the tea hook in one hand and the bamboo basket in the other, he ran down the mountain in one breath, and came home still sweating.

It doesn't matter how many tea seeds you pick, it's a reasonable game, everyone picks, but they don't pick many, and they just want to find tea buds and tea ears when they have time.The popular opinion is that picking tea buds is good, big tea buds are sweet and sour, small tea buds are sour and astringent, big tea buds are white, small tea buds are a little light blue, the meat of tea buds is very thin, and the meat is inside. There are bubbles, and a tea bud that is bigger than a fist is only a small mouthful when you really eat it.When you pick the tea buds, you have to look through the small hole at the bottom to see if there are insects in them. I am afraid of those little insects.Usually, I go to pick tea seeds with a few senior students. Picking tea buds is their business. I can’t pick enough. They can climb trees, so I concentrate on finding tea ears.The tea ears are on the tree waist, usually a foot-long new branch, sticking to the trunk and growing straight up, it will have a bunch of leaves, the petiole is tea red, and there may be one or two tea ears on the top of the leaves. When you are lucky, It is a bunch of tea ears, a bunch of silvery white, tender and thick, fresh and juicy, it seems that it was born just for me.Tea ears are neither sour nor astringent, and they must completely transform into leaves of tea ears. Some of them resemble tea ears and tea leaves, and are very astringent.I cherish the tea ears very much. When I pick them off, I put them in my pocket without making a sound, and I only eat a small amount, and save the rest to eat slowly at home (it is said that tea ears and tea buds are the most abundant in spring and summer).The autumn moon is bright, standing in front of the door looking at the moon, holding on to a tea ear and tasting it carefully, facing the shadows of the mountains, thinking about the world behind the mountains.What kind of world is behind the mountain?I couldn't figure it out, but I saw a lamp flashing mysteriously on the mountain ridge, and there was a family there.