My childhood was very happy, and most of this happiness was given by a mountain. The Shaanxi Mountains and Rivers, which have the reputation of "Little Jiangnan", stretch endlessly, the mountain streams flow, and the "rare treasures" in the mountains filled my entire childhood. Fortunately, behind the grandmother's several green tile houses, is the town's largest Chicken Mountain, the whole mountain is like the crown of a big rooster, the top of the mountain is covered with clouds, it is said that the gods moved the mountain from a long distance to here, in order to suppress the demons and protect the local people, they also sent a golden rooster to guard the mountain town. The mountain is no longer high, and there are immortals with names. This magical "Xian" mountain lives up to expectations and provides a steady stream of resources for the local people throughout the year.
Every year in February and March, when the first rays of sunlight shine into the mountains, Grandma stands in the yard looking at the pine forest on the mountain, if there is yellow smoke, Grandma is excited like a child, will bring me a hat, take plastic film and basket, take me to collect a mysterious delicacy. As soon as I entered the mountains, I could see a layer of yellow powder floating on my stream, and the fragrance spread rapidly from all corners of the pine forest, occupying my nose and moisturizing my sense of smell. It is an indescribable fragrance, with the vigor of pine, the sweetness of flowers, and the fragrance of grass, which makes people immersed in it and cannot be forgotten for a long time. Grandma would remind me that this was a pine tree, and that she used the scent to charm passers-by to keep her flower buds and her heirs. For the sake of the delicious taste of the tip of the tongue, we had to give up enjoying this lingering fragrance, quickly spread the plastic film under the tree, beat the pine branches with bamboo poles, and watch the yellow gold powder gargle from the branches to the ground, at this time, the most feared thing is the wind, if the wind is together, then the effort will be wasted. Before leaving, a basket of pine flowers will be collected, and brought back to wrap the bag in the sun, and when the flower spikes burst open and beat, they will also get some pollen that is not afraid of the wind.
Snacks as a child can be regarded as very few, and there is no extra pocket money to provide my snack stomach, fortunately, my grandmother's whimsy guaranteed the delicious taste of my sweet childhood, and I still think back to my grandmother like a fairy, who can do anything. The harvested pine flowers, part of which will be used with banana leaves to pad the bottom, steamed for a short time, dried and set aside, and then used glutinous rice flour lard and sugar, wrapped in filling to make a flat small white cake, steamed and fried, after the pot wrapped in a layer of yellow sand pine flowers, bite a bite, the taste is too beautiful, still unforgettable. The soft glutinous thickness of the glutinous rice and the unique fragrance of the pine blossoms bloomed between the lips and teeth, making up for each other and pulling each other, at that time, I was the happiest child in the world. Later, I learned that Grandma, an authentic northerner who used wisdom to coax her granddaughter to eat, was exactly the same as the famous snacks in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the food made the northwest and Jiangnan so close. The remaining pine pollen grandma will add a small amount of honey and sugar water to boil into a thick pine nectar, rinse and drink, and cook sweet soup. That's a treat that only distinguished guests can enjoy when they come.
In fact, the ancients also ate pine flowers, the Southern Song Dynasty gourmet Mr. Hong Lin recorded the practice and efficacy of the pine blossom cake in the "Mountain Family Qing Offering", and the immortal foodie Lao Su, whom I admire most, also praised the pine flowers, and also said that "rugged picking pine yellow, want to save the teeth from malpractice." And pine, in the eyes of the ancient literati rioters is a symbol of longevity, integrity, tenacity, eating pine, must also want to absorb this beautiful meaning into the bones and blood, for our Chinese cultural lineage inheritors of the noble integrity of a more well-documented evidence! At this moment, the fragrance of pine blossoms runs through ancient and modern times. I once suspected that Grandma was a good goblin or a fairy, because in that era of backward information, insufficient materials, and inconvenient transportation, only she dared to eat these gifts of nature in our town, and only she could make the things in the mountain fields into the way we could not afford to eat. A variety of ingredients are made into unheard-of delicacies, and she is just a mountain village woman, who does not even know a big word, and has never even been out of her hometown in her life.
I love that season of yellow smoke, the smell of pine blossoms...