At the end of the 1950s, the production team I was in, on the twenty-fourth day of the 24th month, gave the members a holiday and began to make tofu on the 25th.
At that time, I was studying in the primary school in the village, and the winter vacation was usually the twenty-fifth day of the Waxing Moon. That year, I was optimistic about twenty-six going to the tofu factory next to our family to make tofu in the team.
My father soaked the beans that made tofu with water the night before, and early in the morning of the twenty-sixth, my father and mother went to make tofu with three people, leaving two younger sisters to watch over the house. My father carried two halves of soaked beans, my mother carried a basin with a bowl and a small spoon in it, and I took the tofu package and sieve and went to the place where the tofu was made.
My parents and I walked toward the tofu factory in the village, as if we were rushing to a market during a festival. Although the weather was very cold, the wind was blowing on my face and hands, although it was a bit of a knife cut, but my heart was warm.
The tofu shop in the village is the breeding room of the production team, and there are three-eyed earth caves.
A row of three-eyed earthen caves, a large yard, planted with many wooden stakes, which were used to tie up livestock. The yard has no street doors and is very open. Because, there is no courtyard wall, standing in the courtyard, looking out, the south side of the feeding room compound is a deep ditch.
The breeding room sits north to south, that is, leeward, and also sunny.
At that time, the cattle, donkeys, mules and horses in the breeding room of the production team were half the belongings of the whole team. Ploughing the fields, sowing grain crops, crushing crops in summer and autumn, and pushing and grinding for the whole team all year round, it all depends on these livestock, which bear the great responsibility of the life of the whole team, and the three keepers are busy here all day and all night.
Now, on the 26th day of the lunar month, it has become more and more lively, and it has become a tofu shop for the production team. Why arrange a temporary tofu factory here? First, the production team did not have extra houses and cave kilns to make tofu shops. Second, the keepers are just trying to earn some soup for the animals.
Making tofu in the waxing moon and the breeding room are the most glorious moments of the year. Whoever does it first and who does it later has to be arranged by the production captain, the ones yesterday, the ones today, and the ones tomorrow. We arrived at the tofu factory, according to the procedure, also came first, first served. On this day, our family went early and was the second place.
Behind the door of the breeding room was a large cauldron with a large cauldron sitting on it, three large vats sitting next to the pot, and in the middle of the room, on the ground, there was a half-sized cauldron, and on the pot was a four-legged shelf with a small turning mill on the shelf. Next to the shelf was a stool with a basin for soaked beans and a spoon for adding soaked beans to the mill. The small crutch mill on the shelf, its upper fan has a wooden crutch handle, which is the power of the hand, turning the crutch grinding, grinding soy milk. On both sides of it, one person sits on one side, and the people sitting on both sides are rotating and grinding soy milk.
At that time, there were more than thirty households in the production team I was in, and today there were ten to make tofu, there were many people, and the tofu factory was small, although it was said that it was necessary to queue up according to the first to come and then to come. But no one has to stand there in line, just put the beans made of tofu there one by one.
In the waxing moon, making tofu, every day is more than a dozen, a family of three people, that is, dozens of people, people in and out, talking and laughing, the scene is very lively. Don't worry about the Zhang family's tofu and the Li family's tofu getting it wrong, because each family's sieve is tied with a different mark, or a symbol that only you know.
In the process of waiting, some adults are helping neighbors make tofu, some sit on the wall and smoke, some sit in the courtyard in the morning sun, and some sit in front of the big pot behind the door to roast the fire and chat.
Making tofu, children can't help, but they have their play place, seeing that for a while and a half will not be their turn to make tofu, they will run to the field with a group of friends to play wildly, either hiding behind the haystacks, or hiding in the dry ditch forks to hide and seek, and some wrestling and rolling on the grass piles in the yard, you chase me. Some children are lazy and afraid of the cold, so they lean in front of adults and shout "uncle" and "uncle" in a flattering way, and their ultimate purpose is to beg for half a bowl of soy milk or tofu brain.
In that era, if nothing else, between people, the love that existed, was particularly good, and when the family had a problem, the whole team came to help. As long as it is a person who comes to make tofu, it is not idle, no matter who is next to, the diligent croppers are eager to go forward, grind with small crutches, grind soy milk are all scrambling to dry. Because grinding soy milk is a hard work, there is no need for old people to get started, and young and strong offspring are competing to do it.
Two young post-graduates, sitting on both sides of the turning mill, rotating with their own left hand to promote this plate of small turning mill, the right hand from time to time in the basin to scoop up the beans, to the small grinding mill, once the large pot placed under the turning mill is full of raw soy milk, they use the water scoop to the big pot behind the door, in short, the soaked beans are ground, and so all scoop into the big pot behind the door, sitting in front of the big pot behind the door, the burning man will be busy for a while.
The fire industry is the most enviable fire in the cold winter. Outside the breeding room, the cold wind whistled, although wearing a very thick cotton coat, he could not resist the attack of the cold wind, sitting by the fire to add firewood to the stove, lighting a pot of dry cigarette bags, smoking beautifully, with a happy smile on his face, the light of the fire reflected his face, red fluttering, eyes bright. Then, dumbfounded, watched the firewood burn to the fullest, watching the tongue of fire greedily licking the black bottom of the pot. The owner of the tofu maker wears an apron around his waist and holds a wooden board made of paulownia wood in his hand, walking back and forth, stirring the soy milk in the pot from time to time to prevent it from being pasted at the bottom of the pot, and also testing whether the soy milk in the pot is cooked.
Handmade tofu
The soy milk in the pot is cooked, and immediately there are spectators next to it, who pick up the water scoop and scoop the cooked soy milk in the pot into the large vat next to it. When all the cooked soy milk in the pot is scooped into the vat, the owner of the tofu picks up the wooden board in the cauldron, inserts it into the jar and stirs it, and after stirring, it is time to start ordering tofu.
Although the croppers in the mountains do not have much cultural knowledge, they never ask the master to make tofu, but they do it themselves. The gypsum used to order tofu, do not have to go to the pharmacy to buy, personally go to the ditch not far from Zhuangzi to dig, because there is a layer of red plaster that is not too thick in a ravine where we live, and the plaster dug by yourself is economical, and it does not need to be bought with money, which is affordable. They order tofu by chance, sometimes very well, not old and tender. In short, they are a little old to eat, a little tender to eat. However, sometimes it doesn't work, and it's a little bad, when he broke his own tofu point, the first aid method is to use sauerkraut water to pilot, and finally there is no rescue, so he has to pour it into the drinking tank to drink cattle. The next day the beans are remade.
The biggest hope for children to come here to see tofu is to drink a bowl of soy milk or tofu brain. As long as his own family began to order tofu, his eyes were fixed on the vat, and his mouth kept swallowing the saliva that came up from his stomach. Once the tofu of her own home is ordered, the mother will take out the bowl that has been prepared, use a spoon into the jar, scoop up a bowl or half of the tofu brain, take out the sugar brought from the house from the pocket, throw it into the bowl, take out the spoon spoon brought from the pocket, reach into the bowl and stir it, and hand it to her son.
When the mother watches her son drink the first bite of tofu brain, the love of the mother can be calm, she deeply knows that 360 days a year, only this day, her son can drink this bowl of tofu brain, she can let go of the passionate heart, turn back, to busy with other things.
When he swallowed the first bite of tofu brain into his stomach, he would feel that today I could drink this bowl of sweet silk tofu brain, only the existence of father's love and maternal love, he could enjoy the warm taste of tofu brain; another sip, he could feel that the sticky sticky sweet tofu brain was full of parents' love; another sip, he felt that this bowl of tofu brain was full of the breath of the earth, the taste of happiness; another sip, the aroma of bean juice will make him drink a mouthful of incense, soothe the stomach and moisten the intestines. Drink it all into your stomach, and a cry of joy will be made in your comfortable stomach.
In the 1950s, peasants who had not yet received their own yellow land from the landlord's old wealth for a few years were not very well fed at home, and in order to live a good year, he still firmly remembered these four words. Therefore, there is no need to bring lunch and dinner to make tofu, but they do not have the idea of enjoying the tofu brain.
When the ordered tofu brain is put into a bag spread into a sieve, pressed with a stone or a bucket full of water, the heart will calm down. When he asked the next neighbor who made tofu and if he needed help, the people sitting in the tofu factory waiting to make tofu would answer in unison: "No need." He would say gratefully, "Thank you." "Will get out of here."
As long as he picked up the sieve filled with tofu, he naturally said to his wife and son: "Go fast, there is still a lot of work waiting for us at home." ”
This one went home with the prepared tofu, but the tofu shop behind him was still bustling and steaming, so it could be said that it had to be busy until the second half of the night. When the people who came to make tofu came home one by one with the finished tofu, the keepers who insisted on staying here had to be busy adding grass to the animals before they could fall asleep.
The next day, it was still lively, and the people who came to make tofu still talked and laughed, and helped each other to finish the tofu of the whole team this year.
When the last person finished making tofu, the keeper said: "Folks, next year this is still everyone's tofu factory, welcome to come here to make tofu." ”
They replied, "Okay! ”
Editor-in-charge
Yang Zhiqiang
About author:Xi Tenghua, screen name: Field Culture, born in 1951, member of the Yuanqu Writers Association, deputy of the 15th People's Congress of Yuanqu County. An old farmer growing up in the countryside. He likes literature, likes to find his dreams in words, and loves nostalgic drama. He has published "Remembering My Father", "Under the Big Locust Tree", "Police and People's Affection" and other newspapers and periodicals such as "Science Herald" and "Shunxiang".