"The green trees at the top of the mountain tune the warbler tongue, and the wild vegetables on the mountainside fly yellow butterflies". In the spring, everything breeds, the grass grows and the warblers fly, and the fresh and tender green wild vegetables quietly emerge and grow freely among the mountains. This is nature's best gift to mankind, and the memories on the taste buds are hidden in these wild vegetables, and the longer they are renewed.
Part.1
Chinese toon
Toon is a tree of the genus Toon in the neem family, and the young new shoots are fragrant and delicious, and are a rare delicacy in spring, known as "vegetables on the tree". Young shoots are rich in protein and dozens of trace elements and minerals needed by the human body such as calcium, phosphorus and potassium, and enjoy the title of "crown of protein".
The young shoots of toon are available in both red and green. The green whole body is emerald green, if emerald-like, it is called green bud toon; the red body is red, like agate, called red bud toon. Although the color is different, the aroma and taste are slightly different, but the nutritional value is basically the same, it is a high-quality seasonal vegetable that improves immunity.
According to the difference in growth time and taste, toon buds are divided into first buds and two buds. The first bud toon is small, tender and good color, and it is a sought-after commodity on the table; the second bud toon is in the right season, and everyone can taste it.
Toon buds have a strong smell, but for this smell, different people can evaluate it differently. People who like it will feel particularly fragrant, and the great literary scholar Wang Zengqi once praised the fresh fragrance of the toon with "one entrance, three springs do not forget"; those who do not like it feel that it is a strange smell, can not be eaten, and can not be avoided.
As a vegetable, toon is only a short period of more than ten days in spring, and it will take another year to miss it. However, while it is delicious, its nitrate content is not low, which may trigger allergic reactions. Although wild vegetables are good, you can taste them, and you must not be greedy.
Have you ever eaten toon buds and seen toon blossom and bear fruit? The flowering period of toon is summer, and when it blooms, the small white flowers, many and dense, gather in a single inflorescence on short twigs, dotted in the evergreen bushes, like a bunch of small grains of rice. In autumn, the fruit is a capsule fruit, which when ripened and splits into five petals, but more like a flower, a bunch of bunches fell to the ground, very suitable for decoration. What is even more interesting is that the fruit of the toon, like the pine cone, in the event of high humidity weather, the cracked capsule will close.
The buds of toon (Image source: Chinese Plant Image Library)
Flowers of toon (Image source: China Plant Image Library)
The fruit of the toon
Part.2
cress
Cress is an ancient, poetic and culturally rich plant. In the "Spring and Autumn of the Lu Family", it is recorded: "The beauty of the dish, the parsley of the cloud dream". It is said that there is a delicious vegetable in Chudi - celery, which is the wild water celery we eat now, so the cress is called Chu Kui in "Erya".
Cress is a perennial herb of the genus Cress of the family Umbellifera, native to the mainland, mostly growing in shallow water low-lying areas or ponds and swamps, ditches, widely distributed throughout the country, and lotus root, zibai, coriander, ci mushroom, water chestnut, lettuce, rhombus and known as Jiangnan "water eight immortals". With a crisp and fragrant taste, it is a very rare vegetable that has been loved by people since ancient times. After all, the vegetables eaten by the ancestors in ancient times can not be preserved to the present.
Wild water celery, often grown in pieces on relatively wet shores or in shallow water, smooth stems are hollow, soft without obvious fibers, crisp taste; the whole plant emits a strong herbal fragrance, some people like, some people resist.
Fresh wild water celery, out of the mud without staining, can be paired with a variety of ingredients. Usually the simplest thing to do is to wash, cut into sections, stir-fry, and when it comes out of the pan, it is fragrant.
In addition to consumption, cress is also related to "school attendance". "Si Le Pan Shui, Thin Picking Its Celery" is a sentence in the poem "Pan Shui". "Pan shui" refers to the water in the pan palace. According to the commentary, Pangong was a school established by the princes of the Zhou Dynasty, equivalent to the current university. The poem describes the scene of students entering the school in ancient times when they collected celery by the water's edge. It can be seen that if you want to collect cress in the pan palace, you must be a student who is admitted to the entrance office to be eligible. Since then, picking celery has become synonymous with admission, and later gradually evolved into the meaning of Xiucai in the examination.
Although cress is delicious, in the case of uncertainty, do not pick wild celery randomly. If it is a high imitation that is picked back, it will face life safety problems.
Wild water celery
Sautéed celery in water (image from the Internet)
Part.3
Zhuge dish
Zhuge cai is an annual or biennial herb of the genus Zhuge cai in the cruciferous family, which often blooms in February of the lunar calendar, also known as February orchid, and grows tenaciously in mountains, roadsides, plains and other places. Cruciferous is a big vegetable household, which contains cabbage, rapeseed, radish, kale and so on that we eat every day. Their flowers are four-petaled, cross-shaped, and the fruit is a silique (the fruit of the cabbage is a short silique, like a heart), which is wrapped in small black seeds. These tiny seeds have a higher oil content and can be used to press oil.
February Orchid seems to be a poem in spring. The blue-purple flowers bloom from early spring to late spring. At first, there were a few scattered flowers, scattered in the wilderness, unremarkable; in a short time, they became a sea of flowers, dreamily jumping into the eyes and imprinting into the mind.
In the tiny wildflower bushes, the February orchid is the absolute leader, the flowers are large and colorful, growing in pieces on the ground, the visual impact is particularly strong, and the appearance is not inferior to that of horticultural flowers. Nowadays, it has been cultivated by horticulturists as an ornamental flower, which is planted as a landscape for potted and ground planting, which is of great ornamental value.
The young stems and leaves of Zhuge Cai are also delicious seasonal wild vegetables, but the taste is slightly bitter. After picking, washing and blanching, it can be cold mixed, stuffed and stir-fried. When it comes out of the pot, the strong aroma of vegetables has a faint bitter taste, exuding the taste of spring, and the aftertaste is endless.
Zhuge dish
The flower of Zhuge cai
Stir-fried Zhuge vegetables (picture from the Internet)
Part.4
White
Xiè (xiè) white is an herbaceous plant of the genus Allium in the family Liliaceae with underground bulbous bulbs. In addition to Xinjiang and Qinghai, it is widely distributed throughout the country, also known as small root garlic and jiào head, which is a rare and delicious dish in spring.
Spicy and strong taste of xuebai, is a typical medicinal and food homologous plant, rich in protein, amino acids, food fiber and trace elements needed by the human body. It not only increases nutrition but also improves taste, and regular consumption not only prevents anemia, but also helps to strengthen muscles and bones.
As a seasonal wild vegetable, there are many ways to eat it. After picking the whole plant and washing it, it can be eaten raw with sauce, made into soup, stuffed, and pickled into pickles, which is appetizing and refreshing. The most convenient and home-cooked method is scrambled eggs. Mix well with the chopped white and egg mixture, sauté in a pan of oil until golden brown, add a little salt and out of the pan. Fresh and bright, the aroma is fragrant and memorable.
White plant (Source: China Plant Image Library)
Scrambled eggs with white (image from the Internet)
Part.5
Bitter lettuce
Bitter lettuce is an annual or biennial herb of the Asteraceae family, distributed almost globally, often on hillsides or valley edges, understory or flat fields, in open areas or near water. The stem grows upright, smooth and hairless, hollow inside, with white milk flowing out after breaking; the leaves are soft, pinnate and deeply lobed, with irregular small pointed teeth or short spiny teeth growing on the edges; a large number of yellow tongue-like florets gathered into a head-shaped inflorescence; the fruit matures with fine soft white crown hairs like dandelions, and under the wind blowing, leaves the plant mother, finds suitable soil to settle down, and begins a new cycle of life.
As a traditional edible wild vegetable in mainland China, bitter lettuce has a bitter taste, but its nutritional value is relatively high, containing protein, vitamins and a variety of amino acids rich in trace elements. When eating, first wash and blanch the water, and then carry out cold mixing, stir-frying, making pickles, etc., different production methods, the taste and flavor are slightly different.
Bitter lettuce plant
Cold tossed with bitter lettuce
The plan of the year lies in the spring, and the small wild vegetables are also busy in the spring, accumulating energy, growing vigorously, striving to bloom the beauty of life, and bringing human satisfaction to the sense of taste. The sense of taste has a memory, it is a thought of the past time. What are the wild vegetables that sway in nature that linger in time and space?
Source: Voice of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
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