Yesterday, I talked to my wife and sister-in-law and said that my 92-year-old father-in-law will plant sweet potatoes in the small courtyard in the west of her family's village this year. Already digging for melon seedlings everywhere, the ground is also lying on the ridge, one by one, neatly arranged in the spacious courtyard, and at first glance it is the meticulous work of the crops.
Little sister's home in the west is by a north-south country road, the south is Zhangguo Village, not far north is Anli and Xiaozhang, the gate is rushing to the road, it is very convenient to enter and exit. The courtyard is boxy, with three brick houses to the north, the empty Westinghouse Hill and the south side being empty and flat, and the soil and soil moisture are good. Originally, there were some cinders and the like, but later changed the soil several times, planted fruits and vegetables for a few years, and the land was also very fertile, suitable for growing some vegetables, melons, and fruits.
The roots of the south wall and the west wall of the yard planted several rows of poplar trees, these years have passed, the poplar trees have also grown tall, spring season, early faded the cold winter dead leaves, the canopy is up, the branches out, the leaves are emerald green, the spring wind is rippling, the leaves are fluttering, there were originally large white clouds floating in the blue sky, the wind blew, it drifted towards the distant green fields. There were two dogs tethered under the trees on the west wall of the courtyard, and when the acquaintance came, he stood up upright and made all kinds of eye-catching movements, and when strangers came in, they watched vigilantly and barked. This is all that the courtyard has. My father-in-law and mother-in-law grow some fruits, vegetables and vegetables in this small courtyard every year. I recounted in an essay, "My Parents-in-Law's Little Vegetable Garden," about their tireless work in the vegetable garden, but without further ado, I would like to say that my father-in-law planted some sweet potatoes in that vegetable garden every year. He has a deep sweet potato complex deep inside.
People from his time know that sweet potatoes have saved countless lives, and many people have lived today's good life step by step by eating sweet potatoes. "People should be content, be grateful, and must not forget the good of sweet potatoes!" This is a sentence that my father-in-law often hangs on his lips, and it is also a sentence that is often used to teach us. Yes, people should be grateful, sweet potatoes have accompanied us through such a difficult day, we can not forget the saving grace of sweet potatoes, we can not forget our original intention, nor can we forget the original intention of sweet potatoes.
I can feel that in my father-in-law's emotional narrative and life memory, sweet potatoes are the most indispensable. Every year he planted sweet potatoes for us to keep, and when we got the harvest, we always had to put a big bag in the trunk of the car for us to take back to Jinan and put them in the shade of the storage room, and those sweet potatoes could eat for a winter. There is also that every time he talks about sweet potatoes with his father-in-law, he immediately opens the conversation box from the time when he was planting sweet potatoes in the production team, and he is very happy. That kind of feeling, only if you have experienced it, will be so vivid and full of feelings, so there is a long emotional line between the father-in-law and the sweet potato that leads to the pity between each other.
TwoSweet potatoes are not as pretentious as other crops, and are much better served than cucumbers, eggplants, apples, peaches and other fruits, vegetables and vegetables. Father-in-law first planted a ridge of melon seedlings in that small courtyard every spring, there was a tap water well in the yard, watering was also convenient, sometimes the father-in-law carried water with a bucket, sometimes he went from the tap to the melon ridge, unscrewed, the father-in-law sat on the side of the pole and watched, the two dogs were lying on his heels, and would naughtily pull the reeds that the father-in-law had placed on the ground with his mouth, and the father-in-law did not chase them, just watched the water flowing in the ridge. After a while of effort, the melon seedlings were watered thoroughly, and those melon seedlings were still shrugging their heads before, and they were lifeless, and when they drank enough water, they saw that they were as energetic as they opened their smiling faces. The sweet potato seedlings grew rapidly, and in a few days, the ground could not be seen in the ridge, and all that was seen was a moist green.
There are not too many sweet potatoes grown in the yard, and there are also many places to grow beans, eggplants and peppers. My father-in-law also used planting sweet potatoes as an exercise. In those few days of planting sweet potatoes, with the warm sun overhead, I felt much better than hiding in a cool corner. "Everything depends on the sun", the spring sun is warm and not poisonous, which is most suitable for replenishing the yang needed by the human body. Therefore, in the few days of planting sweet potatoes, my father-in-law was busy in that field from night to night.
Planting sweet potatoes requires dividing seedlings, and when my father-in-law divides the seedlings from the ridge of the sweet potato seedlings, he must grasp a lump of soil at the root of each melon seedling, and the soil is wet, like a vegetable dumpling that has sucked up enough nutrients. Then the father-in-law put them one by one into the basket, and the basket was laid one by one, and the father-in-law carried the basket and planted them one by one along the pre-arranged sweet potato furrows. The nest of planting sweet potatoes has long been planed, round, and after planting, a circular groove is built around each melon seedling, planted a tree to water, and after planting, it is also watered again. When the pouring was finished, the father-in-law sat on the pole on the ground, the reeds on the side, the warm sun overhead, the two dogs still lying on the ground, and the father-in-law's wrinkled face rippled with a sweet smile. Occasionally, he would pick up the reed fan, which was a flutter of willows floating from outside the wall. Sunlight is everywhere, and those sweet potato seedlings that are planted contain and grow new vitality in the spring sunshine.
Sweet potato seedlings are spicy, after returning the seedlings do not have to care too much, and then add enough water, soon the full of water is all over. Every day, my father-in-law would sit next to the sweet potato seedlings and watch them grow up day by day. Occasionally, there was a rain, and those sweet potato seedlings were exposed to rain and dew, and they changed from day to day. In the spring, the wind is strong, the ground is drying fast, there is no rain, and for a few days the spring wind blows down, and the ground is dry, and the sweet potato seedlings are like a disease, waiting for the care and moisture of the spring water without life. At this time, my father-in-law carried water in a bucket, watering one by one, or following the plastic pipe, pinching the pipe head, and watering along the sweet potato ridge one by one. In this small courtyard, the sweet potato seedlings are not short of water, so they grow very vigorously, and my father-in-law is also happy to see it in his heart.
ThreeIn his father-in-law's memory, he did not have less dealings with sweet potatoes when he was young, in fact, at that time, the villages and villages planted sweet potatoes, which was also the age when sweet potatoes and people watched over each other, and many people remembered that they had planted sweet potatoes. I was very young, and my village also grew sweet potatoes. The sweet potato field in our village is in the north of the village, 7 kilometers away from the village, which is a very far land. Our Cui family's sweet potato field still has a piece of the west cliff at the west end of our village. Because our Cui family lives in the west of the village, the westernmost is the third uncle's house, separated by a rain ditch, and the east is our and the second uncle's family. It's close to planting sweet potatoes in the West Cliff, just outside. I remember my father and a few uncles leading their brothers to plant a large piece of sweet potato seedlings first. In the days when the melon seedlings grew up, a group of people used the beaks to sort out the ridges and furrows.
The west cliff plot is large, and there are many furrows and ridges. When planting seedlings, a large family came to the West Cliff, some of them were divided into seedlings, some were barefoot on the furrows, everyone talked and laughed, they all ran forward and ran and rushed into a mess, and soon the seedlings were planted. At that time, there was also a well in the west cliff, and there was a reel on the well, and my brothers took turns drawing water from the well. From the well to the sweet potato ridge and vegetable field, a collar ditch for watering was specially dug, and the water was hit by bucket, and it slowly flowed into the melon field and vegetable field along the collar ditch. In my memory, the well in the West Cliff has never dried up and dried up, the water in the well is crystal clear, sometimes we lie on the well platform, and we can see our shadows in the water. The adults were afraid that we would fall into the well, so when they saw us at the well, they came over and greeted us and left. There are not many opportunities to see the reflection in the water at the well, but I am most impressed in my heart.
Sweet potatoes grow up without any labor, adults are busy with other things, a group of our friends every day on the west cliff and the east of the inlet of the water hide-and-seek, playing the game of catching traitors and fighting devils. Some are hidden in the tree garden by the inlet, some are hidden in the melon racks, and some are lying in the sweet potato ridges. There is a big clock at the east end of the village, and the big clock that goes up and down the clock "Dangdang" has also become a signal clock for us to run out of the hiding place to catch the bad guys, and we don't feel tired after a day of playing. In addition to planting a large piece of sweet potato, the melon field in West Cliff is also planted with watermelon, tomatoes, eggplant, loofah, and pepper, and when it is ripe in summer, the whole West Cliff is rich in a piece of melon and fruit. The adults reward us the most is the watermelon in the melon field, those melons and fruits are to wait for the ripeness of the family to divide, in the waiting days, we little guys have become the earliest "tasters".
Harvesting sweet potatoes is also a very memorable fun thing. At that time, the garden was full of fragrance, the sky was far away and blue, the clouds were beautiful and white, the west cliff was full of autumn insects singing, and frog drums and cicadas were heard from time to time in the inlet and the garden of trees. Planed sweet potato is to have some tricks, can not be hard pulled, hard pulling sweet potato seed will be broken, sweet potato can not come out. Can not use iron shovel planing, easy to hurt sweet potatoes. To dig with a small shovel, select from the surroundings of the worm, and as soon as the shovel is down, the sweet potato is unearthed intact. I remember that shaving a piece of sweet potato with a shovel is like completing a very valuable task, holding the sweet potato and looking at it over and over again. Some of the melons grow under the seedlings of two sweet potatoes, like two twin brothers, the skin is red, it is very pleasing to watch. Freshly unearthed sweet potatoes are large, sweet and crispy, and we often plan them on one side, shave them out, rinse them in the water and nibble on them. Sweet potatoes have nutrients, grow in the ground, and there is no drug residue, raw eat more and eat less does not make a stomach, so when the sweet potato is shaved, adults and children eat very happily.
Sweet potatoes are also very good to store, at that time, after the production team divided the sweet potatoes, every household would dig a straw in front of the yard, put on a wooden shelf, covered with grass mustard and plastic sheets, the heat preservation effect of the pipe was very good, warm in winter and cool in summer, every household in the northern countryside of that era had it. The sweet potatoes, cabbages and turnips grown at home and distributed by the production team are stored in the mantle. When it's time to eat, just step on the ladder and go down to get some up. Those sweet potatoes are still red for a winter, and those who have a heart bury the sweet potatoes in the sand inside the kiln, and when they are taken out, they are still as bright as ever, and the taste is the same as just being planed out of the melon fields. One winter, each family cooked sweet potatoes, or steamed them, and sometimes roasted a few pieces in the hearth while cooking on the fire. The firewood was stopped, pulled out of the ashes of the hearth pot, the sweet potato skin was crispy on the outside, and the melon was soft on the inside, sweet and delicious. What I still want to eat most is the sweet potato that my mother grilled from the stove when she cooked.
FourMy father-in-law came from that era and could best appreciate the hardships and hardships of life at that time, so when he was old, he had a very deep affection for sweet potatoes. From a young age, he was a good farmer of sweet potatoes and a good shaver. He and I said more than once about helping other people in the village plank the sweet potatoes, and I was full of pride. The sweet potatoes he planted in his wife's courtyard grew big, sweet, and particularly delicious. Every year, when he finished receiving, he divided it into several portions, some to a few children, some to the neighbors for everyone to taste, he and his mother-in-law left a little bit of soup to drink, to take his words, "Old, the teeth are not good, the bite can not move, but remember the days with the sweet potato, still want to eat, that taste can not be forgotten." "The most natural one is left for us, every time we go back from Jinan, we bring it to us, he knows that my wife and I love sweet potatoes and drink sweet potato soup." The sweet potatoes we brought back from our hometown were the most emotional and story food nutrients of a winter.
Throughout the ages, poems about sweet potatoes have been abundant. Dongpo once chanted "Sweet potatoes and purple buds, far around the wall." And put Youlan Spring, Mo Zheng Frost Chrysanthemum Autumn. "Qing Dynasty Huanghua carp's "YongDi Melon" is more impressive and moving" The taste is sweeter than Qingmen food, and the red seeds in the garden are explored in time. How many rare fruits in the world, there is no tonic and shame. "It tastes like Qingmen is eating but it is very sweet, and the red buds in the garden stick out of the head." How many rare fruits in the world are ashamed in front of it, in fact, they all express the deep affection of people and sweet potatoes.
My elderly father-in-law insisted on planting sweet potatoes, and I think it also represents a common voice of those who came with him in the past and cherished the present. Nowadays, our diet structure is much richer, sweet potato has long withdrawn from our staple food, occasionally from the street and downstairs supermarket to buy some roasted sweet potato is also a relief, but we must not forget the past, each meal of eating sweet potato is indeed to save our countless lives, roasted sweet potato, steamed sweet potato, dried sweet potato, sweet potato porridge as we once had three meals a day let us spend a lot of unforgettable days. Sweet potatoes are kind to us, we should be deeply grateful to sweet potatoes, this is the original heart of my father-in-law planting sweet potatoes to let me understand, but also the original heart of sweet potatoes, the original heart that all of us cannot forget.
One point wind through the forest