As the weather gradually cools, see the scenery in late autumn, blue sky and white clouds, mountains and clear waters. The few ginkgo trees in the courtyard of my hometown seemed to be covered with gold overnight, and the elm leaves began to turn from green to yellow, gently falling in the breeze.
The leaves on the persimmon trees in the yard have long been clean, leaving only red persimmons, like small red lanterns, illuminating auspicious and festive, and nature will paint the oil on the autumn palette to depict this farm yard colorful.
Photo/Qixun (remaining images provided by the author)
Father planted a few persimmon trees around the yard of his hometown, every autumn, persimmon trees will be hung with red persimmons, red persimmons, seems to hang the sky above the small courtyard with red colored clouds, provoking people to stop and admire, and comment a few words, some take out their mobile phones, take a few more pictures related to persimmons, this kind of festive things, pictures taken in the farmyard, the effect is different, it has a strong rural life atmosphere.
The warm farm yard is full of sweet life, the father's wish is to look forward to the family, life is prosperous, "persimmon" is wishful, "persimmon" is smooth, and "persimmon" is happy. My father's good wishes were left to us, but he withdrew from this red "persimmon" noodle in advance.
Seeing persimmon trees full of red persimmons, too late to pick are ripe, become baked persimmons, blown by the autumn wind, the branches shake, there are baked persimmons falling from the sky, gravity acceleration fell on the road, fell sparsely, red juice splashed all over the road, attracting many wasps to come to suck, seeing all this, there was a burst of pain in the heart.
In the past, I wanted to eat such roasted persimmons, but I don't know how many times I had to climb the tree to get the sweet and honey-like baked persimmons as I wished. In the era of food shortage, you can fill your stomach, eat whatever season the food is cooked, especially in the autumn harvest season, you can eat sweet and nourishing baked persimmons, it is already very satisfying.
There are many ways to eat persimmons, picked persimmons, put on the windowsill to bake persimmons, or eat raw, or processed into persimmon pancakes, and dye persimmons with warm water, etc., the most common, and can create economic value, is to scrape the skin of persimmons, processed into persimmon cakes with white frost.
Originally, when the value of persimmon cakes was commercialized, the production team would "drum" the output of persimmon trees in the whole village, according to the number of people or labor points.
Picking persimmons is a hard job, several families must work together, the division of labor is clear, the most dangerous and tiring work, is to climb the tree to pick persimmons, under the tree with a long pole on the top of the "pump" to pick, on the top of the tree to rely on the tree people with tools to pick.
The persimmons picked are divided according to the number that each household should receive, and the more is divided equally twice, and the few families that are not enough are divided equally. After dividing the persimmons and transporting them home, my mother began to use a knife to cut the wings on the persimmon stalks, in order to prevent the persimmon cakes from being cut or convenient to transport. Then it is the peel off the persimmon, commonly known as "scraping persimmon cake".
Scraping persimmon cake needs tools, this kind of tool for scraping persimmon cake, is made by special craftsmen, on a curved bamboo board, inlaid with a curved blade, the gap in the middle should be consistent with the thickness of the persimmon skin, in order not to scrape off the persimmon meat or can not scrape the persimmon skin, no little technology can not do such work.
The work is all based on the clever furniture. A good persimmon scraping knife, in the mother's skilled hands with ease, a persimmon, in the mother's hands rotate 2-3 times, a few seconds can scrape one, clean and fast, those hands are not only dexterous but also magical, as fast as playing magic.
I was eager to try it, but also wanted to learn to scrape persimmons, take persimmons in my left hand, scrape persimmon knife, in my right hand did not listen to the command, scraped persimmons with potholes, some flesh scraped a lot, some skin is still on it. My mother patiently taught me that the left hand should hold the persimmon steadily, not only to let it rotate, but also not to let it run away from the hand, and the right hand to take a spatula from the top of the persimmon, to have a certain slope, while turning and scraping, a persimmon and a skin will come down in the end.
After continuous learning and tempering, I can finally scrape a persimmon at one time, in my mind, it is a great technical work, mastered the skill of scraping persimmons, really responded to "it will not be difficult, difficult will not." This sentence.
Each persimmon has to undergo the quenching of time, take off the skin, expose the golden yellow persimmon flesh, scraped persimmons have a layer of mucus, sticky, to cool and dry in time, can not let them stick together, slightly dry, to be kneaded into persimmon cakes in time.
When the persimmon cake comes out, it is time to shoot, and in exchange for an important source of income in the family, no one can hide the expression of joy in their hearts.
After the reform and opening up, the export standard has been raised, and the scraped persimmon cakes are directly tied with a rope, hung up to dry and called hanging cakes, reducing the link of kneading persimmon cakes, which is both hygienic and labor-saving.
A few years ago, in order to let her daughter eat persimmon cakes, my wife specially went to the market to buy persimmon knives, and it took several sets to buy them. The emergence of rotary knives has made this pure hand tool disappear and has been used as a memorial to this day.
How many years have passed, I especially miss the persimmon tree in my hometown, which has accompanied us through the hard years and brought us a sweet life.
——October 31, 2022
About author:Zhai Suoxiang, born in April 1963 in Nanxia Village, Taihe Town, Zichuan, has a college degree. He is currently an employee of Zichuan District Tobacco Monopoly Bureau. Since 2015, he has published more than 80 articles in newspapers and magazines, and compiled and published his personal literary collection "Mountain Country Past".
Yanagiizumi Financial Literature
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