Hunan Daily New Hunan Client Correspondent He Lechuan Tang Jiaxing
On May 27th, together with the Black Rice Festival in Gaochi Ancient Village and the "Black Rice Auspicious Banquet", an intangible cultural heritage tourism activity of ethnic folk customs, 100 farmhouse eight immortal tables were filled with fragrant black rice, black puff dumplings and other special delicacies. While feasting on the tourists, they also felt the hospitality of the high chair people.
On that day, the bluestone streets of Gaochair Ancient Village were lit up, crowded and lively. In addition to the "feast" in the main venue, the streets of Gucun also have special delicacies such as dried vegetables, dried bamboo shoots, dried lang beef, and secret fire pond bacon.
"A large bucket of black rice, all sold out before noon, still made less!" Yang Huifang, a villager in the ancient village, said with a little pity. Yang Huifang is one of the annual traditional "black rice festivals", where many villagers bring their own "black rice" to the market for tourists to taste.
"I started making and selling black rice with adults when I was a child, and I'm still here. Over the years, our tourism in Gaochair Ancient Village has developed, and black rice has become better and better. Yang Huifang said.
More than 85% of Gaochai Ancient Village is surnamed Yang, and more than 60% of the Dong population is Dong, and making "black rice" has been a traditional custom in Gaochai Ancient Village since ancient times. It is understood that every year around the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, the women of the Dong family in the village go up the mountain to pick fresh "black rice" leaves, wash them, grind them into juice with stone mills, mix them with high-quality glutinous rice and soak them, and finally put them into a pot of wood and steam. Steamed black rice is shiny and has a unique flavor, and it exudes a natural plant fragrance when eaten, which is loved by the public.
"I have had enough 'black rice' addiction in Gaochi Ancient Village today, and now I will bring more back to my family to taste." Tourist Lin Shangli said with a smile as he carried two bowls of black rice.
In addition to "black rice" and "black puff dumplings", Gaochai Ancient Village also has "black rice dumplings" and "black rice dumplings". These specialty foods are said to have originated in the Northern Song Dynasty, with a long history and unique flavor. However, for a long time, although this "stunner" has been passed down from generation to generation, it has only been self-sufficient and decentralized production by villagers, hidden in the "purdah" and not in front of the "hall".
In recent years, with the implementation and promotion of the rural revitalization strategy, Gaochai Ancient Village has firmly grasped the "bull's nose" of "cultural tourism rejuvenation village", given full play to the advantages of local resources, and combined traditional culture with modern industry to achieve better development. In November 2018, the Heijiu Mei Wuhan Tree Planting Professional Cooperative in Gaochair Village was established, absorbing 191 households.
"After the establishment of the professional cooperative in the village, everyone's enthusiasm for production has been unprecedentedly high, which has greatly increased the output of black rice series products and effectively promoted the development of characteristic industries." Yang Wuqiang, director of the Gaochai Ancient Village Scenic Area Management Institute, said that in the past, when black rice was made during the festival, villagers traveled all over the mountains looking for picking tender "black rice" leaves, but now with the black rice tree planting base, this problem has been solved. In contrast, black steamed dumplings are more convenient to store than black rice, black rice dumplings, and black dumplings, and in recent years, the average number of handmade black bubble dumplings per household in the village has reached 45,000, and more than 10,000, and the industrial development has brought "source living water" to the economic development of the villagers in the ancient village.
In order to prevent the goods from being crushed by collision and crushing during transportation, and reduce customer returns and losses for both parties, the village has developed special protective packaging, and put forward higher requirements for the individual size, taste and other quality of the product. After research and development, the high chair black puff bun also has a variety of flavors such as pepper salt, sweet plum, seaweed, spicy and so on, and the products are well received by consumers.
"The cultural heritage and quality characteristics of series of foods such as black rice and black steamed bun in Gaochi Ancient Village have attracted many tourists, making the 'Black Rice Festival' more popular, joyful and blessed." Yang Qiyong, deputy secretary of the Gaochair Village branch, introduced that the special foods such as black bubble dumplings, black rice dumplings, and black dumplings in Gaochi Ancient Village have been exported to Changsha, Guangzhou, Beijing and other places through e-commerce, with an annual sales volume of more than 1 million yuan.