The nursery rhyme says that "after Laba is the New Year", but in Changning, it is not until the small year that the rhythm of the New Year really starts, and the flavor of the New Year begins to slowly form in urban and rural areas and spreads quietly.
After cleaning and dusting on the 24th day of the lunar month, the people of Changning began to put down other things, do one or two things every day, and prepare for the New Year wholeheartedly. In the mountain village, you can hear the sound of the small hand grinding and the rhythm of the pestle everywhere, interweaving the "music" full of nostalgia, and constantly pushing the atmosphere of the New Year to a climax.
At the home of He Zhiju, a villager of Wangjiaqing Natural Village, Xinchang Village, Gengjie Township, several villagers, men and women are busy, making baba, making tofu, making noodles, and fried rice...... Inside and outside the stone house, laughter and laughter are heard from time to time, and the air is filled with the smell of nostalgia.
The small hand mill used to be a necessary tool for every farmer in Changning Mountain Village, which can be used to grind corn, wheat, buckwheat and other grains, and is used to grind tofu and flour before the Chinese New Year. Over the years, with the entry of various processing machinery into the farmhouse, many hand mills have been "laid off" or even disappeared from the farmhouse, but some people still keep it, although it is no longer commonly used, but it is also a thought.
To make tofu, you have to soak the soybeans in water for a day, and then add a small spoonful of water to the grinding eye, and the two people cooperate with the hand mill to slowly grind into a pulp. After grinding, put it in a pocket sewn with gauze to remove the okara and boil the pulp in a large pot with a small amount of water boiled beforehand.
After the soybean milk boils for a period of time, add the water boiled with sour pulp leaves picked from the mountains to let the soy milk slowly turn into bean curd, and then take out the bean curd and put it into the tofu squeeze to press off the water. After the finished tofu, a small part is left to eat during the New Year, and the rest is salted into marinated curd after being sunburned, molded, and mixed, which becomes a pickle for rice all year round.
To make dough, you should first soak the glutinous rice for half a day, and then slowly grind it into rice milk with a small stone mill like grinding tofu, and then put it into bamboo utensils such as a basket and dustpan, press it with a heavy object to squeeze out the water, and then divide it into small pieces to dry it in the sun for preservation.
Tangyuan is called tangtuan in Changning, and it is a must-eat food for farmers on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. The dough pressing is to prepare for making the dumplings, you only need to take some dry dough, add an appropriate amount of water to wake up, and then evenly mix the dough, boil the brown sugar water to boiling, rub and boil, and add an appropriate amount of sweet white wine after all are cooked.
It is the most ceremonial thing for the New Year, and the baba is not only used for eating for oneself, but also as a gift for visiting relatives. The baba made with rice, which Changning people call bait, is made into "baba hammer" and "baba cake", and can also make twelve zodiac signs and so on. The baba made with glutinous rice is called glutinous rice by the people of Changning, and it is generally made into large baba cakes and small baba cakes. Although the two kinds of baba have different materials, different shapes, and different tastes, the process of making them is basically the same, which is to soak the rice, steam it on the retort, lick it while it is hot, knead it vigorously, and make it with heart. Although the texture is relatively rough, and there will even be rice grains if it is not licked well, it tastes chewy, the rice is fragrant, and it is eaten by burning, boiling, and steaming, and is very popular with men, women and children.
Changning people also have a must-have for the New Year - rice syrup. When there are guests at home, the hospitable host will always rush a bowl of steaming rice syrup to the guests to share the sweetness of life together. Rice, as the name suggests, is popcorn fried with rice, and the popcorn fried with corn, Changning people call it corn corn flower, and when the rice is fried, it will also be fried a few times to give children snacks to satisfy their hunger.
He Zhiwei, who is also from Wang Jiaqing, saw that many people needed rice and corn grains, so he bought a set of equipment from the Internet, went to the Xinchang market to make popcorn, and went to the village to do it on empty streets, and the business was very good before and after the Chinese New Year.
Looking at the fruits of a day's labor, the 65-year-old He Zhiju "the old man chatted about the madness of youth", tasted a few mouthfuls of poop, chewed a few grains of rice, drank a few mouthfuls of soy milk, and was as happy as a child. Indeed, in an era when food and clothing were no longer a problem, wasn't the picture of the New Year just a picture of reunion and happiness? In the small hand mill, it was not only beans and rice that was milled, but also nostalgia; what was cooked in the pestle and mortar was not only baba, but also the traditional flavor of the New Year; and the sound of the popcorn machine "banging" made it not only rice and corn flowers fried, but also festive and hopeful.
"If you have money or not, go home for the New Year". The small year has passed, and the big year is coming, it is better to return to the countryside, return to the countryside, return to the family, accompany the elderly, children, relatives and friends, relax the body, let go of the past, empty the mind, taste the taste of the world in the traditional New Year's flavor of the countryside, and enjoy the good time.
Correspondents: Wu Zaizhong, Sun Jimin
编辑：杨 雪 | 责任编辑：穆建勋
值班总编：刘子安 | 审核：字竟春
Submission email: [email protected]