Written by Yanagi Cheng
In the sixties and seventies, the common people had two sayings: "If you usually save it, you can't save it during the New Year, and you will do it every year." "There is no money anymore, and there will be money for the Chinese New Year." This is a popular folk saying in Jiangsu and Zhejiang during the production team.
This is a real history, during the production team period, our brigade was called the Liuqi brigade, and we were the first production team. Legend has it that we once had three famous fishing houses here, namely Liujiayi, Liujiaqi and Hongjiajiao, which later became the names of the three brigades.
During the period of the production team, the per capita cultivated land of Liujiaqi was small, and the per capita cultivated land of our production team was about one acre, which was operated in a way that combined agriculture and sideline industries. In the 70s, the production team successively set up a willow weaving factory, a pearl farm, a pig farm, a pig farm, and also planted mulberry and silkworms, and the living conditions were relatively good, at least not as bad as imagined.
You may think that it is inconceivable for the production team to arrange a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner for all members, but it does exist in our place.
New Year, pork on the table is indispensable, Chinese New Year's Eve pork is really eaten as rice, boiled in a large pot, with a washbasin-sized bowl on the table, with a copper basin for washing the face. Drink wine in a big bowl, eat meat in large pieces, hearty, and eat in large pieces. That can be regarded as a real meat eat, and pork is a luxury that can only be found in the thirties of the Chinese New Year's Eve.
However, the people of the city were not so lucky. Because from 1957 to 1964 and from 1976 to 1989, the pork purchased by the city people was restricted and meat tickets were required. Usually, there seems to be no unified standard for how many meat tickets per person in a specific month, and it is estimated that the number of pigs slaughtered in the region is determined, some say a month and a half catty, some say more than a catty, and some say one or two. Even if the supply is moderately increased during the festival, it is certain that it is not as abundant as that of rural people.
The people in the cities usually do not see the hardships of the rural people, they work and live indoors, they receive wages, and the skin is tender, while the rural people work at sunrise, and they either burn kilns or sell charcoal, and they do not slip into autumn, so the people in the city call the peasants "black-skinned and big-eared," which is an insult to the peasants. What is black skin, what is big ears, and old sows. When the Chinese New Year came, the people in the cities began to envy the rural people again, and what did they envy? They envied the fact that the rural people had meat to eat, and it seemed that the pork that the rural people ate was stolen.
Kill the pig
There are two farmers in the production team who specialize in raising pigs, and every year before the Spring Festival, they will pull a few pigs out to kill them and distribute them to the people. The common people have worked hard for a year, and it is not too much to spend the New Year with fish and meat, and it is not too much, it is not necessary for the approval of the brigade or the commune, and the captain directly has the final say. Some people say that killing a pig is divided, I can't believe it, a production team of more than 100 people, one person is more than a pound of meat, not enough to stuff the teeth.
I don't know what happened to other production teams, but when I was the captain that year, I directly killed four heads to ensure that one person got five catties of meat. In November, the breeder pre-selected four pigs with large skeletons, raised them separately, fed more concentrate, fed fat and strong, and the hair was shiny, and after the pig was killed, the fat on the back was six or seven centimeters thick, as warm and white as mutton fat jade.
Divide the meat
The day of the pig killing was very lively, the pig was not killed, and the people flocked to the pig barn, which was the happiest thing for them in the year. They carried pork home, grinning to their ears, it was the reward of a year of hard work. However, the happiest thing is yet to come. Pork belly, pig intestines, pig hearts, pig livers, pig lungs, pig feet, pig heads, and pig blood are not easy to distinguish, then find a big pot, stew, and the whole team members eat together.
In the afternoon, the accountant moved more than ten Eight Immortal Tables from the people's homes early, and the two members were busy for a long time, and the dishes were cooked and placed on the table. Stir-fried pork belly, stir-fried pork heart, stir-fried pork liver, roasted pig's blood, braised pig's head meat, simmered pig's feet, intestine pig lung soup, and Chinese cabbage in the field stewed in a pot, and white rice boiled in four or five buckets. Even if all the members have a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner together.
Wine always has to be drunk, there is no good wine, the bulk wine from the commune oil factory, dried melon roast, strong enough. They all drank so much that their faces were red and their necks were thick. At this time of year, I always drank so much that I couldn't recognize the east, west, north and south, and I had to salute every table, and if I didn't thank you, I had to drink to death. One year, I drank so much that I snuggled up to a haystack, slept with straw on it, and woke up sneezing seven or eight times in a row.
Members eat Chinese New Year's Eve dinner
At that time, the common people raised pigs at home, as little as two pigs, as many as three or five. As soon as he entered the month and a half, every family killed the New Year's pig. The old family has the custom of making steamed buns, and every household makes dozens of catties of noodles, which are usually saved. Lard fat and flower oil are used to wrap shredded radish steamed buns. The author once wrote a poem "Making Steamed Buns", which was published in a literary journal in my hometown, and I still remember a few sentences: "Hometown people celebrate the New Year/Steamed steamed buns at home/Steamed fermented life." ”
A pig kills 100 catties of meat, pickles it all, hangs it under the eaves and dries it to the oil, and eats it until the wheat field. In the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, every family roasted fish and meat were divided by the production team. Although the fish is not a good fish, silver carp, raised in the fish pond of the production team, it is very delicious. The meat is good meat, and the pigs raised by the grass faintly taste the taste of grass. At that time, the peasants were not rich, but they were happy and carefree. A bowl of braised pork is enough, why ask for delicacies from the mountains and seas?
Dried bacon
Some people say that they kill cattle and divide beef during the New Year, but they dare not agree. During the period of the production team, the ploughing cattle are important agricultural animals, and they cannot be slaughtered privately, otherwise they must be invited to drink tea. But our production team slaughtered one in '76, and I still remember it vividly.
It was an old cow with white flowers on a black background, bought back from the north, raised for more than ten years, and was already old, unable to plow the land, unable to practice, and fell ill. At the end of that year, the commune veterinarian visited the door several times, and the herbal soup was filled with half a bucket, but it did not get better, and after asking for instructions, it was agreed to kill it, but the beef was not allowed to be distributed to the members, and it had to be sent to the town's meat factory.
The cow was so skinny, skinny, skinned, ribs clear. The beef was sent to the meat factory, and it was pushed back. Therefore, the production team's Chinese New Year's Eve dinner that year was a "whole cattle banquet". Deboned beef head meat, braised beef, beef offal soup. However, it was the most failed Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, the beef was all lean meat, no oil and water.
During the production team period, the members did not eat beef, first, they did not breed beef cattle, and second, beef did not have fat. In the sixties and seventies, farmers ate meat and chose big fatty meat. It's fun to eat it in your mouth.
Pig farm during the production team
I don't know if in that era, all the production teams killed pigs and divided meat? I don't know how many production teams arranged for members to eat Chinese New Year's Eve dinner? I guess that there should be many places to kill pigs and divide meat, and there should be few people who eat Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. Like some villages in Fengyang, Anhui Province, whether it is the production team or the farmer's house, not a single pig hair can be seen, let alone killing the New Year pig, it is rare to have a bowl of braised pork on the table.
More than 40 years have passed, and now eating meat is not uncommon, Chinese New Year's Eve food is there every year, but you can't always eat that kind of happiness......