Nightshade, purslane, toon, wild buckwheat

Written by Sheng Fu Word Count 1751

Generally speaking, wild herbs are spring plants. The wild vegetables have come out, and the spring girl has also made a beautiful appearance. Wild plants grow in the wild in the spring, making them great for a walk. I think that's one of the reasons why wild vegetables are so attractive. There are many kinds of wild vegetables, and here are a few kinds of wild vegetables that you see and know during the Qingming Festival.

Nightshade, the young seedlings were removed

Nightshade

Let's start with nightshade. I have seen nightshade before, I remember that its flowers are like pepper flowers, and the branches are similar, but I don't know that it is called nightshade, and I don't care, like a passerby. That time and the big brother of the Dongjiang River rode Duozhu, on the side of the stone steps of the ancient wharf of Duozhu, the eldest brother pointed out that I had recognized two kinds of plants, one is to take root, the other is nightshade, at that time he said that it is called white cauliflower, and white cauliflower is nightshade.

Recently, I found nightshade on the edge of a meadow. It grows with clover and yellow quail, and looks like a weed. Yellow quail is also a wild vegetable and can also be eaten.

Come and see the nightshade. The leaves of nightshade have coarse teeth, but the young leaves are inconspicuous. The juice is kneaded from the leaves, and it smells of grass and greens. The juice stained the fingers grass green, and the fragrance remained on it. The main stem has weak spines. Small white flowers with drooping flowers. The fruit is round-grained, has a bitter taste when it is green, and is purple-black when it is old. Set aside a nightshade tree, the whole shape is quite beautiful, like a sketch painting. The root has a medicinal fragrance.

An aunt said that nightshade can be used for tea. Pick its young seedlings and fry them, mash them with fried peanuts, sesame seeds, and tea leaves, and mix them with boiling water. Or use it to make soup with eggs. I asked my aunt where she was from? She said that her hometown was Shanwei. It's the first time I've heard of nightshade tea, but I don't know what it tastes like.

Nightshade has many aliases, say a few to listen to like, such as wild sea pepper, small bitter herb, lantern grass, white cauliflower, flying dragon and so on. China's first state-promulgated pharmacopoeia, the Tang Dynasty's Xinxiu Materia Medica, called nightshade bitter.

Nightshade flowers

The fruit of nightshade

The root of nightshade

Portulaca oleracea

Purslane is probably found in both the north and the south. Knew each other for a long time. When I was a child, I beat pigweed, and pulled it back with wild wheat and artemisia to feed the pigs. The first time I ate purslane was in Beijing that year, and there were many purslane growing on the eaves of the courtyard in the suburbs, and they were quite fat. There is a Sichuan colleague who likes to cook, pick and wash, blanch, add garlic, vinegar, soy sauce and other cold salad, a big basin can't finish eating, call us to eat together. The taste is not impressive, and I ate a few bites of it, which is like eating grass. Later, at home, my mother made purslane once, blanched it, dried it, and then fried it with other dishes. Ah, the taste suddenly changed, and it was so delicious.

Eating purslane is rare, probably the only one. Recently, under a tree on Huixin Street in Qiaodong, I saw an uncle selling vegetables, including a bag of purslane. I asked him, "How do you eat it?" What he meant by that was to eat it cold with what spices. I didn't understand it, but when I heard him, it was delicious. When I asked him where he picked it, he said it was in the countryside of Shuikou. I see very few customers, and it doesn't sell very well. Also, if you want to eat wild vegetables, it is probably a kind of wild fun, try it, it is better to go to the wild to pick it in person, it is best not to pick it specifically, but to come back by chance, so interesting.

Purslane (photographed in Qiaodong)

Kōtsubaki

The toon was also seen on Huixin Street that day. There are toon trees in my hometown. I don't know where the word toon comes from? Looking at the shape and meaning, whether you listen to or look at it, you think of spring, and it is true that toon is only available in spring. The toon trees grow very tall, and there are a few behind the eldest sister's house. In winter, the leaves are falling, and the tree pole is light, and the buds are emerging on the top in spring. The toon tree is not easy to pick because it is tall and has few branches. This reminds me of an article I read by Ma Weidu recently, in which he said that his grandfather was over 70 years old and stepped on a ladder to go up to the house to pick toons. Many people say that toon scrambled eggs are delicious, but I smell the smell of toon, so I don't eat it, I haven't eaten it so far, and I'm really stubborn. Toon to me, just like coriander, many people like to eat coriander, many restaurants also commonly use it to season, such as a bowl of noodles, sprinkled with a handful of coriander on the toppings, but I don't eat coriander. Once sprinkled, pick it out when you eat it. The reason is the same as toon.

I asked my uncle who sold toons, is there a toon tree in Huizhou? I really haven't seen it, and of course, just because I haven't seen it doesn't mean I don't have one. Uncle said that he brought it from his hometown. Where is my hometown? Uncle is actually from Taihe, Anhui. Later, I thought that it was impossible to pick toons from Anhui Taihe to sell them in such a small amount. If there is really no toon tree in Huizhou, Uncle's words are credible.

Two handfuls of toons (photographed on the east side of the bridge)

Wild barley

In addition, I would like to mention a wild vegetable, because I remembered its taste, and it is wild buckwheat.

This is a very early thing, but it can be recalled as a child. I don't remember that year, my mother picked a handful of wild vegetables and used it to fry rice for me at noon that day, as if for convenience, I ate fried rice so that I could go to school.

This wild vegetable is a lot like Houttuynia cordata, but it's not Houttuynia cordata because I can't smell Houttuynia cordata at all. Its stem is maroon-red, the leaves are green, chop it, add rice to the oil pot and fry it together, the appropriate amount of salt, the taste is sour, it is very delicious. A large bowl of fried rice was quickly eaten, and I was satisfied and threw away the dishes and chopsticks and went to school. I later learned that this wild vegetable was called wild buckwheat.

The taste is that kind of sourness, and I still have a very clear impression of it. Mom said it was picked on the edge of the roadside ditch in the wheat field. I also remember the scenery along the roadside ditch in the wheat field. In addition to wild buckwheat, there are also three-leaf clovers, including purslane, which are all spring sights. In the summer, all kinds of weeds grow wildly, and it is impossible to distinguish between you and me. The wild buckwheat bloomed, and when it got old, no one paid attention to it. When the autumn wind comes, it will be a scene of yellowing and gloom. If you want to eat it, you have to wait until the spring of the following year.

Wild barley

The rod is red

Roots of wild buckwheat (above three pictures)