Text: Yang Mei
When I came home on Sunday, before leaving, my mother insisted on plucking a few green radishes from the small vegetable garden on the patio for me to take back to the city, and I knew that it was my mother's love, and of course my love. In the small vegetable garden of more than ten square meters in the yard, my mother planted the green vegetables that are often eaten at home, and I don't know how many stubbles of spinach and rape were planted, and the growth was still so vigorous, and the leaves were bright and fresh and tender, which gave birth to people's appetite.
It turned out that my mother's small vegetable garden was in the east ditch of the village. When I first remember, it was still a body of water, and the open water was artificially divided into many square areas, which were divided equally among several production teams. In early summer, people plant rice seedlings in the water, busy on the water. At that time, I was still young, and I watched my mother planting rice seedlings in the water on the shore, and I was anxious to jump into the water and do it with my mother, but my mother would let me go down.
"There are locusts in the water that will burrow into your flesh and suck your blood. "There are indeed grasshoppers in the water, and I also saw a few big brothers and sisters, who did not wear water boots when they went into the water, and there were grasshoppers sticking to their legs, but fortunately they found it in time, and ran to the shore, and the old people helped to beat it out fiercely, looking at the brothers and sisters who were crying out, I thought it must be very painful, so as soon as my mother mentioned the locusts, I didn't dare to ask to go into the water again.
After the rice is ripe, the collective harvest and collective threshing, the scene is very lively, the roar of the machine and the people's laughter play the joy of the harvest, the crystal clear rice grains illuminate the sweaty face, and the rice grains jump on the eyebrows of the smile. The peeled rice is distributed to each family according to the person, and people carry all kinds of bags to bring happiness home. At that time, the rice came from nature, without a little pollution, and on the day of taking it home, the pure fragrance of nature filled the entire small mountain village with the smoke of cooking, and the whole village was surrounded by rice fragrance, which envied the people of the surrounding villages, because of this rice fragrance, several big sisters from other villages married into our village.
Was it natural erosion of the soil or was it a lack of attention to water conservation? I didn't know at the time, but I only knew that a few years later, the waters dried up, the fields that had been separated were no walls, and the tractors had turned into rectangular land, and rice was still grown on the land, but it was no longer rice, but upland rice. I think it's because people love the pure flavor of the rice, so they should keep it anyway, even if the yield of upland rice is low, even if the upland rice is full of birds.
When the production was contracted to the households, the other land in the village was contracted, and the land reserved for the ration field was reserved for the ration field, but the homeland of the rice was distributed to each family and kept as the vegetable garden of the villagers. Since then, the ravine of my hometown has lost the fragrance of rice, and upland rice is no longer planted, but replaced by green vegetables.
Because our family has a small population, my mother's small vegetable garden is not very large, and it is only three or four points of land. In the spring, my mother went to the market to buy leek seedlings, shallots, rape seeds, red spinach seeds, celery seeds, and a little later kidney beans and kidney beans for them to settle down one by one. I like the golden needle flower planted by my mother the most, when she grows up, she will bloom long yellow trumpet flowers, which can be described as a precious delicacy, only when the guests come to eat; in summer, it is the season when my mother's small vegetable garden grows the most varieties: tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, chrysanthemum, fungus, sea cucumbers, peppers, cucumbers, and I can't forget to plant a few peppers in a corner. In order to satisfy our hunger, my mother also planted water melons, small melons, and a few strawberries on the edge of the garden. Strawberries come in red and white, and my favorite is white because white strawberries are sweeter and more delicious than red ones. At this time, I like to follow my mother to the vegetable garden, busy feeding the seeds, and accidentally spilling too much water will attract my mother's reprimand.
"Baby, why don't you know how to save water, seeds are the same as people, and they will hold up if they drink too much water. "How can the seed be the same as a human being?" Carrying my mother's back, I secretly asked the seed, "Have you drunk too much, does your stomach hurt?" The seed lay obediently in the soil, and seemed to be smiling at me.
In the middle of summer, my mother began to plant taro, radish, and cabbage, which are essential winter vegetables for winter. I have been in school, I will use the small vegetable garden after school to help my mother water, look at the green cabbage, in the warm autumn sun swaying taro leaves, like a small umbrella, I like to look at this taro leaves, the morning dew in the center of the leaf rolling, like lotus leaves as smart, let people's thoughts grow wings.
At the beginning of winter, the cabbage begins to be harvested, and after drying for a few hours, it is put into the soil pit dug by Dad when he comes home on Sunday, covered with corn stalks, and pressed with soil on top, and the family's winter vegetables are buried in the soil. By this time, turnips, potatoes and taro had long since taken home. The empty small vegetable garden, the mother did not let it be lonely to meet the baptism of wind and snow, rape, spinach, since the spring mother has been let them accompany the small vegetable garden, so the cold winter is naturally accompanied by them around the small vegetable garden.
Year after year, month and day, my mother's small vegetable garden became the thought of our brothers and sisters. No matter who you are, whenever you have time, you will run to the small vegetable garden and look at the days painted by your mother's hands like enjoying the scenery.
Once, I hadn't patronized my mother's small vegetable garden for a long time, so I couldn't wait to run away while I was resting.
"Let's go later?" my mother chased after me with a smile behind her. The city is nearly seventy miles away from home, and after work, I ride the flying pigeon that my father has bought for others, regardless of the fatigue, and gallop in the direction of home. Forty minutes, just forty minutes, such a long way, I actually flew back to my mother's side, and my mother was very distressed to see me sweating profusely. Now when I measure the distance back then, I don't believe myself, the speed of driving.
"Here you go, try this cucumber is a new variety. "My mother picked the tender cucumber and handed it to me. At this time, my eyes were fixed on the northeast corner of the small vegetable garden, where there were a few flowers, blooming brightly, pink and red, and the petals and leaves were like butterflies, dancing in the breeze, beautiful!
"Mom, have you planted flowers?" Led by Nami, I came to the flowers.
"Shhhhh "Mom's mysterious appearance startled me. At that time, I didn't know what a poppy was, only that it bloomed beautifully. As I passed by my neighbor's garden, I saw yellow and pink patches and thought that some new vegetable variety, like the golden needle flower that my mother loved to grow, would make a good dish to eat.
My mother whispered to me in the small vegetable garden: This poppy is forbidden to be grown by the state. The villagers secretly planted a little for emergencies. Emergency is whose stomach hurts, whose stomach hurts, soak the fruit of a flower, and it won't hurt when you drink it. I didn't verify what my mother said, but I heard that it was drugs, so we were so scared that we only watched outside the park and no longer dared to approach.
Once, when I went home with my husband and ate the mutton soup made by my mother, my husband said that the mutton soup made by my mother was delicious and delicious. My mother secretly told me that there was a poppy fruit in the soup. I was scared of my mother and asked my husband to help me uproot the poppies from my mother's small vegetable garden and throw them into a ditch far away. My mother felt distressed for several days, but after listening to her son-in-law's explanation, she didn't get angry, and acquiesced in the poppy going.
Ten years ago, my mother's hukou moved to the city, and the small vegetable garden that had accompanied my mother for most of her life was about to change hands, and my mother suffered from insomnia. Fortunately, the village secretary sympathized with her mother's mood and said that she would let her plant for a few more years, and her mother's smile returned to her face. The little vegetable garden that my mother loved so much still sang the song of the four seasons in my mother's hands. Our children, just like us back then, joined in the sowing and watering of their mother's small vegetable garden, and the happy laughter of our grandchildren often came from the Donggou and the small vegetable garden in the mountain village. We can still eat the green and pollution-free fresh vegetables in the small vegetable garden, we can still eat the sweet and delicious melons, and we can still eat the precious golden needle flowers......
A few years later, my mother said: I feel that I owe too much affection to others when I grow like this, so give it back to the village.
So, my mother's small vegetable garden was moved to the patio of the house, but there was too little space to pick up a few favorite plants. Like green turnips, we all love them. Because my mother can make a lot of small pickles with radish, after I go to work, I will bring a can every time I go home to rest, and I feel like something is missing when I don't eat a meal.
Now, children's favorite vegetables are no longer like we were back then, eating this season and looking forward to the next season, the streets and alleys, major markets and supermarkets have fresh vegetables every day 365 days a year, no matter what season you want to eat. It's just that there is no smell of vegetables in my mother's small vegetable garden, and that smell seeps into the blood, and no matter how time passes, it can't be erased.
Nowadays, the small vegetable garden in my mother's patio is still planting, and every time I come home, I can still taste the taste in my memory, watching us eat happily, the corners of my mother's mouth will always be sweet, and I want you to bring the taste back to your own small home before leaving. O dear mother, your little garden is full of happiness, and is forever planted in the hearts of your children like your love.
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