Cut the canola
Wang Shengwei
When May arrives, the rapeseed is ripe, and it is another harvest season.
To harvest rapeseed, the first step is to cut the rapeseed, starting from the roots, and cutting the straw with the ears off the ground.
The beautiful scenery of rape flowers in Qingchuan
That year, my father-in-law's family planted a few acres of rapeseed. As soon as Labor Day was over, my wife and I immediately rushed to my father-in-law's house to help them. My father-in-law's family lives on the mountain, and more than three acres of rapeseed land are distributed on two plots not far from each other on the east slope behind the house. Before dawn and before we got up, we heard my father-in-law's cough, and then heard the rustling of knives on the whetstones on the edge of the yard. When I heard this, my wife and I immediately got up. We understand that the few coughs of our father-in-law are actually a signal to get us out of bed. The father-in-law finished sharpening the sickle, and breakfast was ready. At this time, the dumb uncle also got up. After breakfast, my father-in-law took the lead, and my wife and my dumb uncle and I took the freshly ground bright crescent scythe and walked towards the mountain behind the house.
Qingjiang Village, Zhuyuan Town, Qingchuan County, 1,000 acres of rape
We first went to the rapeseed field on the right. The land is just over 400 meters away from my father-in-law's house, and the highest weir (a long, narrow plot of land) is less than 100 meters vertically from my father-in-law's yard dam, but there are rough and upward paths along the way, and we can only move slowly. Walking to the rapeseed field, we were exhausted, panting, and sweating. After a short rest, we leaned down and opened our scythes to harvest. Because there were still twenty or thirty meters of mountain beams above the boundary of the rapeseed field, the field was not exposed to the sun for half an hour at first, and the rape straw and the wild grass and wild vegetables under the straw carried dew, and the feet stepped into the ground and quickly wet the shoes and trousers. Half an hour later, the sun rose over the mountain beams for half a day, and the hot sun hit us, and we immediately blushed and felt very hot. At this time, the father-in-law shouted: "Hurry up and cut, cut for a while, the two of you will go back, and I will cut with the dumb man." "The father-in-law feels sorry for his daughter and son-in-law. But since we came back to help, we were mentally prepared to endure hardships, not to mention that my wife grew up in the mountains, and doing farm work was a common thing. My hometown is also rural, and I don't do much farm work, and we are all hard-working people. Therefore, we accompanied my father-in-law and mute uncle until near noon, and after cutting more than one acre of rapeseed, we went home for lunch together.
Farmers in Qingchuan work in rape fields
After lunch, we went to the left of the house to cut rapeseeds. The land is very close to the father-in-law's house, less than 100 meters away. We were there in a few minutes. Although you don't have to walk a long way or climb a very high hill, the afternoon sun is noticeably hotter than the morning. We were bareheaded, feeling the sun hanging not far above our heads, the dazzling light made people dare not look directly, cut a few sickle rapeseed to brush the hair and wipe a handful of sweat, the face was red and hot. However, the scorching sun not only did not make us flinch, but inspired our fighting spirit. We are always very motivated and passionate, especially when we see the golden rape stalks and plump rape ears falling to the ground in an orderly manner under our sickle, and a sense of accomplishment and joy arises spontaneously.
Harvest of rape
Cutting rapeseed is hard work, but it's also fun. In our field grew two cherry trees, full of round, pearly agate-like red cherries. We cut the rapeseed for a while, then we went under the cherry tree to pick a few cherries, and by the way, we hid from the sun for a while, which was really pleasant!
After more than two hours, my mother-in-law walked uphill and brought us corn rice wine, flower rolls, steamed buns, and jelly noodles, and called us to take a short break from labor and drink rice wine and eat food to replenish energy. We pick up flower rolls and buns in one hand, and half a bowl of rice wine in the other, or stand or sit, there is a kind of pride and pleasure of drinking wine and eating buns in a big bowl. Before eating the jelly, the wife picked up the jelly basin and thrashed it vigorously, and the jelly and oil, salt, sauce and vinegar and other condiments were churned up and down at the mouth of the basin, and it was stirred evenly after a while. Then put the cold powder basin on a flat lawn that has cut rapeseeds, everyone squats around on all sides, and the long chopsticks are interspersed, like the wind and clouds, and you will eat a clear warehouse after a while. After wiping our mouths and twisting our waists a few times, we leaned over and swung our sickles, and continued to cut our hands with a bang.
rapeseed
As we got westerly, we finished cutting more than two acres of rapeseed and went home with a smile. On the way, an elder praised me: "This godson is really good, he can afford to hold a whip and use a sickle." My wife also joked, patted me on the shoulder, and said, "Well, indeed, this godson is really good! On the courtyard dam, the mother-in-law brought out warm face washing water, clean and crystal clear cherries were placed on the square wooden table, and there was a large iron kettle with fragrant old rice wine. Glancing at the orderly rape handles on the slope, my father-in-law said, "Tomorrow when the sun is half sunny, you can go into the field and beat rapeseed with flail." That's really called pellet return!" When a cool breeze blew, I felt very comfortable, and I saw the dense black and bright round rapeseed pouring into the grain bag like a waterfall.
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Please indicate: "Source: Fang Zhi Sichuan"
Source: Sichuan Provincial Office of Local Chronicles
Text / Photo: Wang Shengwei
Contributed by: Qingchuan County Local Chronicles Compilation Center