(Image from headline gallery)
Back in the countryside, on both sides of the road, there was a cluster of fiery red persimmons, hanging lonely on the branches, swaying with the wind.
Guessing, these uncared persimmons, trying to make themselves rich and sweet, but still can't escape the lonely life of old age, so they stay in the field until the winter frost and snow fall, are pecked by birds, and finally can only mourn and retreat to the earth.
In my childhood, in the long years, persimmons were also the darlings of life, the rarity of ordinary days.
I remember that in 1982, when I was in junior high school, I was selected to participate in an oral essay contest with the District Education Bureau, and the topic of the lottery was "I Love My Hometown", and the preparation time was three minutes.
At that time, what came to my mind was the persimmon trees in the ravine of my hometown, and I remembered the persimmons hanging on the trees like red lanterns, and many sentences appeared in my mind...
On the stage that day, I talked about it, from the visual shock of the persimmon to me, to its tenacious quality of enduring loneliness, to the harvest joy it brought to people, and the rich economic benefits, I couldn't say enough of its goodness, and I couldn't exaggerate its beauty.
At the end, it is still unfinished, telling everyone to continue in the coming day - the beauty of tomatoes.
That day, unexpectedly, with this "I Love My Hometown's Tomatoes", I squeezed into the final round and achieved excellent results.
In fact, the tomato forest in my hometown is indeed my favorite and brings me a lot of joy.
At that time, materials were scarce and children had very little snacks. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, when the persimmons are slightly red, the aunts will go to the ditch and pick some raw persimmons from their own persimmon trees, half soaked in the cold water tank in the courtyard, and half placed in the tile pot of the hot stove to warm up. After three or two days, the persimmons in the warm water will become soft, sweet and delicious; the persimmons soaked in the cold water will remove the bitterness in about a month, become sour, sweet and crisp, and mixed with a hint of spicy taste, which is particularly delicious. At that time, when I went to school, I used to bring cold steamed buns to make dry food, and if I could bring a persimmon with it, it was simply a wonderful delicacy.
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the persimmons that spread over the mountains were all red, and on Sunday, the family solemnly carried the tools and went to the persimmons. The adults first picked the branches that could be probed carefully, and the children naughtily climbed the persimmon tree, looking for the soft persimmon to eat, uncovering the thin persimmon skin, the small mouth sucked hard, and the slippery flesh instantly filled the mouth, and the satisfaction was straight.
Basket after basket of persimmons was moved home, and the adults began to process deeply - spinning persimmon cakes. Borrowed a few persimmon carts from the neighbor's house, tied them on a rough wooden stool, inserted the selected persimmon handle into the iron teeth, held the rotary skin knife in the left hand and pressed the top of the persimmon, and quickly shook the handle of the persimmon cart with the right hand. My favorite thing to do is to carry the persimmon cake embryos in the basket to the mats in the yard, arrange them neatly one by one, and wait for the sun to come out to dry the water.
The persimmon cake is purely dependent on God to appreciate the face, the sun is too poisonous to dry out the persimmon cake, encounter even the cloudy day persimmon cake will be moldy and vomiting, only the autumn wind blows, the sun is warm, after a few days the persimmon cake embryo will gradually become dark red, and then one by one pinch flattened in the basket pressed, every few days and then dry it, repeated several times after the weather gradually cooled, into the winter to start covering the persimmon cake.
The persimmons that have been dried and kneaded into cakes are neatly placed in a large vat in the courtyard, and the dried persimmon skin is placed on the top, and then compacted with a wooden cover, and the thick quilt on the outer bread is waiting for forty months, when the sky begins to snow, the adults will open the cylinder to check the frost of the persimmon cake - the appearance of the good persimmon cake is white and thick, tear open the soft glutinous brush, and taste the sweetness into the heart.
At that time, everyone in the village was counting on their own good persimmon cakes, and they could buy and comment on the purchase of the supply and marketing cooperatives, sell a good price, and they could have a rich New Year.. I remember at that time, my mother was in the supply and marketing cooperative, on Sundays I would also go to the purchase station to help, I heard that our good persimmon cakes there were exported, and we crossed the ocean to exchange foreign exchange for the country.
Who knows, with the passage of time, the glorious history of persimmons has become a legend. The three century-old persimmon trees in my family have not been taken care of for for thirty or forty years. The young people in the village have gone to the city to work, and the elderly have no ability to go to the field to collect persimmons, so they are left to fend for themselves, lonely and lonely year after year.
Nowadays, it is not easy to eat good persimmon cakes. When I happen to meet at a winter market, I will eagerly buy it and put it in the refrigerator to slowly reminisce.
I miss the old persimmon tree in my hometown, I miss the red lantern of that tree, and I miss the sweetness of the past.
It's just that persimmon trees will never have a glorious time again.
Persimmon tree of Lone Peak Mountain
Go to the unattended persimmons in the winter snow