<b>Text</b><b>/Geng Chaoting</b>
My family lives deep in the Yimeng Mountains, and the village is close to the mountains. This mountain has a nice name called Wenfeng Mountain. Mountain love is undulating, although it is not high, but it stretches for tens of miles. Our village is hidden in a mountain pass, like a paradise.
The col near the village is not large, and the part near the top of the mountain is composed of hard limestone, which is a standard mountain pass. This is where my teenagers played because there are three persimmon trees in my house. These three persimmon trees are self-retained trees, which were obtained in the early 1950s. It is said that when you first joined the company, as long as you had a persimmon tree in your home, you could get a share. Before the reform and opening up, the countryside was mainly growing grain, there were no other fruits at all, and persimmons became the king of fruits. Whenever the persimmons are ripe, the persimmons that spread over the mountains are hung on the trees one by one, like red lanterns. At this time, the task of guarding the persimmon tree was entrusted to me. Every day after school, I looked a few times from a distance to see if any naughty children went up to the tree to pick "baked persimmons".
On Saturdays and Sundays, I ate early and carried flower baskets on my back to be specially cared for. By the way, pick up the persimmon leaves that have fallen to the ground and go home to dry and burn them.
When the persimmons are fully ripe, they are plucked from the tree and soaked in warm water in a small amount, most of which are used to "spin persimmon cakes". Persimmon cake is a must for every household, because it can be sold to the commune to purchase shares. At that time, the price of persimmon cake was very high, about 2 dimes of the purchase price of the stock, and today we feel that 2 dimes is very small, but in the sixties and seventies, it was a day's salary for a male laborer. At that time, our Zhang Geng management area also belonged to Quanzhuang Commune in Yishui County, and the Shiwangyu Management Area of Quanzhuang Commune was rich in persimmon cakes and was famous in the local area. If there is a bumper harvest of persimmons a year, an extra household will sell five or six hundred kilograms or even seven or eight hundred kilograms of persimmon cakes, and the income of about one hundred yuan will be astronomical in people's eyes at that time. Of course, today's young people simply cannot appreciate the weight of a hundred yuan in people's minds at that time.
This small col with persimmon trees used to be our family's, and it was when my grandfather separated. There are still two or three acres of thin fields in the mountain pass, although they cannot feed the family, but it is the only hope for the whole family, because there is no land elsewhere. The absence of land in the 1920s and 1930s meant that you were a typical "poor peasant". The income from the land could not feed the whole family, so they had to put their hopes on the mountain. In the spring, the elm money in the mountains became a delicacy for the whole family, and the poplar leaves were also used to fill the hunger. May acacia floral fragrance. The acacia flowers on the mountain are also known as the hope of receiving life. In addition, there are many wild vegetables in the mountains, both as grain and vegetables... Relying on the mountains and eating the mountains has been deeply imprinted in the memories of previous generations.
Grandpa died young, and my father, who was only fifteen years old, had to take up the burden of family life. He didn't want to live the day when he ate the last meal and didn't eat the next meal. Borrow ten catties of wheat for the cost, steamed steamed buns to sell, hard work, careful management so that the days gradually improved, but still in the spring to pick elm money, locust flowers and other taste. But not to support the family, but more to commemorate those past years of suffering. After the founding of New China, life got better and better. When I was a junior club, the mountain of our family also joined the society and became a collective, but it was possible to keep a few persimmon trees as their own, which was called "self-retained tree".
In 1958, due to natural disasters and man-made reasons, the harvest failed. In the spring of the following year, many people had no food to eat, and the leaves on the mountain, as soon as they grew, were all eaten as food.
The obscure mountains always lend a helping hand when people are in difficulty and let the people in the mountains get through the difficulties.
After the disaster year, people's lives have returned to their former joys. But persimmon trees still play an indispensable role in our lives. Because it is an important subsidy for a family's living. If the persimmon harvest fails in a year, then the lives of the villagers will be greatly affected.
The spring breeze of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China blew green the mountains and rivers of the motherland. The barren land of Yimeng Mountain has also ushered in a vigorous vitality under the blowing of the spring breeze of reform.
The implementation of the rural household contract responsibility system has completely shaken off the appearance of poverty in the rural areas, and the peasants have lived a good life of abundant food and clothing. Persimmons are no longer the only fruits that people rely on, apples, peaches, mountain apricots, pears, chestnuts, walnuts, etc. have gradually entered the mountains and entered our lives.
In 1998, the mountain farm in our village was contracted by individuals. After several rounds of bidding, the mountain that used to belong to our family finally returned to my hands. However, a certain contracting fee needs to be paid to the village every year.
The most happy person in this mountain field that belonged to my family in the past was my mother, who slowly went up the mountain on crutches despite her old age and infirmity and her own little feet. Take care of this mountain field for me. I could see that my mother was very happy that I had contracted this mountain field. Perhaps, reminding her of her youth, there may be many memories of her life. In fact, because it is the reason for keeping the tree, there has been no severance of contact with this mountain field that used to belong to our family.
At this time, my father had passed away, and he often told us about my father and this mountain field.
Because my family was a poor peasant, when the Yimeng Mountains carried out land reform, our family was given a few acres of land. Although his father had always been in business, he also had a special love for the land. Maybe it's the land complex that people who have gone through the old times have.
He has devoted a lot of effort to this mountain field. He used the money he earned from trading to take a large piece of the mountain top and pay for people to reclaim the land. It is said that it cost a lot of money just to reclaim the barren mountain at the top of the mountain. What is unexpected is that after only two or three years of cultivation, it entered the primary society and was owned by the collective. But reclaiming the overgrown mountain tops into land where he could grow food had always been something he was proud of.
Contracting this mountain field, paying the contract fee every year, you need to work hard to operate, even if you can't make much money, at least you can't lose money. This is the most basic bottom line of the contracted land mountain field.
Compared with my fathers, I poured more blood and sweat into this mountain field!
This part of my family's mountain field is divided into the top of the mountain and the bottom of the mountain. I did not contract the tens of acres of land that my father had reclaimed at the top of the mountain, I only contracted the part under the cliff, which was roughly estimated to be about twenty or thirty acres, but the practical area was not much. There are a large number of miscellaneous trees around, but due to the rain washing over the years, the soil is almost washed below, exposing the rocks, and growing with tenacious acid jujube trees and thorns. I made full use of the natural conditions to develop, grafting these sour jujube trees with small dates, winter dates, and pear dates, grafting soft jujube trees into persimmon trees, grafting begonia trees into pear trees, and planting walnut and chestnut trees. Almond trees, peach trees, plum trees... The barren land that had been barren for many years had gradually become a mountain of flowers and fruits under my careful cultivation.
Since I am a private teacher, I usually do not have time to manage. You can only use Saturdays and Sundays to serve this mountain forest. Because you manage mountain park, you must have excellent grafting technology. I humbly asked those old fruit farmers for advice, kung fu paid off, after practice, I have initially mastered the grafting technology of many fruit trees.
There are a large number of soft date trees that grow on their own in the mountains. It provided the natural conditions for me to graft persimmon trees. I made full use of this natural condition and grafted a large number of persimmon trees, and this mountain field became a paradise for persimmon trees to grow!
To learn grafting techniques, it is necessary to master the grafting time of various fruit trees. As soon as spring begins, the weather warms up, and the moisture at the roots of the trees begins to flow to the trunks and branches, and during the germination of the trees, it is the best time to graft almond and peach trees. If you miss this best time for grafting, the survival rate will be greatly reduced, or wait for some days to bud in the wheat season. The grafting of chestnuts must wait until the buds are fully emerging before the grafting has a high survival rate. Some fruit trees have an optimal grafting period of just a few days. For example, jujube trees, wait until the buds of sour jujube trees are long enough, seize the opportunity, and even ensure a survival rate of more than 95 percent. The grafting of persimmon trees, although it can also be budded, but still wait until after the wheat harvest, the best survival rate of supplementary buds...
Thanks to life, it made me learn a lot. It not only allowed me to master many basic skills, but also let me appreciate the true meaning of life, as well as philosophical thinking.
For example, the truth that there is a reward for paying is vividly embodied in labor and harvest, which is particularly profound.
Fruit needs to go through a series of strict operating procedures to grow a fruit with a peculiar flavor and high quality, allowing you to sell for a good price. In fact, the long wait is something that every orchard manager must be patient to do. Just imagine, planting a seedling, to carry out a series of management such as grafting, fertilizer management, spraying, pruning, etc., waiting for several years, painstaking efforts, you have to figure out a good harvest, sell a good price, how much hope and waiting will be passed!
Ten years of trees, a hundred years of tree people, that is the hope and imagination of every farmer's heart! Day after day, year after year, they wait in hope, are satisfied in waiting, see the seedlings they planted with their own hands, grow up, have a harvest, and the satisfaction, the satisfaction, and the joy in their hearts are not felt by many people! However, the hardships are beyond the experience of many.
In the one or two decades that I have contracted the mountains and forests, how much sweat I have shed and how much effort I have worked, only I know. Others only see the bright and beautiful side of your peach and plum garden, and can't appreciate the countless blood and sweat you have paid for this! There are too many things that I remember, so let me pick two important things to say.
The year 2000 marks the beginning of a new century for mankind. The Chinese people are immersed in the joy of joining the WTO immediately. This year, according to the government's call, those contractors who contracted mountains and forests could build water cellars. A water cellar 2 tons of cement, reimbursed by the state, the rest of the stone, sand, stone, need to be prepared by the builder himself. At first glance, stones and stones can be made of local materials, but the materials needed to build a water cellar with dozens of squares of water are very impressive. Each is the work of power gas, and just digging out the cylinder of the water cellar requires a lot of manpower. And I have limited time, limited physical strength, no money to hire people to do it, so I have to get up and look at the time to do it myself, and I have to ask relatives to help, otherwise you can't move at all. The most headache is the sand needed to build the water cellar, which needs to be pulled by the Yi River in the seven or eight miles. Fortunately, the ring road has just been built, uneven, only can pass, but only pulled to the mountain heel, unloaded half, the other half and then back to pull, more than ten times a day, tired of exhaustion, tired of eating can not eat. In particular, digging a water cellar, close to three meters deep, to get all the soil and gravel inside, completely using artificial, the intensity of labor, now think about it, it is really incredible. Such a heavy labor was actually completed with his own perseverance. It was only after finishing digging the water cellar that I paid the price of falling tired and sick in bed, and finally I was injected and medicated before I gradually recovered my health.
At that time, the intensity of labor was so great that for me, it was indescribable. It took a lot of money and a lot of effort to finally repair the water cellar. When I saw that after the rain, the clear spring water on the cliff rushed into the water cellar, and the taste in my heart was indescribable!
Since contracting the mountain field, the persimmon cake has become one of the important tasks every autumn.
Farmers have work all year round, unless you don't want to. After planting the wheat in the autumn, we began to plane the sweet potato and cut the melon. Other people's homes may have finished shaving the sweet potatoes and basically ended the autumn harvest. And I have an important thing to do at this time - drying persimmon cakes has become an important job for me.
The skin of persimmons is processed with a tool for selecting persimmon cakes, which is a technical task that even some elderly people in rural areas will not spin. Instead, I mastered this technique with a strong sense of not accepting defeat. Seeing the spinning car spinning rapidly, a complete persimmon skin calmly emerging from the spinning knife, the joy and pride came out of it. Because the persimmon cake does require skill, skill is produced in skill, and these require confidence. Because many people fail because they have no confidence in themselves and feel that they are inherently clumsy, such people will not do many things well.
After the persimmons are swirled, there is a lot of knowledge in drying the persimmon cakes. Fortunately, my mother was still alive at that time, and she personally demonstrated that we had mastered a series of processes for drying persimmon cakes.
After the persimmons are peeled and dried for three or four days, find a sunny weather and start pinching again, which is the first process of drying persimmon cakes, commonly known as "shaking seeds". It is to shake the seeds inside the persimmons, in fact, it is to squeeze the hard persimmons and make them "ripe". Dry for another two or three days, shake again, at this time, almost all the persimmons become "baked persimmons". At this time, in fact, persimmon cake is the most beautiful time, under the sunlight, red translucency. After another two or three days of drying, I began to gently pinch the top of the persimmon cake, which laid the foundation for the "flattening" of the persimmon cake. Be careful to pinch gently, if the force is too strong or too large, it is easy to pinch the persimmon cake. If the dried persimmon cake is in tatters, who wants to buy it? Because you are processing a commodity, complete and beautiful is the first thing to dry persimmon cakes. Otherwise, if the persimmon cake is not in good condition, no one cares about it at the market, and you can only keep it for yourself to eat, then the efforts of the year will be wasted, and it is really not worth the loss.
Some people say that the persimmon cake earns kung fu money, but it is better to earn technical money. If your technology is not too hard, any link is not done well, it will affect the quality of persimmon cake, affect the quality of persimmon cake.
If your first few processes are done, the next task is simpler, but you can't be lazy, you need to be serious and tireless. Wherever the persimmon cake cannot be pinched by hand, it lacks "oiliness". Over and over again. This is the empirical story of drying persimmon cakes, and it is also the truth. When the moisture of the persimmon cake gradually decreases, you can completely flatten it. Those who pay attention to the quality of persimmon cakes, pay great attention to the shape of persimmon cakes, neither can be infinitely enlarged, too thin is easy to make people feel ugly, there is no sense of heaviness, as if like a person. Thin and light is easy to despise, too. Persimmon cakes are "light" and will not be loved.
A round, pinched in the hand can neither be too thin nor too heavy. That is, to reduce to one point is too thin, to increase to one point is too thick, just right, impartial, must make people love it.
The final process is to frost the persimmon cake, which also takes time and skill. Neither make the persimmon cake too dry, nor make the persimmon cake too soft. Too dry, easy to be hard, affecting the taste, if the persimmon cake is too soft, it is easy to deform... It really responds to the sentence "Everything is insightful and learned, and the cultivation of human feelings is an article."
A small handmade persimmon cake is also very difficult to really make well. From the drying of persimmon cakes, it reflects the hardships of life and labor.
Now I have not served persimmon cakes for many years. In the countryside, it is also difficult to see people drying persimmon cakes. Because the persimmon cake is too hard, the local persimmon cake in the market has disappeared.
The past is long, the scene of going to the cave at night to take care of the persimmon cake often appears in front of the eyes, the moonlight is like water, and there is the sound of Si Soso in the distance, which is the wild badger coming to steal the persimmon cake again. I quietly got up, grabbed a stone in my hand and threw it in the direction of the sound, and immediately heard the sound of the wild badger escaping, the bright light of the flashlight shot straight past, and saw the figure of the wild badger running...
Now I leave my hometown for the time being and go to the city. Leaving my elaborate construction is The Flower and Fruit Mountain. My mountain field is not willing to be subcontracted to others, because my sweat is sprinkled here, here is my youth, there are my dreams, there are childhood memories, and the sweat of my fathers flows here; here is my roots, the love of generations. The children said that this mountain pass contracted by my family carries the love of generations, and our descendants want to continue this desire for roots of green leaves, no matter where they go, no matter what year and month...
(Image from the Internet)
<b>【About the author】</b>Geng Chaoting, pen name Shanjian Xiaoxi. He is a member of Linyi Writers Association. Since childhood, he likes to read and loves to write, and has won the excellent correspondent of the Yishui education system. He has published many teaching articles in the student journal "Red Bud"; published "Ordinary World, Strong Life" in "Jiaodong Essay Annual Selection", and "The First Teacher's Day" in "Yantai Daily" in "Qingwei. Heze Creative Base published dozens of poems and essays such as "Summer of Yimeng Mountain", "Feeling of Sunset", "Feeling of Autumn", and created hundreds of thousands of words of novels.
Sponsored by the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Society, <b>Contemporary Prose</b> is a bimonthly prose journal, which mainly publishes the works of members of the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, and welcomes Shandong prose writers to apply to join the Shandong Provincial Prose Association. The Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association holds various prose activities throughout the year to provide book publishing services for writers. Submission email: [email protected], [email protected]
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