It's another spring, and I can't help thinking of my hometown.

Pocket is a specialty of Zhejiang and Jiangxi. Masi is a unique glutinous rice food in Jinhua Yongkang, which is eaten by almost every household in folk architecture, farming and the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. It is often sold in the market, but only the farmland houses in the suburbs are the most famous. There are many kinds of it, such as diarrhea, slippery rice and flowers and fruits. The finished product is white as snow, soft as cotton, smooth and delicate, suitable for all ages, and there is no taboo for consumers.

The production of sesame cakes has a long history in the border areas of Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian. During winter holidays and holidays, relatives and friends are always busy getting together, and children are even more anxious. Looking at the hot and fragrant sesame seeds, everyone is vying for it. It is delicious.

After the autumn harvest, almost every household has to make sesame paste, which is called "washing bucket" (grain bucket for threshing). In other words, during the autumn harvest, farmers are covered with chaff, which makes people's skin itchy, and even inevitably sucks chaff into their stomachs and even gets sick. By eating sesame seeds, these chaffs can be stuck and discharged. Just out of the mortar, you can eat it with bean powder and sesame seeds, which is sweet and flexible and deeply loved by people.

Glutinous rice is called Ma Shi, and late rice is called rice cake. Qingming makes sesame cakes and New Year's Day makes rice cakes, which is a folk custom in Xinchang. In the past, Tomb-Sweeping Day had the habit of dividing baked wheat cakes to sweep the grave of the Grand Duke. It's the master's turn to prepare in advance and divide the hemp in front of the grave. This is the reason why people say "Qingming is full of numbness, and the head is numb." "Xinchang County Records" records: "There are many grave sweepers in the clan cemetery ... after dinner, they will share meat and sesame seeds." After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was rare to divide hemp in Qingming, but it was more common to make hemp in Tomb-Sweeping Day. But it means more than sweeping graves. In Xinchang, there is also the habit of sending sesame cakes in Qingming. This is a kind of etiquette before marriage. This custom was popular in the rural areas of the county long ago. The same is true of the rural areas adjacent to Xinchang in Shengzhou City. Who wants to marry a wife? The average man will send a Tomb-Sweeping Day to his wife's house before Tomb-Sweeping Day, which indicates that he will come to marry a new wife before Tomb-Sweeping Day next time. After the daughter gets married, the mother's parents will send Qingming sesame cakes back to the man's home when they arrive in Tomb-Sweeping Day. It is said that this is to wish the young couple a happy life and My Sweetie when they get married. The most important thing to send Qingming hemp seed is to return to the mountainous area. A week after the vernal equinox, I began to plan to prepare all the ingredients used. There are still five or six days before Tomb-Sweeping Day, and it is better to deliver it one day earlier than one day later. The delivery time must be in the morning, so be sure to cook in the afternoon or evening the day before. All sesame seeds used for etiquette should be filled with stuffing, which is called sugar embedded sesame seeds. It is also more elaborate and thorough than usual in production, and its appearance is as good as possible. The size should be symmetrical, the length should be consistent, and the sweetness of the stuffing should always be sufficient. The guy who used to deliver sesame cakes also had a set of exquisite. Most of them are hollow (woven with bamboo strips, with fine craftsmanship, shaped like a shoe basket) or cut into baskets. Put the pockmarked noodles neatly layer by layer, wrap them in blue sacks, and then tie a strong knot (indicating good luck and getting married). Generally, the new son-in-law should be personally selected to show sincerity. For example, the new son-in-law can't get a new job for some reasons, and some of them are gifts from brothers. Women give gifts to men's homes, mostly from their newly married wife's brother. After the linen is delivered, it should be distributed to the neighbors immediately to show enthusiasm and generosity. At this time, the neighbors will gather around to have a look at the new "hairy-footed son-in-law" and get to know each other, and everyone will know that this girl is going to get married soon. Therefore, there is also a saying among the masses that "if you eat Qingming cake, you will not go to jail." The same is true of Qingming sesame cakes sent back by the woman's family to the man's family. Must be given to the villagers nearby. When the villagers receive gifts, they are always happy to reply with a few words. Regarding sending Qingming sesame seeds, it is recorded in the New County Records that "a man in the countryside sent Qingming sesame seeds to his daughter for three years to show his wealth". This is a thing of the past, and now most of them are only delivered for one year.

To make sesame cakes, glutinous rice must be soaked in water, expanded, drained, steamed in a steamer, pounded into dough with a mortar, pulled into thick dough while it is hot, and then embedded with stuffing. The time of making Qingming hemp in the morning and evening varies with the use. The earliest time to go to the new grave is three days after the vernal equinox. It takes a certain amount of manpower and labor to make sesame cakes. Therefore, we often do it with our brothers, uncles or neighbors. Everyone is very busy, working together and giving to each other. Young and strong men take turns pounding with pestles (sandalwood and stones), and one person is responsible for pounding. The rapper sweated and hissed from time to time. Housewives and women workers are also steaming on the fire, preparing hemp-covered jiaozi (bamboo raft), panels and stuffing. The leading role of joining in the fun here is children. They just huddled around the stone mortar to watch the fun and wait for the hot meal. Most of the elders are there, smoking, drinking tea and laughing ... There are many kinds of fillings used to embed sesame seeds. There are bean paste, cowpea, sesame oil and so on. And you can choose pickles or other mixed fillings according to your personal taste. There are also cotton greens in the mountains (called Ai in Shaoxing) chopped into pieces in advance and mashed into green sesame paste. There are many ways to eat sesame cakes, which can be fried or baked. ...

Few people in my hometown now can make such numbness, which can only be an elusive memory for me.