In the sixties and seventies, it should be said that materials were scarce, especially in rural areas, and there were almost no fruit non-staple foods. The cultivation of vegetables has the characteristics of locality and storability, and there are only a few kinds, such as leeks, peppers, onions, pumpkins, radishes, Chinese cabbage, mustard greens, eggplant and other vegetables that are easy to handle. In the production team, there is a special side dish, which is planted with seasonal vegetables. When these vegetables are long enough to be picked, they are distributed according to the population of each household every day. Because there are not many kinds of dishes, the population is larger than the amount of vegetables, and there are seasonal restrictions, housewives try to leave some pickles in the vegetable-rich season to help the bleak days.
That's when mom learned to make leek sauce.
It's called leek flower sauce, but it's actually a sauce made of leek stems, leaves and peppers. It is hard to imagine that in those years, in rural areas, leeks, as a kind of vegetable with special fragrance, belonged to the luxury of changing tastes on our table. Basically, it only happens once a month. Because the time interval between cutting leeks and cutting leeks is very short, we can't wait for them to bloom. Besides, it is blooming. So many people, just two small beds of leeks, what can we do when they bloom? So when I was a child, I could know many flowers and plants in the field and see many unknown and famous flowers of various colors, but I had no idea that leeks would bloom. Later, I heard that leeks can blossom. I heard it from the wife of the production captain in some girlfriends chat.
At that time, the sky was always blue, the white clouds were as light as feathers, and the unique affinity of the countryside and fields was hidden in the wind. After a winter of crop accumulation and a spring of vigorous growth, followed by fiery summer harvest and autumn sowing, the busiest farming in a year is basically announced temporarily. In fact, between this period, my parents are not at leisure. Men are greedy from morning till night. Although women can temporarily put down some farm work in the field, they still struggle at home and abroad, but they also have a little leisure to take care of and accompany their children and the elderly. At this time, the child's heart is quiet and practical, and he is willing to stay at home and do something around his parents.
A quiet heart is best for doing quiet things. Every year, around the middle of 10, the skilled housewives who manage the housework arrange the family's diet reasonably and orderly, and on the premise of ensuring that the family can have enough vegetables, they accumulate a piece of pepper under each balance, or the leeks that they are reluctant to eat, and dry them in the autumn sun, waiting for the last piece of leeks or peppers distributed to their families by the production team. This waiting process should not be too long. If it is too long, it may be noisy or spoiled by greedy children. Amaranth and pepper, the two most common vegetables, were so far apart in those years. Amaranth is eager for peppers or peppers to wait for leeks. It's a rare opportunity. When you turn around, you miss a year. Such things happen from time to time, so making leek flower sauce is not something that every family can do every year. Fortunately, neither father nor brothers have the hobby of drinking and eating alone, and they will not get there first because they are greedy for a snack.
Leek finally appeared in a long-awaited way. In the whole village, there are more topics and more enthusiasm than in the past. We asked each other how many peppers and leeks there were, how to make them delicious, and how to pickle them to suit the taste of the whole family ... The autumn sun was bright and dazzling, and my sister and I sat quietly in the shade or in the hall at the gate, surrounded by my mother. According to her instructions, we carefully cut off the extra stems of peppers and carefully checked and selected peppers. This quaint and warm scene is more like a parent-child game in a modern TV column. Sunlight shines on Niang through the cracks in the earth wall, which is dignified, serene and beautiful. The air is saturated with simple fragrance and the unique warmth of rural families. Time is so loud in our whispers. Mom usually won't let us choose leeks. She is worried that we will lose patience with those gentle and lovely little babies and get too much attention. In that case, this housewife who is careful about her family's three meals a day will feel guilty and uneasy about our idle waste.
Pick leeks and peppers and put them in a small basket made of Yushu. My sister and I were carrying a basket and went to the river around the village to wash. Next, my mother arranged the repeatedly washed peppers and leeks one by one in a big round dustpan and put them on the stone bench in the yard to control the water. Peppers and leeks soaked in clear and sweet river water are more green and crystal clear in the sun, and the fragrance is more fragrant when the wind blows. In the autumn afternoon, the time in the mountain village is always slow and quiet. At this time, mother will not rest. While her family was taking a lunch break, she quietly cut the dried peppers and leeks one by one. When everyone woke up, it was time to get busy. She found that Niang had prepared all the auxiliary materials for making Chili leek sauce, just waiting to combine these simple and authentic raw materials.
At that time, in the yard of my hometown, there was a large white mortar with a diameter of more than two feet. The mortar hammer is heavy and looks like a big steamed bun. Children in the country have no other toys to play with, so this rare stone around me is used as a toy from time to time. When we arrive at school or on holidays, we will hold a mortar hammer in the game. My mother was worried that she would hurt us while playing, so she hid the mortar hammer. In this way, the sons of the children can only watch the older young people push the big stone mortar to compare their strength. So at ordinary times, this kind of stone mortar is useless and neglected. After being played by children, it was pushed to a corner of the yard to quietly witness the passage of time and the daily growth of our brothers and sisters.
Dashi Mill and Dashi Mill at the head of the village are respected and protected. Usually, any family will clean up and wash it after using it, and children are not allowed to climb and jump on it. Subconsciously, we are in awe of it. The rice, sorghum and miscellaneous grains of hundreds of people in a village can only be further processed after being squeezed by it. In our eyes, it is silent but magical and sacred. The early leek Chili sauce was rolled out on a millstone. Leek and pepper segments are neatly spread on the millstone, like a big green circle. After rolling the salt particles on the millstone several times, the inevitable fragrance of pepper and leek mixed with each other rippled in the sun and air, and the thick green soup flowed over the bank like a spring water, slowly overflowing along the edge of the millstone and being covered by the land. Because they are making Chili sauce at the same time, several families will automatically line up when they make Chili sauce. Those who have the strength will take the initiative to help push stones, greetings from adults, laughter from children, and the sound of communication between Chili and leeks. The scene at this time is so bright and warm. The original way of working, the true attitude towards life and the kindness, enthusiasm and simplicity flowing in the blood, in retrospect, everything is so clear and transparent!
Later, with the electric flour beater entering the village, the stone mill board was like an old cow that could never go down the field again. Its former glory is declining. From Chen Chong to dusk, it lies quietly at the entrance of the village. However, it occasionally brings us children a short happy time. Without the care and reprimand of adults, we will climb up and down the stone mill on a whim and touch this magical stone at will. Later, I don't know when, the stone mill disappeared inexplicably, leaving only an empty small waste pile and a circle of bright things around. After the millstone was lost, my big stone mortar appeared in front of everyone like a treasure that had just been excavated. Whenever someone wants to pound a small amount of grain herbs with this mortar, they will remove the mortar from the corner and carefully scrub it repeatedly with well water. Over time, the stone mortar and hammer will fade away and become brighter and brighter.
In this way, Dashijiu took over the only tool for mashing and processing food outside the village. Of course, I also undertook the task of making leek Chili sauce.
It is not an easy task to use a mortar hammer as an intermediary to make leeks and peppers intimately contact and merge. Pepper and leek both contain a certain amount of water. With the fall of the stone hammer, the dark green juice and rich fragrance in the stone mortar began to splash. If it accidentally spills into the eyes, it will cause the neighbors' uncles and aunts to help wash and care enthusiastically. Often, a stone mortar with leek Chili sauce and a stone hammer will turn around in the hands of many enthusiastic people. Around, children will run and laugh unscrupulously, adults will chat and work happily, and a can of leek flower sauce will be ready, which combines the sunshine and wind in the afternoon in the mountain village. How many people work together with warmth and sincerity. The fragrance and bearing significance of leek flower sauce make people forget the hardships of that era. ...
The four steps of time are always orderly. Later, I left my hometown. Soon after, my parents moved out of the mountain village and lived in a small county. Everything that happened in the small mountain village was so vague. And I, all my feelings for my hometown, focus on these miscellaneous foods that my mother gives me every year.
The sunshine through the window fell on several cases and sprinkled on the small blue and white porcelain jar in front of me, which was quiet and peaceful, just like the flat and kind face of my mother hundreds of miles away.
The old mother's eyes are getting worse. Two meters away, she can't read clearly. She can only recognize each other from the voice first, and then recognize the outline of her face at close range. I can't imagine how she moved the body downstairs step by step, and how she groped for a small piece of wasteland abandoned by others, picked out the gravel bricks unique to urban land, braved the cold wind to loosen the soil, make the bed, sort out and bury the small roots of leeks, and then helped these young plants grow up and bolting every day. Every year, we use real leek flowers to make sauce to fulfill the dream that we desperately longed for when we were young. Mother bought peppers silently, carefully selected, cleaned, dried and cut into pieces as in those years, and then mashed leeks and peppers bit by bit with a small pottery mortar with a diameter of several inches square. This process, my mother is fumbling around the building, and it will take many days to complete, which is enough to send my second brother and me away.
In order not to let my mother be overworked, we resolutely refused to let her send us these things again, but she insisted on making them, saying that none of the vegetables on the market now taste like vegetables, let alone processed semi-finished products. Can I still order food? We're almost there. It is poison. He also said that only the food and taste in his hometown can stop him from going far and find a place where he can live. At this time, what we can do is to accept and support for no reason, which is also a way for us to be grateful and repay our mother!