After the Grain Rain Festival, spring rain is as expensive as oil. At this time, if there is a timely rain, not only the farmers will be happy, but also the seedlings and wild flowers and weeds in the field will excitedly go out of the ground to breathe fresh air.
After the spring rain, looking at the pastoral forests, fields, hillsides and Woods, it seems that a layer of pale blue watercolor has been painted, which is green but not astringent, light and extraordinary. When I was a child, I saw the scene of digging wild vegetables with my family, which is still fresh in my memory. ...
Every year from late April to early May, it is the best time for northerners to pick wild vegetables, and it is also the most vigorous period for wild vegetables to grow. At this time, the wild vegetables are not only big in leaves, thick in meat and juicy, but also full and plump in roots. Once the picking period is over, the stems and leaves of wild vegetables will lose moisture and tenderness after flowering and fruit setting, so they cannot be eaten.
Most wild vegetables bear fruits and flowers of different sizes, mostly yellow, white and pink.
Although the size of wild vegetable flowers is not comparable to lily, they are dotted with the night sky like stars, set off the blue sky like white clouds, covered with hillsides and scattered in the forest;
Although the fragrance of wild vegetables and flowers can't be compared with jasmine, it is refreshing like dew, disturbing the heart like morning mist, nourishing the earth and awakening the soul.
The consumption of wild vegetables originated from the early living environment of human beings. Early humans mainly relied on collecting natural wild plants, such as wild vegetables, fruits and roots, accompanied by fishing and hunting activities. Because fishing and hunting don't always get stable means of subsistence, collecting wild vegetables plays a more important role in human survival. "In ancient times, there were many animals and few people, so people lived in nests to escape, picking oak trees and chestnuts during the day and living in civil engineering at dusk, so there were people of nests." In order to improve labor efficiency, the initial natural division of labor appeared. Men are mainly engaged in fishing and hunting, while women are mainly engaged in gathering. In the long-term collection activities, the ancestors discovered the natural mystery of plants from seed growth to germination, flowering and fruiting, and tried to plant them artificially around their homes, resulting in primitive agriculture, which continues to today's self-produced vegetables and grains, but wild vegetables are still common foods in human life.
There are many kinds of wild vegetables. The daily edible wild vegetables are: dandelion (also known as Viola yedoensis), Japanese cabbage, noodles, shepherd's purse, purslane, bitter vegetables, bracken (also known as fist vegetables, cat's paw vegetables, leading vegetables), watercress, Osmunda japonica, Platycodon grandiflorum (also known as leaf vegetables), tender buds, garlic and bitter vegetables.
As a daily supplementary food, it has long attracted the attention of the ancients. However, monographs that systematically introduced the knowledge of wild vegetables began to rise in the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Kui was worried that people would have no food to eat in famine years, so he presided over the compilation of "Herb for Saving Wild Grass", which was the first monograph in ancient China to systematically introduce wild vegetables, and made a detailed introduction to the types, edible parts and processing methods of wild vegetables. Wild vegetables, as a kind of famine relief food, have been taken as special research objects by many scholars. Since then, all previous dynasties have regarded it as a disaster relief object and compiled a large number of such books. Tu Benjun's Notes on Wild Vegetables in the Ming Dynasty, Wang Pan's Recipe of Wild Vegetables in the Ming Dynasty and Gu Jingxing's Praise of Wild Vegetables in the Qing Dynasty described the characteristics and eating methods of 44 kinds of wild vegetables, which have been passed down to this day.
Wild vegetables are edible and have high medicinal value. In China Pharmacopoeia (20 15 edition), there are more than 100 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines, and almost all wild vegetables can be used as medicine. There are many folk remedies for treating common diseases with wild vegetables in our country. For example, dandelion can be used for anti-inflammation, sterilization, heat and detoxification; Schizonepeta can cure cold and cough; Water shield has obvious antifungal effect and certain anti-cancer and anticancer effect; Willow leaves can prevent and treat hypertension, and willow flowers can regulate gynecological diseases; Portulaca oleracea is beneficial to the stability of blood sugar, and also has the functions of anti-inflammatory and sterilization, and has the reputation of "natural antibiotic"; Schisandra chinensis has the functions of nourishing yin, strengthening the body, invigorating the middle energizer, and improving people's eyesight and hearing. Potentilla can tonify the spleen and stomach and increase appetite, beauty beauty; Lespedeza can moisten lung and clear heat, nourish liver and kidney, strengthen spleen and eliminate dampness.
With the development of human science and technology, the nutritional value of wild vegetables has been gradually discovered. After long-term directional breeding, many cultivated vegetables are obviously different from the original wild vegetables in phenotype and nutritional composition. According to the comparison of nutritional components between common cultivated vegetables and wild vegetables in China Food Composition Table (Second Edition), it is found that the contents of dietary fiber, protein, carotene and vitamins in wild vegetables are obviously higher than those in cultivated vegetables.
Wild vegetables are rich in various mineral elements, vitamins, protein, amino acids, carbohydrates, dietary fiber and other nutrients, especially vitamins and mineral elements, which are many times higher than ordinary vegetables. According to analysis, protein in wild vegetables such as bracken is 3 times higher than celery and green pepper, and 2 times higher than tomato. Wild vegetables also contain a variety of amino acids and rich vitamins, as well as vitamins B6, B 12 and vitamins D, K and E that ordinary vegetables do not have.
Wild vegetables mostly grow in deep mountains, wild forests and grassland on barren slopes. They do not need artificial cultivation and management, nor do they use chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Their ecological environment (including atmosphere, water quality and soil) is clean and pollution-free, and rich in nutrition, which can be described as "green food and vegetables".
Different wild vegetables have unique flavor, which is incomparable to ordinary vegetables. For example, the pocket-sized sour pulp and the peculiar chrysanthemum brain are attractive because they are small and exquisite, beautiful and lovely, colorful, the shepherd's purse and Malan are fragrant and refreshing, the Artemisia selengensis is crisp and tender, and the Toona sinensis has a special fragrance. After processing, wild vegetables have a special local flavor, such as pickled and air-dried bracken, which is called the "king of wild vegetables", and dried purslane, salted Toona sinensis head and Artemisia salina are all unique. There are many ways to eat wild vegetables, such as raw, cold, fried, steamed, boiled soup, pickled vegetables and dried vegetables.
In the past, people had to eat wild vegetables for survival, but now people eat wild vegetables for curiosity to improve their taste.
People's tastes vary according to their living environment and customs. There is a great difference between the north and the south and the central coast, and people in cities and rural areas are also different.
City people are not only picky about taste, but also pay great attention to "sense of ceremony". They are not as casual as rural people, just like housewives who are picky eaters in the vegetable area of supermarkets, and they can't understand that rural people eat steamed buns dipped in corn flour and green onions. In the eyes of city people, the appearance and price of vegetables always seem to be in direct proportion to their nutritional value. Those who pay attention to "sense of ceremony" seem to have nothing to do with a person's quality and civilization except to maintain that poor face with money.
Wild vegetables used to be wild things in the mountains, but now they have been replaced by various cultivated vegetables, but people still have a special liking for them. Wild vegetables can be eaten before flowering, and can only be seen after flowering. Although in the eyes of some people, they are not elegant and can't compare with delicacies, but people who like them are willing to get close to nature and pick them themselves. This may be its true self, simple, casual and inaction!