We also called sorghum poles "sweet sticks". Life was very difficult at that time, and sometimes we would eat one meal but not another, so on the way home from school, we would go to the "feeding station" if we were thirsty and hungry. "In the place where mules and horses are fed, I secretly take a few "sweet sticks" and eat them along the way. Sometimes my mouth is full of blood, but it is fragrant and sweet and never stops, and I finish it by the time I go back.

When I grow up, people's living standards have improved. Looking back on the scene of eating "sweet sticks", I have eaten those "sweet sticks" several times, but I can never get back the sweet taste. feeling.

Wow, we call it "sweet stalk", a kind of sorghum, specializing in eating stalks, a bit like southern sugar cane, sweeter than ordinary sorghum stalks. When I was a child, I would plant a few trees beside my garden, but not Planted every year, in order to eat sweet stalks, ordinary sorghum stalks are also ruined.

I haven’t eaten them in more than 20 years, almost 30 years! Childhood memories

I guess this kind of memory only exists after the 1970s [cute]

Expert explanation:

Sweet sorghum (scientific name: Sorghum dochna (Forssk .) Snowden) is an annual plant of the family Gramineae. The fibrous roots are thicker and often have supporting roots at the base of the stalk. The stalks are thick, 2-4 meters high, juicy and sweet.

This is the "sweet pole". Its stems are rich in sugar juice, which is sweet and thirst-quenching and can replenish energy. Its seed ears are like sorghum, and they are also divided into two types, one is relatively compact and the other is relatively loose. Plants with loose ears are longer, thicker, taller and sweeter than stems with tight ears.

For our children who grew up in the rural areas of Northeast China, who doesn’t have a row of sweet stalks planted beside the sticks in front of and behind the house?

Whenever it matures in autumn, cut off a few sweet stalks, first cut off the ears, then peel off the leaves, and finally hold the sweet stalk with both hands and gnaw off the hard outer skin from the root section by section ( It's very sharp and can easily cut the corner of your mouth if you're not careful), then take a bite and chew hard. After swallowing the sweet juice, spitting out the chewed-up meat, chewing it piece by piece, I felt so satisfied. (The pictures of sweet stalks searched from Baidu below are for reference only.)

This is fresh sorghum stalk, which I often ate when I was a child. When the sorghum has just matured and the pole is still young, you can use a knife to cut the sorghum stalk into sections, then peel off the outer skin, and put the inner stalk in your mouth to chew. The sugar content is very high, very sweet, and has a natural plant flavor. Fresh fragrance. Similar to sugar cane, but sweeter than sugar cane, and the center of the stem is easier to chew than sugar cane. This was also a small snack when I was a kid when supplies were relatively scarce.

Sweet stalks and sorghum stalks are very similar in length, just like the two sons of one another. However, there is still a slight difference. The stems of sweet stems are thicker, and the color of the stems and leaves is darker than that of sorghum stems. Their tassels are almost the same. To judge whether the sweet stalk is sweet or ripe, look at whether the ears have become darker. The darker the ear color, the sweet stalk is mature and must be very sweet.

The sweet stick is delicious. Compared with sugar cane, it tastes crisper and easier to bite.

As a person born in the 1970s, when we were children, there were no snacks to eat. It is no exaggeration to say that "sweet sticks" can be called a luxury product. Stealing sweet sticks to eat is also one of the bad things we often did when we were children. In order to satisfy our craving, my father would often plant a few on the edge of the fields. Of course, it is inevitable that others will steal it! I remember one year, there were obviously a lot less sweet poles in our house. My father followed the scum left on the ground and found our neighbor's house. But the neighbor refused to admit that he had stolen from our house. My father was so angry that he had a big fight with their family! I still remember the scene at that time!

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, I am about to run for the fifth grade, and my father has been away from us for many years. The sweet pole will always stay in the depths of my memory, because I will think of it when I see it. Dad, it left me with the sweetest memory!

When I was a child, during the autumn harvest in the countryside, my father and uncle were cutting corn in the front, while my mother and the others were shucking corn in the back. When we children were playing in the back, we often encountered "sweet stalks" that were very thin and could not grow corns. It was like eating sugar cane, peeling off the outer layer and chewing the meat inside, which left a lot of juice. This is also a great thirst-quenching food if you are thirsty and have no water or are far away from a water source.

It’s just that I haven’t experienced this taste for a long time.

Our tube is also called sweet stalk, or sugar cane, which is similar to sorghum stalk. The one grown in the north is not as sweet and watery as the sugar cane in the south.

The table is so messy! Which item are you asking about?

Cornstalks? Sorghum stalk?

This is the stem of sweet sorghum, commonly known as "sweet stem", right? !

When I was a kid, I loved sweets, so I tried to “eliminate” them! ! !

I often ate this when I was a kid.

This is not the sugar cane we usually eat, and we often misidentified it in the past.

This is the corn stalk in Shandong. It is the above-ground part of corn, which is specially used to transport water and nutrients. Because of photosynthesis, it contains a lot of water and sugar. Remove the hard outer shell and chew the pulp inside. It will be very sweet, but do not eat the pulp. If there is no water, you will spit it out. Just drop it and eat it the same way as sugar cane.