It's spring in my hometown.

I can't help thinking of my hometown.

hemp cake is a specialty of Zhejiang and Jiangxi. Masi is a unique glutinous rice food in Yongkang, Jinhua, which is eaten by almost every household in folk building, farming and the seventh half of the lunar calendar. It is also often sold in the market, but only the farmland house in the suburbs is the most famous. There are many kinds of sesame seeds, such as diarrhea, slippery sesame seeds, rice-sifted flowers, and fruit-eaten sesame seeds. The finished products are as white as snow, as soft as cotton, smooth and delicate, and are suitable for all ages without sticking to bowls or nailing their teeth. The eaters have no taboos, so they are very popular.

The sesame seeds are made in Zhejiang and Jiangxi. During the winter break and holidays, relatives and friends are always busy gathering together, and children are even more anxious. Looking at the hot and delicious sesame seeds, they are all scrambling for them. It's delicious.

After the autumn harvest, almost every household has to make sesame paste, which is called "washing bucket" (grain bucket used to thresh). That is to say, in autumn harvest, farmers are covered with chaff, which makes people's skin itch, and even it is inevitable to suck chaff into their stomachs and even get sick. By eating sesame seeds, these chaff can be glued away and discharged. Just out of the mortar can be eaten with bean powder and sesame seeds, which is sweet and flexible and deeply loved by people.

glutinous rice is called mashi, and late rice is called rice cake. It is a folk custom in Xinchang to make sesame cakes on Qingming and rice cakes on New Year's Day. In the past, there was a habit of dividing sesame cakes when sweeping the tomb of the Great Duke in Qingming Festival. It is the turn of the sacrificial master to make preparations in advance, and divide the hemp on the spot in front of the grave. This is the reason why the folk saying that "the Qingming festival is full of numbness, and the head is divided into numbness". Xinchang County records: "There are many grave-sweepers in the clan's Taigong grave ... After the meal, they will be divided into meat and sesame seeds." After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it is rare to divide the hemp in Qingming, but it is more common to make hemp in Tomb-Sweeping Day. But its meaning is not just to sweep the grave. In Xinchang, there is also the habit of sending hemp cakes in Qingming. This is a kind of etiquette after marriage and before marriage. This custom was popular in rural areas all over the county long ago. The same is true in the rural areas adjacent to Xinchang in Shengzhou City. Who is going to marry a daughter-in-law? Generally, a man will send a Qingming festival to his wife's family before Tomb-Sweeping Day, which indicates that he will come to marry a new wife before the next Tomb-Sweeping Day. After the daughter got married, the mother's parents had to send back Qingming hemp cake to the man's family when they arrived in Tomb-Sweeping Day. It is said that this is to wish the young couple a happy and My Sweetie life when they get married. The most important thing to send Qingming hemp seed is to return to the mountain area. A week after the vernal equinox, I began to plan to prepare all the ingredients used. It's five or six days before Tomb-Sweeping Day, so it's better to deliver it one day earlier than one day later. The delivery time must be in the morning, so you must make a good meal the afternoon or evening before. All ceremonial sesame seeds must be filled with stuffing, which is called sugar-embedded sesame seeds. In the production, it is also finer and more thorough than usual, and the appearance is as good as possible. The size should be symmetrical, the length should be consistent, and the sweetness of the stuffing is always sufficient. The guy who used to send hemp cake also has 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 pieces neatly in layers, put them in blue sacks outside, and then tie a solid knot (to show good luck and get married). Generally, the new son-in-law should pick it out personally to show his sincerity. For example, if the new son-in-law can't go new for some reason, some of them are sent by brothers. Women send gifts to men's families, mostly from the brothers of new wives. After the linen is delivered, the delivered linen should also be distributed to the neighbors immediately to show their 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 will be married soon. Therefore, there is also a saying among the masses that "if you eat Qingming cake, you will not be imprisoned." The same is true of the Qingming hemp cake that the woman's family sent back to the man's family. It has to be given to the villagers in the neighborhood. When the villagers receive the gift, they always happily return a few words of courtesy. As for sending Qingming sesame seeds, there is a record in the new county annals that "some men in the countryside sent Qingming sesame seeds to their women for three years to show their wealth". This is a thing of the past, and now most of them are only delivered for one year.

First, the glutinous rice is soaked in water, and when it is full, it is scoured and drained, steamed in a steaming bucket, mashed in a stone mortar, and then rolled into a dough with the same thickness while it is hot, and then embedded with stuffing. Sooner or later, the time for making Qingming hemp varies with the use. The earliest time to go to a new grave is three days after the vernal equinox It takes a certain amount of manpower and labor to make hemp cake. Therefore, we often meet with our brothers, uncles or neighbors to do it together. Everyone is busy and busy, working together and dedicating themselves to each other. Young and strong men are pounding with pestles (sandalwood and stone) in turn, and there is another person who is responsible for pounding. The pounding people are sweating and sizzling from time to time. Housewives and helping women are also steaming on the fire, preparing the dumplings (bamboo rafts), panels and stuffing for spreading hemp. The main characters who join in the fun here are children. They just huddle together around the stone mortar and watch the fun, waiting for hot meals. Most of the older elders are there, smoking cigarettes and drinking tea, laughing and laughing ... There are many kinds of fillings used to embed sesame seeds. There are bean paste, cowpea, sesame oil, etc., and pickles or other mixed fillings can be used according to personal taste. There are also cotton greens in the mountains (called Ai in Shaoxing) that are chopped into pieces in advance and mashed into green sesame paste. There are many ways to eat sesame seeds, such as frying in oil and roasting on fire ...

Nowadays, few people in my hometown can make this kind of sesame seeds, and it can only be an elusive memory for me.