The sun is shining, the grass grows and the warblers fly, the spring is warm in bloom, and everything is revived. In the works of many poets, poets, writers and writers at home and abroad, spring is described like this, which makes people think and have endless aftertaste.
Over the years, I have thought about it carefully. My deepest impression of spring is: digging and eating wild vegetables. It looks a bit tacky, not very tall, but it is really my true thoughts and memories.
Why do so many of us, including me, still cling to wild vegetables every spring when the supply of modern vegetables is so abundant?
In my experience, there are two main reasons, one is from my childhood habits, and the other is my longing for spring.
Winter in the north is long and cold, especially when we were young. In winter, the green vegetables are basically Chinese cabbage stored in winter, in addition, there are radishes, potatoes and onions (onions), which can be prepared before winter and put in the cellar to spend the whole winter.
Of course, there are also some dried vegetables dried in summer and autumn, such as beans, Chinese cabbage, spinach, celery, peppers, cucumbers and squash.
I don't need to describe it, so you can imagine how simple and dull the taste in people's mouths is when cabbage and radish are the main vegetables for five or six months all winter.
There are basically no fresh vegetables. Sometimes, in order to adjust the taste, my mother will give birth to some bean sprouts, plant some garlic seedlings and put a little when cooking. At that time, we children felt very happy
Of course, most people don't have this experience now, let alone urban residents. It is very simple and common to eat green vegetables in most rural areas in winter.
Therefore, at that time, wild vegetables in early spring were particularly precious to us at that time. After eating the vegetables stored in winter for a whole winter, I can finally change my taste and taste.
I remember when I was a child, there was a proverb in my hometown, which was actually a jingle, which could also be called a nursery rhyme. "On March 3, Qu Ma Cai drilled out of the sky."
What do you mean? That is to say, every year on the third day of the third lunar month, Quma cuisine has sprouted, emerged from the soil and exposed its head.
Digging wild vegetables, of course, is our children's business, but also our children are very willing to do.
From as long as I can remember, until I left home for boarding school in junior high school, I spent about a month around Qingming Festival almost every year with a group of children and friends looking for wild vegetables and digging wild vegetables all over the mountains.
Spring in my hometown, strictly speaking, is the turn of winter and spring, and the weather is still very cold. In the words of textbooks, it is called "it's warm and cold at first". Of course, by this time, the earth must have thawed, and some cold-tolerant plants and grasses have sprung up some slight green on the dead branches and leaves in previous years, arching out of the ground. At this time, you must carefully distinguish it with the naked eye to distinguish that little new green.
The first batch of wild vegetables grew with these grasses.
At this time of the year, my friends about my age in the village meet to dig wild vegetables in the mountains. Under normal circumstances, there are as few as three or five, and as many as a dozen. The chirp is very lively.
In our hometown, there are several common wild vegetables in spring: Quma, Dandelion and Portulaca oleracea.
We like Quma Cai and Dandelion best. Portulaca oleracea tastes bad and is said to be a little toxic, so everyone doesn't like it very much, and some people like it, but it is relatively rare.
This is Quma cuisine, which is the earliest wild vegetable drilled out of the ground in spring. The scientific name is Sonchus oleraceus, and I also want to write this article. After checking the information, I realized that the common common common name in our hometown is Quma cuisine.
Qu Ma Cai has strong tolerance to the environment, and seems to grow anywhere, but it grows best in fertile places such as fields, ponds and rivers.
When Qu Ma Cai first grew out, it was dark red and slightly green. Children need a little experience to dig this wild vegetable before they can find and distinguish it.
This is dandelion. In our hometown, its common name is old woman.
It is also a wild vegetable that grows earlier in spring. Dandelion has stronger tolerance to the growing environment than Quma cuisine. Sometimes when you see a little soil in a crack in the stone, it can survive and grow well.
Dandelion should be delicious when it is a child. Once it grows up and blooms, its leaves will get old and people can't eat it, because it becomes firewood and can't chew.
When we were young, we picked tender ones and people ate them. When the elders arrive, collect them and feed them to pigs and chickens; The roots of dandelion are dug out to dry in the sun and soaked in water to drink. It is said that clearing away heat, detoxifying and removing fire, as the old people used to say when we were young.
The above picture is Portulaca oleracea. Many people recognize this plant as soon as they see it. This plant is so widely distributed in China that you can see it on any land.
Our hometown called purslane grasshopper.
Only a few people eat this wild vegetable in our hometown, because it has a bitter taste and is not delicious if it is not cooked well. According to the memories of the old people in our village, this purslane still saved many people in the famine years. Although it is not delicious, it can fill the stomach and save lives.
Looking at all kinds of historical materials and memorable articles, Chairman Mao likes to eat purslane, a wild vegetable. The great man is really approachable and eats so simply.
Although Portulaca oleracea is widely distributed, it seems that it can live anywhere, but it still grows most vigorously in fields and places with rich aquatic plants. If people eat it, it is also the best picked in these places.
We children can usually pick a basket in the morning or afternoon. Back home, pick out those tall and straight, eat by yourself, and feed the rest to pigs and chickens.
There are only a few ways to eat wild vegetables: dipping sauce, cold salad, and few fried ones. Now people have a rich life, some make salads, some make soups, and some make stir-fry dishes.
First, eat it directly in the sauce.
Eating directly in the sauce is the way many northerners eat, which keeps the original taste of wild vegetables.
The second kind, chopped, is eaten with salt and minced garlic.
Some people can't accept the original taste of wild vegetables, which is also a little bitter. In this way, after cold treatment, a lot of bitter taste is removed and the taste is better.
Because many kinds of seasonings are added, the taste is also very rich and layered.
Third, scald it with hot water and mix it with soy sauce, vinegar, minced garlic and pepper.
Compared with the second way of eating, this way of eating is more about removing the "game" of wild vegetables itself and making it softer. Just like when we eat cold spinach, why do we blanch it with boiling water? Because we want to denature her oxalic acid, reduce the astringency and make it smoother.
Also, now we can mix several dishes with salad dressing, which is euphemistically called vegetable salad.
Anyway, this is my deepest memory of spring, digging wild vegetables and eating wild vegetables, knowing that our distant ancestors may have evolved from eating these wild vegetables.