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On the platform of the old well in the middle of the village, a stone table was set up, and a stone mill for turning porridge was set in the circular groove on the surface of the stone table.
The stone table set up by three heavy stone slabs stands upright in the wind and rain, recording the life of ancestors and witnessing the years when ancient villages were full of tempering and persistence.
The stone mill for turning porridge is firmly fixed in the groove, the stone mouth of the stone mill extends out of the slate, and the turned pulp flows out of the stone mouth and into the vessel.
The slate is smooth and bright along the outer ring of the stone mill, showing a black luster. That is the mark left by years, and it is the mark of the cuff rubbing on the slate when turning porridge.
Time can't erase the memory. You see, the two flagstones erected and the grooves forged by the masons, one after another, extend obliquely and are arranged in parallel. This is one, just like the last words of our ancestors, the beautiful picture left by the masons, fresh as ever, and proud for nine days.
The old well and the stone table porridge shop go hand in hand. In the wind and rain, * * * has gone through spring, summer, autumn and winter, day and night, and has passed like water. Those who bear, those who bear, are humming heavy songs and walking with history.
The bluestone slab on the well platform was washed away by the water and polished by the soles of people's feet, but it was sweet, soaked with soybeans and millet, and also radiated white pulp flowers from the stone mouth of porridge grinding, making porridge radiant.
Porridge is accompanied by history, and its relationship with China people, like porridge itself, is dense and sticky. From the prehistoric society where porridge was eaten to the Middle Ages when porridge was used as a medicinal diet, the function of porridge was highly integrated with "edible" and "medicinal", which brought the world's understanding of porridge into a new realm. Lu You, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, strongly recommended eating porridge for health preservation, believing that it could prolong life. He once wrote a poem "Eating Porridge": Everyone in the world is older than others, but I didn't realize that at present I want to learn from the people and only eat porridge from the gods.
Small stone mill turns porridge, which turns out to be pulp, and what you drink in your stomach is nectar. Although cooking procedures are also needed, the cooking materials are different. Yellow rice porridge, japonica rice porridge, red bean porridge, and lotus seed porridge are all porridge made of whole grains, which is called "porridge" by hometown people. In the traditional concept of hometown people, porridge is made by grinding pulp.
After dinner, put the soybeans and millet in the pot and soak them overnight, and bring them to the stone table next to the old well table the next day; Take a sip of clean water from the old well and put it on the stone table. Wash the soybeans and millet with clear water, wash them with a small stone mill, and the preparation before turning the porridge is completed.
Stir the foamed soybeans and millet evenly and put them in the grinding eyes of a small stone mill. At the same time, they hold the L-shaped wooden crutch on one side of the stone mill and push and pull in the same direction, and the small stone mill rotates. Soybean and millet flow into the mill mouth, and the ground slurry flows into the container through the mill mouth. In the middle, water should be continuously injected into the grinding eyes. The amount of water injected determines the quality of porridge, which depends on the accumulation of experience. How to guide it in "A Thousand Years' History of a Bowl of Porridge": A bowl of porridge does not carry a simple ratio of water to rice, and its historical context is not as "light" as we thought, or there may be a lot of historical information worth our efforts behind the development and changes of each kind of porridge.
Turning porridge into stone mill depends on the strength of two people pushing and pulling. Although you push and I pull, the purpose is to promote the movement of the stone mill. Just like the law of the unity of opposites in Marxist philosophy, the unity and struggle of opposites, whether in nature, society or the field of thinking, are the unity and struggle of both sides of things, which promotes the movement, change and development of things.
Porridge is like this, so is life. After a young daughter-in-law in the village soaked soybeans and millet in a small pot, she quarreled because her mother-in-law didn't take good care of her children, so she ignored her mother-in-law in a rage. The next day, the soybeans and millet foamed, and the porridge was still to be turned over; After a long time, I got up lazily and walked out the door. My mother-in-law has been waiting at the door with a pot of soaked soybeans and millet, and I don't know how long it has been.
The two stood face to face when they went to turn porridge, and the mother-in-law put her hand under the wooden turn early; It's easier to put it on it. This is the principle of leverage, and my mother-in-law understands it. In order to leave enough space for the daughter-in-law's hand, the mother-in-law's hand, which is full of cracks and vicissitudes, clung to the cross brace of the wooden crutch, and she tried her best to pull or push it.
Push and pull only exert force in a straight direction, and the skill of cooperation between the two is the mediation force of taking a deep breath and slowly exerting force when the wooden crutch is turned to the chest. Belly in, bow your waist, and make full use of elbow force to help the other side pull the wooden crutch smoothly. This is the truth that "elbows can't be turned outwards". Every time the mother-in-law mediates, the daughter-in-law can deeply feel her thoughtfulness and concern. It is a love story written by blood ties, a song of love sung hand in hand, and the sweet taste of porridge cooked by mother-in-law and daughter-in-law Qi Xin.
Why is grinding porridge called "turning porridge"? A word "turn", what's the explanation here? Turn, originally a crutch to support the body when walking, is a crutch for the elderly to move towards freedom.
Just like this, people yearn for the fragrance of porridge. If they want to eat porridge, they must help each other and concentrate on it. The great literary master Ba Jin once said: All my life goals are to help others, so that everyone can have spring, everyone has a bright heart, everyone's life can be happy, and everyone's development can be free.
Mutual assistance is a virtue. When people become interdependent, they will stand side by side and listen to good advice.
I don't remember when the small stone mill grinding porridge by the old well in the village disappeared without a trace. The three heavy slabs, together with the slabs on the old well platform, are all gone, and the spoon in the big iron pot can no longer push out the slurry and become porridge. "The auxiliary car depends on each other, and the lips are dead and the teeth are cold." No stone mill, no porridge.
Nowadays, the food culture of stone mill porridge has disappeared, and there is almost no way to drink a bowl of authentic soybean millet porridge. The soybean millet porridge ground by the machine can be touched occasionally, but a fried dough stick pokes into the bowl and can no longer bring out the viscosity in the small stone mill.