Rebirth Farmer Yaomei

Chapter 42 Dragon Boat Festival
In a blink of an eye, it entered May, and the Dragon Boat Festival is approaching.

Three days before the festival, my mother soaked the glutinous rice in clear water, and at the same time soaked some red beans, rhubarb rice, and mung beans, all of which were used to make zongzi.After soaking for a full day and night, after changing the water three times in the middle, the rice is soaked thoroughly, and the rice dumplings can be made.

Zongye is a reed leaf picked by a pond formed by a mountain stream outside Sanjia Village. After washing at home, it has to be boiled again so that the leaves can become soft and easy to wrap zongzi.At the same time, we also picked Malian grass. The leaves of this grass are slender, less than the width of a flat finger, but more than a foot long, and they are very strong. They are suitable for binding rice dumplings, and they can also be boiled in a pot. After cooking, it will be as soft as cloth strips.

The most commonly made zongzi in Sanjia Village is to mix glutinous rice and rhubarb rice together, add some red beans or mung beans, and add one or two big red dates. There are also rice dumplings made with glutinous rice and rhubarb rice without adding beans or red dates. , and some people will put some pine nuts and the like, depending on the food or taste of each family, it is very random.

The Ning family grows a complete range of food, and they make several kinds of rice dumplings every year. It is nothing more than a mixture of these rice grains, so they just want to eat them fresh.This year is no exception.

Yu took two daughters to make zongzi. First, he stacked two zongzi leaves together, slightly staggered to make the leaves longer and wider, then folded them into a funnel shape, put a red date in them, and then filled them with rice. Finally, add a red date, fold off the top zong leaves and wrap the bottom funnel, grow strip-shaped zongzi, and tie them with Malan grass.

"The style of mother-made zongzi is still in the south of the Yangtze River," Yu tied a zongzi and put it in a large basin beside him, pointing to his two daughters with a smile, "This is the only way to wrap the rice. In Sanjia Village, four-cornered zongzi are made. However, my mother has been eating dragon boat rice dumplings since elementary school, and I can't change it. But mother still thinks that small rice dumplings look better."

Mother seldom talked about her natal family in the south of the Yangtze River. In Ning Wan's dream, she didn't remember hearing about it at all, but every year when the family made rice dumplings and sent them to the second and third bedrooms, the third old lady would always mock the rice dumplings made by her mother. Not good, and then they will mention that mother is the daughter-in-law bought by the Ning family with a few buckets of grain, and how poor the family was in the past.

Thinking about it, my mother didn't have the heart to talk about the past at that time.

Now the mother is obviously in a very happy mood, with a faint smile on her face, "There are many differences between Jiangnan and Liaodong. In addition to eating rice dumplings, there are also dragon boat races and drinking realgar wine."

Although there is a mountain stream in Sanjia Village, it is very small, and there are never boats. Even in Mayi Town and Hutai County, boats are rarely seen.Even though Ning Wan had that long dream, she had never been on a boat.

After all, the water in the north is much less than that in the south of the Yangtze River.

As for the dragon boat, it was unheard of and unseen. It's just that Ning Wan learned to read and saw the dragon boat race in the book. It seemed to be extremely lively.

Ning Qing asked curiously, "How about dragon boat racing?"

"Dragon boat racing boats are specially made. The whole boat is like a dragon. The bow of the boat should be shaped like a dragon's head. The body of the boat is long and narrow, and the stern is like a dragon's tail. Every town has its own dragon boat. Dress up in different colors, and at the Dragon Boat Festival, first burn incense and worship Cao E by the riverside, and then..."

Ning Wan was very puzzled when she heard this, "Isn't the dragon boat race for Qu Yuan who threw himself into the Miluo River? Why do you want to pay homage to Cao E?"

Ning Qing also asked, "Who is Cao E?"

Yu laughed, "Cao E is a filial daughter. When she heard that her father drowned in the river, she threw herself into the river to find her father's body. So we sacrificed to her every Dragon Boat Festival."

Seeing that the two daughters were fascinated by what they heard, they made rice dumplings and said, "During dragon boat races, a chain should be stretched in the middle of the river to be level with the dragon head in front of the dragon boat. Whichever dragon boat arrives first, the dragon head will bite first." He won the championship on the iron rope. One year, the dragon boat in our town was the first to row in front of the iron rope, and the dragon's mouth actually bit the iron rope, but one of the dragon's teeth was broken, and it has been called Shenlong since then."

"My mother loved watching dragon boat races the most when I was young, and everyone said that the reason why dragon boat races are so prosperous is because a woman surnamed Liu dreamed about the grand occasion of dragon boat races. Later, she built dragon boats for everyone to race. She After leaving the cabinet, I went back to my mother’s house to watch the dragon boat race every Dragon Boat Festival, so the girls from our side have to go back to their mother’s house to watch the dragon boat race on the Dragon Boat Festival.”

It turned out that my mother was homesick.

Mother went to Sanjia Village to beg for food in winter and then sold it to the village. It has been [-] years and a few months. She will always think about it over there, but she never said it before, and now she shows a little bit.

Ning Wan said casually: "Mother, let's write a letter and ask someone to send it to see if we can find out the letter from my grandparents."

Niang shook her head, "Forget it, sending letters is not easy? Besides, after so many years, they may have forgotten me."

It is possible to write letters by yourself, but it is difficult to send letters. Although Ning Wan knows that there is an official post, it is specially used to send news for the government. Letters from the people cannot be forwarded by the official post, and they can only be sent by others. Not to mention in Sanjia Village, even in Hutai County, it is difficult to find people going to the south of the Yangtze River, let alone those who happen to be in my mother's hometown.

Moreover, I don't know how my grandparents are now, whether they have returned to their original place, and whether there is anyone in the family.

I can only wait until the family has spare money, and then find a way.

Yu felt sad for a moment, but then put his mind on the rice dumplings again, "Let's make some rice dumplings with big yellow rice, which are not available in Jiangnan."

Rhubarb rice is also called millet. It is very drought-resistant. It can grow in just over 100 days. It is harvested earlier than other grains. It looks similar to millet, but it is a circle bigger. It is thicker than glutinous rice when cooked. It is delicious with sugar, so when making rice dumplings with rhubarb, you should put more dates. Yu put one on the pointed end of the rice dumplings and two on the flat side, "Rhubarb rice dumplings are not only delicious. , It’s also very beautiful, everyone says it’s agate wrapped in gold, you must wrap a few of them during the festival, to make it auspicious.”

Niang San'er talked and laughed and wrapped a large pot of zongzi. At this time, put the zongzi in the big pot, and put a layer of eggs on top. This egg is also a must-eat for the Dragon Boat Festival. Has a special fragrance.

When cooking zongzi, add enough water, turn on the fire and start cooking.Zongzi is not easy to cook, it needs to be boiled for an hour, and no more raw water can be added during the process, and the fire cannot be stopped, otherwise it will not taste good if it is raw.

The zongzi is cooked, but you can’t eat it at this time. The taste of hot zongzi is usually soft. Take the zongzi out of the pot, put them in a big basin and soak them in fresh stream water overnight, and change them twice in the middle water.At this time, the eggs have been boiled and have changed their color, but they are stained with the aroma of the zong leaves. They do not eat them first, but they have to fight each other first.

Each person holds his own egg and touches another's egg with his hand, and the one whose egg skin is not broken wins, the loser eats the broken egg, and the winner continues the competition.The four members of the Ning family decided the winner in a short while, Ning Wan defeated Ning Qing, Yu Shi defeated Ning Liang.Next time, Ning Wan and Niangpeng lost. They peeled off the skin and put the eggs in their mouths, "The eggs from the Dragon Boat Festival are delicious!"

Yu hesitated for a while, but still didn't break the egg in his hand, "This brown egg is the strongest, save it for the day when Wan'er touches it with others." But she took another white egg and ate it. .

In the early morning of the next day, my mother picked out some zongzi of all kinds, put them into two baskets, put some eggs on them, covered them with a clean cloth towel, and put them in the back basket on one side of the little donkey's back. Cat's claw vegetables were placed on one side.

It turns out that during the Dragon Boat Festival, my aunt and sister would go back to their mother's house to send zongzi, and my father and mother would also bring some of their own zongzi back to them.A few days ago, my uncle and brother-in-law had already visited because of the wild boar meat issue, and they had agreed at that time that they would not come during the Dragon Boat Festival, and they would come again when Ning Qing got married.And when Dad went to Hutai County, he dropped by to send some zongzi to the two families.

When my father came back in the evening, he brought some gifts from the two families in return, which were naturally rice dumplings and eggs.

The next day was the day of the Dragon Boat Festival. Early in the morning, Ning Wan went to the village with a sickle to cut a handful of mugwort and came back. The door, the door of the chicken coop, and the door of the pigsty did not fall in one place, and then she picked a few branches and distributed them to everyone's hair. She did not forget to hang a bunch of clumps on the little donkey's ears.

Artemisia argyi has a special fragrance, which is best for removing pollution, darkening, evil and poison.In Sanjia Village, everyone has to pick mugwort early in the morning, and then everyone starts eating zongzi.

After Ning Wan ate the rice dumplings, she came back with a basket and cut a lot of mugwort, and put them in front of the house to dry.It turns out that the aroma of mugwort can repel mosquitoes, so people in Sanjia Village will cut more mugwort to take home at this time of year, dry them and weave them into ropes, and burn them like incense in summer nights to smoke mosquitoes.

Yu gave the egg with the hardest shell left behind to Ning Wan, "Go to the village to play for a while, and touch the eggs with everyone. Your father is at home today, and let him do the drying of vegetables." Since the beginning of spring, my daughter has not had a day of leisure, and the mother couldn't help but feel distressed, so she let her go out to play.

Ning Wan was no longer a child, she took the egg and went around outside, but she didn't join the big and small children, but when she came back, she told her mother, "I won several people!"

This year the Ning family made a lot of zongzi, and got gifts from others. Although they also gave away a lot, the zongzi at home still ate for several days.

Because the leaves of the zongzi can make the zongzi not bad, as long as the water in which the zongzi is soaked is replaced twice a day, the zongzi will always maintain the original taste.Served with bacon and salted eggs, the taste is even more fragrant and sweet.

Seeing that the two daughters love to eat zongzi, the mother asked them to eat more, and said to Ning Qing: "You can eat whatever you want at your mother's house. You can't do this when you come to your mother-in-law's house. You should wink and don't make her mother-in-law unhappy." These Every time she thinks of something, she has to say it for the last time, lest her daughter suffer a disadvantage after she gets married.

(End of this chapter)