Rice

Rice

The smell of rice in Northeast China.

Northeast rice is delicious, gluten bounced teeth, brings its rice fragrance, sweet aftertaste, all said yes, even as soon as the pot was opened, the rice fragrance floated far away, and the moment it opened the lid of the pot, it was even more delicious.

but do you know where rice comes from?

Northeast China is vast and sparsely populated, and people with more land have more than a dozen of them, and there are as few as my home, and there are also two or three people. (* 1 mu = 10 mu = 100 points) my family's land is half paddy field and half dry land. Grow rice in paddy fields and corn in dry fields.

in the past two years, the cheap land has hurt the farmers, and the purchase price of corn has dropped from just over one piece to 80 cents, and then to more than 40 cents. After a year of hard work, farmers will be happy without seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and other mats, not to mention making money or losing money.

therefore, rural people are pinning their hopes on growing rice, working hard for at least a year, making ends meet, and having a slight surplus.

growing rice is a real hassle.

preparations began in the autumn of the first year, and the top priority was to prepare sand and mountain soil. The sand went to the river bank where he usually fished fish to screen out two carts of fine noodle sand. Shanpitu wants the whole family to rush to Dongshan to pull the authentic northeast black soil. Due to the closure of mountains for forest cultivation, few carts are passing through the mountain roads, coupled with the impact of Rain Water, many roads have rushed out of ravines half a meter deep. The ox cart jolted on the broken road for a long time, wading in the water and filling the pit in the ditch. Along the way up the hill, the old cow refused to contribute, staggering and slowly. Sometimes angry, my father scolded it a few words, it will also play temper to stop, if angry, according to the cow's ass hard to smoke a few times, the old cow unexpectedly began to run, strangled also can not stop. Broke free from the reins, with an empty car on the rampage, unexpectedly hairy. When I found it again, I was either eating other people's corn or piling up (reading three times) rice by the side of the road.

when we finally got into the mountains, we picked a gully with thick fallen leaves, tied the ox cart to the side of the road, pulled open the yellowish-brown fallen leaves on the hillside, and stepped on it with a spade to see how thick the black soil was. The black soil in the northeast is famous all over the country, but not all the land in the northeast is black, and most of the agricultural land is yellowish-brown. The dark soil, which is 20 centimeters deep, is a natural fertilizer made from fallen leaves and humus for more than a decade or even decades.

We divide the work as a family. My sister and I are responsible for picking away the leaves, my mother accumulates the heap, my father cuts off the messy bushes with an ax, pours the ox cart in, and my family begins to load the car with dirt. When the car was full, Dad drove the ox-cart home, and then came back to load the second car. Two times a day, pull for three days, mountain soil will be enough.

the mountain soil pulled home is piled in the corner of the yard, covered with plastic sheeting, waiting for fine rice seedlings to begin next spring.

every spring, March begins to thaw, the ice on the windowsill falls off, the snow melts gradually, and the road is muddy and is dried by the spring breeze. The corn in the bract rice building is finished, the yard is empty, and the greenhouse is about to be built.

in the early years, the greenhouse was made of wood, parallel to three rows of nails, some two meters high and the low more than one meter high. The thick horizontal brace of each wrist is tied into a line, and then every 50 cm, a semicircular bamboo pin is tied vertically, and a wooden fence is erected at both ends of the arch, and the skeleton of the greenhouse is supported. Then buckle the plastic sheeting, the plastic sheeting around it is pressed with soil, and the plastic sheeting is fixed on the corresponding wooden shackles on both sides of the greenhouse, and the plastic greenhouse is buckled. In recent years, the keels of the greenhouse have become iron steel pipes, and farmers no longer have to worry about felling wood in the mountains and being fined by the forest farm.

after withholding the greenhouse, we will begin to raise seedlings. My father will first soak 20 or 30 rice seeds in a mineral water bottle and put them on the windowsill of the rising sun. After two or three days, we will see the budding rate. There is no problem with sprouting, just take a big vat and soak all the rice seeds in. During this time waiting for rice seeds to sprout, we leveled the land in the greenhouse, sprinkled it with a layer of river sand, and then put on the floor of fine seedlings, with a white, slightly hard plastic plate at the beginning, with a folding edge of one or two centimeters at the edge, and a small round hole evenly covered on the bottom to facilitate drainage. This kind of floor can be reused. After planting rice and demolishing the greenhouse every year, the floor should be brushed clean in the gully of the water motor of the Xianzu reservoir and piled up for use next year. Over the years, plastic aging, a straight drop of residue, and even can not even pick up a whole board of rice seedlings, barely rolled into a roll will quickly spread out, and sometimes rice seedlings will fall from the ox cart. Gradually, the bottom plate withdrew from the process of fine rice seedlings and was gradually replaced by plastic bags. In the year when the house was built, there was more river sand in the family, and the extra river sand was spread in the yard. Since then, we have found that as long as more river sand is laid, the rice seedlings can be picked up directly without a floor at all. When the rice seeds germinated, we first spread a layer of mountain peel soil and sand mixture on the river sand, then sprinkled the sprouted rice seeds, covered the floating head with a thin layer of black soil, sprinkled with water, and covered with herbicides, and the greenhouse could be sealed.

finally, a stick of more than ten centimeters was inserted around the shed. The stick was seven or eight centimeters above the ground. At the top was a glass medicine bottle with three centimeters of thumb, which was picked up from the doctor's house. Pull a thin wire around the neck of the bottle to surround the greenhouse, connect the wire pulled out of the house, connected to a light bulb, and made a simple "electric cat". Once a mouse came to steal rice seeds, the light bulb lit up. We hurried around the shed to find the electrocuted rat. Sometimes a dozen can be electrocuted in one night, the largest of which is more than 30 centimeters long.

more than ten days later, the tender green seedlings boomed out of the ground, and within a few days, all the rice seedlings in the shed came out. We opened the reserved door of the greenhouse-in fact, a simple piece of plastic sheet that was more than one person wide, and along the two rows of aisles reserved in the middle, we basked in the vat for two days, and the slightly warm well water poured upon the rice seedlings. When the rice seedlings drank enough water, they sealed the doors of the greenhouse, watered them again in a few days, and repeated five or six times before the rice seedlings grew.

the growing rice seedlings are greener and darker. When the rice seedlings are one Hoho high (more than ten centimeters), they rice seedlings are thickened. You can open the greenhouse a little bit to let out the rice seedlings. The seedlings of windy rice are stronger and more likely to survive after transplanting.

one year, when I didn't go to school, my parents asked me to take care of the house. they opened the greenhouse a little bit. I was bored at home and went to school to pick up my sister from school. As a result, when I got home, I found that the neighbor's calf had gnawed off a square of rice seedlings along with the mouth of the lookout. My father came back and beat me hard. I also understand, trapped all winter calves, see the green rice seedlings, how can not be greedy? It's like a meat eater who sees meat, a drinker who smells wine, and a hungry one who can't control what he eats, not to mention that he's just a mute animal. As a result, the rice seedlings will grow when they see the wind, and when they are planted, the rice seedlings there can be used again. I was wronged by this beating.

in the year when the house was built, the yard was not enough, the plastic shed was smaller, and the rice seedlings were thinner, so we had to go to the fields to pick up the remaining rice seedlings. In the gully, on the edge of the ground, on the ridge of the field, pick it up in bundles, put it in a plastic bag, and carry it home wet. That year, my parents did not have time to take care of the work in the fields. The rice seedlings cobbled together grew happily after transplanting. Regardless of you and me, the barley stubble squeezed and scrubbed produced very thick rice sticks. In autumn, heavy grain was produced, although some fields had sticky rice and clumsy rice, and there were five excellent and common varieties, but in the end, they were mixed and sold at a good price.

growing rice, fine rice seedlings are troublesome, and grabbing water is even more troublesome.

the water in the rice fields of our whole village comes from two reservoirs. One is the Guanma Reservoir, which is in charge of the river, first-class land, land behind the village, and part of the land in front of the village. Wuben Reservoir is in charge of the paddy fields in Wuben Village and the rice fields outside Dongshan and the southward relocation of our village. When water is released every year, it does not rain, and even if it rains, it is often not enough. God is like this, we have to let the people beg and look forward to, and then absolutely can not give enough, otherwise how to say that spring rain is as expensive as oil? How else do you say we have to rely on God for a living?

so before releasing water every year, to prevent running away from water and fertilizer, every household has to beat the fish. Clean up the weeds, mend the hole of the worm and mouse thief with thin mud, and fill in the ruts pressed out during the autumn harvest.

when the water is released, everyone has to grab the water for fear that they are dissatisfied with the irrigation of their own homes. At this time, it is time to compete for power. In theory, it should be the upstream irrigation and downstream irrigation, row by row, step by step, but the implementation is not the same thing at all. The land of the chief of the village is filled up first, needless to say, even the land of the accountant and the director of the woman's house should be given priority. Then it was a really interesting time when all the civilians stood by the gully in the ground with a shovel. Upstream irrigation will build a horizontal dam in the middle of the Judao ditch, sometimes full will not let go, and the downstream will occasionally go to the side of a small stream, reluctantly filling their land. If you encounter something good or anxious, you will go directly to open the dam, and when the upstream comes back, you will find that the water has been separated, the mouth of the rice pond is not sealed, and the water flows back into the Judao ditch, and you will find the downstream quarrel.

if you are really in a hurry, your parents, grandparents, and eighth-generation ancestors will also come and scold them, and even if they are not happy to scold them, they will catch them and beat them. Push it down on the mound or into the thin mud of the rice pool, and you will be beaten and the beater will be embarrassed. The two men were so busy that they were stained with rotten mud into two mud monkeys, which did not look like human beings. If you feel too pissed off by being beaten, you will be confused when you turn around and slap with a spade while you are beating people down. If the spade goes down flat, it will at least cut the head open.

such barbaric scenes are staged every year and have not been eliminated until now. Those who are bullied are often old and weak, especially if they do not have sons, like my parents, they have to suffer everywhere in the village year after year. This spring, my father was bleeding from the corners of his eyes because of the rice paddy fields in Dongshan. In terms of the fact that Bai Si is the nephew of the old Bai family who produces five clothes, he is also thirty or forty years old. it is easy to beat my father, an old man in his sixties. My sister and I have been out all year round, and no one wants to go back to plant that land. We have advised them not to plant it many times. They just don't let go or let go, defending their land like their final dignity.

when the water is released, the dam is on the ground, and the seedlings are planted, in addition to fertilizing regularly, wait for the rice to heading and blossom, filling and maturing. At the end of September, every household began to open the mouth of the rice pond to dry the ground, waiting for the ground to dry. The water is so precious in spring that I want to knock my head off. In autumn, anyone who dares to discharge water into the neighboring land will probably knock his head off.

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by the beginning of October, yellow rice can be harvested.

on National Day, I will go to the fields with my parents, usually to harvest rice, often the rice fields in Dongshan. The oxcart creaked past the shivering cornfields and turned down a steep slope. Looking ahead, it was a bumper harvest scene of rolling rice waves. Unload the car and go to the next cornfield to split corn leaves and tie up the cattle. We began to cut rice. I can only cut, not tie-up. I usually partner with my mother, and she helps me beat the razor. I hold the rice stalk in my left hand and the sickle in my right hand. I often have to urge my mother to hurry up a bundle for me. At this time, my mother will say, "actually, if you work at home faster than me and your father."

when we take a break, we will eat some moon cakes and apple pears to replenish our strength, sit on the freshly tied rice and blow the autumn wind. It was the Mid-Autumn Festival for our family at that moment.

when we finish our work in the evening, we should code the bundled rice into a row of 20 bundles, so that it can be dried and the harvest can be counted. After the yard of rice, you can catch a few red-bellied toads, and on the way home, you can also pick a hug of dandelions for the chickens, ducks, and geese at home. Come to think of it, I haven't cut rice for seven or eight years.

after harvesting the rice, my parents began to harvest corn. Wait for corn after the harvest, the rice is almost dry, the weather is cold, the surface is moving and crumbling, and they can pull the rice home. When the rice is pulled home, the rice stacks are stacked layer by layer, and the good rice stacks are straight and straight. what is not well stacked is a thin dripping flower leak, and sometimes a bunch of rice stacks falls out of place, and sometimes the rice stacks are held up with wooden poles, like propping up a leaning tower of Pisa.

wait until November, when it is going to snow and the village begins to fight. In the early years, I was looking for a job. I asked friends who knew me to help each other. The ground was covered with tarpaulins, and the rice cart was pulled into the yard and fixed. The import was directed towards rice stacks and houses, and the exit was toward the vegetable garden. Men and women, old and young in the village, wore Japanese-like hats and covered their faces with a piece of cloth in front to prevent rice hair from getting in and itching. The little daughter-in-law who loves beauty wraps a pink blue or yellow plaid scarf over her head, like an old hen who lays eggs in a cartoon but is reluctant to cover her face. The young and able-bodied young man climbed to the top of the chop, took a fork, and threw down the sheaf of rice, and the rice particles slapped on the makeshift case. A man was left under the heap to cut open the sheaves of rice with a sickle. The several people in charge of the rice threshing had a pair of nunchakus in their hands. The sticks were sharpened at one end and plunged into the rice pile to catch a big slip. Feed the other end of the rice ear into the mouth of the rice thresher, the inside of the rice thresher is a barrel, the outer edge of the cylinder is covered with triangular teeth, the dry rice ears are fed in, and the rice grains are pulled off and fall to the bottom by gravity. Next to him stood a child holding a bag, waiting for an adult to pour rice into his bag with a dustpan full of rice. When the bag is full, the adult shakes it evenly with the bag and then picks up the barge. Then take the hemp rope sewing bags or bundling, and finally carry it to the cleaned barn. Some of the elderly gathered rotten straw with a rake behind the rice thresher, some tied up the rotten straw with new straws, and those who were able to palletize were responsible for tying up the straw and stacking it against the yard. This pile of straw is used by Han Chinese to feed cattle and Xian people to burn fire. When all the rice is finished, lift the tarp, feed the broken pieces into the rice thresher, and sift out the falling rice, the work of the day will be over.

beating rice is the dirtiest job. There is dust everywhere, as well as itchy rice hair (rice awn), which makes everyone's faces gray, like children stained with dust, even their nostrils are covered with black ash. When everyone went home to wash their faces and changed their clothes, they all came back to the main house for dinner. If you are close to each other, you are embarrassed to come to dinner, and you have to invite the host family over and over again. Beg people, wine to manage enough food to be hard, more meat, fewer vegetables, whose potatoes boil chicken, if there are more potatoes and less chicken, it will be chewed by the villagers.

in the end, the shrewd people in the village saw the pretty head and formed a rice team. The rice-beating team sends people out of the machine to form an employment relationship with the master, and there is no need to provide food, as long as the money is enough. Because it is to make money, no one dawdles on the job, one day can hit two or three rice, rice farmers earn money, the master is also happy and quiet, this model has gradually been popularized.

when the rice enters the warehouse, the busy year will be settled. Rice growers know best that rice is hard to come by, so we were taught from an early age not to waste food. Zhuang people naturally do not know the great truth sung in the poem "pity for farmers", but they will say that if rice is left in the bowl, they will grow pockmarked on their face when they marry a wife, and one grain of rice represents a pockmarked one. I don't marry a wife, but I'm also afraid of pockmarks on my face, so I eat all my food every time. I wish I could lick the rice bowl clean with my tongue.

when I married the south, I was lucky enough to see my mother-in-law grow rice. They did not have to buckle the greenhouse or fine seedlings, but only raised seedlings in a piece of land in the wheat field. With the combined harvester, there is no need to harvest and beat rice by hand. Even if it is convenient, the rice is sold directly as soon as it arrives on the ground, without saving or drying, and the straw is thrown directly to the ground and no one wants it.

it is only rice from the south of the Yangtze River, and it can no longer taste the taste of rice in Northeast China.