小小豆情
It’s very cold outside today, and it’s raining lightly. I huddled in the corner of the kang by myself, still feeling very cold even though I was covered with a quilt, and the cold air whizzed into my clothes. At noon, I felt hungry and thought about what I should eat. I don’t like fish or meat very much, and besides, my family is not at home so I can’t cook it. After thinking about it, I thought of potatoes. Wouldn't it be nice to stick a few slices of potatoes on them, which would be oil-free, easy to eat, and save trouble?
Speaking of little potatoes, my deepest memory of them started when I was eight years old.
was still a production team at that time. Around August 15th, it is a good time to harvest potatoes. Everyone went to the fields to wait for the team leader to divide the ridges. The production team was responsible for picking up, delivering, and picking up the crops themselves.
In my impression, since I was eight years old, on the morning of the potato harvest day, everyone was waiting next to the potato field early to divide the ridges. There was thick white frost on the ground, and the man with few clothes was jumping around with his hands in his arms. Unable to resist, someone picked up dry materials and made a fire to warm their hands.
Our school was on holiday that day, and the whole family went out to pick out all the potatoes from the soil.
There are not many ridges, so there were so many of us that we picked them up in a short time. By the time it was our turn to deliver them to my house, it was already past one in the afternoon.
After unloading the car, my mother quickly washed the smallest pot of potatoes, washed it several times, put water in the pot, made a pot of potatoes and steamed it and a small pot of millet porridge. By the time we put all the potatoes in the cellar, because there were too few and we couldn't even cover the bottom of the cellar tightly, the potatoes in the pot were already cooked.
Mom scooped up a ladle of cold water, wet her hands, then reached into the steaming pot to pick out the potatoes with blooming and split petals and served them to the table. The whole family sits around, you grab one, and I grab one and eat it.
They say potatoes in autumn are particularly delicious, and it’s true. You peel off the skin of the potatoes, or break them in half and squeeze them into a bowl, then smash them with chopsticks, add Northeastern farm sauce, green onions, autumn coriander, and wrap them in a cabbage leaf. A few potato buns are enough. Your hungry stomach. A child can eat two bowls and still be able to survive, because potatoes are easy to digest and will not cause hunger.
From now on, the food in autumn will basically be potatoes, big grains , and millet porridge. Small potatoes are both vegetables and rice.
dropped out of school when he was 16 years old and joined agricultural production. At that time, the output was distributed to each household. My brother and I planted a lot of land, and we planted almost as many potatoes as the production team at that time. My parents exchanged small potatoes for vermicelli, white vermicelli, and black vermicelli. While we were busy playing, we started to enjoy delicious steamed dumplings with pickled cabbage fillings, bean buns with noodles, and noodle soup for lunch. Whenever our stomach started to protest due to heavy physical labor, my mother would wear an apron and push open the door, stand at the door and shout: "It's time to eat, it's time to eat."
We jumped for joy and quickly put down the work we were doing, entered the warm room, and enjoyed our mother's craftsmanship together. The black ones are shiny and the white ones are transparent, so beautiful and delicious. After a short period of enjoyment, we had to quickly put on our hats and scarves, go to the yard with hands stuffy and red heads and swollen faces, and follow the big yellow horse to turn around and start. Although I am very tired, my heart is beautiful. With a good harvest, our family will be able to prosper.
Winter is here and the time for two meals has begun. There is already a world of silvery white ice and snow outside. To keep out the cold, every house has a stove or brazier.
Grandma’s house has a brazier made of horse dung mud. The two shaped ears are very beautiful. After dinner every morning, grandma would take out the blazing charcoal fire in the stove and put it into the brazier, and put it on the kang for easy heating. It was also easier for us to go to her house to play. When we were hungry, she would cook potatoes or something for everyone to satisfy our hunger. Because there are so many children, if there are not ten or eight children each time, there will not be enough points.
The potatoes cooked by grandma are particularly delicious, dry, floury, and soft. Peel off the outer potato skin, revealing a layer of golden crunch, which looks very appetizing. Every time grandma would lovingly laugh at our greedy looks as we anxiously watched the steam coming out of the brazier.
Sometimes while lying in bed, my father would use the fire to give us baked potatoes to satisfy our hunger and resist the severe cold in the Northeast.
As I wrote, I seemed to see my grandma’s kind face and the warm and exquisite clay brazier, and even more so, I remembered that my potatoes were already ripe.
