For old Qingdao people, storing Chinese cabbage in winter is an unforgettable memory. At that time, every winter, the whole family, old and young, started to get busy preparing to store Chinese cabbage for the winter. In Zhongjiawa's yard, every household has purchased and stored piles of Chinese cabbage in advance, which is like a special "landscape". In the era of planned economy, buying vegetables, drying vegetables, and storing vegetables were indeed like a busy and orderly custom painting. Nowadays, with the development of the times and the improvement of residents' living standards, the once "home-made dishes" have become "common dishes", but those bitter but warm precious times will remain in people's memories for a long time.
In that era, there were no vegetable greenhouses. Cabbage was only produced in winter, and there were very few vegetables available in vegetable stores. The main protagonists every winter were cabbage and radishes. Therefore, storing Chinese cabbage in winter was a "big deal" for every household in the past. In that era of material scarcity, those ordinary cabbages were what people in this city thought about all winter long.
The scene of buying Chinese cabbage at that time can be described as spectacular. The supply point for zoning in my house was the "vegetable market" under the current Ningxia Road Bridge. The bridge had not yet been built at that time. From the "vegetable market" to the "small bridge" under the bridge, there were many shops and it was still very lively. When buying Chinese cabbage, early in the morning, the Chinese cabbage will be lined up at the entrance of the "vegetable market". There are several large scales next to the cabbage. Everyone will consciously and quickly line up in a long line in front of the scale, everyone has a piece of it in their hands. Take the food book.
At that time, cabbage cost two cents a pound, and many families would go out with the whole family. Those who pushed bicycles, pulled steel bell carts, and those who had the conditions would pull carts to buy cabbage in sacks. Because we usually can’t finish pulling the baby at one time, the children will be left watching the cabbage while the adults go home again and again. In my house, I am usually left watching the cabbage while my father and brother run back and forth.
Storing Chinese cabbage in winter does not end with just bringing the cabbage home. Suning, placing and pouring are all indispensable. Everything is a "technical job". When drying vegetables, pay attention to gathering them at night and spreading them out in the morning. When the outside of the cabbage is wilted in the sun, remove the yellow and rotten leaves, and then tie it with a rope to prevent the cabbage from falling off. Then put the roots of the vegetables facing inward and place them neatly one by one against the wall. After the first layer is stacked, put two thin wooden strips on the vegetables, and then stack the second and third layers so that the stack of cabbage can be breathable. Finally, use old quilts and old blankets to wrap the vegetable pile tightly. When there is sunshine during the day, take out the cabbage one by one by the root. If you find any cabbage that is bad, take it out and eat it first.
We usually use stools or ladders to carry cabbages to the roof, place them under the sun to bask in the sun, and then quickly pound them back one by one before sunset. Storing Chinese cabbage in this way can basically catch up with next year's spring vegetables . The rotten and yellow leaves removed at that time cannot be thrown away. They will be minced and fed to chickens and rabbits, and they will not be wasted at all.
In the winter of those years, I ate cabbage every day, one head of cabbage, stir-fried, boiled, mixed, and tossed over and over again. When I got tired of eating, there was nothing I could do, because there was nothing to replace it. At that time, I tried to find ways to change it every day. Processing cabbage in various ways is also a worry for my mother. Then there is the lack of "oil and water". Cabbage lacking pork oil and water is indeed not delicious, but pork is also supplied by ticket. At that time, you could only eat dumplings stuffed with cabbage and pork during the holidays. It would be even more beautiful if you could also have a plate of cabbage heart mixed with jellyfish skin.
Storing Chinese cabbage for the winter has been a winter ritual for us for a long time. Great changes have taken place. As the variety of winter vegetables available has gradually increased, the once grand occasion of whole family mobilization to buy and store Chinese cabbage gradually began to fade in the mid-to-late 1980s. From then on, it is rarely seen. Some people will store cabbage on a large scale like they did before.
Chinese cabbage purchase tickets that still existed in the 1990s
Finally, I borrowed three old photos of the Chinese cabbage supply in Qingdao’s winter storage in the 1980s collected by Mr. Pang Shucai, a collector from Daocheng, to reminisce about those unforgettable years... …
Time flies, and the years fly by. Scenes that were once inseparable for ordinary people's lives have long since disappeared one after another. Cabbage stored in winter, coal and firewood, flour, cloth... Every disappearance will always return in one or more contemporary ways. Chinese cabbage stored in winter is no longer a must-have for thousands of households in winter, but the past events of those years are deeply engraved in the unforgettable memories of several generations.
