Chapter 58: Picking camellias (please recommend and collect)
After the transplanting of the small seedlings in the rice field is completed, the rapeseed in the field has not yet reached the time to harvest, and it should still have to wait for about twenty days. look.
At this time, the tea leaves in the mountains have also reached the best picking time. Spring tea is the best tea leaves picked in the year.
Taking advantage of this free time, many people in the village went up the mountain to pick their own tea leaves.
In the morning, the second aunt and the third aunt made an appointment to come to Zhang An's house.
“Sister-in-law, you can pinch the tea leaves in Baogudi. I went to see them yesterday and there were too many. If I don’t pinch them, I will be old in a few days.”
It turns out to be the second aunt. I came home with my third aunt to ask my mother to go up the mountain to pick tea leaves.
Wang Fang thought for a while, this period of time is the best time to make tea, and it is also a good time to take advantage of it.
So today, when the second aunt and the third aunt called out, Wang Fang also prepared bamboo baskets and bags for tea, and brought enough tea to drink on the mountain. The third aunt talked and laughed and went up the mountain to pick tea. .
The tea in Changqing Village is grown by the family in their own land, not in a centralized tea mountain, so they are picked by themselves every year.
But there are many villages nearby, and their villages have tea hills. They are terraced fields on the mountains without water, and they are filled with large tracts of tea leaves.
Especially in the villages of ethnic minorities.
Whenever they go to pick tea, the mountains are lively.
There are also many Miao and Buyi families in Changqing Village, and they are used to living together with Han people.
But there are still many Miao villages in the mountains, all of which are home to Miao people.
Every spring, their village organizes all the women in the village to go to the mountains to pick tea. In some places, for the sake of publicity, only young girls and women in the village go to pick tea.
In a more prosperous and grand place, the tea-picking girls will be dressed in their own ethnic costumes, which looks great.
And when you are working in the mountains, don’t be surprised when you hear singing. It means someone has an itchy throat or wants to sing.
But when there were many people on the mountain, one person sang it, and some people would pick it up and sing it, and then it evolved into a folk song.
Because this is a traditional custom in their tribe. .
When picking tea, there will be a lot of people on the mountain, so whenever someone speaks, there will be a group of people to answer.
This is still organized by the people themselves, and there are also those villages that specially organize tea picking and change of clothes. Such singing sessions will be even more grand, and the sound can be heard far away on the mountains.
This evolved into singing folk songs for several days every year when picking tea in the mountains.
This is also an intangible heritage culture.
Today Zhang Jianguo was asked to do some work by people in the village early in the morning. Wang Fang went up to the mountain to pick tea leaves, so Zhang An had to cook.
At noon, Zhang An prepared lunch and ate it alone.
I found a boxy aluminum lunch box at home and filled it with a full lunch box.
I went to my second uncle’s and third uncle’s houses and asked if I needed help delivering food up the mountain to my two aunts.
Soon, Zhang An went up the mountain with three aluminum lunch boxes filled with food.
Dahu and Erhu followed Wang Fang up the mountain early in the morning, while Xiaohu was the only one guarding Zhang An at home.
Now Zhang An went out, and it followed behind Zhang An.
Walk up the mountain road from the small river ditch behind the village. When you enter the mountain, you occasionally hear a burst of singing.
You can tell by the sound that the master of this song is still far away.
When Zhang An walked to Baogu Field, his mother and two aunts, although they were in their own fields, were picking fresh tea leaves and chatting about home affairs.
"Mom, second aunt, third aunt, come to eat."
Second aunt and third aunt were still talking in the field, and Zhang An came to deliver food.
The three sisters-in-law found a hayfield to sit down to eat. They did not expect that Zhang An would come to deliver the meal. They originally planned to go home for dinner at one or two o'clock in the afternoon.
Now Zhang An is here to deliver the meal. After the meal, you can continue working.
"Why did Xiao An think of delivering the meal? We were planning to go home to eat together."
"I had nothing to do at home, so I made the meal and delivered it over. It happened that the second uncle came with The third uncle also made it, so I asked and sent it over.”
While the three of them were eating, Zhang An picked up a small bamboo basket and tied it around his waist, and picked tea leaves on the edge of the sill. Who said you have to be a pretty girl to pick tea? Today, I, Zhang An, a young man, have to be a tea picker.
The main reason is that he saw that the tea leaves in the fields have grown too much this year, and it would take several days for Wang Fang to pick them alone.
The tea produced by Zhang An's family is not a good variety, just the green tea that everyone grows locally.
Wumeng Mountain has a high altitude and high terrain, but due to specific climate characteristics, there is abundant rain and clouds and mist in the mountains in spring.
This provides a high-quality growing environment for tea trees.
These farm teas are completely different from those in the tea gardens, although all kinds of famous teas are grown in the tea garden base.
But there is one thing that is why Zhang An likes his own tea the most.
That is, the tea trees planted in the ground by the villagers themselves are not taken care of all year round, let alone spraying pesticides and so on.
Therefore, the tea at home is the cleanest in Zhang An’s heart. In later generations, Zhang An would take some with him every time he went home.
Tea picking in rural areas is done purely by hand. Every time, we pick the new buds that sprout from the tea trees, that is, the tips of the teeth.
Because of this, many tea sellers go from village to village to collect freshly picked tea leaves during this season every year.
In Changqing Village, there are many people who take their families up the mountain to pick tea and sell it to tea dealers.
Zhang An’s hands and feet were brisk and he soon filled a basket.
After getting it from the field and pouring it into his pocket, he continued to pick it.
Picking tea is a very patient thing, and it may take a long time to get a basket.
So this is why tea picking in the mountains is basically done by women at home with their daughters.
In the afternoon it was getting dark, reminding everyone that it was time to go home.
The Zhang An family has already filled their pockets with the addition of Zhang An.
The two aunts’ homes were all half-packed. Zhang An mentioned it and found that each home weighed about ten kilograms.
According to the calculation of five yuan per pound of raw tea, it would cost fifty yuan when sold. This is a lot of income for their family. You must know that the second uncle builds walls for others, and it only costs twenty yuan a day. money.
Going home in the evening, Zhang An opened the bag full of tea leaves, poured out all the tea leaves and spread them out, while taking out an extra ten kilograms of space tea from the space.
When Wang Fang saw it, he was a little surprised at how there were so many. There was obviously only one bag, but so much was poured out.
They were all fooled by the reason that Zhang An pretended to be too suppressed.
Because when he reached into the bag containing the tea leaves, he found that the tea leaves inside were already a little warm.
When you get home, you have to pour it out and spread it out. After a few hours, you have to put it in the pot and start frying it in the evening.
After dinner, I heated up the stove, put the big iron pot at home, and started making tea.
Raw tea needs to be fried in two to three steps. The first step is called finishing, which is the most critical. The fire must be very strong.
Put the fresh tea leaves into the pot and stir-fry the tea leaves constantly in the pot so that each tea leaf comes into contact with the high-temperature bottom of the pot to achieve the greening effect. In fact, it removes a large amount of tea leaves from the tea leaves. Moisture.
After the greening is completed, the second step of frying the greens will begin. At this time, there is no need for high heat, only low heat and slow frying.
Put the finished tea leaves in the pot, then rub them, pound them and repeat the cycle.
At this time, people with good skills can make the tea leaves look beautiful.
Frying tea is a very tiring task. It requires constant stirring and rubbing, and most people may not be able to do it.
Zhang Anwei watched his mother frying tea carefully, and sometimes asked about some details.
It is easy to learn such a craft, and fewer and fewer people will learn it in the future. When the time comes, no one will be willing to teach it.
I have been busy most of the night, and half of the tea leaves at home are not finished, so I can only continue the next day.
The fried tea leaves need to be spread out and spread out to dry, but there is no sunshine these days, so they can only be placed on the floor at home, spread out with an oilcloth and put them on top to dry in the air.
Thanks to Dark Wind 1988 for the 100 coins!
Thank you for the 100 coins that I hate the most when it comes to naming!
Thank you all for your recommendation votes and follow-up reading, thank you very much! ! !
(End of this chapter)