Chapter 155: The Benchmark of Naye Village
Throughout April, Deng Shirong was mainly busy with two things:
The first was to build the water wall and the fence at home, and the second was to demolish the old house.
After Deng Shirong built the water wall and the fence, the villagers were envious when they saw it.
After the water wall and the surrounding wall were built, Deng Shirong's house became much more beautiful.
Especially on the water wall and the fence, Deng Shirong also asked someone to build exquisite wooden railings, which made it look even more beautiful.
If the villagers envied Deng Shirong for hiring people to build water walls and fences, then when he hired people to demolish the old house, everyone was confused.
Why tear down this house when it is in good condition? Even if no one lives in it anymore, can't we just keep it as a firewood shed?
Or can't we just keep it and raise chickens and ducks?
Especially those people whose houses are not as good as Deng Shirong's old house, feel even worse. It is like others can't even get enough to eat, but Deng Shirong has to eat leftovers. It is really irritating.
At that time, someone couldn't help but ask: "Jiu Gong, this old house is in good condition, why do you want to tear it down?"
Deng Shirong naturally couldn't say that the old house blocking the new house looked unsightly, so he smiled and replied, "I want to build a grain drying ground right in front of my house."
After hearing Deng Shirong's answer, everyone understood.
In this era, all the rural people were engaged in farming and the importance of the threshing ground was unquestionable. Although the production team already had a large threshing ground, it was still a bit crowded if so many households in the village used it together.
Especially when drying the grain, people have to go to the threshing ground early to grab a spot.
If you can build your own threshing ground, it will be very convenient to dry things.
So, when they knew that Deng Shirong wanted to build a threshing ground at his doorstep, his neighbors couldn't help but feel secretly happy. If this threshing ground was really built, they, the neighbors would also benefit from it.
After the old house was demolished, the new house has a wider view and looks more beautiful and grand.
Deng Shirong also planted red flowers and moonflowers between the water wall and the fence as embellishment, and asked someone to harden the more than acre of vacant land with lime and cement.
By the time I finished all this, it was already May.
Originally, Deng Shirong’s house was the most beautiful house in the countryside at that time. After all these were completed, it became even more beautiful.
Today, Deng Shirong's family has become a benchmark for the entire Naye Village and a goal for all villagers to strive for.
…
At the end of April, people in the entire Shuangwang area began to cut the leaves of the taro tree in preparation for making rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival.
After cutting the langgu leaves, you must first trim off the thorns on both sides, then dry them in the sun. When the leaves become soft, you can roll them into a ball and put them in a pot to cook. The cooked langgu leaves are very tough and not easy to rot. They are better than many other zongzi leaves for wrapping rice dumplings.
Cooked together with the langgu leaves are bamboo strips that have been peeled in advance, which are used to tie the rice dumplings.
On the third day of May, the entire Naye Village begins to busy itself with making rice dumplings, because tomorrow is the Naye Deng family's Dragon Boat Festival.
As we all know, the Dragon Boat Festival is on the fifth day of May, but the Dragon Boat Festival of the Deng family is on the fourth day of May, which can be said to be unique in the country.
The reason for this situation was that during the Republic of China period, a big bandit named Long Sanba appeared in Shuangwang territory.
In 1914, with the support of bandit leader Chong Zongfu, Long Sanba recruited more than 150 hooligans and habitual bandits, bought 45 guns and 5 horses, and started to be a bandit. He traveled from Yulin in the north to Baisha in Hepu in the south, killing people, burning things, robbing property, raping women, and doing all kinds of evil. He was the most influential bandit in the history of Shuangwang.
One year, Long Sanba led 35 bandits to rob and when passing by Naye Village, they saw oxen working and wanted to steal them. However, they were discovered by the village team, who immediately opened fire and killed more than 10 bandits under Long Sanba, forcing him to flee.
As the bandit leader of southern Bobai, Long Sanba could not afford to lose face like this. After returning, he announced that he would come to massacre the people of Naye Village on the Dragon Boat Festival.
When the Deng family of Naye Village heard the news, they panicked and celebrated the festival in advance on the fourth day of May. They quickly packed up their things and ran away.
So, from that time on, the Deng family in Naye has always celebrated the Dragon Boat Festival one day earlier than the rest of the country.
In later generations, every Dragon Boat Festival, the issue of rice dumplings would spark a "salty or sweet dispute" that would spread across the entire Internet. For many years, neither the sweet party nor the salty party could convince the other.
Food is salty in the south and sweet in the north. Guangxi belongs to the south of the south, so its rice dumplings are naturally salty.
Of course, although they are both salty rice dumplings, the taste will vary greatly due to the different ingredients used. Some salty rice dumplings taste extremely good and people can’t stop eating them, while some salty rice dumplings taste extremely bad and you won’t want to take a second bite after the first one.
At this time, Deng Shirong took his eldest daughter and daughter-in-law to make ancient rice dumplings together.
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Zhang Xiuping has been pregnant for more than three months, so she no longer needs to be protected as carefully as before. It won't affect anything if she sits down and wraps some ancient rice dumplings.
In Shuangwang, in addition to glutinous rice and pork, there is another thing that is indispensable for making zongzi, that is what the locals call pig ma lou (蓮麻禪), as shown in the picture below: This leaf is a natural spice with a very special aroma. It is a perfect match for making zongzi and mixed with meat. It tastes so delicious.
When she started making zongzi, Deng Yunzhen looked at the large pot of marinated pork and said while taking a breath: "Dad, you marinated this pork so well. This year's zongzi will definitely taste much better than before."
Zhang Xiuping also nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, the pork is so fragrant even when it is raw. When it is wrapped in ancient zongzi, it will definitely smell delicious."
Deng Shirong smiled as he started wrapping the dumplings: "Actually, the pork is already marinated, and it tastes good if you stew it directly. But if you wrap it in the ancient zongzi, it will taste even better after absorbing the aroma of the pork and glutinous rice."
The three of them were wrapping ancient rice dumplings while chatting.
Deng Yunzhen learned how to make ancient zongzi from her mother when her mother was still alive. In the few years after her mother passed away, she made all the ancient zongzi at home by herself. However, she didn't know much about seasoning, so she asked her neighbors for help.
Therefore, her technique of wrapping ancient rice dumplings was very skillful. She first used langgu leaves to wrap into an 8-like shape, added an appropriate amount of glutinous rice soaked in alkaline water and seasoned at both ends of the 8, then put two slices of pig ash, put a piece of pork in it, then closed it, wrapped it tightly with the remaining langgu leaves, and then tied it with bamboo strips.
In this way, an ancient rice dumpling is wrapped.
Then, Deng Yunzhen picked up a pair of scissors and cut the end of the lang-gu leaves. This was a small mark to distinguish whether the meat in the zongzi was fat or lean.
Because no matter in this era or in the future, there are always people who cannot eat fat. In order not to waste the fat in the ancient rice dumplings, it is natural to mark them so that people who do not eat fat will not take the ancient rice dumplings with fat.
When Zhang Xiuping was at her mother's house, as the only daughter, she was naturally the main force in making ancient rice dumplings, and her skills were no worse than her sister-in-law.
The three of them worked together, and in just over half an hour, they had wrapped all the ancient zongzi! The next step was to cook them in the pot.
Unlike other places where the rice dumplings are only cooked for an hour or so, the ancient rice dumplings in Shuangwang Territory need to be cooked for eight to ten hours. The glutinous rice inside must be cooked until no grains can be seen and all are stuck together. Only then will it taste truly delicious.
(End of this chapter)