Longan Memory-Taste of Hometown

? It’s the longan picking season! My hometown brought me a lot of longans grown in the garden. Sitting quietly at the table, I skillfully peeled the delicious longans and ate them into my mouth one by one, which was so sweet to my heart. But for some reason, my eyes became moist as I ate. When I thought of my 67-year-old father braving the hot weather and climbing up the tree to pick longans for us, I felt an indescribable sourness in my heart.

? Yes! My old father has been an expert at climbing trees since he was a child. I heard that he once climbed up a very tall tree, and then accidentally fell from the tree and fainted. He was rushed to the hospital by his family. I went to the hospital for emergency treatment, but fortunately it was nothing serious. Listening to this made people break into cold sweats, but my father spoke a little complacently. He was already in his twilight years, but he still looked like a young man when he came back, which made us younger generations happy. We hope that he will always maintain this optimistic attitude.

? Longan gives us too many memories.

? I grew up with longan in my childhood. I remember when I was a child, every family started planting longan trees. Villagers with the foresight even planted longan trees early and grafted them into optimized longan trees. When the longan harvest season comes, ask people to pick it, dry it in the sun, and peel the longan flesh to sell. There was no longan tree in my home at that time. During the harvest season, I could only look at other people's trees with lots of fruits, and my mouth would salivate.

? Peeling longan flesh is a patient job, but not difficult. So, my brother and I went to help others peel longan meat. On a hot summer day, everyone sat around in the garden of the main house. Everyone took a bench and sat down. In twos and threes, they occupied a dustpan and began to peel the longan flesh. There were no electric fans at that time, so just hoping for a gentle breeze would be a great coolness. Even so, the garden is still very lively. Some talkative people will chatter non-stop, some will tell jokes, some will sing folk songs, etc. It only costs more than 10 cents to peel a pound of longan flesh, but everyone still can't peel it. What a joy!

? The host said that when peeling longan, you are not allowed to eat longan secretly, and you are not allowed to spit, etc., but the host family can't control so much. At that time, there were no snacks at home, so longan was eaten secretly like honey. Meat is our favorite!

? I remember that there was a girl in the village who was much older than us. She had a fever that was not treated in time when she was a child, which burned out her brain. She looked a little mentally retarded, stuttered, and drooled from time to time. You can hear her making a "whoosh, whoosh" sound. Whenever it was time to peel longan flesh, her mother would ask her to come over and peel the longan flesh to earn some pocket money. Maybe it was out of kindness, but the owner never refused. So it’s hard to say whether there is saliva in the longan meat. Anyway, the owner sells it to people in the city. That was around 1988! Money was so valuable back then!

? After waiting for many years, my longan tree did not bear fruit. Later I found out that my longan tree happened to be planted next to a lush bamboo forest, and the sunlight was blocked by the bamboo forest. There was no longan tree with enough sunshine. It can only grow upwards with all its strength. It grows tall and thin, with sparse branches and leaves, and few fruits.

? We moved into our new home in the fourth grade of primary school. At that time, there was a cute girl named Zhenzhen from the neighboring village who played very well with me. Her longan tree also grew well. Every time there was a good harvest, During the season, I will take the initiative to help pick longans, so that I can have a longan feast again.

? I remember there was a great harvest. Zhenzhen’s family had a three- or four-story longan tree. The longan at the end of the branch was really difficult to pick. No one dared to go up to the last branch. I volunteered. With several years of tree climbing experience, coupled with my dexterity and small body, I stood firmly on the branch and picked off the strings of longans. At that time, I felt like I had conquered this old longan tree, which was a bit awesome! Now that I think about it, I admire myself a little, haha!

Since I moved into my new home, many fruit trees have been planted in the spacious garden, including mango trees, yellow bark trees, grape trees, and of course longan trees. This time, my father also learned the grafting technique and grafted optimized longan on Longan Laozhuang.

? To this day, this longan tree is still the main force in harvesting longan in my family, and it carries many of our childhood memories. We played under the longan tree, enjoyed the shade, and got burned by the peeing bugs on the tree. We climbed to the top of the tree to watch the sunset, the smoke from the neighboring village houses, and the lovely Zhenzhen.

? My diligent grandfather worked in Guangzhou for decades and was one of the generation who contributed to the construction of gardens in Guangzhou. As he approached his twilight years, he took his grandmother back to his hometown.

? Growing up in the countryside, I always liked to be close to my amiable grandma. When grandma came back from a prosperous big city, she had nice clothes and nice shoes. I always felt that she was different from other old people in the village. In particular, she likes to wear stockings and leather shoes, which makes me feel particularly decent. These dressing methods seem to be only seen on TV. How can an elderly person in the countryside afford such genuine leather shoes? It would be nice for rural people who "face the loess and back to the sky" all day long to wear a pair of new cloth shoes or plastic sandals. At that time, I really envied my grandma.

? The kind-hearted grandma once lost a leg in order to help others. She walked with a limp. When it rained and the weather changed, she was in great pain. She often had to take painkillers to feel better. But grandma is very hard-working. Whenever there is farm work at home, she tries her best to help. She can’t go to the fields, so she cleans up the house. When the peanuts or soybeans are harvested, she helps peel the peanuts or soybeans; when the rice harvests come, she helps dry the rice and harvest the rice; when the longan harvest comes, she helps peel the longan meat.

As the sun sets and the clouds fade, the scene of the kind grandma sitting on a wicker chair and peeling longan flesh under the lush longan tree is still vivid in my mind. When I grew up, I realized that those genuine leather shoes were my grandma’s only pair of good shoes and were given by my grandpa.

After I graduated from college, my parents moved to the city, and my parents occasionally went back to their hometown in the countryside to clean the old garden. I heard from my parents that the longan tree needs to be fertilized once a year, especially after a good harvest, so that the longan tree will grow well next year.

? Sometimes during the summer vacation, we would go back to our hometown from Shenzhen to pick longans. My father and brother put on old clothes and went to the tree to pick longans. My mother went into the house to get a basket and picked longans from low under the tree. We sat there. Pluck the extra leaves from the longan branches under the tree, play with the naughty children, etc.

? Looking at the old house that has been left unoccupied for a long time and becomes more and more dilapidated, and my parents’ hair turning gray, I just sigh that the years are passing by and time flies like an arrow! Only the longan tree is still strong and full of fruits, which is a comfort.

? It is said that the longan tree has strong vitality and can live for dozens or even hundreds of years. I really hope that this longan tree can live as long as the more than 400-year-old longan tree in Baoshuan, Fujian, because it is not only The basis of our beautiful memories is also the food and oil that maintains the relationship between the entire family. During the harvest season, everyone will gather at my house to pick longans together. After working for a long time, everyone went home happily carrying baskets full of longan. It was called "Happiness"!