Tea in Hometown: Narrative Prose

Tea in my hometown is a common camellia oleifera in Camellia of Theaceae, not a tea tree, nor a tea tree of Camellia. I am old and far from home, and I miss everything at home very much. The tea trees in my hometown even remind me of my deep homesickness.

As long as I can remember, I feel that tea trees grow luxuriantly all year round, standing firmly on the hillside, feeling humble, but so important. There is a lawn under the tea tree, which is so uniform that there is not even an eyesore weed. When I was a child, the biggest task after school was to herd cattle. Friends led the cows to the mountain in droves, found a beautiful grass lawn, and then wrapped the morning glory rope around the horn in a figure of eight. Cattle eat grass and have fun. As long as they don't go far, they can do whatever they want. Cattle farmers are not idle. When we climb trees together, or play hide-and-seek, or tell stories and listen to songs together, we can always find interesting things, such as talking, laughing, jumping and making noise. Laughter is beautiful and pleasant to hear, but it always lingers in people's hearts.

Tea seeds are brewed in winter, baptized in spring and baked in summer, and finally mature in August and September of the lunar calendar in autumn. Mature tea seeds are brown, and people in the mountains never take the initiative to pick them, because if one family picks them, it must be picked by the whole village. If they pick late, some people will pick other people's areas, so once they start picking, they will be in a hurry. There are not many tea trees distributed to households over there, just so-so. On the day of tea picking, adults and children went out one after another, carrying bamboo radish, dung dustpan and bamboo sieve. In a word, all the containers that can hold things have been taken away. Children who can climb trees pick tea seeds from high places. They crawl around like little monkeys, often uncertain. They are very busy, but actually they don't pick many fruits. The old people stood on the ground, quietly picking and watching in a corner. While picking, I have to carry it home, and the heavy physical work is carried home by my parents. Generally, my family may weigh about 65,438+0,000 Jin. In the final analysis, it is very hard to carry 10 tons home, because it is a mountain road and it is very hard to climb up.

Our tea seeds can basically be picked in one day. On this day, adults and children are very busy, even eating in a hurry. As soon as their jobs were thrown away, they immediately went to the mountains. It's almost seven or eight o'clock in the evening after picking, and I'm tired.

After picking tea seeds, if they are exposed to the sun for several days in a row, the thick outer shell will crack, so we children are not allowed to be idle under the urging of adults. Every time we finish our homework, we have to carry a pot of tea seeds on our back, peel off the hard shell outside by hand and leave the small black tea seeds inside (tea actually has two shells, the thick hard shell on the outside and the thin black shell inside). Tea seeds harden after exposure to the sun, and our little hands often get scarred. Adults will also help peel tea seeds when they are free. As a result, the whole family, sitting together, is just a dim lamp, peeling tea seeds and chatting about interesting things, and the little reluctance of the little people is instantly forgotten.

After the peeled tea seeds were exposed to the sun, the moisture was fully dry, and the adults began to arrange to go to the oil mill to fry oil. One thousand catties of tea seeds are peeled off, leaving only about 300 catties. Mom and dad will pick the tea seeds to the processing workshop 4 kilometers away, and the tea seeds will be roasted and fried, and the moisture that has not been dried thoroughly will evaporate. Then use a machine to grind into grains the size of rice grains, make tea seed cakes with straw, stack them one by one, and squeeze them with heavy stones.

The hard work can be imagined. It takes a lot of physical strength to stir-fry tea seeds, grind them and make tea cakes. Moreover, the temperature in the workshop is very high, which is often the day when parents go to extract oil. It is also a long time for us to wait at home. It was dark and we couldn't see our fingers. Only then can I vaguely hear the tired and happy voice of my parents in the distance, saying how much tea oil I have squeezed and how long I can eat it.

Tea oil is light yellow, very pure, clear and transparent, fragrant and pure in taste. It is better than vegetable oil. No need to fry at high temperature before cooking, which is more green and non-irritating. The newborn's red ass is smeared with pure green tea oil, and the oil will be fine.

Now every time I cook and look at the hot oil on the pot, I will think of the tea forest in my hometown, the scene of peeling tea together, and the clear and fragrant smell of tea oil.