Garlic in hometown

Guess a riddle: "Seven or eight brothers are sitting around the pillar. As soon as they are separated, their clothes will tear." "Name a vegetable. Smart. Have you guessed?

Garlic is a specialty of folk music in our hometown. Purple garlic in our hometown is exported to many cities and even abroad because of its high nutritional value and easy preservation. Because garlic has been with me for more than forty years, I am very familiar with it. Kind of garlic is a dirty and tiring chore. Read on and you will understand.

Let's talk about peeling garlic first: every year in late March, mom and dad will gently take off the garlic braid of the previous year from the beam, and our family will begin to prepare for planting garlic. Pull the garlic off the pig's tail one by one, then gently break off the garlic one by one, peel off the garlic layer by layer, and finally carefully put it in a basket or bamboo basket. Don't be too heavy when doing these jobs, or you will hurt these treasures, and planting them in the ground may not necessarily germinate. We four sisters usually help adults peel garlic after finishing their homework. Usually, parents spend the day in kind of garlic in the farmland, and sit at home peeling garlic after dinner at night. There are a lot of dirty things on garlic and garlic braids, so no matter which process is dirty and tired, but every neighbor is as hard as his parents. Because garlic is our main source of income.

Kind of garlic: My parents each took a hoe and dug a small ditch in the field. My brother and sister followed. One person puts the peeled garlic cloves in the soil, with the roots down and perpendicular to the ground, and the other person covers the prepared manure, and each row should be in a straight line, otherwise it will be ugly if it is crooked. Later, I often weed, fertilize and water ... I remember my father often wears a raincoat and rain boots when it rains, braving heavy rain and strong wind to fertilize the fields, holding a fertilizer basin in one hand and sprinkling fertilizer on the fields in the other. It takes my father two or three hours to fertilize a garlic field every time. Every time my father came back from fertilization, his clothes and trousers were wet and his shoes were full of water. Sometimes I advise him to rest at home when it rains instead of going to work, but he comes in rain or shine. He said garlic grows fast and well when it rains. My father is an expert in growing garlic, so the garlic he grows every year is bigger and better than the garlic in his neighbor's house. Look at my garlic field. Green garlic sprouts, like rows of soldiers standing in neat queues, are waiting for the commander to come and inspect at any time. There is not a weed in the field, and the gap between each garlic seedling is clearly visible. As long as you look at it, it's beautiful.

Smoked garlic moss: It is a technical job to smoke garlic moss at the beginning of July in the solar calendar. Only mom and dad can do it well. They smoked garlic moss long and thoroughly, and at a very fast speed. I have tried many times and failed: garlic moss is either too short, or it breaks in the middle, which is really a waste. Picking garlic moss is the most difficult of all garlic planting procedures, and people who have not done it themselves cannot understand it.

Digging garlic: Late August to early September is the harvest season. Our family often carefully digs mature plants out of the ground with a shovel (too much force will hurt the baby), then rubs the soil on the garlic clean, yards it into small bundles, then puts them in the trolley in the dark, transports them home, and then takes them out of the car in bundles and piles them under the eaves. You can't leave it outdoors. If it rains, these babies will get wet.

Braided garlic: After dinner, the whole family is busy again. Divide garlic into three categories according to its size, and then formally start to weave garlic. First, pick up a garlic plant and hammer the garlic stem flat with a wooden hammer. Garlic can't be woven without this process. Braiding garlic is similar to braiding garlic. A garlic braid has about 40 to 45 garlic heads. According to the size of garlic, the price varies. The big one is expensive, and the small one is slightly cheaper. My brothers and sisters and I work until ten o'clock at night, because we are going to school the next day. My parents are always busy until one or two in the middle of the night. It's hard to get up in the middle of the night and see that they are still busy. The next day, when our sisters got up, the yard was neatly filled with last night's garlic braids, all of which were placed upside down in a ventilated place to get some sunshine. My father and mother went to work in the fields very early.

Eat garlic: As the saying goes, "garlic is a treasure, and eating it often is good for your health." Garlic can cure colds. Once our family caught a cold, my mother put garlic on the fire, roasted it a little, and then put it in water with ginger, green onions and brown sugar to cook some soup. Drink it while it's hot, then tuck in and have a good sleep. The cold was completely cured the next day. Sometimes it is useful to eat garlic when you have diarrhea. If you eat noodles with garlic, your stomach will feel much more comfortable in a few hours. Our family seldom takes medicine and injections, thanks to garlic. Boil a pot of potatoes, mash them, and mix with some garlic choked by oil. It tastes delicious and smells delicious. As a child, it is no less than a big meal, and it is also a delicious food that is simple to cook, suitable for all ages and never tires of eating. Sometimes I put a spoonful of garlic in a bowl of cold noodles cooked by my mother, then add some vinegar and stir well. Even if there were no other dishes, our family ate with relish.

Every time I see some ugly and dirty purple garlic in the soil, I think of my parents and neighbors in my hometown. Just like the garlic they planted, it is not glamorous on the surface, but their image of diligence, simplicity and kindness will never be forgotten. I grew up in a poor peasant family. Although I have lived in the city for many years now and have not worked in the farmland for more than ten years, I will never forget the simple folk customs, fresh grass fragrance and fresh air in the countryside. The scene of my parents and our sisters working together in the farmland is still vivid. In this growing environment, our sisters have developed the same personality as their parents: strong and simple, hardworking and kind, diligent and thrifty, practical and serious. This is something that no clever teacher can teach in class, because it is his own personal experience for decades. I thank my parents for setting an example and giving us these excellent qualities, so that I will not be lazy or even degenerate; Let me not shrink back and give up in the face of all kinds of difficulties; I know how to cherish what I have today ... Today is Labor Day, so I want to write something about labor to express my admiration for workers.