Harvest time combines tradition and modernity
Print Edition
IN summer and autumn, the fields turn into a sea of gold. For thousands of years, generations of farmers in China have cultivated the land, leaving a legacy of farming heritage and rural tradition.
Although many traditions are disappearing today due to the fast-paced urbanization, they are still a vivid picture of hometown and precious memories of people who diligently worked on their land.
The summer harvest usually reminds local people of their childhood days. “When I was a boy, I often collected leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they had been harvested. In summer, barley, wheat, broad beans and rapeseed could be found in the fields,” said one of Jiading’s rural area residents.
On the morning of the harvest season, he recalled his parents giving him a straw hat and a bottle of barley tea and asking him to pick the crops in the fields. “They also told me to pick every single grain up. If the grain is left in the field, it would grow fast into seedlings, which are difficult to remove,” he said.
After picking all the grain in the family’s field, he walked a long way to other fields. “I loved to exchange grain for merchants’ plums and apricots. It gave me a strong sense of satisfaction,” he said.
In Jiading’s rural area in the past, an ox rotated a water wheel to lift water from rivers onto the land for irrigation. An umbrella-shaped shed was built in a quiet and peaceful environment by the riverside to house the water wheel. The material for building the water wheel was the bamboo harvested from local people’s yards.
In summer, villagers ran into the shed after lunch to find a cool retreat from the heat and to take a nap. In the shed, the wind blowing from the riverside was cool and refreshing. On summer nights, people would sit in the shed laughing, joking and enjoying the peaceful moment.
People working in the fields often encountered sudden thunderstorms and they would run into the shed to take the shelter from the rain.
At that time, the shed was a popular place for recreation and relaxation. Since water pumps were installed in villages in the 1950s, however, ox-driven water wheels are now a thing of the past.
In the past, farmers had traditional production methods and lifestyles.
Almost every rural family in Jia-
ding grew bamboo in their yard. The bamboo was used to make a wide range of everyday utensils and farm implements, and was woven into hedges.
The bamboo shoots were a seasonal delicacy with their crispy texture and savory taste. People used fresh bamboo shoots in stir-fried dishes and soups. With the arrival of spring, the young shoots emerged from the ground and local people would bring digging tools and baskets to harvest them.
White garlic, a major product in Jiading, is popular both in domestic market and overseas market because of its large bulb, fat cloves, pure white color, strong spicy flavor and crispy and tender texture. It is also easy to preserve.
The garlic was usually planted in September and harvested at the end of May and early June. After the bulbs were dug up, they were put in a warm spot to dry. Then people removed the soil, cut off the dried leaves, plaited the stalks and hung the braided garlic under the eaves so the bulbs could continue to dry in the air. After the Great Heat (the 12th solar term), people cut off the stalks and roots for sale.
Almost all the rural families in Jiading made pickled Chinese cabbage or potherb mustard to preserve these vegetables when winter came. After people harvested the cabbages, they dried and separated the leaves and then layered them with salt in a large jar. Finally, they put a large stone on the layers. The pickling usually took 10 or 20 days before the produce was ready to eat.
During Qingming and Grain Rain (the 6th solar term) every year, boats sailed out of Liuhe River Port to bring back fresh seafood. Rural people from Jiading came to the port and bought a large quantity of yellow croakers. They ate some of those fish and dried the rest with salt. At that time, dried salted croaker fish was a popular in home cooking in north Jiading.
Wheat and rice are the two major traditional food crops in Jiading. As the harvest season came, all the villagers were busy taking part in the harvest. They shared the work of cutting the straw, threshing the crops and bagging the grain. In the past, farmers in Jiading would beat the straw on a leaning board called daochuang to separate the grains.
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