《Prose》Tu Zao
[Prose] Earth Stove
Author: The future is long
In June in the south of the Yangtze River, the fields were dyed golden by the seasons, and waves of wheat surged under the blue sky. , all the way to the distance where heaven and earth connect, the villages surrounded by woods sit like green islands deep in the waves of wheat. Accompanied by the crowing of roosters, the housewives raised the smoke from their kitchens and hung their washed summer clothes one by one on the nylon ropes under the eaves; the men rolled up their high trousers, and the two on their shoulders were brushed with tung oil. The bright wooden bucket, with vigorous steps, carries water back from the water bed to fill the water tank next to the stove; the girl rolls up her sleeves, "squeaking" the grass, preparing food for the pigs, the guillotine in the morning mist Shining brightly; the boy stepped on the dew and faced the morning glow, leading the cow to the field ridge and watching it nibbling grass with relish, filling the belly under its back, and smiling on his face.
This was a common scene in the countryside in the past. It is a colorful picture of farming civilization, showing the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and revealing the tranquility of rural life.
Food is the most important thing for the people. In the past, country people used stoves and burned grass for cooking. Their kitchens had to be big. No matter how poor they were, they had a spacious kitchen. The chimneys of every house stood high on the roof, puffing out smoke and carrying the aroma of straw and tar. The fire in the stove is vigorous, big and bright. With the rhythm of the bellows, the light and dark alternately illuminate the kitchen. When the rice is cooked and the vegetables are stir-fried, when the lid of the pot is opened, a thick steam rises, whetting appetite in the heart. The food may not be sumptuous, but it is full of the warm taste of home.
The earthen stove carries the country people's yearning for a better life. Building the stove has a sense of ritual, second only to the "beaming" of building a house. Before starting construction, the owner has to ask someone to do a feng shui inspection to determine the orientation of the earthen stove. It is said that if feng shui is followed, the family will be prosperous. In order for the master bricklayer to do a good job, the master treated him with respect and courtesy. The main building material of the stove is bricks. First, lay out the foundation of the stove on the ground, and then build it up along the laid out gray line, leaving a cavity for the stove. The walls of the stove were cemented with clay mixed with lime, supporting two large black pots. An aluminum soup can is also installed in the arc-shaped gap along the edge of the pot. In this way, while cooking rice and cooking, the water in the soup can is also heated, and can be used to wash dishes and face, which is very convenient. In the middle of the two stove mouths of the earthen stove, a square hole was specially opened for placing matches, making it within easy reach when lighting a fire. The stove top was pressed tightly with lime mud, and the white stove looked very clean in the dark room. Build a channel above the bore, all the way to the roof, so that the burning smoke can be discharged outside the house. But on days when the air pressure is low, the situation will be very bad. The smoke cannot rise and is squeezed in the stove. It comes out from the mouth and permeates every corner of the kitchen, irritating people's eyes and making them shed tears. Over the years, the beams and walls were smoked black.
Lighting a fire for the first time after a new stove is completed is very particular. You need to choose an auspicious day to cook a bowl of braised chicken. Because chicken has the same sound as "auspicious", one is to celebrate, and the other is to make a bowl of braised chicken. Chicken blood is sprinkled around a wood stove and is said to ward off evil spirits. After the meal is served, the family cannot use chopsticks. They must place good wine and food in front of the stove, light candles and burn incense to worship the Stove Lord Bodhisattva. Go to the door and invite the master bricklayer to have a meal with him, let him sit at the top of the Eight Immortals Table, first hand him a red envelope to express his gratitude, and then exchange cups with him until both the host and the guest are drunk and staggering. Willing to give up.
On every first day and half of the lunar month, country people light incense and candles to worship the Kitchen God. Legend has it that the Kitchen Lord is a Bodhisattva sent to the mortal world by God. He squats on the stove every day and monitors the family's candles. On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, everyone sends the Kitchen Lord to ascend to heaven. In the evening, every family cooks fish and meat, and puts good wine and food on the table. The male host dusted off the dust on his body, straightened his clothes, looked solemn, and bowed to the portrait of the Kitchen Lord, and the whole family followed him. After paying homage, the statue of the Stove King was taken down from the stove and placed in a stove sedan chair. There is also a pair of couplets posted on both sides of the stove sedan. The upper couplet is "Ascending to heaven to perform good deeds" and the second couplet is "Landing to the ground to ensure peace."
Housewives are generally responsible for cooking in farmhouses. They wear aprons and are busy around the stove, making the sound of washing pots, scooping water, and cutting. The "squeaking" sound of the dishes, the "ding" sound of the pots and pans hitting each other, and the "crackling" sound of the oil exploding are like a melodious piece of music surging in the kitchen. The children sat on the low stools at the stove, circling the straw handles and stuffing them into the stove, while reading comics by the light of the fire. The red flames licked the bottom of the pot enthusiastically, reflecting the glowing red faces of the children. Sometimes when they were burning bamboo poles, there was a sudden "bang" explosion, which frightened them so much that they dropped the books in their hands.
Children also make homemade snacks when they cook the stove. They bury the potato in the fire of the stove and roast it. After a while, they use tongs to pick it out and pinch it. If the potato is soft, it means it is ripe. The hot potato jumped in their hands. They blew away the smoke and dust on the surface of the potato and gently broke it open with their hands. Steam came out from inside, and a sweet fragrance hit their nostrils. They couldn't help but quickly stuffed it into their mouths, often getting burned. I had to stick out my tongue, and the remaining cigarette ash stained my lips and chin, making me look like a little devil. Sometimes they also put soybeans, peas, corn, peanuts, etc. into the stove to roast them, and while gathering firewood to light the fire, they roast them with relish, which makes their mouth full of fragrance.
Every year after the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, every household is busy steaming steamed buns. The night before, the housewife mixes the wheat flour with warm water, and then the man mixes in the yeast slurry, and then kneads the dough vigorously to disperse the yeast evenly. Add the right amount of yeast slurry. If you add too much, it will rise before you can put it on the steamer; if it is too little, the buns will still be dead by the time you steam them. The next morning, the housewife put a circle of straw on the edge of the pot so that the steamer could rest firmly on it, and then boiled the water. Firewood is usually made from bean stalks or branches, which have high fuel value and strong firepower. After a while, the kitchen was filled with water vapor, making it so hazy that people's faces could not be seen clearly. About half an hour later, the steamed buns came out of the cage. The steamed buns steamed at just the right temperature are like a young woman's breasts, swollen, elastic to the touch, and delicious. After steaming the steamed buns, while the residual heat in the stove is still there, I put the bathtub, set up the bath tent, wash off the old dirt on my body, and welcome another new year.
Whenever the New Year is approaching, the sausages and bacon made by housewives are hung all over the kitchen walls, black and yellow, exuding an attractive luster. When the children were cooking, they couldn't help it, so they secretly cut off a small piece and roasted it in the stove. The smell was more fragrant than the barbecue on the streets of the city today. In order not to be discovered by their mother, they turned the cut piece of meat around and tried to cover up the new incision. This kind of little trick is just self-deception. How can you hide it from your dazzling mother? They also wanted the little gluttons to replenish their long-deficient stomachs, but they just pretended not to know.
If the iron pot is burned for a long time, a thick layer of dust will form on the bottom. The heat capacity will increase and the heat insulation effect will be strong. The cooked rice will be particularly fragrant, but the firewood will not be effective. To use the soil, you need to lift the pot and place it on the ground, and use a small shovel to shovel away the smoke. After a sound of shoveling ashes, the bottom of the pot showed the unique light of iron, and a circle of smoke fell from the edge of the pot. This kind of tobacco soil is rich in potassium and can be collected into cellar fertilizer for leeks and loofah. Pot ashes also have a hemostatic effect. If a person hurts his hand with a sickle, apply fresh pot ashes on the wound and wrap it with a handkerchief. It will heal within a week.
The smoke in the countryside forms different scenes as the weather conditions change. In the morning, the air pressure is generally high, the meteorological conditions are unstable, and the air convection is strong. As soon as the smoke from the chimney comes out, it is blown away by the morning breeze and soon falls like a thin curtain. The weather conditions were very stable at noon. The smoke rising from the cooking stoves rose into the sky in a columnar shape, looking majestic and majestic, as if leading to the other side of the sky. It reminded people of the poem "The solitary smoke is straight in the desert." In the evening, the smoke looks very tender. It crawls out of the chimney and lingers on the roof, seeming to call people to go home. Finally, it merges with the night, and the whole countryside is enveloped in a hazy artistic conception. . After a hard day's work, some of the villagers carried buckets, some carried hoes, and some carried grass on their backs. They faced the rising moon and smelled the smell of cooking smoke before finishing their work and returning home.
With the improvement of rural living standards, most households in Jiangnan now use liquefied gas, and economically developed areas are also connected to pipeline natural gas. When you press the electronic button on the liquefied gas stove, you can hear With a "pop" sound, a circle of blue flames appeared on the nozzle. The rotating air valve can easily adjust the size of the flame. It is very convenient for cooking. Villagers no longer need to use crop straw to burn stoves. Every summer and autumn harvest season, farmers are worried about the future of crop straw. In some places, burning straw in the open causes air pollution, which is serious and even endangers the takeoff and landing of aircraft. How to solve this problem is testing people's wisdom.
From earth stoves to gas stoves, to natural gas stoves, from large iron pots to rice cookers and induction cookers, these achievements of modern civilization have made our lives more convenient and comfortable. However, we cannot revel in our victories over nature, because for every such victory, nature almost gets its revenge on us. Every victory achieved the results we expected in the first step, but in the second and third steps, it had completely different effects that were beyond our expectations, often canceling the results of the first step.
Without technology, nothing is impossible, but technology is not omnipotent. Technology that conforms to nature and saves resources is what we need most.
(Written on the 49th World Environment Day)