People only know kudzu, but they don't know kudzu.

In fact, according to strict speaking, 'Pueraria lobata' is the name of traditional Chinese medicine, and Gemamu is the name of the plant. Ge Mamu, also known as wild kudzu.

It belongs to the genus Pueraria in the legume family, a perennial vine, which crawls in mountain ravines all year round or clings to the treetops of dense forests.

Its leaves are broad, fat, and full of life.

Sometimes, mountain people like to pluck its broad leaves and roll them into a funnel shape to scoop water from mountain streams to drink.

Sometimes, mountain people also like to use its large leaves to hold small wild fruits that are common in the mountains. A large leaf can wrap a lot of small wild fruits, and then take them home to coax children.

In addition to its wide leaves, its vines are also very strong, powerful and singuing.

In winter, the other regions lose their leaves, leaving only bare vines. However, in the local area, Ge Mamu also sheds leaves, but not much, only symbolically, and most of the others still grow on vines.

It is not until the new leaves grow alternately that these old leaves have no place for them, and they will reluctantly leave the vine.

In the past, when life was difficult, the mountain people still loved to dig Ge Mamu. It was only later, with the gradual improvement of life, that they became disdainful of these commonplace 'mundane things' all over the mountains.

They obviously prefer chicken, duck and fish meat to the common ones such as chickens, ducks and fish, especially all kinds of local aquatic products, such as large fish, shrimp and shellfish.

When it comes to the New Year's holiday, if there are fish, shrimp and shells on the table, it will definitely be very face-saving.

However, if you put on a river discontinuity, a faint chicken head, and a gem mamu, it will only become synonymous with 'stinginess'.

Who made you reluctant to buy meat to entertain people?

Of course, this kind of thinking of valuing meat over vegetables is not people's nature, but only a sequelae left over from history.

If you hadn't experienced the great famine, and if you hadn't experienced the hard years of not seeing a little meat for a few months, I think the mountain people would have loved these mountain vegetables.

However, this is not the case in history, in the past, mountain people have experienced not only famine, but also taxes that almost crushed a family. After planting the land and paying the grain tax, the family will have a situation of green and yellow, and you must buy grain to survive.

You have pigs, but you can't sell them for half a penny, because you have two pigs, and one pig has to be handed over to the government before you can kill the other pig.

Excluding the piglet's money and labor, how can that pig make up for the cost of two pigs?

Now that the taxes are gone, the poverty that remains in the hearts of the mountain people still controls their minds like demons.

They love meat, they want to eat meat, they think, what a luxury meat is, how can it be compared to mountain vegetables?

Therefore, don't laugh at them for loving meat, but they don't know how to cherish the wild vegetables in the mountains that are extremely precious and rare to the people in the city today. It's not that they don't understand, it's just that in the past very difficult years, they were scared, tired of eating, and resistant.

If it weren't for the fact that bamboo shoots and yams could be sold for money, they might not have taken care of these things.

Of course, this is just the thinking of the older generation, for juniors like Liu Qingshan who have seen the neon of the city, as well as simple-minded people like Liu Erliang and Tan Dasha, they will still like wild vegetables.

Ge Mamu gathers and lives, as long as he finds a place, he digs a large area.

Although Ge Mamu is usually visible, if you can't find a trick to dig it, you can only dig up some small kudzu.

To dig the kudzu root, you have to find the root along the vine, and the thicker the stem, the larger its root will be. Some kudzu roots grow on flat ground, and they don't waste their strength when they dig up. But if you encounter the roots drilling into the soil, it will take a lot of effort to dig and mine. However, this is not a matter for Liu Qingshan.

After digging the kudzu and returning home, the matter is not over, and the soil on the kudzu root has to be cleaned.

Cleaning kudzu is quite laborious.

The large and small basins at home are lined up, and the kudzu is thrown into it to soak in the water, and then everyone moves a small bench, sits on the edge of the basin, and then brings the loofah, washing brush, shoe brush and other cleaning utensils, and washes the kudzu with the water in the basin.

After the kudzu is washed, you have to use a knife to remove the roots or tangerine peel from the kudzu.

Cleaned kudzu roots reveal a brownish-yellow skin similar in color to the skin tones of mountain people.

In the past, mountain people could tell how much starch they contained just by the color of their skin. It is said that the light yellow kudzu contains more starch, while the black-brown kudzu contains less starch.

In general, kudzu with a thin arm is the most standard. In the past, when the grain had to be handed over and the family was not green, the mountain people washed the kudzu root, cut it into small pieces with a knife, and then put it in a steamer to steam it and eat it in their hands.

Liu Qingshan looked at the many washed kudzu roots, and couldn't help but say, "Otherwise, let's also steam a little kudzu and eat it." ”

As soon as this proposal came out, it made the four middle-aged people in their forties quite emotional.

Wu Cuimei was the first to speak in support of her son: "Okay, I haven't eaten steamed kudzu for a long time, and I really want to eat it." ”

"No problem. The second uncle also said, "I didn't eat steamed kudzu when I was a child, but now I haven't eaten it for many years, and I'm almost forgetting what it tastes like." ”

Liu Qingshan's memories of eating kudzu are very few, and he can hardly remember the taste.

I just remember when I was a child, my mother steamed kudzu, and only gave him a little bit, and the remaining large plate was hung high in the bamboo basket under the wooden plank.

When Grandpa and Dad came back from work, Mom brought the kudzu that was still slightly hot to the table for the two gentlemen to eat. Every now and then, his mother would forcibly take him away from the table, either to the vegetable garden or to the neighbor's house.

Later, when Liu Qingshan grew up, he realized that the reason why he didn't eat kudzu was because he was still young and didn't need to work, so he could eat some white porridge to fill his stomach. But the gentlemen in the family do hard work, and if there is no nutritional supplement, it will never work.

Speaking of steamed kudzu, everyone's interest is very high.

Liu Qingshan is responsible for making kudzu chicken soup, and the second uncle and Dasha uncle are responsible for steaming kudzu. My mother was in charge of making a pre-dinner oil tea.

Liu Yuanhe was sent to choose green vegetables and green onions and coriander, and he was quite unhappy.

"My feet hurt. He sat on the stone threshold at the door of the hall and howled, "Can't you make it yourself? ”

Wu Cuimei looked out of the small door next to the patio and said, "I asked you to choose green vegetables, but I didn't want you to choose them with your feet, what does it have to do with whether your feet hurt or not? Also, if you don't eat coriander, you won't choose it? Then I have been brewing you for so long medicinal soup, do I have to take a sip?"

In a word, Liu Yuanhe had nothing to say, so he could only work obediently.