However, although the skill of gardenia dyeing fabric has degraded in the human world, its ability to be used as a medicinal herb has not diminished at all.

Every autumn and winter, the gardenia fruit is harvested when it is ripe and red and yellow, and after removing the fruit stalk and impurities from the home, it is put into the pot to steam or put it in boiling water to blanch the leaves slightly, and then take out the gardenia to dry, and it can be stored as a medicinal material for a long time.

In the summer and autumn of each year, you can dig the roots of gardenias, wash the soil stains and dry them, and then use them as medicine.

Gardenia has a bitter and cold taste. Return to the heart, lungs, and three focal meridians.

The fruit can relieve fire and trouble, clear heat and diuretic, cool blood and detoxify. Oral administration is generally used for fever and upset, jaundice, red urine, bloody drenching and astringent pain, blood heat vomiting, eye redness, swelling and pain, fire poison sores and ulcers. External treatment is mostly used for sprains.

The root of gardenia has similar medicinal effects to the fruit, which can relieve fire and detoxify, clear away heat and dampness, cool blood and disperse stasis. However, it is mostly used for infectious hepatitis, bruises, wind and fire toothache.

Liu Qingshan walked into the mountains, relying on his understanding of the mountains and forests, and soon found a gardenia tree with red and yellow fruits hanging in the native bushes not very far from his home.

It's winter now, and thanks to the warm climate, these small red and yellow wild fruits are able to flutter on the branches.

At this time, the hour is still early, the mountain breeze is blowing, the flowing spring is murmuring, and the bees and butterflies are fluttering.

Yes, bees!

It's already winter, but because the sun is shining on the earth, the temperature has risen, and you can still see industrious bees buzzing around in the mountains and forests.

Therefore, the mountain people here generally do not go in search of wild honey until after the winter solstice.

At this time, wild honey is at its most mellow and sweet.

However, with the increasing cultivation of mountains and forests, the wild honey in the mountains and forests around the village has also decreased, and wild honey can only be found in the mountains and forests a little further away.

Because the mountains and rivers are long and the road is difficult to walk, there are no more people looking for wild honey in recent years.

Liu Qingshan looked at the bees flying among the flowers and trees in front of him, and couldn't help but think of the honey in the mountains.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the honey in the mountains is the best in the world. The pristine environment, wild bees, and the remoteness of human settlements have always preserved the sweetest honey in the world in the mountains.

To say that those deep mountain honey has no artificial impurities is just a common statement, to be precise, those honey is completely made of heaven and natural heritage.

As long as you have eaten that kind of wild honey once, you will have a feeling that Wushan is not a cloud, and after that, no matter how high-end and brand-name honey you eat, no matter how expensive it is, as long as it is not from the wild mountains, you will always feel that those honeys are not honey, but more like artificial cyclamate.

So, Liu Qingshan now has a new idea.

Since his feet are far beyond ordinary people, it should be no problem for him to go a little deeper into the mountains to find honey.

If you can't find it in one day, you can find it for two days, and if you can't find it in two days, you can find honey for three days, as long as you use the right method.

Thinking like this, Liu Qingshan's saliva suddenly bubbled up.

After this festival, go to the mountains to find honey!

After picking some thumb-sized gardenias, Liu Qingshan hurriedly walked back, and then went to the orchard to pick some grapefruit leaves.

When I got home, it was about ten o'clock.

Mom has already washed the glutinous rice.

The washed glutinous rice is much whiter than the ordinary rice used for cooking, and it is also a little larger and a little rounder.

The old mother pointed to the glutinous rice in the bamboo basket and said, "Qingshan, wait a minute, you will take these glutinous rice to your second grandfather's house to make powder, do you know?"

"Oh. Liu Qingshan was not ambiguous, put down his things, and packed glutinous rice in a clean snakeskin bag and went to the outer village.

Machines are needed to beat glutinous rice flour.

Although small rice mills are now very common in rural areas, Liu Qingshan's family does not have them.

Therefore, every time there is a New Year's holiday, you still need the help of the second grandfather.

When I arrived at the second grandfather's house, there were already several women from the village waiting in the courtyard of the second grandfather's house.

They were dressed plainly, with no gold or silver objects on them, and their hair was raw, slightly curly, natural hair.

Most of the women in the mountains are not good at dressing up, and unless they have worked in a big city outside, they will know that there are miraculous chemicals such as "hair straightening cream" and "hair dye" in this world.

However, the mountain people who go to work in the city always do not come back until the end of the year, so the woman who appears in the courtyard of the second grandfather's house now, holding her own white glutinous rice, is just the most ordinary mountain village woman in the mountain.

Their skin was rough and wrinkled, and some of them were a little older, and even half of them had silver threads.

However, no matter how they look or how old they are, when it comes to festivals, the women of the mountains always look radiant, as if they have become several years younger overnight.

At this moment, several women were discussing the delicious food they were going to make today in the courtyard of the second grandfather's house.

A long-haired aunt held a dozen catties of white flower glutinous rice in a bamboo basket and said, "I make oil dumplings this year." ”

"The oil is not delicious, and our family only makes it during the Chinese New Year. At that time, it was also done for the convenience of God. ”

"Yes, now on the winter solstice, if you want to do it, you can make a big belly. ”

"Qingshan, what is your mother doing this year?" A short-haired aunt asked with interest when she saw Liu Qingshan standing aside, "You kid has made a lot of money this year, so you have to let your mother make a good deal of it." ”

As soon as the short-haired aunt said this, the others immediately followed suit: "Yes, Qingshan, this year's winter solstice, what is your mother going to do?"

In the face of the enthusiastic inquiries of many aunts, Liu Qingshan smiled a little embarrassedly: "Hehe, my mother said, just make oil dumplings." ”

It is the most common, the simplest to make, and the cheapest in material cost among all the local glutinous rice cakes.

In the past, when the mountain people were not rich, it was already a luxury to be able to cook a meal of oil and glutinous rice cakes. However, with the gradual improvement of life, everyone began to slowly snub the oil.

After stirring the glutinous rice flour and sugar, boiling water and noodles, then grab out the egg-sized dough, and use both hands to make a hollow belly shape.

The shape of the oil cake is the same as that of the big belly cake, except that the big belly cake has a filling in the stomach, but the oil cake does not.

They are a bit like dumplings, but much larger than dumplings, and their hollow bellies can bulge so round that they almost break the dough.

After the hollow oil is ready, it is time to prepare the oil pan. After the oil pan is warm, put down the oil dumplings one by one and fry them until golden brown, and it becomes the most common glutinous rice cake in the mountains - oil dumplings.

The oil is very soft and glutinous when it first comes out of the pot, but it cannot be eaten at this time because it is easy to catch fire. But after overnight, the cooled oil will become stiff again, and it must be cut into thin rings like cicada wings with a kitchen knife, then put it in a bowl, sprinkle in chopped green onions, and pour in half a bowl of oil tea, it will become the ultimate delicacy again.

Although it is simple, ordinary and cheap, in fact, the fragrance and glutinous flavor it produces when it is fried are also incomparable to other steamed glutinous cakes.

It can only be said that it was defeated because its value was not high, so that it was snubbed by the mountain people.