In rural farming, rice is the main source of income, and it may be the only source of income for the vast majority of peasant households.

There are many children in rural families, and generally two or three thousand catties of rice are reserved as rations, but not many are sold to grain stations, and those with more fields may have nearly 20,000 catties, and those with few fields may only have five or six thousand catties.

In terms of rice quality, late rice is significantly better than early rice, and middle rice is better than late rice. Medium rice paddies are sometimes used to grow glutinous rice, which is sticky and tastes good, and is generally grown by farmers.

Glutinous rice is more fragrant than ordinary rice, and can also be made into a variety of pastries, after steaming, it can stick together without falling apart when it is held, and it is easy to carry.

The steamed glutinous rice is broken into small pieces, put into oil, and after cooking and frying over high heat, the glutinous rice grains become larger and become round, which is particularly crisp to eat, and also "stuffed rice". A small red dot in the middle is used as a snack to add a lot of festivity, so it has become a must for farmers to do happy events.

Ordinary rice is not sticky, it can't be made, they can only be beaten into popcorn, a drum-shaped iron bucket, sealed and grilled on the fire, after cooking, open the sealed iron bolt, "bang" a loud sound, a pile of popcorn is made.

The fun of childhood here is the most seen, whenever there is a popcorn beater, we will surround it, when I was a child, I don't understand, I don't know how it makes rice popcorn, just curious to watch.

I don't know how many times the barrel has been roasted, it is pitch black, and it is turned evenly, and when it is about to ripen and is about to open the iron bolt, I cover my ears in a panic and stay away, with horror and curiosity, waiting for the loud sound of stimulation, waiting to taste the delicious food that has just been baked.

Popcorn is mainly used to make frozen rice candy, which is generally boiled into a paste with brown sugar, which can not only stick the popcorn together, but also add sweetness.

In plains like my hometown, farmers usually grow wheat, and when the wheat first sprouts, it is refined into sugar, and when I was a child, I also saw the old family refining it, but I don't remember the specific process, I only remember that the two sticks were worn, constantly stirred, and it was particularly viscous.

The old family calls it "maltose", sometimes add osmanthus as a spice in the sugar, it is called "osmanthus sugar", when I was a child, I can often see the merchant who walks through the countryside and the village, shaking a drum, selling osmanthus candy.

Whenever he hears the merchant's shaking drum, he turns out the waste products that he usually accumulates, surrounds the past, and waits for him to knock out a piece of osmanthus candy according to the amount, and tastes it for a long time.

Not every merchant will shake the drum, they use to crack the osmanthus candy iron pieces and thin iron rods, hit together, make a "ding ding" sound, the same can wear out of the distance, so we often call the merchant "ding ding ding".

Popcorn glued together with brown sugar, put into a special container, generally made of wood, pressed and compacted, into a neat square, and then cut into pieces with a knife, that is, frozen rice grain.

Ordinary rice can also be made into flour, and there is a special machine to make it. Being able to make steamed buns, steamed buns, flower rolls, oil cakes, etc., my grandfather worked in the canteen, and I was very good at doing these, and my mother also learned and made a lot of them for us when I was a child.

The deepest memory is the "shrimp whiskers" made by my mother, the flour is kneaded into a paste, coriander and dried shrimp are added, scooped up with a spoon, and let it flow down naturally along the pot.

The cake made in this way is charred and tender on the outside, fluffy on the inside, with the taste of shrimp, and the coriander mixed with the inside, which is fried and rolled up like a whisker, and the bite is particularly crisp in the mouth, hence the name.

There is also a method of putting the flour into the oil pan and frying, curling into slices, which has a greasy taste and is also particularly crisp, we call it "boiled flowers", with the unique sound of the mountain village, which is called "boiled flowers" in colloquial language.

Put the freshly cooked glutinous rice, put it into a stone mortar, pound it into a paste, knead it into a small ball, put it in the soybean flour and stir, add sugar and sesame seeds to the soybean flour, the taste is particularly fragrant, we will call such a ball "mochi".

There is a broad-leaved plant growing in the mountainous area, which can be boiled into alkali and added to glutinous rice paste to make rice cakes, which we call here yellow sticky rice cakes. Left in a cool place, it can be stored for a long time.

This broad-leaved plant may only grow in a few deep mountains in the south of the Yangtze River, and the mountain people collect them from the deep mountains, burn them into ash first, and then filter them with water, and the filtered water is yellow and clear in color, and has alkaline properties to eat.

Yellow sticky rice cake cut into slices, can be boiled and fried at the same time, the taste is soft and glutinous, the taste is pure, it is unique to the mountainous area, and only this unique broad-leaved tree boiled alkali can produce this taste, and now it has become a unique specialty in the mountainous area.