When the white jade radishes are harvested, without fields one cannot prosper, without people one cannot have a home.
It is only on a night like this that I can settle down and write a little. I have just handed in all the articles that were due, and my mood feels much lighter. Thinking about today's shipment of white radishes... I feel like writing it down again.
"The field is the farmer's reliance, and the farm is an extension of the home." How should I put it? This year is the fourth year our family has grown white radishes. Before that, my father-in-law and mother-in-law were getting older, and the brothers and sisters had gradually married and each had their own lives and pressures. The lychee orchard on the mountain yielded worse and worse, and in the tomato field (black persimmon tomatoes), because of the silverleaf whitefly, the rampant growth got more serious every year... Only the rice paddies barely propped up what we called our "farming" family.
However, ever since we started growing white radishes and gradually built up a customer base, our family has slowly walked back to what a real farming family looks like! Like today's shipment: my father-in-law, mother-in-law, aunt, and younger brother-in-law were four people harvesting in the field, while I, Xiaole, Brother Agui, and the eldest sister packed boxes at home. When it was time for lunch, everyone sat around the round table, sometimes discussing the work in the field, sometimes talking about the funny stories from when my in-laws first met as young people. After lunch, seven or eight people concentrated their efforts on sorting and packing into bags. During the process, everyone divided the work and cooperated: some graded and selected, some packed boxes and moved them. In the middle of it, a fan reporter from Hakka TV came over to pull pig manure, chat, shoot the breeze, joke around with each other, and share some of the tricks of harvesting and box packing.
I really have a strong feeling that if there were no white radishes, if there were no customers ordering radishes from us, our family's fields would definitely be cold and deserted, with no one paying them any attention.
