Qinceng Farm: An experimental field half-devoted to farming
In his early years, Zeng Pa planted Red Boy papaya and an unnamed melon (the kind of soft pickled melon served with rice porridge) in his spare time, and he was quite the sight to behold. Word has it that after some year when things changed within the farmers' association, agriculture in Shanlin declined year by year, and crops such as papaya and other melons and fruits, as well as rice, had no choice but to be labeled with the Meinong brand. Drawing on his past of learning by trial and error, he has a heap of farming lore to talk about, and he says that farming nowadays is just moving his muscles and bones -- he simply cannot sit idle.
When the Qin-Zeng family grew crops commercially, they would mostly hire seedling dealers to raise the seedlings. As for what varieties the seedling dealers provided and what techniques they used, these two elders were uniformly uninterested. To the older generation, the kind that is sometimes a bit papaya-shaped and sometimes round and plump, and that gets coated in white powder once ripe, was uniformly called tu-fan melon, meaning local pumpkin. Of course, they would also take pumpkin seeds from last year or from ones they had eaten, raise the seedlings themselves, and plant them all mixed together.
After planting and eating, you sort of get it...
The relatives' field is fertile soil, and green manure is planted during the fallow period; the rest of the time it just depends on who wants to plow it. In the early years, Zeng Pa planted pickled melon, and after the rice harvest the water would flood the field and fuk-cai (Hakka) would grow on its own to be pulled, and then Qin Ma would jokingly claim that what she had grown herself was what got taken to market to sell. There should be many more things too, just not remembered. At present, the most noteworthy are the tu-fan melons planted once in a while, or the Yipin and Dongsheng promoted by the farmers' association. The Qin-Zeng family does not have the strength to cross field zones; the mountain alone is busy enough. Therefore my impression of pumpkins comes from the three periods in which I ate them over these three years: once from the fertile field, twice from the mountain.
To be honest, I do not like taking in starch, except for potatoes. But recently, I ate from a vendor, and also tasted local pumpkins sent directly by other farming families. Through Qin Ma's cooking, and after actually comparing them year by year, I seem to be gradually understanding where the flavor of the Qin-Zeng family's pumpkins lies.
Temperament, merely fed back onto the vegetables and fruits
It is said that living things have two great instincts, survival and reproduction. When a living thing senses a crisis, it will grab nutrients and grow quickly. That is to say, unless it has rotted to the point of being inedible, usually the bad ones are actually the most delicious. Because the two Qin-Zeng elders very generously feed the bad ones to their own people, I thought pumpkins just tasted like that, never imagining that this seems not to be the case.
Therefore the Qin-Zeng family's first great advantage is that there is a descendant who has undergone complete metamorphosis and is trying to sell the bad ones as premium goods. XD
In addition, from the above it can be seen that, because I have eaten the local pumpkins personally cultivated by the two Qin-Zeng elders in the fertile field and on the mountain, when the field zones differ, when the variety sources and techniques provided by the seedling dealers are adjusted year by year, and after also eating foreign pumpkins, I simply drew a conclusion: as long as it is produce from Shanlin, all melons and fruits are top-grade. Indeed, this saying is not false! But every farming family has its own personality, and because personalities and preferences differ, the flavor will differ somewhat. For example, the Qin-Zeng family's local pumpkins carry the coloring of Zeng Pa's bias.
"Not sprinkled with sweetness, how could it be tasty (Hakka)," said Zeng Pa. So where is the Qin-Zeng family's second great advantage? Compared with using Western medicine for pest and disease control or appropriate field management, Zeng Pa is even more passionate about studying fertilization, an ultra-extreme diehard, and one careless move can wipe out the whole army. "What use is sprinkling sweetness? If you are lazy about spraying, then you get nothing to eat," Qin Ma grumbled.
If you have eaten the bad ones from the Qin-Zeng family's farm produce, you will know what that means. Of course, the bananas the Qin-Zeng family lets grow wild, according to banana lovers, are "very delicious." Really? Who knows, aren't bananas all pretty much the same, how different can they be! Where does the claim come from that what the Qin-Zeng family produces is especially delicious? It is nothing more than to satisfy their own taste preferences, with just a bit more temperament added.
Hakka villages have nothing special besides fields and land linked together
Counting the parts that the older generation failed to register in time and that were designated as state-owned, the mountain is less than two jia (about 1.94 hectares); the slope land with gravel is used to grow fruit trees, and the fields are used to grow short-term crops or are simply left to grow grass. Although I really am not cut out for farming, if you want to find a piece of land to learn how to farm and inject some vitality into farming, your own garden is already enough to play with, not to mention that the surroundings also connect to the fields of the various households in the village.
However, the Qin-Zeng family in principle thinks in terms of conventional cultivation, and has gained nothing at all from friendly or organic cultivation. Of course, when the broader environment (the consumer market) is unfriendly, they also do not feel there is any need to know. Although our own family cannot represent all farming families in Shanlin, it cannot be denied that most farmers are imprisoned by this kind of thinking!
Yes, I will treat the Qin-Zeng farm as an experimental base, and insist on working through ideas with the two Qin-Zeng elders. There is a reason for going slowly. After all, in the early years the various households all had certain kinship ties, and of course there are also a number of neighboring land ownership rights. In other words, each household will have one elder who is a farmers' association member or receives the old farmer allowance. Unless something unexpected happens, this means that the Qin-Zeng farm must first gain a firm foothold before there can be follow-up people! People! People! to follow in semi-farming and exert influence.
The DEAL is that you live comfortably in that place
The Qin-Zeng family has fields and land, yet produced one weak-legged junior with extremely poor labor capacity. He wants to lighten the burden on the two elders, but always ends up making more trouble and getting scorned. A passerby said, step aside, even I am better than you! Damn... all right, that is just how it is. Tsk!
The host asked, "Why do you want to come?" I said, "Because I want to empty my mind." The host said, "All right, when will you arrive?" I said, "Then after Dragon Boat Festival, let's say June 1st." After leaving a contact phone number and a photo so we could recognize each other, do not doubt it -- that was it, done. And then, on my first solo trip, once I went, I stayed for nearly half a year.
With such an unintended past, unless I sense unusual malice, I do not mind being labeled, I ask if I have questions, I speak up if I need help, I find things to do myself, and I am willing to find a place to stay; there are many empty houses, it is just that you have to tidy them up yourself. If you need spending money, then like me, occasionally take odd jobs, selling labor or brainpower... half farming, half XD.
If you give back a friendly attitude and positive energy to the countryside, people will take you down to the fields to get to know the place. Reasonable! The concluding words are pretty irresponsible, huh. Do your best!
