I am a hoarder in the broad sense, buy things like to buy a lot, some people say this is a sign of insecurity about life, but I think it is more because we Xinjiang people, especially those living in the countryside, have the habit of buying things back to store for the winter. For example, pull a cart of coal, buy a cart of potatoes, buy a cart of cabbage, in the summer, my family will also buy a cart of watermelon or a cart of apples …… and so on.
Yes, you read it right, Xinjiang people used to buy things not by the box, is to buy by the car, because Xinjiang is wide, before buying things is very inconvenient, generally people are looking for friends to know people to buy, contact a good car in advance, at that time my family will contact the wagon or small trailer, dragging a car home enough for the whole family to eat for a long time. And generally the family will have a warehouse or cellar, put a few carloads of things are more than enough, my house is large to put things in a very large place, and there is a yard, will also need to store some of the things sealed well buried in the ground, and then dig out when you want to eat.
Such hoarding habits, of course, thanks to the climate of Xinjiang, Xinjiang’s dry climate, less rain, although the summer temperature is also high, but most people’s houses are very cool, this is because when building a house in Xinjiang, the way to build walls is also different from the mainland, Xinjiang people build a house, the wall is three seven, is a horizontal and vertical width of the standard red bricks, just 370MM, this thickness This thickness is generally used to cover the load-bearing walls, after all, the cost of bricks, but Xinjiang people basically use this way to build the walls of their homes, because the winter roof in Xinjiang will have a very thick snow, itself requires a certain amount of load-bearing, in addition to this thicker wall will allow the room insulation, the summer when the outside is hot, the home will be very cool, the winter time to close the doors and windows, only slightly in the stove to add some coal, a very large house will will slowly warm up. Such walls also make it easier to store things, like watermelons in a cool room, which won’t go bad all summer.
In summer, my family’s fruit basically will not be broken, of course, because Xinjiang is originally more fruits and melons, but also because my family hoarded more, like the more easily broken peaches, apricots and strawberries we do not store, basically buy a box, when the watermelon down, is sure to pull a car back first, apples are more, and the variety of apples in Xinjiang is very much, many varieties I can not name, like I love to eat In the past, apples were not boxed, so they were casually pulled in a cart, then packed in a frame, and poured into the corner of the warehouse, an apple corner, a watermelon corner, and sometimes a little bit of something else, and piled up some other vegetables.
In winter, it is not so easy to store vegetables, outdoor will freeze, indoor will be heated, Xinjiang winter vegetables are not much choice, only potatoes, carrots, onions and cabbage, but in fact, our own family will also store grapes and apples, these are placed in my family’s cellar, for us, the ground kiln is a natural freezer, because the land is very slow to conduct the temperature, in the summer The ground temperature is very high in the summer, but the lower the temperature will be lower, while the winter is the opposite, the ground temperature is low, but the underground temperature is high, and to a certain depth, the temperature is constant, the cellar mouth is generally closed, which is more conducive to the storage of vegetables. So the kiln is not only in Xinjiang, in the northern countryside basically every family has.
In winter, my brother and I will open the kiln to ventilate for a while, but also carefully check whether there are bad vegetables inside, to take out in time to throw away. In terms of storage, these small habits seem to have become natural, probably no one really knows the principle of the cellar, do not know that because of the respiration of vegetables caused by the increase of carbon dioxide inside, oxygen reduction, rashly go in will be easy to suffocate, so must be ventilated before going in; also do not know that bad vegetables will release toxic gases, so that other vegetables also accelerate decay, so we must clean up in time, we only know that it must be done, but do not know why it is done.
In addition to these kinds of vegetables are fresh, the other we will eat a variety of dried or sauce, my family will be dried tomatoes and dried peppers every year in the summer, dried tomatoes to cut the tomatoes into a long strip with the skin, cut the skin can not be broken, each knife only cut a large half, cut and then slowly divided until it can be laid flat, usually cut a 3-5 knife, after cutting them on the paved I have an allergy to tomato juice, so I don’t have to eat it, but when I get it on my skin, I get little red spots and it itches a lot, so I have a hard time cutting it the day before and the next day, but that’s what I have to do every summer, so I’ll be fine.
Compared to the production of dried peppers is much simpler, long strips of red peppers, just cut one from the middle without cutting, and then hang on the rope on it.
Relatively more trouble is actually the production of tomato sauce, generally in Xinjiang to do tomato sauce in two ways, one is boiling, chopped a little on the pot boiling, and then in sealed canning jars, this sauce will be darker than the normal color of tomatoes, very thick.
The other is steamed in a bottle, and the hospital drip bottle, there is a leather stopper, the tomatoes cut a small piece of a small piece of stuffed into the bottle, stuffed until full, and then cover the stopper, in the top of a hollow needle, and then put in a pot to steam, this sauce will be very fresh, and fresh tomatoes a color, and is a block, you can do tomatoes scrambled eggs in winter, but this method is also the most trouble and But this method is also the most troublesome and dangerous, often fried bottles, a pot can put 6-8 bottles, three pots fried a bottle or two, is very normal, so my family basically only a few times to do.
After the summer effort, there will be lots and lots of tomato sauce, dried tomatoes and dried peppers to eat in the winter.
Another big hoarding category is meat, meat is not easy to store in the summer, one is afraid of meat spoilage, two is afraid of flies, flies are the public enemy of meat, heat and fly prevention is an important issue for meat, most people in Xinjiang will go directly to buy a sheep pulled to ask someone to slaughter and then bring back to hoard, but my family because of the small population, and also because of the psychological effect of not wanting to eat animals slaughtered for themselves, so my family At most, I would buy a leg of lamb or a leg of beef, and in the summer, I would keep some of the fresh ones first, and the rest would be air-dried meat, in fact, air-dried meat is a word that came up later, we usually call it jerky.
Dried meat, is to cut the meat into long thin narrow strips, first pickled, my family’s will only put salt, some families will also put soy sauce and seasonings to pickle, to the meat pickled almost, hang the meat strips on the rope, hanging in the shade of ventilation, and then set a fine net on top, set the net is to prevent flies, although the cured meat flies would have been less crawling, but who said there is no brave in the flies, so it is also had to Prevention, this kind of dried meat is actually our summer food, because in winter, the meat is easy to store instead.
In Xinjiang, because many herders are Muslims, they do not eat dead animals, if some cattle and sheep have an accident, they will be given to Han friends, in fact, there is no malice, in our place will only feel that it is different habits, and will not feel that this should have any taboo, especially the Kazakhs, is not too care about these, once they also gave my family a deer, because it is dead they can not eat Once they gave my family a deer, because it was dead they can not eat, it was given to our family, a deer my family ate a whole winter, venison is very hot, that winter I really did not feel cold.
Meat in the winter by definition is free to put, and even directly on the windowsill outside, but in winter there will be wild animals into the house to steal something to eat, when it snows, often in the morning up in the yard snow to see small footprints, but generally close the gate large animals basically can not enter, there are some small animals, will be from the watering yard through the small ditch, my family has entered a few bobcats. I can’t remember the specific scene, but I heard my mother say that they did not succeed in that action, and the bobcat was finally driven away by her. Although the bobcat is a cat, but the bobcat fighting in Xinjiang that is quite strong, if you encounter advice you better go around, believe me, jerking off.
Because the meat can not be placed outside, so my family will have a special meat room in the winter, the doors and windows are closed but not the heating system, the inside will also be frozen, some brine products will also be placed inside, winter, especially the New Year’s time, my family will brine a lot of meat, will be placed in that room with the pot. The whole pot will be frozen very hard, to get the time is also to take some effort, I can not do this work, basically my father is responsible for.
Because of this growing experience, after I left Xinjiang, I often buy a bunch of things to hoard, this problem has changed for a long time, until these two years to some effect, learned to buy a little less. I remember the first time I went to Sichuan to eat noodles, people asked me how many taels I wanted, I was baffled and foolishly asked the boss “How many taels should I ask for?” The boss had a look of stupidity on his face, I trembled and ordered a two, the boss sighed and said: you should come to two!
Now the grocery shopping software is marked with grams, which is very friendly to me, after all, my family is a store, the concept of grams or, I eat alone, now buy food in moderation, for a Xinjiang people, to do this is really too difficult, I have to admire myself.
Hoarding is a habit of the times, I never want to use “symptoms” to define it, in that era of family life is not easy, not much money, in the countryside to buy things are also difficult, Xinjiang is far away, hoarding food is a necessary life skill for every family. For example, my family’s grapes were the best in the whole alley, and the grapevine covered the whole yard with all kinds of grapes, and the harvest was full. In addition to meat, there were also peanuts, soybeans, melon seeds and various vegetables. I was the fish fryer in my house, sitting at the pot and frying all night, the marinated small fish, after frying, very crispy, the bones can also eat, and the dry climate in Xinjiang, fried small fish can also be put for a few days.
Storage and sharing is the habit of that era, and now the days are better, even if we are in Xinjiang there are few people will do these storage for the winter, even in rural areas in winter can buy fresh vegetables, no need to store, but they will still share, this is the reason my mother loved to live there, she felt there is a human touch, she came to Shenzhen every time with a big bag back, the mood is very The first is homesickness, the second is to want to quickly give them what they bought for their friends, send someone a rose, there may be no one than the rural people can appreciate the beauty of this thing, to share their own things to others is not to return, because they are also enjoying the joy of sending things. Sharing becomes a natural thing, just like hoarding, we seem to be working hard to prepare food for the winter, but the process is happy enough, because it is full of good expectations for the small days ahead.
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