What weeds do you need to make "Jiuqu" in rural areas in the 1980s and 1990s?

In 1980s and 1990s, the raw materials of indigenous koji-making in rural areas were relatively simple: orange leaves, Polygonum hydropiper, verbena and Euphorbia humifusa. China has a long history, and so does its food culture, many of which are related to wine. As early as 4,000 years ago, China people invented wine, and since then, wine has played an important role in the history of China. Many families in rural areas used to make wine. To make wine, we must first make koji. As the saying goes, "Water is the soul of wine and Qu is the bone of wine", so the importance of Qu is self-evident.

When I was a child, my mother basically made distiller's yeast every year, because on the one hand, it can be used for brewing wine, on the other hand, it can also be used as medicine. The starter-making materials are relatively simple: orange leaves, Polygonum hydropiper, verbena and Euphorbia humifusa.

The orange leaves are the leaves of an orange tree. Many people may be surprised. How do the leaves of orange trees make wine yeast? It's true. In the past, many orange trees were planted at home. When brewing yeast, it is usually in summer. At this time, many weeds in the mountains grew more vigorously, and the leaves of orange trees flourished. If you want to brew wine yeast, you'd better choose fresh leaves. But farmers found that there were no orange trees in some places, but mulberry leaves were used. This can also replace orange leaves.

Polygonum hydropiper: This may be familiar to many people. It is also a common weed in rural areas. I found it in the front and back of the house. Low requirements for the growing environment, drought tolerance. This weed is tenacious and often grows into a large piece. In addition, this weed will bloom, with leaves and flowers. When I was a child, I often used Polygonum hydropiper to catch small fish and turtles in ditches. Although the formula of koji-making varies from place to place, Polygonum hydropiper is one of the important parts of traditional koji-making.

Verbena is also called verbena tip, iron verbena, white horse whip and so on. This is very common in rural areas. You can find the front and back of the house, so it's hard to break it by hand. You must cut with a sickle. The last kind of Euphorbia humifusa was not introduced by farmers. This estimate is familiar to everyone. This kind of grass is distributed in many parts of this country. Generally growing on the ground, the root system is relatively developed. It's hard to pull out.

The above kinds are all used to make "wild grass" in Hengyang, the hometown of farmers. When they were arrested. After washing, air drying, then mixing according to a certain proportion, grinding into powder with a stone mill, and then making koji with rice.