The story of Hongshan (2)

The production team has an orchard. Whenever apples and pears are ripe, the team will send people to watch them closely. By August 15, every household can get a few kilograms to alleviate hunger. After the fruits are collectively planted under the tree, the children all go to the garden to pick up the leaks after school to see if there are any unfinished ones. Whenever we find a pear, we all "fire" together, and stones and clods rain on it. After a while, the pear hung high painfully fell into the children's clothes pockets, more proud than the general who returned from victory! Whenever I see a pile of heavy fruits hanging all over the branches and can't enjoy them, several naughty children gather together and shout a curse at the gardener: "Garden home, an egg is too big for X eyes, don't give a pear a yellow wind." By the time we kicked them out, the children would have been hiding somewhere.

Only apricot trees seem to have several trees in every household, and some families have more than a dozen trees (but dogs are tied under the trees! )。 Of course, apricots are different in taste, size, color and maturity. Apricot tastes sour, sweet, astringent, hemp, bitter and fragrant, with moderate sweetness and sourness. Apricots are as small as thumbs and as big as birds' eggs, and some are even called "millstone apricots". Imagine how big they are! The color of apricots is really rich: when some are immature, there are purple halos in the green, so people call them "carmine"; Some look green and can be bitten, but inside they are crystal clear yellow. People call them "green apricots". Some half are light green, while the other half are luminous white; Once some mature, Huang Chengcheng's one-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot; Sometimes when children sit on the eaves, lie on the roofs, stand on the ridges and squat in vegetable fields, they can easily get appetizing apricots. Apricots have a long maturity, from May to September in the lunar calendar, round after round, crop after crop, and are the fruits with the longest supply time. People call the earliest maturity "May Yellow" and the latest maturity "September Night". Children's greatest pleasure is to climb trees and eat apricots. See who climbs fast and who has the courage. Those that are ripe early and delicious often hang on the branches, which is also the best touchstone for testing children.

Elaeagnus angustifolia is a unique plant in northwest China. A row of Elaeagnus angustifolia trees are densely planted around the orchard of the production team. Because the branches of Elaeagnus angustifolia are hard and covered with long spikes, it is perfect to be a garden wall. Elaeagnus angustifolia leaves are also different from other trees. In summer, other leaves are mostly light green, and Elaeagnus angustifolia leaves are oval and silvery gray. Because of this, the water evaporation of leaves is very slow, which makes Elaeagnus angustifolia extremely tenacious in drought resistance. Every year around the Dragon Boat Festival, fragrant Elaeagnus angustifolia blooms. Hanging on the branches in strings, it is not conspicuous in the distance, but the fragrance of flowers has already penetrated into the heart and spleen. The closer you get, the stronger the fragrance will be, but it's not annoying at all. Sometimes you can't even see the shadow of the tree, but you can smell this unique flower fragrance, which is unique and incomparable to any other flower fragrance. Young little yellow flowers are densely mixed among branches, so people put a few branches of willow at the door of the Dragon Boat Festival regardless of thorns, which is said to ward off evil spirits. Or break a few branches and put them in a glass bottle at home, and the whole house will become fragrant. Before long, the green pearl of Elaeagnus angustifolia will be covered with branches, and it will be close to maturity around August 15. The green jade gradually turned into white pearls and red agates, which were squeezed and bent. Some Elaeagnus angustifolia are round like beads, some are like a piece on the little finger, and the taste is different, some are sour, some are moderately sweet and sour, and some are astringent. Often astringent, especially when it is not ripe, you can't eat it at all. When the leaves fall out in winter, Elaeagnus angustifolia on some trees still sticks to the trees and refuses to leave. This kind of Elaeagnus angustifolia is either small or not delicious, so the shepherd will stone it down and feed it to the sheep. People often harvest Elaeagnus angustifolia, which can be used as snacks or made into Elaeagnus angustifolia flour cakes. It's delicious! Elaeagnus angustifolia noodles are used, and Elaeagnus angustifolia pits are used. Is it useless? No, the seeds of Elaeagnus angustifolia are strung together with strings to make a door curtain, which is breathable and beautiful, and can also block mosquitoes! Do you think Elaeagnus angustifolia is a treasure?

In the early 1980s, the trees in the garden were distributed to farmers' families. Later, every family had their own orchard, and there was no need to tie dogs or watch them under trees, but there were fewer and fewer varieties of fruits, from golden pineapples to Korla pears, and even apricots were piteously left to Li Guangxing. It's just that the quality of fruit is getting better and better, with less acid and more sweet and sour! There are fruit trees in front of and behind every house, so it is not so rare to have apples and pears! Several high-energy pear trees, apricot trees and Elaeagnus angustifolia are all gone. In the mature season, Huang Cancan's fruits are scattered all over the floor under the tree, and even children don't bother to take a look when they pass by!