New rice

This year’s ripe rice season is right at the time of the epidemic, I can’t go back to my hometown. At this time in the countryside, the harvest season has begun, the rice is ripe and golden in the field.

Artwork/INT Last year, Le Thuy flooded, the water was immense, fish, shrimp, and alluvium also followed the water and stayed in the fields. After the flood, the land is fertile, most of the crops grown down are green. I remember when I went back to my hometown after Tet, I went to the market to buy a bunch of big, young green cabbage that was delicious to the eyes, but had 2 thousand VND. Buying 10,000 cucumbers, the old lady selling melons filled a basket. I said: – Your teeth give a lot? She laughs: – Like I sold it, one day she sold nearly 1 basket but got 6 thousand. The immense rice fields in the countryside this year also have a good harvest, a yellow color stretching to the foot of the distant mountain. The rice heads bowed heavily, covering the whole road separating the fields. The wind about the rice waves keeps undulating, it feels like standing in front of the sea but the waves are peaceful and golden. In my hometown, many houses still keep the new custom of offering rice. Every season of ripe rice, people reap the first field, after threshing (previously using human power or cattle to pedal, later with a continuous harvester, only packed grain rice was brought back). let the rice dry in the sun. Select the field with good rice varieties, then threshing and drying separately. When the rice is dried (in the sun and dry enough for long-term storage), it is milled, pounded, gradually, sieved (later milled by machine), giving white rice grains. Use that rice to wash with clear stone well water and then blow the rice with a wood stove. You have to be careful with the fire so that the top rice grains are white and fragrant, and the bottom is just scorched yellow. Select pullets to start nesting (the new hens begin to lay their first eggs), by this time there have been some early rains of the season. People in the countryside who are used to thunderstorms, when they see termites flying out, know that after 5 to 10 minutes, it will stop raining. The termites fly out, meet the wet rain, then swoop down to the ground, lose their wings and run away like small round meatballs. When chickens eat termites, the meat is fragrant and golden. The newly placed tray of rice has only a large plate of fresh white rice mixed with pieces of golden brown rice, on top of which is left over a fertile yellow boiled hen and a plate of crushed roasted salt and peppers. with 1 lemon cut in half. The owner lights 3 incense sticks and prays to heaven and earth, gods and ancestors to eat a new meal, to bless and protect the whole family for a year of peace, a bountiful and prosperous next season. Looking at the new tray of rice, though simple but full of herbs, of the owner. Farmers still spread word of mouth, when making new rice, people must be clean and clean in their thoughts, their minds must be good to cook a full fragrant meal; Boiled chicken with bright colors, neat and tidy shape. Old farmers looking at the tray of rice can know the happiness of the house, know if the next year’s crop is better or worse. With the new tray of rice used for worship, the elderly eat first, then the people who work in the field have the most merit, then divide it among the children and divide it equally among all members of the family. No matter how much or how little, everyone has their share. Fresh and fragrant rice, sweet and fatty chicken pieces, roasted salt seeds pounded with hot, spicy chili peppers, crispy golden pieces call back a whole heaven of memories of the new rice seasons that have passed in life. In the new meal, family members remind about the lost family members, those who are far away from home… So many people keep holding a bowl of rice and remember to eat. My family also grows rice, so since I was young, I always eat new rice. Eating from the time when the grandparents were still alive until the grandparents returned to the crane world in turn. Every new rice season, I try to arrange to bring my baby home. Show me the ripe rice season, let me know my hometown My father sometimes asked his grandchildren to burn incense on the ancestral altar during the new rice offering. The children followed their grandfather’s orders, but now everyone knows how to light incense sticks straight, not letting the incense fall out. The children always know how old their great-grandparents died, who went away in the family, who died… I remember that every year when we offer new rice, we share our chicken meat with our children. Ma says: – Ma doesn’t like chicken, I hate eating chicken… The chicken was delicious, but it was less so the kids were very happy, and saved and compared which one was bigger. Later, when I grew up, I knew how to give a little bit of delicious fat to my children. My health is not good, or I am sick. Every time the plating hurts, the kids often cook chicken porridge for the plating. Ma only eats porridge with water. Chicken doesn’t really like to eat now because it’s old now, has weak teeth, and hates eating chicken because it has teeth. I just wish, if there is no disease, I will take my children home. In the middle of the field, stop and fill your chest with the new scent of rice. And come back to eat new rice. New rice for me now is also eating, remembering… eating love…