My mother is calling us to go back to the mountains and eat her sweet peaches, all the way to Yuncheng in early summer
Received a box of July peaches.
Oil peach, unusually large, with a color as strong as sunset, ripe and sweet, overflowing from the north to the south through the cracks in the cardboard box.
Friends in Taiyuan, Shanxi are sending packages to friends in the city, and this exchange of friendship adds a touch of solemnity. Yuncheng Pantao is well-known far and wide, which was only discovered after investigation. And there are various varieties, besides those that are as brilliant as sunset, there are also those that are as golden and brilliant as ginkgo leaves.
I always feel that flat peaches are not like peaches. Peaches from the south are more round with a hint of sharpness, white with a hint of crimson, plump and beautiful. But the peach is flat and irregular, like a persimmon or a small pumpkin. The color is thick and beautiful, but it is so down-to-earth, like the fruit of autumn. In short, it doesn't look much like peaches in the south, let alone peaches.
In the fruit market in the south, there were already flat peaches, which were not as big and beautiful as those sent by friends. The first peaches I saw in the Jiangnan area were mostly hairy peaches. They were small and I had never bought or eaten them before.
I have always been full of imagination about peaches. When I was a child, in the 1987 version of "Journey to the West", the Queen Mother held a peach blossom festival. Sun Monkey sneaked into the peach orchard, picked peaches from the branches, threw them away one by one, and picked another, thus "ruining the entire garden with large peach blossoms.". I felt extremely heartbroken when I saw it. I only remember that peach was about the size of a bowl, hanging on a branch, making people drool. Therefore, for many years, I had always thought that a flat peach was such a large and plump peach. Later, it was recorded in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" that "the mountains in the East China Sea are moderately steep, and there are large peaches on the mountains that bend for three thousand miles, hence the name Pan Tao." It is speculated that the reference in "Journey to the West" is here.
One late autumn, at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain in Lijiang, Yunnan, I really came across a peach with such a big bowl - a young man pulling a cart! Peaches are newly picked, and their branches and leaves are still fresh with dewdrops. Buying one is enough, there is no time to wash it, so I take a bite, but the peach is hard and astringent, with teeth gnashing, far from the ideal "flat peach". Nowadays, I feel that "flat peaches" are closer to the honey peaches in Wuxi, Jiangsu, with a watery and juicy taste. The fruits in Wuxi, such as loquats, red bayberries and peaches, have enough water, perhaps because they are near the the Taihu Lake Lake.
Pan peaches from Yuncheng have a different taste from southern peaches. The flesh is dense and the juice seems to have been reduced by quenching - it is said that Pan peaches like Yang. Of course it's very sweet. The scent of peaches is also slightly different. Peaches from the south are sweeter, while peaches from Yuncheng have a thicker sweetness. Peaches are summer fruits, but the taste of flat peaches is more like autumn.
I put most of the peaches in the refrigerator and a few on a high footed tray on my desk, and the room instantly felt autumn.
I like to eat peaches. Among common summer fruits, loquat, yangmei, lychee, peach, loquat, and yangmei are eaten quickly because they come and go quickly. There are many varieties of lychee, with Feizixiao and Guiwei being the most common. Lychee has a strong fire and needs to be restrained when eaten. Peaches are the most gentle to eat. When they have a large stomach, due to the heat and poor appetite, eating four or five peaches a day is not a problem.
A type of peach that I have been eating recently is only known as mountain peach. The fruit has a dark red color and is crispy and sweet.
In the fruit market, the best distinction is between peach and yellow peach. Another distinction is between big peaches and small peaches. This distinction seems outrageous. But it was my mother who taught me.
When I was a child, there was a peach blossom tree on a field ridge. My mother reminded me that this peach tree belongs to my own family, as it grows on the ridge of my rice field. In the mountains and wilderness, fruit pits fall everywhere, and wherever they grow, they become the fruit tree of their own family. If it happens to grow on the field ridge at the junction of two families, then we need to have a good argument.
My mother calls it a little peach. This peach tree is covered in branches with fruit every year, but it is small and covered with fluffy fur. At the beginning of the result, it was shaped like an olive. When I grow up - but it's not as big as an egg yet, and my body is still covered in raw green, until the green fades slightly white. A bright red color bursts out from a certain part of the fruit skin, and the flesh opens a hole. My mother said that this peach is ripe. The same goes for loquats. As soon as they crack open, my mother says that the loquats are ripe. At that moment, I thought that all the fruits would crack once they were ripe. One night, with a click, like an oath of growing up.
We picked small cracked peaches - usually a basket, washed in the stream, and distributed them to every household. Is this little peach delicious? I have already forgotten, but I only remember that the fruit pit in the cracked mouth was particularly large and covered with dark lines. I collected a large bowl and placed it on the windowsill.
There are also yellow peaches. There is a kind old man who planted three yellow peaches on the mountaintop behind the house. The sunshine is good on the mountaintop, and the three yellow peaches bear big and sweet fruits. My mother said it was because they had very few fruits - one plant bears one, year after year, of course, they were big and sweet. Such precious fruits are usually stolen by children like me, and there are even earlier predators, insects, who eat from the inside out. I'm familiar with it, but it's okay. They eat the inner circle, and I eat the outer circle.
Peach blossoms are very beautiful, and ancient people for thousands of years have understood this beauty, "Peach blossoms are young and scorching in their brilliance.". Peaches have differences, but peach blossoms do not. Every spring, the flowers of the small peach tree bloom into a patch. Reflecting the stream and mountains behind, the day suddenly brightened up. Peach blossoms are pink, with much larger petals than plum blossoms, but they cannot be distinguished when they are young. What is the saying that such a beautiful flower, due to a bit of superstition, cannot be picked? It is said that the peach blossom branch has been broken and peach blossom luck has been taken. Children have great luck with peach blossoms.
Someone broke a peach branch. This person uses peach branches to ward off evil spirits for others. He held a peach branch in his hand and gestured to drive away the evil energy from the person. He muttered something in his mouth, probably "fou yi! Fou yi!" I still don't understand what this means. This person has engaged in many professions with the help of peach branches as an exorcist. Raising cattle, fish, and managing construction sites for others. He changes and changes, but his peach tree never grows big, and there are too many people coming to him to rely on the power of the peach branch.
Speaking of which, how can peach trees keep bearing fruit? Their lifespan is even shorter than that of humans. The mother's peach tree and the old man's yellow peach tree have long disappeared.
Of course, my mother planted three more trees a few years ago. Last year, they produced three peaches. My mother was shocked and worried that they would only have three peaches each year, like an old man's peach tree. Fortunately, this spring, the fruits were already hanging all over the branches. When they mature, they are as big as a baby's fist, with half of their skin turning bright red and never opening their mouths again.
Mother calls them sweet peaches. Throughout early summer, my mother called us back to the mountains to eat her sweet peaches.
