Source: Dongguan Time Network-i Dongguan
Recently, the autumn is high and the weather is good, and the "rake vegetables" in Dongkeng Town have ushered in a bumper harvest, and the farmers in the town are stepping up the production of "rake vegetables" into yin dishes.
Yin cuisine is a specialty of Dongkeng, made from radish vegetables such as "rake tooth vegetables", and the yin cuisine production technique is also a municipal intangible cultural heritage. Compared with dried radish, Yin vegetables are different in process and medicinal value, and are also known as "Dongkeng ginseng" by folk beauty, which has a warm tonic effect.
Recently, the reporter visited the Dongkeng Agricultural Park and other farmlands and saw that the farmers were busy pulling out the "rake vegetables", and the shape of the "rake vegetables" was not large or small, and the growth trend was just right.
"The weather is nice and the harvest is naturally good." Lu Deguang, a non-hereditary representative of Dongkeng Yin cuisine, pointed to the "rake tooth vegetables" that had just been pulled out, and said, "These vegetables are planted in the yellow mud field, the skin color is relatively smooth, and the appearance is more 'beautiful'." ”
It is understood that "rake tooth vegetable" is actually a kind of radish that does not grow up, only one year long, slender, about thumb-thick, more than ten centimeters long, white all over, shaped like the rake teeth of farming, so it is called "rake vegetable".
Every year on the 14th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, Dongkeng vegetable farmers sow seeds and plant "rake tooth vegetables". The planting time takes about 60 days. Autumn and winter is the season of harvesting "rake", at this time, Dongkeng vegetable farmers will pull out the "rake" from the ground one by one, and then cut off the green leaves, and the rest, the whole body is white, and the roots shaped like ginseng become "rake".
According to reports, the nutritional components such as sugar, dietary fiber, amino acids, and carbohydrates contained in rake radish are higher than those of ordinary radish varieties, and the shape is also a bit like ginseng, so it is also known as "Dongkeng ginseng".
Dongkeng people use "ginseng" to use the method of combining yin and yang, first dry the "rake" in the sun, and then switch to the art of yin drying, hanging it under the eaves where the sun cannot be sunburned, letting the dry and cold autumn wind slowly drain all the water in the rake, so that its internal nutritional essence is concentrated and stored. After the yin dried, the "rake tooth dish" becomes smaller in shape and weight, becoming a reddish yellow color and a dry strip shaped like pine root. Placed in front of the nose to sniff, the yin dish emits a strong aroma of dried radish.
Yin vegetables have a long history of cultivation in Dongkeng, and Dongkeng people have created a unique food culture around it, such as "vegetable head goulash" and "radish boiled big fish", especially the "Dongkeng Yin Cai Beef Exhibition Soup", which is famous for its superior taste and rich nutrition. According to Mr. Lu, a resident of Dongkeng, when he was young, every time his grandfather came back from outside, he would take a large handful of yin vegetables and leave his hometown to relieve his homesickness.
Text/Li Jianwu
Photography/Correspondent Li Xueyuan Video/None
Editor/Jia Qingsen