Every spice can also feel every life.
That's where the soul has nowhere to go,
The memory, the taste buds.
With the piety of inheriting and innovating China Luwei,
Kukuya tried to recover,
The original flavor of Wuhan in China people's minds.
Director Chen Xiaoqing once said,
The taste contains human feelings, homesickness and memories.
The best food has roots.
20 18, Mr. Chen, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province,
After working in the mountains for 50 years,
Brought us the purest pepper.
"I have been learning to grow peppers with my grandparents since I was a child and have been planting them for more than 50 years."
I don't know when the first pepper here blooms and bears fruit, and the unique geographical and climatic conditions make the taste of pepper far better than that of other producing areas, so Aba Prefecture's reputation gradually spread. Chen Lao lived in Chunka Village, Xiaojin County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province for generations. Like other farmers here, they all grow peppers for a living. They have been growing peppers for generations, and all the planting techniques have been inherited from their fathers and grandfathers, and they have devoted their lives to red peppers. He found his own life experience from the experience of pepper planting. For more than 50 years, countless Zanthoxylum bungeanum have been produced from his hands, as a mark of time, recording his life. ?
In 20 18, Grandpa Chen appeared in the eyes of Jiujiuya's buyers like a hidden treasure. Zanthoxylum bungeanum in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province has become an essential raw material for Jiujiu duck neck.
"Every kind of pepper has its own characteristics, just like every kind of life can't be copied, but there is always one that is the most suitable." Kukuya, the purchasing director, recalled seeing "it" for the first time, and his memory was especially new.
He traveled to more than 200 counties and cities all over the country, and all kinds of pepper flavors were recorded in his mind. When I arrived in Aba Prefecture, my previous Chili memories seemed to be completely eclipsed.
Here, it is close to nature and away from the noise. ?
High-quality peppers are fundamental to the survival of villagers in Chenlao and Chunka villages. Their method of growing pepper was handed down from their ancestors. Although the planting methods and processing methods have been changing for many years, he is obsessed with the original flavor of pepper.
Chen Lao has followed his grandparents up the mountain to take care of peppers every day since he can remember. In his image, there were many families in the village at that time, and each family had a small pepper field. In autumn, when the peppers are ripe, everyone goes to the mountains to pick them, and groups of people are also very lively. ?
Picked fresh peppers are easy to get moldy, so they must be dried and evaporated on the same day. So we set off at 5 o'clock every morning. Aba Prefecture is very high above sea level, the fog in the mountains is still very thick, and the temperature in the morning is lower than expected. The dew is slightly cold on my face. There are paths in the mountains, extending in all directions, leading to pepper fields of various families.
Zanthoxylum bungeanum has many prickles, and it is easy to scratch hands when picking, but whether the oil cells on the surface of Zanthoxylum bungeanum are intact or not directly determines the fragrant and hemp taste of Zanthoxylum bungeanum. Therefore, in order not to destroy the oil cells on the surface of Zanthoxylum bungeanum, we can only pick them by hand with thread gloves, but thread gloves can't avoid some long prickles of Zanthoxylum bungeanum, so Chen Lao's hands have tiny scars over the years, but these scars have already been buried under thick calluses. ?
In the 1990s, pesticides and fertilizers gradually became popular, and farmers in Chunka village began to use this new farming agent. The harvest was good that year, but the pepper planted in this way seemed to have lost its soul, and the taste of sesame seeds was greatly reduced.
Chen Lao insists on original ecological planting and artificial picking. He said, "In fact, pepper cultivation does not need to be too complicated, because pepper itself is very tasty. What we have to do is to maintain its original feeling and reduce the damage of oil cells on the surface. "
The altitude here is higher than other places, and the ripening of pepper is one month later, so the fragrance and hemp taste are better precipitated. Just like weathered works of art, the late ripening of pepper means that it takes one more month to take care of pepper every year, and the fruit grows slowly, just like the passage of time.
After a morning of manual picking, each person can only pick a dozen kilograms of peppers. Zanthoxylum bungeanum landed firmly in the basket, emitting a charming fragrance. At noon, the sun was shining, and he spread the picked peppers gently and thinly on the threshing floor with special claws, so that every pepper was exposed to the sun, and the moisture of pepper gradually evaporated, and the whole threshing floor was immersed in the fragrance of pepper.
After drying, the weight of pepper is only one-fifth of the original. Grandpa Chen's family carefully collected peppers. In the sunset, some peppers are reddish, and some peppers are bright red.
Today, the younger generation in Chunka Village has moved to the county seat with the elderly, but Chen Lao still insists on living in the mountains. For fifty years, he has spent more than ten hours in the mountains every day, checking the growth of peppers and removing redundant peppers and branches. He enjoys the process of planting pepper, just like watching his children grow up slowly, living here and enjoying a stable, indifferent and free family happiness.
Since the brand was founded, Jiujiu Duck has always adhered to the original and classic flavor of Wuhan for 16 years. "Our understanding of the authenticity of Wuhan is not only the' authenticity' of the production process, but also the childhood flavor in memories. How to make them rejuvenate in the contemporary era." Master Zhu of Kukuya Center said. ?
Chinese civilization stretches for thousands of years and has different cultural charms in different historical periods. The pot-stewed taste of Jiujiu duck depends on the flavor memory of Jason Wu Street in the 1990s, and constantly adjusts the ways and types of materials according to the characteristics of modern raw materials and tastes, only to ensure the consistency of product taste.
With the development of agricultural planting technology, the industrial planting of many spices and the renewal of seed generation, some spices have lost their original flavor, and only by finding the original "source" flavor spices can they maintain their original flavor.
Nowadays, Jiujiuya's spice purchasing has been updated to more than 10 producing areas, and buyers visit all parts of the country for more than 200 days every year, just to find the most suitable spices. This is a continuous journey. I have been on the road for a long time.