How much southerners love (eat) osmanthus, northerners don't understand.

If you can't find your home,

I just got back and smelled osmanthus fragrance.

I am a child from the south. I am in the north and miss the smell of osmanthus.

In August of the lunar calendar, posthumous title "Gui Yue". From the misty water town in the south of the Yangtze River, to the Central China Plain where the whistle roared, to the southwest hills surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the Lingnan area where the "autumn tiger" flourished, the whole autumn in the south is the world of osmanthus.

When I was young, around the Mid-Autumn Festival, we always smelled the hidden fragrance outside the window, with a hint of sweetness in the cold.

This kind of fragrance is not aggressive, but it has considerable penetration. Usually when you are in a trance, a sweet smell gently melts into your nose, but suddenly it becomes gentle. You looked everywhere, but before you saw the osmanthus tree, you were already immersed in the fragrance of osmanthus-the fragrance in the room, the fragrance by the window, and the fragrance all over the street. But osmanthus is hiding behind the leaves, looking at you shyly.

This sweet-scented osmanthus is also a treasure in autumn. It smells refreshing and makes people feel good.

In my memory, in the morning of late autumn, I am often awakened by that sweet smell. I saw my mother wearing an old apron for cooking, busy in front of a steaming pot, and sweat soaked my temples. Looking intently, the pot is sweet-scented osmanthus soup, which makes a noise and grabs the porcelain bowl. After a big taste, a sweet warm current, accompanied by fragrance and mother's loving eyes, warmed in my heart with the autumn in my hometown.

When I grew up, I said goodbye to my hometown and came to the vibrant north. There are naturally osmanthus fragrans in the north, but it is not prosperous. The original elegant aroma is more ethereal. Occasionally, I have to look around and take a few deep breaths, for fear that an autumn wind will blow and disperse this thin fragrance. Once you miss it, you have to wait for a whole year.

Late autumn is always a time when children in the south are homesick, because sweet-scented osmanthus.

The world is big, if we talk about feelings in flowers, for us, there is only osmanthus.

Osmanthus fragrans, also known as "Osmanthus fragrans", originated in southern China and distributed in Jiangnan, Central China and Lingnan.

As ancient flowers and trees, there are many varieties, among which the most famous ones are Dangui, Jingui and Yin Gui, all of which can plant trees in red, yellow and white, all of which bloom in autumn. Among the three brothers, Jingui is the most beautiful, Dangui is the most fragrant and Yin Gui is the most elegant; There is also a younger brother, Sijigui, who is light yellow in color and short in plants. It is suitable for potted plants and can bloom several times a year, with a faint fragrance.

Speaking of osmanthus, I have to mention Suzhou and Hangzhou. These two Jiangnan cities with similar temperament are also the world of autumn osmanthus.

Hangzhou, Guangxi, is misty and rainy in the south of the Yangtze River.

Osmanthus fragrans in Hangzhou can create a vast picture of misty rain in the south of the Yangtze River. "The stars and the moon are full of yellow, and the osmanthus trees in half the city." Around the Mid-Autumn Festival in August of the lunar calendar, osmanthus is as rich as gold ink, which makes the whole city dizzy and beautiful. The West Lake is full of tourists. Under the fragrance of the sky, even if the autumn wind is bleak, tourists will naturally be intoxicated.

Old Hangzhou will tell you that tourists only go to the West Lake to enjoy the moon.

In the season when osmanthus flowers are in full bloom, local people will go hand in hand to avoid noisy tourists and go to Manjuelong, south of the West Lake. This is a valley, which has been the most prosperous place of osmanthus outside Hangzhou since the Ming Dynasty. If the autumn wind is heavy, osmanthus flowers in the valley often fall with the wind and look as dense as rain beads from afar; If you are among the osmanthus trees, it seems that you are bathed in flowers and rain, and the fragrance is overflowing, so you have no interest.

This is a scene in Hangzhou, "full of rain in Gui Long".

Being in Hangzhou, if there is no tea, I always feel that something is wrong. If we can make a pot of osmanthus Longjing in the rain, I'm glad you can come. Longjing is spring break, and osmanthus is autumn flavor. Every kind of tea and flower takes half a year to have a perfect encounter.

Suzhou Gui, Jasper Bridge flowing water

The osmanthus in Suzhou looks like many small jasper.

This is a garden-like city, with peony, pear and cherry blossoms blooming alternately. Only osmanthus is a supporting role, scattered all over the city, always let you look for it. Even in the exquisite and elegant Supai gardens, osmanthus flowers are often quiet in a corner, unobtrusive and uncontroversial, and beautiful alone, just like exquisite and elegant Suzhou embroidery.

In late autumn, tourists flock to Tiger Hill, bustling among osmanthus flowers. The real old Suzhou, around the autumnal equinox, will come to Shihu to enjoy the moon and go boating, watching the bright moon reflected on bridge opening, as if several moons were strung together. This is Wu's folk custom, called "Stone Lake String Moon".

Osmanthus fragrans in the night looks pale in the cold moonlight, and its posture is secretive and fleeting. Like a graceful Jiangnan woman, she also knows how to advance and retreat. Only when the flowers fall in late autumn can she bloom quietly and sweetly.

Suzhou people's love for osmanthus is more about taste. People here love sweetness, and this osmanthus is like a godsend. It is collected here and dried on the stove. Boil the syrup on the other side of the box, it is steaming and sweet, and then add the osmanthus fragrans with sealed autumn flavor, and the osmanthus syrup will be ready.

This kind of syrup is available all over the country, but it is fragrant, sweet and authentic cooked by Suzhou people. Its sweetness will travel through Suzhou all year round, drenching lotus roots, yam, rice cakes and small rows, which will soothe people with winter brewing.

Guilin and Guangxi have their own charm.

Whose osmanthus is the most beautiful in Suzhou and Hangzhou? Seeing this, Guilin smiled.

Guilin, osmanthus trees become forests, and there is no garden without planting osmanthus, as everyone knows. Not to mention parks and scenic spots, Guilin people will not hesitate to plant osmanthus trees, even downstairs in the community and in their own yard, and take good care of them until they bloom.

It is hot in Lingnan, and osmanthus trees will bloom in October. Once it blooms, the whole Guilin is like knocking over golden paint, and pieces of cinnamon are dotted with orange and silvery white, which is quite ostentatious; You take a breath gently, and the whole city is more like knocking over osmanthus perfume, as if there is no other taste.

Dangui is a must in Guilin. Its color is orange, which stands out among the branches and leaves. Although small, there is a kind of wild publicity, also called Zhuang Yuanhong. Its fragrance is rich, and other osmanthus flowers are elegant. It is free and unrestrained, like a passionate southern girl, straight at your face.

Guilin people are very lucky. In late autumn, the three-color osmanthus flowers in the city, together with the strange mountains and waters beside the Lijiang River, are as sweet as perfume everywhere. Guilin's beauty, enthusiasm and charm are unique, so it doesn't need much pen and ink.

Osmanthus fragrans in the south is so beautiful. It has countless postures. Hangzhou beauty, Suzhou beauty, Guilin beauty. If so, what kind of osmanthus do you think is the most beautiful?

Secretly tell you, for us, no matter how good the osmanthus is, it is not as good as the mother kitchen.

China people have little talent except farming and eating goods. Our highest praise for flowers is to eat her seriously.

Osmanthus Jelly, the ancient charm of the south of the Yangtze River.

Ancient people put flowers in and made them into dishes or snacks, which is called "flower cake". The Southern Song Dynasty's "Shanjia Qing Palace" recorded that purple chrysanthemums were picked in spring, gardenias were fried in summer, and cold cakes were made in autumn. This kind of cake with a wide and cold taste needs to be "picked with cinnamon, sent to Di Qing, sprinkled with licorice water, and cooked with rice spring powder". In fact, it is Osmanthus Jelly, which is all over the south of the Yangtze River today.

There are many schools in Osmanthus Jelly. If we follow the ancient prescriptions, Osmanthus Jelly, Wenzhou and Zhejiang may be more primitive. Collecting osmanthus fragrans, drying in the sun, pickling with molasses, mixing rice flour with cooked lard and white sugar, steaming in a box, and seasoning with osmanthus fragrans molasses. Obtained a fresh and elegant taste.

In ancient Osmanthus Jelly, there was a special kind of cake-Shigang Rubbing Cake in Nantong, Jiangsu. This is an intangible cultural heritage, and its real name is printed cake, because every cake has a pink print.

In order to make Shigang cake, local japonica rice and glutinous rice need to be mixed in proportion, soaked for 7 days before processing, washed for 7 times, ground into rice flour, wrapped in flowing osmanthus bean paste, steamed into cake and printed. The Osmanthus Jelly made by this method is white and soft when it is hot, and it is cool but not hard when it is put aside. It's a seasonal tea, which starts from the fright every year and ends before the long summer.

This is sweet, through the Millennium.

Osmanthus fragrans and syrup are a pair of partners who have gone through thousands of years. Inside and outside are both inside and outside, fragrant and elegant, sweet without robbing people, clear without robbing color. It allows you to travel back to the Millennium, appreciate the unique flavor of ancient China, and also set up a modern bridge in Guangxi, holding hands with exotic customs and playing with the combination of Chinese and Western cultures.

For example, modern Cantonese morning tea, duang came to duang, and went to Osmanthus Jelly with coconut juice. It combines the skills of Cantonese, Chaozhou and Western dim sum. First, mix coconut juice and osmanthus syrup with gelatin, then steam one layer and spread another. Finally, sprinkle with golden broken osmanthus.

What a hooligan! duang is in your eyes, duang is in your mouth, and duang is in your heart ... Eating or not is really a problem.

Now in various coffee shops, osmanthus lattes are indispensable in autumn. It is the whimsy of Shanghai Shili Ocean Park. With the rise of local coffee in recent years, it awakens the sleeping soul in late autumn and enriches the afternoon comfort of new urban white-collar workers. It is said that in Hangzhou, you must have a drink before the rain falls with the wind.

Who says osmanthus can only be used as dessert?

There are too many smells related to osmanthus. It has long surpassed dessert, and can be used to make tea, decorate meat and even make wine. A sweet-scented osmanthus has countless beautiful faces.

In Taiwan Province Province, Baodao, there is a special sweet-scented osmanthus oolong, which is quite artistic in Gui Xiang. Knowledgeable local tea farmers will plant osmanthus trees next to the tea garden to enhance the aroma of oolong tea; In the baking process, dried osmanthus fragrans will be added to further increase the aroma level, and osmanthus fragrans in full bloom can also be seen in the brewed tea.

We returned to Shaoxing, a water town in the south of the Yangtze River. This is the hometown of yellow rice wine, and osmanthus will naturally not be absent. Be diligent, then boil the dried osmanthus with water, filter, add yellow wine and roll it again; If you are lazy, just soak osmanthus in yellow wine. There is also osmanthus wine brewed by directly adding osmanthus. It is warm and cold in late autumn, and it is best to warm a pot.

The last finale is Suzhou's unique winter wine making, also called "Dongyang wine". It was once the capital of Wu during the Warring States Period. Traditionally, it takes the winter solstice as the beginning of the year. Up to now, Suzhou still has the custom that the winter solstice is as big as a year.

There is a saying in Suzhou, don't drink winter wine on the solstice in winter, and don't resist winter in the coming year. This wine is based on rice wine and brewed with osmanthus. Golden color, sweet taste, faint osmanthus fragrance, very refreshing.

Very rare. It is brewed only once a year. Want to drink again can only wait until next year. Just like osmanthus, it only blooms once a year, and the flowering period is not long. If you miss it, see you next year.

It's another year of sweet-scented osmanthus blossom, and thousands of miles of * * * enjoy the mid-autumn moon. Quietly, the Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, just like this osmanthus tree, fleeting and silent.

Every child who grew up in the south has a lingering fragrance in his soul, that is, osmanthus. After all, in that foggy hometown, osmanthus fragrance is everywhere. Even if you are not around, this unique aroma will inadvertently appear in your diet with sweetness, nourishing your taste and making you linger.

The homesickness of southerners is sweet on the tip of the tongue, and it is also "bitter with sweet". The astringency and sweetness are intertwined, just like the sweet-scented osmanthus just picked. The longer you travel outside, the more homesick you naturally become; However, the more I rush about, the more I dare not turn back easily.

There are many flavors in this world, and there is nothing strange about it. One mountain is higher than the other. But no matter how fragrant it is, it is just a meal that goes home thousands of miles away; Nothing is sweeter than my mother's sweet-scented osmanthus candy. Getting up in the morning still smells sweet; Pushing open the kitchen door, it is still a pot of osmanthus soup. However, my mother's sweat-soaked sideburns have turned gray, like the silver laurel under the moon and the bleak frost.

So, I'm running here and there, afraid to turn back easily. I didn't understand this feeling when I was a child, and I didn't understand it when I was studying. Now I can't smell the fragrance of osmanthus, and I finally understand.

Osmanthus fragrans in my hometown has a short flowering period and often falls in the drizzle within a few days. Fortunately, people always have a way to keep the fragrance of flowers in the hands of diet and become an elegant ornament of southern festivals and even all the year round. I also want to thank the developed logistics, the beauty of the source and the homesickness on the tip of my tongue.

I am a child from the south. I am in the north and miss the smell of osmanthus.

Wen | Shuishui

Head Photography | Ye Sheng