Pumpkin Stewed Rice

Pumpkin Stewed Rice

　　During the autumn harvest season, corn planted on the eastern and western mountains of Mile County ripens, and the pumpkins intercropped among the cornfields also turn yellow. Since the mountain fields are far from the villages, the Axi people of the Yi ethnic group often have lunch right in the fields to save time—picking a mature pumpkin to use as a pot, and cooking a “pot” of rice to enjoy a hearty meal. The Axi say that harvesting corn without eating pumpkin rice leaves them too tired to work.

After working for a while, the women in the fields look up at the sun through their hands acting as a shade, and when it’s time for lunch, they stop working and casually pick a pumpkin about the size of a washbasin from the cornfield. They cut a round opening the size of a bowl at the stem end, scoop out the flesh, and put washed rice from the mountain stream, cured meat sliced at home, and freshly picked wild greens washed in the mountains all into the pumpkin. Then they add the right amount of water, oil, and salt, cover it with the pumpkin lid, place it on a “stove” made of three stones, and start cooking after lighting some dry branches. Half an hour later, the “pumpkin pot” begins to emit an inviting aroma. Even the dogs that follow their owners to the fields will run up to their masters and bark cheerfully to announce the meal is ready.

By this time, the workers go to the mountain stream to wash their hands, then carry the steaming “pumpkin pot” to a shady tree. When they open the lid, they see snow-white grains of rice, golden pumpkin, bright red slices of cured meat, and green wild vegetables—all of which instantly whet the appetite. The whole family sits around the “pot,” and during the meal, it’s always the elders who start eating first. They always save the best parts for their daughters-in-law or grandchildren. The family savors the meal together, enjoying the joy of the harvest. Saying that the Axi people are a musical and dancing ethnic group is no exaggeration. After eating and drinking their fill, the men take down the large sanxian (a traditional Chinese three-stringed instrument) hanging from the tree and gently pluck its strings, while the women pick a leaf from the tree and play a melodious tune... Once they’ve rested enough, the people drink plenty of mountain stream water, feel reinvigorated, and head back to work in the fields.