Yi pickled vegetables

Yi pickled vegetables

　　Yi pickled vegetables

　　The Yi people in the mountainous regions of Heqing, Yunnan, are skilled at pickling wild vegetables, producing a wide variety of flavorsome and delicious preserved dishes. Moreover, each dish doubles as an effective remedy for treating illnesses. Come the tenth lunar month, it becomes the “golden season” for gathering and preserving wild greens. During this time, the hillsides are filled with people digging up wild vegetables, their laughter and songs ringing throughout the mountains, resembling a bustling temple fair. Passed down through generations, this occasion is known as the Pickled Vegetable Festival.

　　The tenth day of the tenth lunar month marks the peak of the Pickled Vegetable Festival. On this day, people gather in the mountains to collectively hold “Singing about Vegetables” and “Tasting the Oddities” events. “Singing about Vegetables” involves singing folk songs in a call-and-response style, where participants take turns asking and answering questions to introduce different types of wild greens, their preparation and preservation methods, color and flavor characteristics, as well as their health benefits and medicinal value... After the singing, each household selects one type of vegetable to pickle on-site as a special festive dish to share with everyone.

　　“Tasting the Oddities” refers to a communal feast where everyone samples the various uniquely pickled dishes prepared by each household. Among them, “Spring Vegetables” and “Eight Treasures” rice are essential festival foods. “Spring Vegetables” are made by mashing cleaned fish mint, Sichuan pepper tips, wild leek roots, shredded radish, hawthorn slices, kudzu root slices, olives, stone flower algae, tender bracken shoots, green chili peppers, ginger shreds, and papaya slices with salt in a wooden mortar using a pestle. These are then served with a dipping sauce made of sesame oil, walnut sauce, and bayberry jam mixed with papaya vinegar. The flavor is incredibly fresh and aromatic, and after eating, it is believed to have therapeutic effects such as clearing heat, detoxifying, reducing swelling, aiding digestion, and treating urinary tract infections, tonsillitis, pneumonia, hepatitis, as well as promoting beauty. “Eight Treasures” rice is a dish made by stewing glutinous rice, corn kernels, oats, buckwheat flour together with pine nuts, red dates, and chestnuts, and then served with honey. Composed of eight different ingredients, this rice not only has a unique flavor but is also believed to have benefits such as calming the nerves, replenishing energy, beautifying the skin, and promoting longevity—hence its name, “Eight Treasures” rice.