These days, everywhere you look people are drying onions for the winter.
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| People have stacked up their vegetables on the front porches of stores, out their windows, even on the steps of a bank! |
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| More onions, the tops all wrapped to make little bunches |
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| Cabbages, too. I think some of these are for storage all winter, but people here make pickled cabbage, too. We're pretty close to Korea, but it's not kimchi. Kimchi is spicy pickled cabbage, and Chinese pickled cabbage is just pickled. |
I have been wanting to take pictures of the vegetable trucks for several days now. Every time I'd seen them, though, I was in a car zipping past it while my camera sat somewhere in my purse. I told some of my Chinese friends that I wanted to go find some and take pictures, and they both laughed at the idea. "Why would you want to take a picture of that?!" This is just so normal for them, like a mail truck or a lawnmower. To me, though, it's totally foreign!
Today I took a long walk and spotted these guys along the way.
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| On the right we have big radishes or turnips, the middle truck has bags of sweet potatoes, and you can't really see the cabbage truck on the left. |
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| But here's another cabbage truck! |
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| An onion truck, half empty already |
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| A cabbage truck. The one on the ground is actually on a scale to sell it by weight. I think the price these days is about 0.1 yuan per 1/2 kilo. That means less than 2 cents per pound. |
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| This little courtyard was heaping with onions on the ground to dry, cabbages on the steps in the background, laundry hung to dry, and also strips of green turnip hung to dry. I usually just see buildings as I walk by, but I love seeing evidence of lives being lived. |
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| Here's a close-up of the turnips hung to dry. It reminds me of New Mexico's ristras. |
Sometimes it feels like Shenyang is just a city: concrete, cars, pavement, and noise. But I love it when the humanity shows through like this. Happy fall, everyone!
7 comments:
This is a great post with awesome pictures! When we got to Beijing they were drying corn and would take up a lane on the roads to spread it all out on. People just drove or biked around it without blinking twice. Seeing evidence of daily life does turn a city into a home!
Emily pickles cabbage! So these trucks only appear in the fall? Do the dried cabbage and onions really last all winter? Thanks for sharing all ur pictures!
Yeah, it's just in the Fall. From what I've heard, the cabbages last all winter. We'll see, though. :)
Haha, maybe if I spoke Chinese then I could have known more about what was going on while we lived in China! I some pics like this with the loads and loads of cabbage and other veggies. One of my favorite dishes was a cabbage dish, so yummy!
Fun post! i loved the pickled cabbages and vegetables in taiwan. It generally wasn't as spicy as kimchee but they did put some peppers in there for a kick and I loved it. I would love a recipe. I did indeed pickle some here but its a very different sweet and sour recipe. In Taiwan I would see stuff laying out to dry or cure nearly year around but thats probably due to the tropical type climate.
I love this post. It makes me think of the cabbage vendor in "Avatar: The Last Airbender". "My cabbages!!!!"
I love seeing all the vegetables, too! :D
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