In the old days in the Southern countryside, people often collected tree branches or fallen coconut leaves, chopped them into pieces, dried them and saved them for fueling the fire. Dried firewood piled up easily got wet, so people often used long wooden sticks or old cajuput trees or bamboo trees as pillars at both ends to fix the firewood so that it would be easy to stack and not fall over. The firewood piles in the yard were usually higher than 1.5m, and the firewood piles in the kitchen were made to have suitable height and width depending on the height of the kitchen.
I clearly remember the image of my grandmother picking up and saving each branch and bundle of dry coconut leaves every day. My grandfather's hometown at that time had dense trees and was cool all year round. Normally, just going to the garden to pick up dry branches was enough firewood to cook rice. Every time the garden was cleared, trees were cut down to clear the land to plant fruit trees or to get wood to make furniture for the house. The unused branches were piled up in the yard, waiting for all the leaves to fall off, then cut and stacked on the pile.
There are many types of firewood such as bottle gourd, myrtle, coconut leaves, coconut shells, and more luxurious ones include mangrove, mangrove, etc. Each type of tree has a different ability to catch fire. Trees that catch fire quickly will quickly burn out and turn to ash when burned. Trees that catch fire slowly will burn deeply and for a long time. When the fire goes out, they turn into charcoal that can still be used to dry roast, grill fish, grill meat, or boil water for tea.
Firewood piles in the yard of a country house.
To have a neat, beautiful firewood pile with all kinds of firewood was a hard work of my grandparents and parents back then. My paternal grandparents' house had a large yard. Every afternoon when the sky was clear and the wind was cool, my mother would make a pot of hot tea and put it on the table in the yard so that the whole family could gather in the yard to chop and stack firewood.
My father and grandfather sawed some big logs, splitting them into small pieces to make them easier to kindle in the kitchen. My mother sat on one side chopping coconut firewood, the old coconut leaves were dragged down or fell naturally and piled up in the yard. My mother peeled off all the coconut leaves, gathered them into large bundles and put them in the kitchen loft, and chopped the coconut leaves into short pieces. My grandmother arranged the coconut leaves in diagonal layers so that the firewood would have space to dry quickly, and only when the layer of firewood was completely dry did my grandmother stack it up.
That is how people in the countryside are, especially the elderly, whether the family is poor or well-off, they still maintain the lifestyle of saving when they are full for when they are hungry, and when it is sunny, they still have to worry about when it is raining heavily, that is the morality that our grandparents and parents always remind us. Any item must be utilized and used properly, not wastefully, firewood is the same, although there is a lot of it, but if we do not store dry wood, in the rainy months there will be no firewood to light a fire to cook rice.
The woman is stacking firewood to dry before placing it on the pile.
In the kitchen of a country house, the pile of firewood represents that foresight. The pile of firewood is never empty, after one or two days of use, more is found to replenish the pile of firewood, which is always full. The pile of firewood represents the diligence and industriousness of the people in the country, especially women. Looking at the way the pile of firewood is stacked, we can know the character of the person who made it. The neatly stacked piles of firewood, each type of firewood is a symbol of the skillfulness and meticulousness of the homeowner.
The piles of firewood in the yard were also prepared with rubber sheets in case of sudden rain. Whenever the sky started to have dark clouds, the first thing my grandmother would ask her grandchildren to do was to gather the firewood and cover it. At that time, we were playing toss cans in the yard and immediately ran to help her.
The long pile of firewood on the porch of my grandparents' house is a place that brings us many memories. Every day after school, when the sky is clear and cool, we go there to play hide and seek. Tu often teases the younger siblings, and 3-year-old Ut chases Tu around the pile of firewood, looking both adorable and funny. Our loud laughter echoes in a corner of the yard.
Thanks to the firewood, every time she cooked dinner, my mother could easily pull out the firewood needed, and the hot rice and soup were quickly cooked. The whole family sat under the shade of the star apple tree in front of the house, gathering together to enjoy a warm, harmonious meal. Every time there was a party, the firewood became even more important, and more firewood was brought home to cook a large number of dishes.
During the days before Tet, my family took the opportunity to find some strong firewood to cook banh tet. In the late afternoon of the year, my grandmother and mother took the opportunity to finish wrapping the basket of banh tet, my grandfather and father prepared water to cook banh tet in the yard, we ran out to the firewood pile to bring some strong firewood for my grandfather to cook banh tet.
Next to the pot of rice cakes, the fragrant aroma of sticky rice wafted out, my father arranged a pile of firewood next to it to bake rice cakes, my mother brought out the stove to cook coconut jam. On a thin mat in the dirt yard in front of the house, we rested our heads on my grandfather's legs, while he stroked our heads and told us stories.
I looked up at the moonless and starless sky of New Year's Eve, the mist was gradually turning cold but the red fire was still burning, along with the love of my grandparents and parents that warmed my entire childhood, not easily fading in my memory.
Article and photos: NHA UYEN
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