This is a collection of documentary stories rooted in rural China in the 1960s, focusing on the orchard life of a people's commune production team on the Loess Plateau. In an era of scarcity of materials and rudimentary technology, fruit farmers represented by Wang Mancang guarded the vast apple groves with rough hands. From thinning flowers in early spring, preventing insects in summer, to drainage in autumn, and picking in late autumn, they put all their hard work into every fruit tree in the four seasons.
The book delicately restores vivid scenes of collective labor: members carried heavy sprayers and sprayed chemicals among the fruit trees, dug ditches in the rain to protect the roots of the fruit trees, sat around in the orchard to sort the bagged green fruits, and drove the carriages to transport the red apples to the county supply and marketing cooperative... Every scene is soaked in sweat and laughter, recording the unique collective spirit of that era.
The story includes the anxiety and response of fruit farmers when faced with pests and diseases, the concerted efforts to save themselves when encountering heavy rains and floods, the joy and expectation of harvest dividends, and the mutual help and warmth between neighbors regardless of you or me. The technical collision between the decentralized educated youth Li Xiuying and the old fruit farmers, the overall planning and dispatching of the captain Zhang Jianguo, and the inheritance of the experience of the old technician Uncle Li jointly weave a picture of rural life full of fireworks.
From astringent green fruits to plump red fruits, from orchard smoke to the intertwined aroma of wheat, the book not only shows the natural laws of fruit tree growth, but also reflects the perseverance and optimism of ordinary people amid the tide of the times. Those stories about cultivation and harvest, about the persistence of land and hope, can still make people feel the vigorous vitality of the loess land and the most authentic life wisdom of the working people.
