Dried stuff

When we saw them harvesting the corn last year, we were hopeful of buying some - but to our amazement they seemed to put it all out to dry. First they dried it on the cob, then they scraped it off and left the kernels drying on the pavements.

Then there were cabbage and lettuce leaves laid out all over the place - on roof-tops, pavements, even hanging from washing lines. And later canola plants, and so on.

This year we are in the city, and so we see much less of these kinds of arrangements. But I think the lady who lives across and down from us must be a country girl.

She does all her washing - lots and lots of it - in the sink on her balcony. And she has herbs growing in pots on the edge of the balcony. In the summer she often laid out various fruits and little fish on large flat baskets to dry in the sun. The apartment seems to have two floors, she appears on the balcony above too, cleaning everything there meticulously and putting foods out to dry. In this photo the man is laying out what looks like large fish on the rails to dry.

You can also see on the third balcony up, someone else is also drying some leaves on the ledge.

But recently we were amazed by the developments on the second balcony. It looks like they are making beef-jerky, there are poles with strips of meat hanging to dry. They have been there for several weeks. And now:

Well, we have to admit, we are somewhat intrigued. How can you dry such large pieces of meat, and why would you? And what about the smog dust that settles on everything ...

Mind you, back in Zhengzhou we often saw a field full of noodles hung over lines drying in the dusty air by the main road.

And then, walking down the alley the other day we saw that this lady is not the only one who hangs out large chunks of meat to dry.

Makes you pause before you bite into your next dish of meat.