Take a Bite of The Drinking Straw

Wheat Drinking Straws

到了4月底台南才下了一場大家渴望的春雨, 在香港長大的我,很難想像停水或是農作物乾旱、水塘見底。前幾天,與幾位少女相約到台南城外採收小麥。因為乾旱,這批小麥長得有點營養不良,地主本來想讓他們自然枯萎,化成土地養份;後來在鄉間社區工作的友人想到或可再利用它們,決定一起採收。

雖然說是採收,但除了彎腰,其實是很輕鬆的。沒有下雨,泥土乾枯,不需要使用鐮刀來割斷,雙手使力便可把小麥輕易地連根拔起。所以,我們比較像在「除草」多於「採收」。我們左手抓起一大把麥,右手也抓起一大把小麥,然後互相拍打,泥土沙沙聲地散落;把一小束的小麥拋到一邊,集成一捆便綁起來,最後大概採收了二十捆。

第一次跟小麥如此靠近,竟不為了磨成麵粉使用。畢竟在缺水的情況下,小麥發育不良,品質不算最好,所以這次採收目的其實是取它的莖作為飲管。

「小麥的莖部是空心的,因為種植過程怕水,讓小麥與生俱來有著光滑不易附著水氣的表皮,不只是小麥,像蘆葦、蒲草都有這種特性。因為是植物,吸啜時對身體無害。小麥飲管甚至可以清洗,風乾再用。」少女常研究自然纖維,喜歡使用不需機械加工、分解或重組,便能在生活上應用的東西;相對那些不銹鋼的、玻璃的飲管,更環保、更貼近大地。

當然,理想的做法是不使用飲管。然而,「飲管」的需求究竟是甚麼呢?如果是因為冰塊的關係,那冷飲有沒有其他的做法或承載?在人類還沒法完全解決飲管的使用前,如果飲管的使用者或店家都可以收割需要的小麥,自己製作小麥飲管,讓植物本身的特質成為理所當然生活一部份,那肯定是一件世紀性的藝術作品。我幻想,餐廳一角種有小麥,需要使用飲管的客人自己去採收,讓大家更接近物品的生產源頭也很不錯呢。

It wasn’t until the end of April that the much-awaited Spring rain finally arrived at Tainan. For someone like me, who grew up in Hong Kong, I am definitely not familiar with water shortages, not to mention water scarcity for agriculture and even dried up ponds. A few days ago, I went wheat-harvesting with some of my young girlfriends outside Tainan City. Because of the recent drought, the wheat was a bit malnourished. At first, the farmer wanted to let the wheat wither naturally and then turn them into nutrients for the land. But my friends who work in the neighbourhood thought they could do something with the wheat, and that’s how the harvest came to be.

It was quite an easy job except for the constant bending over. The soil was dry because of the water scarcity and we didn’t need to use the hand sickles to cut the crops. With just a gentle pull by the hand, the entire branch of wheat was uprooted, and it made me feel more like I was weeding instead of harvesting. To get rid of the soil attached to the root, we grabbed a handful of wheat in both of our hands and beat the two bundles against each other. The bundles would then be put aside, and when there were enough little bundles, they would be tied into sheaves. At the end of the day, we managed to produce twenty sheaves.

It was my first intimate encounter with wheat harvesting, but we weren’t taking them from the field and grinding them into flour because they were a bit malnourished and not of the best quality due to the water scarcity. Instead, we used the wheat to make drinking straws.

“Wheat has a hollow stalk. It doesn’t need much water to grow and has a surface layer that does not allow moisture to adhere to it easily. Reeds and pampas grass also have surface layers like that. As wheat is a plant, it is harmless to the human body. “ Wheat drinking straws can even be washed and air-dried for reuse,” explained one of my girlfriends who studies natural fibers. She is also a fan of products that do not go through mechanical processing, decomposition or restructure. Compared to those made of stainless steel and glass, the wheat drinking straw is more environmentally friendly and natural.

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