The origin of boiled eggs in local dishes on March 3
"On March 3rd, shepherd's purse boiled eggs." On the third day of the third lunar month, there is a folk custom of boiling eggs with shepherd's purse. It is said that eating eggs boiled with shepherd's purse won't hurt your waist, legs or head for a year.
There is a beautiful legend about "eating vegetables and boiling eggs on March 3". In Chu, people often have headaches because of wind and rain. On the third day of March, Shennong passed Yunmengze (now Xiaogan, Hubei) and saw that the villagers had a terrible headache. He found wild eggs and local vegetables and cooked them to satisfy people's hunger. When people eat it, their heads suddenly stop hurting. The custom of "eating local dishes and boiling eggs on March 3, a year without headaches" has also continued to this day.
There is also a legend: during the Three Kingdoms period, the famous doctor Hua Tuo went to Miancheng to collect medicine. One day, when he was sheltering from the rain in an old man's house, he saw that the old man was suffering from headache, dizziness, pain and embarrassment. Hua tuo immediately diagnosed the old man, picked a handful of rice dishes in the old man's garden, and asked the old man to take juice and boil eggs. The old man obeyed, took three eggs and recovered. The story spread, people scrambled eggs with rice in succession, and the craze spread all over urban and rural areas. Hua tuo treated the elderly on March 3, so the dish of boiled eggs with rice on March 3 gradually spread and formed a custom.
There is also a saying that the third day of the third lunar month is the day when the Han people welcome the souls of their ancestors. They eat eggs to commemorate their ancestors, hoping to get some aura. The practice is very particular. The first is to choose shepherd's purse.
Ground vegetables are called "licorice in vegetables", and eggs are rich in protein and other nutrients. Boiling eggs with ground vegetables can make them taste more delicious.
Because the homonym of shepherd's purse is "amassing wealth", according to folklore, on the third day of March, at the time of ancestor worship, people will use the gods and wealth of their ancestors to wash fresh shepherd's purse, tie it into small bundles, add eggs, red dates, balloons and two or three slices of ginger to cook a big pot, and the whole family will eat a bowl and have a good time. It is said that it can remove rheumatism, clear fire, relieve pain in waist and legs, and prevent spring plague.
Why pick shepherd's purse on March 3?
Shepherd's purse is found all year round in the south. If you cook, pick it whenever you want. However, if used as medicine, the shepherd's purse picked in early March of the lunar calendar has the best medicinal properties.
Herb picking is the aura of heaven and earth, so no matter what kind of medicinal materials, we should pay attention to the picking time. If you don't pick it at the right time, the efficacy will be greatly reduced. Shepherd's purse in early March, the first batch of tender seedlings sent out in early spring just matured and stored the energy of the whole winter, while the weather in early spring was still cold and grew slowly, so it had the highest medicinal value. The things that come out from behind grow fast, and the medicinal value will decrease.
When cooking eggs with vegetables, don't really be a panacea
The real "boiled egg with green vegetables" is to wash shepherd's purse, put it in a pot, add appropriate amount of water, add spices such as cinnamon, star anise, spiced powder and soy sauce, and cook it with the eggs. When the eggs are cooked, pick them up and eat them.
Although the custom says that "boiled eggs with local dishes" can "cure all diseases" and "cure all diseases", I want to tell you that it is a good thing to keep the custom, but it is foolish to believe it too much.
There is not much difference in nutrition between boiled eggs with shepherd's purse and boiled eggs with cabbage or boiled eggs with boiled water. For the purpose of "curing all diseases", netizens should not eat too much boiled eggs with shepherd's purse, especially those with hyperlipidemia and the elderly, so as to avoid taking too much cholesterol from egg yolk. It is suggested that such people drink boiled water with local dishes, not boiled eggs with local dishes.
In addition, it is best to buy artificially cultivated shepherd's purse when eating shepherd's purse. If it is possible to cut authentic wild shepherd's purse in rural areas, we should also pay attention to the growth position of shepherd's purse to ensure that it is not affected by water pollution before cutting it home for consumption. Pay attention to washing once or twice before eating, and blanch with boiling water before eating to ensure the hygiene and safety of wild vegetables.
Don't eat wild vegetables at will
Many wild vegetables contain toxic ingredients, such as wild celery, wild carrot, Fructus Cnidii, wild garlic and other wild vegetables, and the consumers will be poisoned or even die. Some edible wild vegetables will have side effects if eaten too much. For example, wild vegetables such as grey vegetables, amaranth, alfalfa and Sophora japonica can induce solar dermatitis after being eaten by sunlight, and in severe cases, symptoms such as dizziness appear.
In addition, wild vegetables grown on grasslands and roads where industrial wastewater flows are polluted, and the content of harmful substances such as mercury and lead is high, so eating this polluted wild vegetable is also easy to be poisoned. Don't eat unknown wild vegetables, edible wild vegetables, and it is best to soak them in water for more than two hours before eating to reduce harmful components. People can't eat wild vegetables.