水稻田是高價值農地，可以產米，其他梯田只可種花生、番薯等耐旱的農作物。由於吉澳水源嚴重不足。種稻的水田只佔梯田的百分之二三。我祖先是最早落籍吉澳的氏族之一，因此擁有十多塊水稻田。先祖最初在海邊築堤壩，然後在六角井週圍墾地開田。這些水稻田可說已佔吉澳全部水稻田的一半，其餘一半散落在「過坑仔」，「深涌」和「白沙頭」。吉澳的稻米每年只可一造，稻穀收割後便改種疏菜。

 

種稻一般在農曆二、三月，先在禾苗田播種，其他準備插秧的田每一塊都要翻土，利用牛隻拖犁翻土，再用牛拖着泥耙將泥團與水混合，因此耕田的都會養牛，客家人叫看牛做「掌牛」，掌字是掌管的意思。禾苗約生到六、七吋高便可插秧，客家話叫「蒔田」或「蒔禾仔」。插秧的人手拿禾苗一路插一路退後。禾苗約長高到三呎左右要經過耘田施肥，所謂「耘田」就是清除雜草，先將浸在田中的水放盡，走入田中，拿木棍作手杖以防滑倒，用腳將雜草踏入泥中令其不生。到農曆六月左右穀粒成熟便可收割，將穀粒曬乾後，留下明年的種子，其餘便擔去沙頭角的「火攪舖」(例如逸生昌)。火攪舖即是米舖，可以代客用電磨將穀粒去殼磨成白米，即「新禾米」，煮出的飯香噴軟熟，因此比舊米值錢。以前的人較節儉，一般不會留下「新禾米」自己享用，寧願和米舖交易，用新米兌換碎米，這樣可以換取多些米。

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There are a lot of terraces in Kat O, but only 2 to 3 per cent of them were used as rice paddies because there are no rivers or streams on Kat O, so there was a serious shortage of water. My family's ancestors were one of the earliest clans to settle on Kat O, so our clan owned more than 10 rice paddies. First, our ancestors built a dam at the seashore to prevent seawater from entering the area. Then they cultivated the land around Hek Kok Tsui to open up the rice paddies. Their rice paddies made up half of all the rice paddies on Kat O. The other half were scattered in Kau Hang Tsai, Sham Chung and Pak Sha Tau. Rice paddies were high-value agricultural land, but the other terraces could grow only drought-resistant crops, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes. On Kat O, only one rice crop could be grown each year. After the rice was harvested, the land was planted with vegetables.

 

Rice was usually planted in February and March, according to the lunar calendar. The process began with seeding in the sapling fields. Each field intended for transplanting rice seedlings had to be turned over. Oxen would pull a plough to turn the soil and then a harrow to mix the soil with water. So if you ploughed the fields, you had to keep oxen. When the seedlings were six or seven inches tall, they were ready for transplanting, a process referred to as “dill field” or “dill rice” in Hakka. The rice-planting workers held the seedlings in their hands and planted them in rows across the field. When the seedlings were about three feet tall, weeds and water were removed from the fields and fertiliser was applied. To remove the weeds after the water was drained, we walked in the field with a wooden stick to avoid slipping and stepped on the weeds with our feet, pushing them into the mud so that they couldn’t grow. When the grains were ripe in the sixth month of the lunar calendar, they could be harvested. After drying the grains in the sun, the seeds for the next year were kept, and the rest were taken to the Fire Stirring Shops (e.g. Yat Sang Cheong) in Sha Tau Kok. These were rice shops equipped with electric mills that could remove the rice hulls and grind the grain into rice for their customers. The newly hulled rice was called new rice and was more valuable than the old rice because of the former’s aroma and softness when cooked. In the old days, people were more frugal and usually did not keep the new rice for their own consumption. They preferred to trade it for broken rice to take more rice home.

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