Chapter 61 Summer Resort

For this summer's harvest of vegetables, I stored two sacks of dried green beans, one sack of dried eggplant, and one sack of dried cucumber.

Once the leaves of various vegetable seedlings begin to turn yellow and the flowers become sparse, this batch of seedlings can be pulled up and new vegetables can be planted.

However, slow-growing crops like watermelons, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins don't need to be pulled up and replanted.

By the time they mature, it will already be autumn, and even if you plant another crop, it won't mature before the snow.

Now that it's the height of summer, the weather is unusually hot.

The temperature can reach 34 or 35 degrees Celsius at its hottest.

It's worth noting that in Montreal's normal weather, a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius was considered extremely hot.

Now, the first batch of bean and cucumber seedlings can no longer flower and bear fruit.

I had to pull them up and replant new green beans and cucumbers in this hot weather.

These are saved for the autumn harvest, to be eaten in winter.

If you wait until the weather cools down to plant, it will be too late to harvest.

In addition to green beans and cucumbers, we also need to plant white radishes and Chinese cabbage.

This is a classic winter-stored dish for northerners.

With its large production volume and long storage time, it can be stored in the basement and last for an entire winter.

We also need to plant Chinese cabbage, bok choy, garland chrysanthemum, and cilantro.

The crop planted in spring has already flowered and produced seeds, and it's too old to eat now.

For the sake of my happiness in late autumn and winter, I have to endure some hardship and continue farming from dawn till dusk.

To avoid heatstroke, and not wanting to suffer too much.

I can only get up at four or five in the morning, when it's just getting light.

Go to the vegetable garden, pull up the seedlings, and then plant new vegetable seeds.

I worked until eight or nine o'clock, but the sun got stronger and it started to get hot, so I stopped working.

When the sun sets around five or six in the evening, I bring my farm tools and come back to plant vegetables.

It sounds like I'm working from dawn till dusk, but from nine in the morning until sunset, I basically stay home to escape the heat.

If it's just an ordinary farmhouse, calling it a summer retreat would be an exaggeration.

After all, the outdoor temperature is over 30 degrees Celsius, so it's not much cooler indoors either.

There's no air conditioning indoors, and if I had to stay in that room all the time, it would be like living hell.

After much thought, I decided to create a comfortable summer retreat for myself.

Although I don't have air conditioning, I do have a basement.

When I lived in an apartment complex, I would always get a chill in the underground parking garage during the summer.

Especially since my basement is quite large, it must be super cool.

Living directly in a basement can be very damp and may be bad for your bones and joints.

So I set my sights on the darkroom that had been unused and unoccupied before.

It's the innermost room in the small west wing, the one with the small kang (heated brick bed).

The dark room is on the shadiest side, so the sun can't shine directly into it, and the temperature isn't very high to begin with.

The wardrobe separates the sunny and shady sides, thus isolating the basic heat source.

A small room like this would definitely be very stuffy in the summer.

However, with the entire basement serving as its ventilation opening, it won't feel stuffy; instead, it will be cool.

I left the wooden planks in the basement open, and the cool air from underground kept seeping up.

The entire enclosed space was filled with the cool air of the basement.

The bedding in the room hadn't been used before; I was afraid it would get dusty, so I always kept it rolled up.

Now that I'm preparing to escape the summer heat in the small west room, I've spread out all the bedding.

A four-piece bedding set in an American retro style, worn over soft duvets.

The cool air from the basement seeped up and into the bedding.

The beautiful four-piece bedding set exudes a slight coolness.

Take the kang table and trash can from the east room to the dark room, and place them in the middle of the kang.

I had just returned from the vegetable garden around 9 a.m.

His face was flushed red from the heat, and beads of sweat kept running down his cheeks, chin, and neck.

After entering the house, I took off my hat and long-sleeved jacket, and first wiped the sweat off my face with a towel.

After you've cooled down a bit, take a cool shower in the bathroom and change into a loose-fitting nightgown.

The stickiness all over her body was swept away, leaving only the soft silk nightgown constantly rubbing against her skin.

I opened the refrigerator and took out the plums that I had picked on the mountain last night.

Holding a large bowl of plums, he pushed open the door and entered the dark room.

As soon as I entered, I was enveloped in cool air, which felt so comfortable that I couldn't help but gasp.

Put the plums on the kang table, then slip on your shoes and get on the kang.

I leaned the pillow against the wall and then propped the kang table on my lap.

Turn on a melodramatic soap opera and take a bite of an icy-cold plum.

The plums aren't fully ripe yet; they're a bit crisp and have a sweet and sour taste.

The cool breeze from the basement seeped up and soon completely chased away all my summer heat.

As the fatigue from my morning work gradually subsides, it's time for me to cook myself something delicious.

As soon as you step out of the dark room, a wave of heat hits you.

I felt a little uncomfortable, and even frowned.

But there's no other way; I can't just stay cooped up in a dark room forever without even cooking.

It's too hot in the summer, so I only heat the kang (heated brick bed) once a day in the morning to prevent it from getting damp.

During the day, unless it requires stewing or simmering for a long time, I mostly use an electric cooker and a rice cooker for cooking.

The sun is extremely strong now, and I put all the excess electricity collected by the solar panels into a small battery.

The small storage battery provides power to the electric cooker and rice cooker without any problem.

Today I'm going to make myself cold eggplant salad and sweet and spicy cold noodles.

First, boil water in an electric cooker, then place the eggplant in a steamer basket and steam it in the electric cooker.

Take the leftover dough from yesterday out of the refrigerator, roll it out into a sheet, and then cut it into noodles.

Then prepare the ingredients.

Finely chop the scallions, cilantro, and garlic, and place them in a bowl with chili powder. Then pour hot oil over them.

Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and aged vinegar, and mix well.

This sauce is not only for cold noodles, but also for eggplant.

Once the eggplant is soft, take the steamer out of the steamer.

Mash the eggplant, add some of the sauce you just made, and a lot of chopped scallions, then mix well.

It's a delicious and flavorful cold eggplant salad with a sour and spicy taste.

Then cook the noodles in boiling water, and rinse them with cold water after they are cooked.

Pour all the noodles into the bowl of remaining sauce.

That way, you can wash one less dish.

After mixing the noodles evenly, you'll have delicious cold noodles.

Bring the cold noodles and eggplant into the darkroom, and then begin to enjoy the meal.

By this time, I was already sweating profusely; it was really hot that day.

I really don't know how other people live without electricity or air conditioning.

Roll the cold noodles into a big roll with chopsticks and stuff it into your mouth in one bite.

Chew it vigorously, then swallow it down; it's incredibly refreshing and helps relieve summer heat.

Then pick up a big mouthful of cold eggplant salad and put it in your mouth.

The sauce was incredibly flavorful, the eggplant was tender and soft, and the scallions were tangy and spicy – ​​it was absolutely delicious!

After finishing eating, take the dishes and chopsticks directly to the kitchen to rinse them.