Chapter 54 Sweet Porridge and Salty Porridge

She found that when water flowed from one device to another, the water pressure was not high enough, so it would all flow out of the small hole and could not successfully flow to the next device.

Increasing the water pressure is definitely not a good idea. Not only will it cause trouble, it may also cause the water to flow too fast and the water will not be able to flow out of the small holes.

Only the shape of the small hole can be improved.

Zhao Yeqing experimented several times and changed the original straight up and down small hole into a funnel shape, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, to ensure that when the water flows in, it can stay in the device for a while before flowing down, so that the water can smoothly reach the next device.

As one problem is solved, there is another one.

It's not just a water flow problem, it's also a drainage problem.

The drainage we did before was too shallow and the slope was not steep enough, which was only enough to cope with short-term rain. Now that we have this device, problems are still likely to occur if we have to open it every day.

The entire drainage ditch needs to be re-digged and the slope needs to be adjusted. This work definitely cannot be done during the day. We have to wait until five or six o'clock, when the sun sets behind the mountain and the temperature drops a little, before it can be carried out.

Then there is the issue of weight bearing.

It is installed on the roof of the greenhouse. It is just half a bamboo. It is not heavy and can be supported by the greenhouse frame alone.

However, there are bamboo waterways connecting the devices, so it is necessary to erect load-bearing columns on the ground.

Thinking of this, Zhao Yeqing ran towards Mu Xi again.

Mu Xi had already sawed off the branches of the big tree and was now sawing off the thickest trunk.

Seeing Zhao Yeqing running over again, he stopped her and asked, "Why are you running around?"

Zhao Yeqing explained his idea and the results of the experiment, "I just came to see if you have any branches suitable for load-bearing columns."

The fir tree also has thick branches. The thickest one that Mu Xi cut down was as thick as the mouth of a large bowl, almost as thick as the trunk of a small tree planted on the roadside in the city.

Mu Xi found the branches she needed according to her request, and then removed all the leaves and twigs that could prick people.

"You go back first, I'll help you drag it back later."

It was indeed not something she could drag easily, but she was not in a hurry. There were not enough bamboos for the waterway, and more bamboo had to be cut.

Zhao Yeqing collected the small branches and bundled them up, carrying them home as firewood.

While pruning the vegetable garden, she saw that the pumpkin she had not picked before had now turned from yellow to a beautiful orange color. She could have waited a little longer before picking it, but she couldn't help herself.

I have to drink crab porridge at night. Crab porridge is salty, so if there is salty taste, there must be something sweet.

That makes sense.

After Zhao Yeqing convinced himself, he went to the vegetable garden and picked the only ripe pumpkin.

It was almost five o'clock in the afternoon, and she planned to cook the porridge first. Cooking porridge is a time-consuming task.

Crab porridge and pumpkin porridge cannot be porridge. They must be cooked until they are all blooming and the whole pot of rice becomes sticky.

Zhao Yeqing first split the pumpkin he had just picked into two halves with a knife, scooped out the pumpkin seeds in the middle and put them in a bowl, then scraped off all the skin with a scraper and cut it into small pieces.

You definitely don’t need a whole pumpkin to cook pumpkin porridge. Divide the remaining pumpkin into two bags and freeze them in the freezer.

The crabs were still kept in the bamboo tube, covered with a stone to prevent them from crawling out.

Small stream crabs are different from hairy crabs. They live in clean and clear flowing water and have almost no dirt on their bodies.

Zhao Yeqing used chopsticks to put the small crabs one by one into a plastic bottle. Some of them even clung to the chopsticks and didn't want to leave, so she shook them down with force. Then she added water into the bottle, screwed on the lid, and shook it up and down vigorously.

Some fine mud and sand were washed out, and the small crabs inside were all dizzy. I took this opportunity to pour them out and split them in half with a knife.

Scrape off the old skin of the ginger and cut it into thin slices with a knife. Put the chopped crabs and ginger into a casserole filled with rice and water, cover it, light a small coal stove, and simmer for two hours.

After chopping the pumpkin as finely as possible, put it into the rice cooker filled with rice and water.

I went to Xiaoshuitan to escape the heat today. I hardly turned on the fan at home during the day, so I had some surplus electricity. Since I had one less stove, I could use the rice cooker to make porridge.

Fry some side dishes in the big pot on the stove.

I asked Mu Xi, and he said that the smoked wild boar meat needs to be boiled in water, otherwise it will be too hard.

Boil water and cook the smoked wild boar meat for forty minutes. The originally shrunken meat has stretched a little and is not so hard when pinched with fingers.

Take out and cut into thin slices with a knife.

Zhao Yeqing took out a handful of pickled bracken from the jar in the corner. This was made in the spring. The bracken in the jar had turned yellow and soft, and had the flavor of pickled plums.

I picked two chili peppers from the vegetable garden. The temperature is too high, so the chili peppers haven't turned red recently. The same goes for the tomatoes. The lycopene cannot gather, and the tomato fruits have some red, yellow, and white spots.

Fortunately, chili peppers are edible even when they are green and are spicy enough.

Smash two cloves of garlic with a knife and throw them into the hot oil pan. Add the chili peppers and stir-fry until fragrant, then pour in the washed pickled bracken.

The pickled bracken needs to be stir-fried with plenty of oil to make it fragrant, and finally add the smoked wild boar slices.

The pickled bracken and smoked wild boar both have a salty taste and can be served without any additional seasoning.

It would take another hour for both kinds of porridge to be cooked. Zhao Yeqing washed his hands and went to the yard to turn the dried peaches over.

The dried peaches that had been dried in the sun for a day had become a little wilted, like candied fruits.

We can harvest and eat them now, but the dried fruits are not easy to store. After being dried in the sun for a day and becoming dried peaches, the storage time will increase exponentially.

She couldn't help but eat a piece. It had a strong peach flavor and was sweet, and even more fruity than eating the peach directly.

When I cooked peach flesh in the morning, there was a lot of peach juice left in the pot, which was comparable to freshly squeezed juice.

Zhao Yeqing poured the peach juice into the pot. The pink peach juice looked particularly beautiful in the transparent glass pot. She went to the vegetable garden to pick two mint leaves, patted them with her hands and put them in the pot.

This was enough to be posted on WeChat Moments, so she couldn't help but take a picture to record it. Who knows, maybe she could post it someday.

Mu Xi had already brought back the thick branches and wood she needed to make the table.

Several more bamboos are needed to make the device, and Mu Xi said he would go and cut them down tomorrow.

While the porridge was not ready yet, Zhao Yeqing went to dig the drainage ditch.

The previous drainage was relatively shallow, the soil in the ditch was relatively loose, making it easy for water to seep in but difficult to flow away, and the angle was not particularly good.

Zhao Yeqing dug the drainage ditch again from high to low. After digging each drainage ditch outside the shed, he stepped hard on it with his feet to compact the soil.

In half an hour, only two trenches were completed, which was half of a small vegetable garden.

The porridge on the stove is ready to be served. It is difficult to control the heat when burning firewood, and the porridge cooked in a clay pot will inevitably be a little burnt at the bottom. It is not a big problem as long as you don’t smell burnt smell from the outside.

Zhao Yeqing wrapped his hands with two wet towels and took the casserole off the small coal stove. However, his hands still couldn't bear the heat, so he quickly put them on his ears to cool them down.

The heat in my hands faded away, and I opened the lid of the casserole. A scent of rice mixed with the unique sweetness of crabs wafted out...