Chapter 225: Huangjing Black-necked Snake

Gao Mingcheng also sent a bottle of honey and a plate of bullfrogs to his grandmother's house. The bullfrogs were already processed and could be fried directly in the pan.

His grandmother asked him to have dinner at home, but Gao Mingcheng refused, saying that Xuanyue had already cooked the meal.

So the grandmother did not force it. After a few people talked, Gao Mingcheng said goodbye and left.

The next day, Gao Mingcheng went to the sweet potato field and dug out a small row of sweet potatoes. He shook off the soil and saw small sweet potatoes hanging on the roots. Some were as big as an adult's fist, while others were as slender as a baby's arm.

The potato seeds he planted grew into very large sweet potatoes in good weather in previous years, and could be eaten as food, so they were called "rice potatoes" in the local dialect.

The potato seeds given by my grandmother were white-core. The ridge he dug was full of white-core sweet potatoes. When he peeled off the skin with a knife, some milky white juice quickly emerged from the surface of the sweet potatoes, which was very sticky.

Sweet potatoes can be eaten raw. They taste sweet and crispy. Gao Mingcheng finished a sweet potato in just a few bites and found it tasted pretty good.

He looked down and saw that the sweet potato vines were green and the sweet potatoes were not particularly big, so he planned to dig out some to eat first and save the rest.

Because many people like to eat red-heart sweet potatoes and think they are sweeter, he went to dig a small row of red-heart sweet potatoes, and then went back carrying a bag of sweet potatoes in one hand and a bundle of sweet potato vines in the other.

Manyi was drying herbs, and when she saw him coming back with sweet potatoes, she couldn't help but say, "Isn't it time to dig sweet potatoes yet?"

"Well, but some people in the village are already digging them." Gao Mingcheng said, and then spread the sweet potatoes in a cool place.

Freshly dug sweet potatoes have a lot of water and have not yet been saccharified, so they are not sweet enough. After a few days of drying up the water, they will become sweeter.

"I dug some to eat first. The big ones can be cooked into porridge, and the small ones can be roasted and eaten." Gao Mingcheng said as he divided the sweet potato vines in his hand into two parts, one part was fed to the cattle and sheep, and the other part was spread out in the sun to dry.

Cattle and sheep can eat fresh sweet potato vines or dried ones, but it is said that cattle cannot eat too many fresh sweet potato vines, otherwise they will have diarrhea.

"What are you feeding them? I'll take them out later." Xuanyuemei was speechless and felt that there was no need to feed them now.

"It's okay to take it out later. Aren't you busy now?" Gao Mingcheng said, watching the many beautiful people turning over and drying the medicinal herbs with skillful movements.

During this period, he went into the mountains to collect herbs every day, but it was Xuanmei who was mostly responsible for processing the herbs.

Since many aestheticians learned how to deal with Poria cocos, she would deal with the Poria cocos in the house herself once the skin of the Poria cocos shrunk and turned brown.

Now the bamboo sieve is full of various medicinal herbs drying in the sun. Fortunately, his yard is wide and there is enough space for drying them.

"I'm going into the mountains." Gao Mingcheng took his tools and bag and prepared to go into the mountains.

He rushed into the mountains again, this time going further away. After nearly half a month of digging, he had already visited all the mountains and forests near Gaojia Village one by one.

This time, after careful searching, he found several Polygonatum sibiricum plants in the shade of the trees.

Polygonatum sibiricum has one branch and many leaves, which are shaped like bamboo leaves but are shorter than bamboo leaves.

It is a kind of medicinal material whose roots are dug up in autumn. At this time, there are some ripe fruits hanging on the Polygonatum sibiricum plant, which contain the seeds of Polygonatum sibiricum.

There are two ways to propagate Polygonatum, one is to propagate by rhizomes, and the other is to propagate by seeds. Seed propagation is more troublesome and the growth rate is much slower, so from an economic point of view, it is best to choose rhizomes for propagation.

This is similar to yam. Yam can also be propagated by rhizomes and yam beans. However, if it is propagated by rhizomes, it can be harvested in the same year, but if it is propagated by seeds, that is not possible.

Gao Mingcheng was a little excited when he saw Polygonatum sibiricum.

This place is not a major production area of ​​Polygonatum sibiricum, and they hardly ever saw any Polygonatum sibiricum when they were on the hill. However, Polygonatum sibiricum is still quite famous, and is said to be the essence of grass.

There are many ways to take it. It can be mixed with other medicinal materials and used to make wine, or it can be stewed with meat or chicken.

Polygonatum sibiricum is also called wild ginger. In ancient times, it could be used as a famine relief grass. After nine steaming and nine drying processes, it became a substitute for food.

The nine-steaming and nine-drying process is quite troublesome to operate. In fact, many people in mountainous areas often eat it as a vegetable because its rhizome is shaped like a sweet potato. Its fleshy rhizome is thick and contains a lot of nutrients such as starch and sugar. It can be eaten raw or stewed. It is good for fitness and can make people stronger.

Therefore, people in mountainous areas like to eat Polygonatum sibiricum very much.

Gao Mingcheng also ate it often in his previous life. This thing is not only good for the body, but also tastes good, so it is quite popular.

Now that he had encountered it, he couldn't miss it, so he started to work on it. He first collected the berries of the Polygonatum sibiricum. These black berries contained five or six seeds, which could be used for planting.

Yes, Gao Mingcheng plans to grow a batch of Polygonatum sibiricum himself. It doesn’t matter if he hasn’t encountered it before. Now that he has, it means that this place is still suitable for the growth of Polygonatum sibiricum, so he can mass-produce it.

The distribution of Polygonatum sibiricum is not very wide, but it is not small either. It is produced in many provinces and can also be artificially cultivated as long as the geographical location is suitable.

After collecting all the black berries, the next step is to dig the roots. The rhizome of Polygonatum sibiricum is more like ginger, with sections. If you use the rhizome to propagate, then cut the rhizome into several sections, and each section has about three or four sections.

It can be planted in late autumn and early spring.

After digging up these Polygonatum sibiricum, Gao Mingcheng found some more nearby. Because Polygonatum sibiricum can reproduce by seeds, most of them will not exist alone. If there is only one, you can definitely find others by looking carefully nearby.

But it may not be the case, because the conditions for seed propagation are relatively harsh, so the germination rate is not high.

Looking at the collected Polygonatum sibiricum, Gao Mingcheng's face was solemn. He knew that one of the chickens in their family was in trouble, because Polygonatum sibiricum is poisonous to chickens, and a whole chicken can be poisoned to death in one meal!

Chicken stewed with Polygonatum is so delicious!

Just as he was imagining the deliciousness of chicken stewed with Polygonatum odoratum, Gao Mingcheng's ears moved slightly. He looked in the direction of the sound and found traces of a group of pheasants.

Well, the lives of the chickens in his house were saved!

Gao Mingcheng took out the small knife he carried with him and aimed at one of the chickens from a distance. The moment the knife flew out of his hand, the target chicken fell down.

Immediately afterwards, another flying knife was thrown, taking the life of the pheasants before they were frightened. As for the other pheasants, they had already fled after sensing the danger.

Having not hunted for a while recently, Gao Mingcheng was quite happy with these unexpected gains. He walked over to pick up the dead pheasant. When he bent down, he noticed some rustling noise in the nearby grass, and a snake tail was disappearing quickly. After careful identification, Gao Mingcheng recognized that it should be a black-necked snake.

The black-necked snake is widely distributed in China and is also a medicinal herb with a large purchase volume. Gao Mingcheng had previously planned to catch a batch of black-necked snakes to sell this year.

But the snake had already escaped, so Gao Mingcheng naturally let it go.

However, during the subsequent search process, he not only kept his eyes on the ground, but also occasionally observed the branches near the water.

The black-necked snake likes to eat frogs, fish, loaches, eels, mice and other foods, so it often appears in areas near water. In addition, it also likes to climb tree branches and often hangs on trees.

Although the black-necked snake moves quickly, reacts quickly, and is good at escaping, it has a very docile character and generally does not bite people. Of course, when it is forced into a corner or frightened, it will bite people out of necessity.

But even if you get bitten, it's not a big deal because it is a non-venomous snake.

Because of its medicinal value and non-toxicity, the black-necked snake was captured in large numbers. In later generations, its number in the wild has been greatly reduced, and it is likely to become a protected animal.

However, black-necked snakes can still be often seen in the mountains and fields nowadays.

If you observe carefully, you will find that black-necked snakes often crawl along the ridges on the inner side of paddy fields. They can also be observed near vegetable fields and ditches.

Some people in the village who are not afraid of snakes will catch them and eat them, either to make wine or to stew them, and they all taste pretty good.

(End of this chapter)