All the wild vegetables in the meadow have been dug up.

They can only eat bok choy.

Qiao An'an couldn't bear to eat the whole thing, so she picked the outermost leaves so that it could continue to grow inside. By the end, the little bok choy had grown into a small sapling, with bare bottom and a few scattered leaves on top.

Every time she picked the leaves, Qiao An'an would throw the yellowed vegetable leaves into the swimming pool to feed the crucian carp.

The two remaining female fish in the swimming pool have also finished giving birth. If you look closely, you can see tiny fry in the gaps in the sand. They gather in groups of three or five, and occasionally they will surface to play and forage, but most of the time they are wary and hide in the sand at the bottom of the water.

For several days in a row, I ate only white meat and bok choy.

Ya Ya was almost sick of eating, and when she saw Qiao An'an taking a basket to pick the leaves of the bok choy again, she quickly stopped her and said, "Mom, can we eat something else today?"

Qiao An'an originally wanted to give Ya Ya a good talking-to, because in the apocalypse, having food to eat is already a blessing, and many people don't even have food or water.

But she was surprised to find that flower buds had sprouted from the few scattered leaves on the bare stems of several small bok choy plants. If these flower buds bloomed and bore fruit, she could harvest a bunch of seeds and achieve bok choy freedom, without having to be so stingy about how many leaves she could pick from each bok choy plant.

In order to make them flower and bear fruit faster.

Qiao An'an decided not to eat them for the next two days: "Then let's eat something else today."

When Ya Ya heard that she could eat something different today, she happily followed Qiao An'an to the kitchen, asking curiously as they went, "Mom, what are we eating today?"

Qiao An'an took a piece of meat from the refrigerator.

Ya Ya's happy face immediately fell: "It's garlic pork belly again? Didn't you say you wanted something else?"

Qiao An'an smiled and explained to Ya Ya, "This isn't boiled pork, it's uncooked pork tenderloin. Mommy will make you a tomato meatball soup with pork tenderloin for you to eat with rice today, okay?"

As long as it's not garlic-flavored pork belly and bok choy, Ya Ya is happy with anything she eats: "Okay!!!"

Qiao An'an put the frozen pork tenderloin, which was rock hard in the freezer, into the sink to thaw, and then went to the refrigerator to get tomatoes.

There were four cherry tomatoes in total, one of which was half rotten.

Rotten fruits and vegetables should not be eaten.

Qiao An'an couldn't bear to throw them away. Remembering that the book said that slicing tomatoes and putting them in the soil would make small tomatoes grow, she took advantage of the time while the pork tenderloin was thawing to cut the rotten tomatoes into several small pieces, put them in a bag, and went to the flower box. She then pulled out the remaining two wooden boxes of roses.

Actually, these tomato chunks are more than enough to fit in a wooden box.

The reason she removed two wooden boxes was that she planned to clear out the other box to grow garlic cloves and scallions. When she was making garlic-flavored pork belly, she found that many of the garlic cloves were very small and difficult to peel. It would be a waste to throw them away. If she could let them take root and sprout into garlic cloves, she could make stir-fried pork belly with garlic.

The scallions were the roots I deliberately left when I made cold dishes. They're easy to grow; even if you only leave the roots and about ten centimeters of stem, they can still survive.

Let's get right to it.

She first placed the chopped tomato pieces into one of the wooden boxes, sprinkled a thin layer of soil on the tomato pieces, moistened the soil, and then covered the wooden box with a layer of plastic wrap.

The planting manual says that this helps to retain soil moisture and temperature, which is more conducive to tomato germination.

After arranging the tomato pieces, she then placed the tiny garlic cloves that she had left over from cooking, which she didn't want to peel, into another wooden box.

Then, I planted a ring of scallion roots around the wooden box.

Onions and garlic are relatively easy to grow. After planting, they don't need to be covered with soil or wrapped with plastic wrap. Just water them thoroughly. Qiao An'an directly handed over the task of watering to Ya Ya.

After receiving the order to water the plants, Ya Ya carefully carried the water ladle and watered each garlic clove and scallion root one by one.

Ya Ya watered it very carefully.

She made sure to water every single garlic clove and scallion root.

While Ya Ya was watering the garlic cloves, Qiao An'an returned to the kitchen, placed the thawed pork tenderloin on the cutting board, and then laid a thick mat under the cutting board to prevent noise before starting to chop the meat.

After mincing the pork tenderloin into a paste, add cornstarch, light soy sauce, and a little salt, then roll it into balls about two centimeters in size.

Once the tomato chunks have been cooked through in boiling water, add the meatballs.

The meatballs are cooked when they float to the surface.

Turn off the heat and add the ingredients to the soup. Add salt, MSG, and lard, and sprinkle with a little chopped green onion. A tomato meatball soup is ready.

After finishing cooking, Qiao An'an went to the yard to call Ya Ya, only to find that Ya Ya's clothes were already soaked. Fortunately, it was summer and not too cold: "Are you watering the vegetables or yourself?"

Ya Ya laughed: "Water them all! I want to grow up quickly so I can help Mom with chores!"

Looking at how sensible Ya Ya was, Qiao An'an couldn't stay angry at all. She fetched water to wash Ya Ya's hands and face, changed her into a clean set of clothes, and then carried her into the kitchen.

Tomato and meatball soup with rice.

Ya Ya ate more than half a bowl in one go.

The remaining soup was covered with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator, ready to be used to make noodles for dinner.

After cleaning up the kitchen, Qiao An'an led Ya Ya upstairs, but Ya Ya tripped over a bag of potatoes on the ground because she was walking too fast and almost fell.

Qiao An'an quickly caught Ya Ya.

The potatoes in the bag spilled out.

Qiao An'an was surprised to find that many potatoes had turned green and had many sprouts on them, some of which had even grown to four or five centimeters.

Qiao An'an hadn't been able to bear eating this bag of potatoes, intending to save them as emergency food when the rice and flour ran out. But in less than half a month, they sprouted. Sprouted potatoes are inedible.

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