Chapter 14: Chive and Pork Dumplings
Xie Yun thought about the contents of the book. There was not much description of the educated youth. He didn't know when the first batch of educated youth came, nor did he know whether these educated youth could achieve great things in the Liushutun Brigade.
She waited and watched. Furthermore, she sincerely hoped that these educated youth would drive the development of Liushu Village. Their visit would not be in vain, and the villagers would all benefit.
At the end of October, the autumn harvest was over and the brigade gave all members a holiday. Most people were able to rest for two days, but only a few people stayed in the threshing ground, waiting for the corn to dry up so that they could pay the public grain tax.
People nowadays are honest and honest, and they wouldn't do anything like using water as a weight. Furthermore, the grain delivered to the public communes must be of the best quality. The inferior grain is kept for distribution to the members.
The hot topic these days has been how much grain each family will receive this year, and which families are lucky enough to have a baby before the grain is distributed.
In those days, everyone got a share of grain. Some families were eager to have children, believing that more people meant more grain. No matter what, they had to eat first. Some families even had surplus grain to sell because they had so many children and couldn't eat it all. As for the overages owed to the brigade, that would be a matter for the future.
Not everyone is like Zhang Ruifeng who doesn't want to owe foreign debt.
Not to mention that some families with large populations and abundant laborers can actually achieve a balance between income and expenditure. The extra food would be of great use.
That day, Xie Shen went to school, while Xie Yun and Zhang Ruifeng went to the market in the commune to catch the three rabbits at home and sell them.
The Xie family has only three female rabbits and no male rabbits. The rabbits do not give birth to any babies, so all the nutrients are used to grow meat. Each rabbit weighs four or five kilograms.
Xie Yun tied them up and put them in a backpack. She carried two and Zhang Ruifeng carried one.
"Mom, let's buy a male rabbit next year and let them have two litters of rabbits. Then we can sell more."
Rabbits are the easiest animals to reproduce, and Liushu Village has no restrictions on this. How can you still interfere with other people's rabbits giving birth?
Zhang Ruifeng said, "Okay. Buy two females and one male. Let Mumu take care of them."
I didn't do this before because I thought it would be troublesome to take care of the baby rabbits, and the mother rabbit giving birth would also affect its own growth, so it would be better to just raise female rabbits.
Now, my daughter has made this suggestion, and my youngest son is 9 years old and can take on responsibilities, so let him take on the responsibility.
The two of them walked out of the village together and met a few female comrades who were going to the market together.
Chatting and laughing all the way.
The rural market is a hub for information distribution. In the days when there were no telephones and communication was inconvenient, all kinds of information were transmitted through the market.
In 1958, urban and rural markets were closed, but reopened in 1961. With the exception of grain, cotton, and oil, which were prohibited from sale as "first-class agricultural products," livestock, eggs, and vegetables were allowed to be traded.
Xie Yun accompanied his mother to sell rabbits while listening to everyone chatting.
Someone said, "Did you get the letter? Your aunt fell and is lying in bed."
One person replied, "I haven't heard of it. No one sent us a letter. I'll take some time to go see her in the next couple of days."
These two people came from different brigades. The latter person's aunt married into the brigade where the former person was, and the news spread in this way.
Someone else said, "What's the character of the second daughter of the Liu family at the west end of your brigade village? Someone came to our brigade to propose marriage, but nothing has been decided yet, so she said she wanted to make some inquiries first."
"The second girl is very nice and capable. Which family are you talking about?"
"The family with the most brothers in our village."
"His family, which one are you talking about?"
"Seventh."
Xie Yun twitched his lips, she is really fertile.
She listened to a lot of gossip and finally came to a conclusion: this is a society of acquaintances. Any two people can chat for a few minutes and within five sentences, they will definitely have some connection.
Before long, all three rabbits were sold. At that time, rabbits were 52 cents per pound. The Xie family's rabbits had never given birth, so they were large, weighing about 5 pounds each, and they sold quickly. People bought them not only for the meat but also for the skin.
After selling the goods, Zhang Ruifeng and Xie Yun strolled around the market and bought a piece of pork to take home.
Taoyuan Commune has a Nanhu Farm. Although located within the commune's jurisdiction, it's not under the commune's management; it's directly under the provincial government. The farm is large, not only growing crops but also raising over 200 pigs. Every so often, they slaughter one and sell it at the market, a benefit offered by the farm to Taoyuan Commune members. No tickets are required, and the price is the normal 68 cents per pound.
Xie Yun was lucky as he happened to catch the farm slaughtering pigs today.
The butcher's knife skills were exceptional. Zhang Ruifeng bought two cents worth of pork, and with one stroke the butcher cut a long strip. When he weighed it on the scale, it was exactly the same size. The strip was exceptionally long, yet very thin, not much thicker than a piece of paper.
Xie Yun was amazed. He stared at the butcher's knife for a few seconds, but he didn't realize how sharp the knife was. How could it cut so well?
She couldn't help but stretched out a finger to poke the pork on the chopping board. The meat was hard and very tough. Xie Yun poked it with his finger, but it hardly moved.
It is completely different from the pork of later generations. It is soft and difficult to cut if it is not frozen in the refrigerator.
She poked it once and then withdrew her finger as if nothing had happened.
The butcher glanced at her and said nothing. He probably thought she was trying to "take advantage of the situation." It's said that some people go to the butcher's stall specifically to touch the meat, then go home to wash their hands with hot water and add some oil to their homes. He might even think she was stupid; how much oil could one finger really take?
After buying the meat, the two of them spent a penny on a large bundle of leeks, then went to the supply and marketing cooperative again to use up the soap and toothpaste coupons that the newspaper had awarded Xie Yun. The toothpaste coupons were a reward for his second article.
Zhang Ruifeng is thrifty, and these two things are enough for them to last until the New Year.
After returning home, I quickly started to cook the oil. Although there was only a small amount of meat, I had to chop it up first and put it in the pot to boil the oil, and then mix it with the stuffing. This way, it would be more fragrant than using raw pork directly.
Zhang Ruifeng asked Xie Yun to watch the pot while she went to knead the dough.
Xie Yun said, "You watch the pot. I'm afraid I can't control the heat well. I'll go and knead the dough."
"Okay, go ahead."
Xie Yun found a large coarse porcelain basin, cleaned it, poured the flour into it first, then added a little water and stirred it into dough. While kneading the dough, he added water little by little until the dough was of the right hardness.
"Soft noodles for dumplings, hard noodles for soup, and the dripping fried pancakes are the most fragrant." The noodles used for dumplings can be slightly softer, the noodles for rolling noodles should be hard, and the noodles for making scallion pancakes are the softest.
Xie Yun sneaked some white flour in from the space, which made the food taste better. After kneading the flour, she took a handful of leeks and began to pick, wash, and cut them, then mixed the stuffing and opened the package.
The mother and daughter worked quickly. In just half an hour, the dumplings were already in the pot and starting to cook. Xie Shen was ready to eat them when he got home from school.
The young man slurped the dumplings, turning them back and forth in his mouth. As he ate, he exclaimed, "This is so delicious."
Xie Yun was also really happy. Now he didn't even think about what pigs eat to grow up.
She ate a big bowl of dumplings and drank a bowl of dumpling soup. She was so full that she couldn't sit still on the bench, so she had to stand up and rub her stomach.
Xie Shen is not much better than her.
Zhang Ruifeng laughed at them: "Look at how little you have achieved. There are still half of the leeks left. I will make you another meal of leek and egg filling tomorrow."
Both the brother and sister were grinning.
Xie Shen said, "I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep tonight. My dreams will all smell like dumplings. Sister, you're the same, right?"
Xie Yun said: "Not really, really. Let's work hard and strive to eat dumplings like this more often in the future."
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