Chapter 50 Winter is Coming: Hawthorn Snacks, Winter...
The autumn wind is bleak, and the weather is getting colder day by day.
Just a few days after making hawthorn snacks, Lai woke up one morning to find white fog rising outside.
The sun rose, and the white mist dissipated.
It's time to dig up all the radishes in the field.
Lai plans to store some of these radishes in the cellar and wash, cut, and dry the rest to make dried radish.
When eating, wash and soak the dried radish until it expands. It can be stir-fried or made into pickled radish with soy sauce and chili oil.
Lai sent some of the hawthorn cakes and hawthorn candy he made to the Haig and Gug families.
The sweet and sour hawthorn cake was a hit not only with Luna, but also with the adults.
Farah, in particular, not only gets hooked on hawthorn cake, but she can also eat a whole paper bag of unprocessed hawthorns. If it weren't for the sourness making her teeth ache, she could probably eat another paper bag.
Linda noticed that Farah was acting strangely; her tastes had changed drastically and she had a particular craving for sour foods, so she called a doctor to come and take a look at her.
What she saw was nothing compared to the wonderful news: after eight years, Farah is pregnant again!
After hearing the news, Lai sent her a lot of hawthorn snacks. Although they weren't worth much money, the gift was thoughtful, and the sentiment was there.
Reese and Farah also appreciated Ray's kindness, and the relationship between the two families grew closer.
Besides keeping some for their own consumption, Lai sold the hawthorn fruit cakes, hawthorn rolls, and hawthorn leather at a very good price in the market.
These things are incredibly difficult to make, but they sell really well.
Because there were no similar products on the market for fruit leather, and Laiyi had done a great job with its packaging, it quickly gained popularity.
The snacks that Lai makes at home are definitely standard small-scale workshop products. They are limited in variety, require a lot of labor, and cannot be mass-produced.
But here, people don't really care about these issues. If it tastes good, won't make you sick, is clean, and is reasonably priced, then it's a good product.
Besides, everyone lives in the nearby villages. If you ask around, you'll know everything. If someone has a bad reputation, word will spread quickly – who would dare buy from you?
Days passed by as people set up their stalls and collected mountain goods. Before they knew it, the trees in the small mountain village had lost all their leaves, and winter was just around the corner.
The quilt and the custom-made clothes were picked up by Lai when he went to town to set up a stall not long ago.
With the temperature dropping suddenly, it's a good time to wear these clothes.
There are still a few hundred pounds of mountain produce left at home. Once they're sold, winter will probably come. Things will easily freeze in the cold, and it won't be good to keep the stall open any longer.
The village has been peaceful lately, with nothing major happening. The only routine activity is the patrol team going out to patrol the mountains, checking for traps and monster activity.
One more thing to mention is that Maggie's family also bought a mule shortly after the autumn harvest festival—Maggie eventually went to live with her eldest daughter.
The young girl was pregnant again, and the witch doctor said it was a boy. Her husband was very happy, and her mother was very happy too. Only she often stared blankly at her little daughter who had just learned to walk.
Maggie and her husband led the mule home, and she wanted the whole continent to know that her family had also bought a mule this time, and it was an adult!
Maggie's family is already urging her to get married when the two children will settle down. Maggie had planned to have her eldest son drive a bus next month to bring her niece back to live with her.
Unexpectedly, Mark secretly left home the very night the mule was brought back.
He left only a note saying that he had gone to the city to work and earn money, and that his parents should not worry.
Maggie was so angry that she started cursing, and the two children left at home suffered the consequences. For a whole week, there wasn't a moment of peace; she wished she could become invisible.
Temperatures continue to drop, and finally the coldest season—winter—has arrived.
The entire house of the Lai family was heated by the fireplace in the living room. Fortunately, the house was well insulated, so they only needed to burn the fireplace once in the morning and once more before going to bed at night.
The living room became the warmest place in the entire building. Neil often took his homework to the fireplace to do it; Lai also placed a comfortable recliner by the fireplace and read books during the day by its residual warmth.
Because Lai often buys all sorts of things at the market and has stockpiled a lot of supplies at home, there's no need to worry about food at all.
With so much food, there's enough to eat all winter long, and we could even raise another Neil without any problem.
With plenty of grain at home and gold coins in their pockets, Lai and Neil lived a very comfortable life.
Iru and the goblins who worked for Laiyi were doing quite well.
During a harvest, they unexpectedly discovered a patch of wild taro.
The taro wasn't very big, so Lai only took twenty pounds to keep and alternate with sweet potatoes later, leaving the rest for the goblins.
The taro didn't look like much, but when you dug it up, it weighed at least two or three hundred pounds, and the five goblins present each got more than half a bag.
Even if there were no taro, Lai would still try to get them some sweet potatoes as a reward for their hard work in picking and chores for so long.
Through their hard work over this period, they have accumulated a considerable amount of supplies for the winter, making their lives much better than those of other goblins.
Whenever Iru sees the cellar filled with food under the bed, he feels genuinely grateful to Laiyi and often tells his wife that he has chosen the right person to be with.
After the first cold wave passed, the weather experienced a false warming for a few days.
Taking advantage of the good weather, Lai quickly cooked the vermicelli and left it to dry in the yard. After drying, she packed it into bags for storage.
Since we're already planning to cook glass noodles, we're not afraid of a little trouble.
Using a nail, Lai carved small holes of varying thicknesses, evenly spaced, into the bottom of two discarded water ladles. This allowed noodles of different thicknesses to be dispensed.
In addition to these two thicknesses, Lai also made an even thicker "lotus leaf powder" by hand. Because it was made purely by hand and with a rolling pin, the thickness was not very uniform, but this did not affect its edibility; it was simply cooked and left to cool.
The sun didn't shine for more than a few days before the temperature suddenly dropped, getting colder day by day. You could see your own breath condensing on your skin when you went outside to use the restroom in the morning, and frost appeared within a few days.
The weather was cold, and the livestock in the house were also having a hard time. Lei quickly added a thicker layer to Da Huang's doghouse and changed the bedding.
The wooden shed was also covered with old animal hides and discarded canvases; whatever it took, it was enough to keep out the wind.
The family's flamingos had long since moved into Old Guge's handmade chicken coop. Lai wanted to give Guge money, but he refused. Lai then tried to compensate Guge in other ways, such as inviting him to eat with him when he cooked something delicious.
There was no fresh fodder left at this point.
In modern times, one can buy hay to feed livestock during the winter. But here, Ray can only feed him hay and beans.
Soon, frost began to fall outside.
Looking out the window in the morning, everything is covered in a white blanket, as if everything is dressed in a layer of white down.
Even the big yellow dog's water bowl froze.
It pitifully licked a hole in the ice and struggled to drink the water beneath.
Two red rockbirds sometimes huddle together in one nest, tucking their wings in to keep warm.
Finally, the first snow of the winter fell outside.
Temuqi locked the door, carefully carried a large bag on his back, and left the small mountain village.
Lei learned of Temuji's departure from others.
He leaves every winter, and everyone has gotten used to it.
The small house in the Lei family's house has recently become Lamb's second home. Unless there is something else important, he comes here almost every day.
It's not good to work outside in winter; your fingers and feet can easily get frostbite. A large family crammed together will inevitably lead to conflict sooner or later.
Lamb liked staying at the Rye's house for some peace and quiet, at least he didn't have to deal with nagging Linda and his troublesome sister-in-law.
Lamb and Neil were tired of playing Connect Four, and to stop Lamb from always circling behind him, Ray unleashed his ultimate weapon—homemade playing cards.
Lamb's eyes lit up like a light bulb after he only introduced a few of the simplest ways to play.
Now Lamb has something to do. After a few days of peace and quiet, he's either playing "spinning turtles" with Neil or playing "train" with him, guessing the numbers 24.
Ray's peaceful days didn't last long before Lamb started asking him to teach him new games, so every afternoon around the fireplace, three figures would once again be playing "Dou Dizhu" (a popular Chinese card game).
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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2023-07-28 23:36:02 and 2023-07-29 23:59:25!
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine: whitesakura (1 landmine);
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Xi Liulan 40 bottles; lalalala 30 bottles; Pocket Slightly Empty 27 bottles; Liu 20 bottles; Lemon Not Sour, Lily of the Valley 10 bottles; Human World Also Has Its Own Galaxy, Biubiubiu 6 bottles; Duo Duo Duo Wonderful Boy 5 bottles; 20733763, Xiao Yuqing 2 bottles; I Flower, Muxu, whitesakura, Yu Xi, Shi Yu 1 bottle;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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