On the way back, Pei Yao told Niu Qingshan that her family was collecting seafood such as snails, sea urchins, and scallops.
If the villagers have any, they can collect them together.
The prices are all the same as those charged by the Liu family.
Snails are priced at one coin per pound, sea urchins at two coins per pound, and scallops with large shells and little meat are priced at one coin per two pounds.
Upon hearing this, Niu Qingshan beamed with joy, his sun-tanned face beaming with a cheerful smile.
He simply couldn't believe such a good thing could happen.
The villagers who remained in the village were all honest and hardworking, but also impoverished. Although they had enough to eat and drink in the village, they had no source of income.
The seafood I find in the sea is usually sold in town, and there are more sellers than buyers.
The villagers don't earn much money either; sometimes they don't even make five coins a day.
The villagers have almost no income and can only do odd jobs in town during the off-season, but there are far more people than available jobs.
They are so poor that they don't even dare to see a doctor when they are sick, let alone take medicine. When they are sick, they just try to tough it out.
Everyone's life is tough, but Niu Qingshan's family is slightly better off in the village.
That's all because the original village chief made a fortune and moved away, so Uncle Niu Er became the acting village chief of Liangshuijing Village, and the county would give him a monthly salary of one hundred coins.
If Pei Yao could buy their seafood, that would be wonderful, and the villagers would also have an income.
Niu Qingshan recalled that the villagers used to have a mudflat on the coast not far away, which was originally used to raise prawns. However, it was abandoned because there was no market for them, and they hadn't raised prawns for a year or two.
He thought that if Pei Yao accepted these seafood, maybe they could raise some snails again.
From an angle where Pei Yao couldn't see him, the boy looked at her with eyes full of gratitude.
He thought to himself, "Could this girl be a lucky star sent to their village by heaven?"
......
Everyone got back quite early today, arriving home around 2 PM.
Niu Qingshan didn't go straight home. Instead, he helped Pei Yao move the pot to the stove in the kitchen. The pot was very big and could only be placed on the larger stove inside.
This stove has two burners. In the past, many rural families would have two burners on one stove for convenience: one larger one for cooking pig feed and one smaller one for stir-frying vegetables.
The pot was quickly set up. Pei Yao asked Niu Qingshan if he had a scale at home, because they would be collecting everyone's seafood by weight, and they couldn't do it without one.
“There’s a pole that my grandfather made himself a few years ago. I’ll bring it to you later,” Niu Qingshan said as he walked.
“Okay.” Pei Yao didn’t argue with him and accepted it directly, thinking that since she had taken someone else’s scale, she would give some money to Niu Qingshan later.
Pei Yichen's little rabbit didn't have a nest yet; the bamboo cage was a bit small. As soon as Pei Yichen got home, he took the little rabbit and dragged Pei Xuan to the Liu family's house.
Liu Yu is good at carpentry, so he went to Liu Yu for help to make a rabbit cage for the rabbit.
Chen Fang and Yun Niang were washing the things they would use for their stall that day in the yard, and Qiao Hui was helping them.
Pei Yao gave the string of candied hawthorns she bought for Shen Cong to Qiao Hui and asked her to bring it back to Shen Cong later.
Qiaohui was too embarrassed to accept it no matter what she said.
Yunniang took it from her and placed it in her arms: "Take it. This is what Yao'er bought for Cong'er. You can't refuse it on Cong'er's behalf."
Qiaohui accepted the gift with embarrassment after hearing this.
Pei Yao is going to continue making pickled peppers today. Yun Niang washed the peppers yesterday and put them in the kitchen to dry.
She found a clean jar that hadn't been exposed to oil, and instead of strong liquor, she used hot water to scald the jar inside and out.
Then I put the chili peppers in one by one, along with a lot of wild garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, and a large piece of ginger that hadn't been broken open.
Recently, the ginger that Pei Yao's family has been using has all been provided by Niu Qingshan's family. Pei Yao has also planted some ginger in the plot of land in the yard where Yunniang grows vegetables, taking advantage of any available space.
That way, I won't have to keep going to other people's houses to get it.
Then pour boiled and cooled water into the jar containing the kimchi, add half a bowl of salt, and finally seal it with the lid.
If you have vinegar, you can add some to it; this will make the pickled peppers sour faster.
However, Pei Yao didn't have such a thing, so soaking it directly would be just as good, it would just take a little longer for it to turn sour.
Pei Yao pickled two large buckets of chili peppers, and after adding water, she put them all in a corner of the cellar.
These two jars will be enough for their family to eat for a while.
Even after you finish these two jars, you can add more washed and dried chili peppers directly into them.
Because by then the jar will already contain fermented sour water, which will make it ferment faster.
Kimchi is very easy to make, and Pei Yao didn't spend much time on it.
After finishing, she went to the kitchen to check on the large iron pot, intending to season it.
Pei Yao is destined to be busy; she tends to overthink when she has a little free time. It's better for her to do some light work to make her feel more comfortable.
When you buy an iron pot like this, you need to season it first. Use oil to form a protective film on the surface of the pot, which can effectively prevent the iron pot from rusting and also make the pot more lubricated and easier to use.
Pei Yao grabbed a small handful of wood ash from the stove and went to the yard to carefully scrub the inside of the pot with a cloth.
Because this iron pot was hand-forged by the blacksmith and then given directly to Pei Yao, it was quite clean except for some dust.
So all you need to do is simply wash it with wood ash.
Unlike the pots she bought before, which were mass-produced in factories using molten iron to pour into molds.
After the water is poured, a layer of color-preserving oil is brushed on the pot to prevent the iron pot from oxidizing and turning reddish-brown.
If it's that kind of pot, you need to add dish soap, some edible baking soda, and vinegar to wash it to remove the layer of grease applied by the manufacturer.
After a simple wash, you can directly heat the pot to dry it, then add salt and stir-fry.
Salt is granular. When it rubs against the iron pan during the frying process, it will bring out some dirt from the iron pan. After frying for about two or three minutes, you can pour the salt out.
The salt produced during the frying process is not edible and should be discarded.
After adding salt, there's no need to wash the pot. Just add a spoonful of lard that has been heated in boiling water in a bowl until it's melted into liquid.
Because the pot is very hot at this time and is extremely dry, if you put in solid lard or fatty meat directly, it is easy to leave a mark of fatty meat on the bottom of the pot. This will not happen if you use liquefied oil.
You can also use vegetable oil for this step; the effect is the same.
Place a cloth inside the iron pot and use a spatula to spread the oil evenly over every part of the pot, ensuring the entire pot is fully coated with oil.
Then add scallions, ginger, and garlic and stir-fry together to remove the metallic taste of the pan and let it absorb the aroma of scallions, ginger, and garlic.
Stir-fry for two or three minutes, then pour out the scallions, ginger, garlic, and lard. Do not wash the pan at this point.
Pei Yao took a kitchen knife and cut a small piece of fatty meat from the meat Chen Fang bought today, then threw it into the iron pot to continue cooking.
By this time, a layer of oil film has formed on the surface of the iron pot. Continue to use chopsticks to insert the fatty meat and stir it around in circles from the bottom of the pot to the edge, making it oily again.
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