Using the firelight, Ye Wenxue chopped the pork into similar-sized strips and arranged them neatly. Then, she took out all the coarse salt in the house and stir-fried it briefly, carefully rubbing each piece of pork with a little salt.
After the meal, Dazhuang and Shuangshuang came to help, but Ye Wenxue sent them to clean their internal organs.
She gave two instructions:
"Pig offal has a strong smell. You need to boil the stove ash in a pot to make alkaline water, and then wash it with the alkaline water. Don't just try to get away with it."
Dazhuang and Shuangshuang looked at each other, scratched their heads, and asked at the same time, "Mom, what is alkaline water?"
Ye Wenxue continued working, glanced at the bewildered children, thought for a moment, and asked:
What did you usually use to wash pig offal at home?
I don't know how long ago it was before I ate pork offal.
Dazhuang racked his brains for a while, then said, "I saw many people in the village wash their food with plain water and eat it directly. Dad is more meticulous in his cooking; he uses wood ash to clean the food..."
His gaze fell on the wooden basin with a shallow layer of coarse salt: "We sometimes use coarse salt to pickle things."
Cheng Xiucai had only recently passed the imperial examination and had always saved every penny to buy writing brushes, ink, paper, and other supplies. He hadn't accumulated much wealth and could only afford to eat meat during festivals.
After passing the imperial examination and becoming a scholar, his family became more well-off, and with the rice and meat subsidies he received when helping out at the county government, life became much more comfortable.
But with two adults and several children in the family, the meat alone wasn't enough to feed them all. Most of the time, they had to use the meat they received to exchange for rice and other necessities.
In Dazhuang's memory, the last time he ate meat while his father was still alive was when his mother was pregnant with Xiaoyuan. His father reluctantly killed a domestic chicken to help his mother recover.
Thinking of his parents, Dazhuang became somewhat depressed and lowered his head without saying another word.
Ye Wenxue noticed that Dazhuang was a little sad, and paused in her rubbing of the salt:
"Stove ash and wood ash are the same thing; both can remove the odor from pig offal. You can decide whether to boil alkaline water or directly scrub with wood ash."
"We still need to set up a frame in the cave to make it easier to smoke the cured meat. Let's divide the work and process the wild boar meat as soon as possible."
"Tomorrow I'll cook all the pig offal and have a good meal."
Dazhuang understood that now was not the time to be sad. After thinking for a moment, he decided to take on the dirty and tiring work himself.
"I take the pig offal to the vegetable garden to wash it, and after washing it, I pour the wastewater into the vegetable garden to fertilize the soil."
Shuangshuang blinked: "Then I'll rub salt into the meat with Mom."
Sanyuan and Siwang quickly stood up: "We'll collect tree branches in the valley and use them to smoke meat!"
Ye Wenxue nodded with a smile.
The children quickly sprang into action: some boiled lye water, some gathered twigs, and some rubbed salt together.
Before Sanyuan and Siwang searched the valley for tree branches with torches, they deliberately placed Xiaoyuanyuan next to Ye Wenxue.
Looking up at the dark sky, surrounded by bright firelight, little Yuanyuan lay by the basket, quietly watching her mother and sister work, occasionally letting out soft, cheerful babbling sounds that made people smile along.
Shuangshuang had never used salt so lavishly before, and she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for herself.
But she also knew that the cured meat needed to be rubbed with enough salt to last longer, so she could only be more careful with her hands to avoid wasting even a tiny bit of salt.
"Mom, do you think something's wrong with Xiao Yuanyuan?"
Shuangshuang carefully rubbed salt onto the meat while keeping an eye on the basket placed beside her feet.
Ye Wenxue didn't understand and kept her head down as she continued working: "Huh? What's wrong?"
They counted them out one by one:
"There was a child in the village who cried all the time when he was about Yuanyuan's age. He cried when he wasn't full; he cried when he ate too much; he cried when he didn't get enough sleep; he cried when he slept too much; he even cried when we looked at him. He also drooled a lot. But look at Yuanyuan, she..."
According to her older brother, she often cried when she, Sanyuan, and Siwang were still babies.
Sanyuan is even more delicate; she cries whenever someone hugs her.
Xiao Yuanyuan only cried loudly that night in Shanqing Village when she almost encountered danger. At other times, she was very quiet, clean, and did not drool.
He doesn't act like a child.
With her limited experience of caring for children over the past few days, Ye Wenxue didn't notice anything unusual:
"It's normal. Everyone is different, including babies. Some cry a lot, while others prefer quiet. As long as Yuanyuan is healthy, it doesn't matter whether she cries or not."
Shuangshuang still had some doubts, but Ye Wenxue dispelled them in a few words:
"The wild boar meat has been prepared. I'll find an empty cave to set up a rack and smoke the meat. After you and Xiaoyuan have finished washing up, go and rest in the cave."
"good."
Sanyuan and Siwang, who had gathered a bunch of dry branches, couldn't stay awake any longer and went to sleep after a quick wash.
Ye Wenxue and Dazhuang worked all night, and by dawn the next day, they had finally finished processing all the wild boar meat.
All the sausages, pig ears, pig tails, pig heads, etc. that could be smoked together were sent to the cave specifically for smoking cured meat, leaving only pig hearts, pig livers, pig stomachs, etc.
Da Zhuang washed these pig offal several times last night, so the smell isn't as strong anymore.
Ye Wenxue considered the seasonings in her space and decided to braise them so they could last longer.
"Mother, is there any more work to do?" Dazhuang asked, his eyes red and his face showing signs of fatigue.
Ye Wenxue patted his head: "No need, go to sleep, I'll handle the rest."
Da Zhuang hesitated for a moment, then nodded, turned around and went back into the cave to take out the dried wood ear mushrooms and mushrooms he had collected, spread them out to dry, and then carried a bucket of water to water the vegetable garden.
The seeds in the vegetable garden were planted just a few days ago, and a few weeds have already sprouted in the ground.
When he finished watering the plants and pulled out the weeds, he suddenly realized that something was wrong with the seedlings his mother had brought back.
...How come it seems like you've grown quite a bit taller in just a few days?
That can't be right.
No crops grow that fast.
Da Zhuang rubbed his eyes and looked at them again. The plants that were no taller than his ankles when they were first planted were now almost up to his knees.
"...Hmm, I must have misread it because I didn't sleep all night."
He listlessly finished pulling up the weeds, fed the tied-up geese and rabbits, and offered a few words of advice to Ye Wenxue, who was busy at the stove:
"Mom, you've worked all night, you should rest first. Your health is the most important thing."
Ye Wenxue hastily sent him back to the cave.
Last night, all the kids went to bed very late. Da Zhuang glanced at his younger sister and brother's haphazard sleeping positions, then reluctantly squeezed into a corner to sleep.
Ye Wenxue spent half a day busy preparing the spare pig offal by taking out several seasonings stored in her space, turning over the dried wood ear mushrooms and mushrooms, and adding a few more pieces of firewood to the cave where she smoked cured meat.
She had just fallen asleep when she vaguely noticed Da Zhuang, who was sleeping in the corner, suddenly leap out of the cave.
Immediately afterwards, Da Zhuang's excited shouts came from outside the cave:
"Mom! Come quick!!! The seedlings we planted have all grown tall!"
Ye Wenxue's body was too weak; she couldn't hold on any longer after staying up all night. Her eyelids were stuck together tightly, and she couldn't open them no matter what she did.
She responded groggily, thinking to herself: Isn't it normal for the seedlings to grow taller? What's the big deal?
It's not like it's her sweet potatoes, corn, or chili peppers...
etc!
What vegetable seedlings have grown tall?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
