After showing a sample to his five children, they went their separate ways.
Yan Xia asked each of them to pick a basket.
She herself went for a stroll in the mountains.
Rose petal cakes alone are too monotonous. Yan Xia remembered that she had once found dendrobium in the deep mountains, and it should be blooming now.
Dendrobium is a wonderful thing.
It not only nourishes the stomach yin, but also lowers blood sugar and improves eyesight.
Dendrobium flowers are often used to make tea, but many people don't know that they are also edible, and their taste is just as good as roses.
Yan Xia's maternal grandmother once cooked dendrobium flowers in fried rice for her.
It smells especially good.
It's not only delicious, but also good for your health; it's the best of both worlds.
Following her memory, Yan Xia carried a bamboo basket to the deep mountains.
We found that patch of Dendrobium.
They hide in tree trunks and crevices in rocks.
Clusters of small yellow-green flowers bloomed on the green rhizome.
When you bring it close to your nose, you can smell a faint, sweet fragrance of honey, somewhat like the scent of orchids. The aroma of it can relax even a tired body.
Yan Xia did not uproot the dendrobium.
She only picked the dendrobium flowers, even though they were small.
After picking this patch, Yan Xia's bamboo basket was half full.
Since she wasn't going to leave empty-handed, she decided to check out the hunting pit she had dug earlier.
There were two rotting animal carcasses inside, one was a wild dog left over from last time, and the other was probably a giant rat.
Yan Xia took the two animal carcasses out of the cave and buried them simply in soft soil.
Then they re-lined the hunting burrow that hadn't been properly fixed last time with straw and covered it with a layer of mud.
Just as she was about to turn around and go down the mountain.
Yan Xia seemed to smell a familiar floral fragrance.
It's a lily!
She searched around for the smell.
Finally, I spotted a small patch of white flowers near a thicket of bushes.
It is a wild lily.
The scent of lilies is quite overpowering; even though it's quite far from the hunting pit, the fragrance can still travel half a mile with the wind.
Approaching the flowerbed.
The strong scent of lilies wafted towards us.
Yan Xia began picking.
They didn't leave until their baskets were full.
When she got home, all the children had already gone home.
Each of them picked a basket full of roses.
"Go and remove the stems from these flowers, leaving only the petals. Be careful not to spill the sap from the petals."
Yan Xia gave the instructions.
She went to the kitchen to prepare brown sugar, jars, and honey.
She bought all of this in town yesterday, especially the honey, which was ridiculously expensive. It was a wild honeycomb that a hunter found in the mountains, a piece bigger than her head.
Yan Xia had to filter it herself, and after a while, she had filtered two whole jars.
There was also a pot of honeycomb residue.
This stuff could be used to make lipstick, but unfortunately Yan Xia doesn't have the time for that right now.
She set the honeycomb residue aside.
Just then, my children finished washing the flowers.
The three types of flowers should be kept separate.
The wildflowers in the mountains are clean without washing; there is no pollution or dust here.
Arrange fresh flowers in a bowl, layering brown sugar and petals. After marinating for about half an hour, wash your hands and rub the petals to extract the juice until the petals and sugar are fully combined. Then, add an appropriate amount of honey and mix well.
After placing it in a clean jar, cover it with a layer of honey.
The jar was sealed tightly and stored in a vat filled with spring water.
The temperature inside is low.
This ensures that the flower jam will not spoil.
One-fifth of each of the three flower varieties was left in summer.
So three jars of roses were pickled, and half a jar each of dendrobium flowers and lilies were pickled.
These can be eaten in 20 days.
The next step is to prepare the fresh flower petals.
Mix the remaining petals with white sugar in a 1:1 ratio.
Add lard and knead into a dough.
The filling is now complete.
"Kids, get your things ready, we're heading to town. Jinlu and Lamei, you two don't need to go. Stay home and watch the house, do the work in the fields, and don't wander off, understand?"
"Jinfu, go and get some more firewood, we don't have any in the shop. Xiaohe, take everything we bought yesterday. Guihua, put the filling that Mom just made into a basin, cover it with a cloth, and we'll start making flower cakes when we get to town."
"Hurry up, everyone, your Uncle Dali will be here soon."
Yan Xia gave instructions one by one.
She had already booked the oxcart with Zhao Dali in advance when she returned yesterday.
I looked at the sky; it was almost time.
Sure enough, the words had barely left his mouth when...
The sound of an oxcart could be heard outside the door.
"Little Xia, are you ready? I'm coming—"
It's Zhao Dali.
Yan Xia opened the door.
"Brother Dali, wait a minute, Jin Fu and the others are packing their things."
"It's okay, no rush, there's still plenty of time."
It's still early; it's only morning, not even 11 a.m.
Yan Xia wasn't planning on eating any. It just so happened that today was her first time trying to bake flower cakes, and she was on an empty stomach, so it was a good opportunity to taste them.
"Brother Dali, haven't you eaten yet?"
Yan Xia planned to trick Zhao Dali into going over to try the food as well.
"I've already eaten. Your sister-in-law made me a big bowl of gray noodles."
Zhao Dali patted his round belly and burped repeatedly.
Okay.
The plan backfired.
The two chatted casually for a while, and Jin Fu and the others finally finished packing.
After loading everything onto the oxcart, the group set off for Shuangqiao Town.
We arrived shortly before 1 p.m.
Zhao Dali claimed he was going to buy something for his wife and that they would meet at the bridgehead at 5 o'clock.
Yan Xia's shop is not far from Shuangqiao.
It's only a ten-minute walk there.
She nodded in agreement.
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