For farming families, crops are their lifeline.
Moreover, the crops that are about to be harvested are now being hit by the torrential rain.
Farmers' income has always depended on the weather.
The rain and wind were heavy, and some of the wheat on the terraced fields was knocked down. Xu Errui helped to prop it up the next day, hoping it wouldn't affect the harvest during the flowering and grain-filling stage.
In addition, there are the crops on the slope.
The rain raged down the slope, and most of the sorghum and soybeans were flattened.
It's June now, and the beans have only just started to sprout inside the pods; it's ruined.
So Xiaoman cut down all the fallen beans, put the tender beans in salt and simmered them to eat. The two families ate their fill of beans for two meals.
Having come up the mountain, aside from vegetables and green beans, this was the first time they had eaten fresh grain crops. Although they ate to their heart's content, Grandma Xiaoman still sighed with heartache: "If these beans were fully grown in two more months, they would weigh at least a hundred pounds, enough to eat for a month."
How could I not feel heartbroken? Originally, it was a hundred pounds of beans, but now it only gets two meals.
The bean sprouts were dried by Jiang Zhi into hay to be used as feed, and the rabbits had already given birth, so they planned to raise them like this.
Young rabbits reach sexual maturity in six months, while older rabbits typically have a litter of about 10 offspring every two months. As long as they continue to reproduce, the family will quickly grow.
The fallen sorghum stalks have just sprouted ears, and the corn is half a person tall. These can still be saved; we just need to support them one by one, day and night.
After saving hundreds or thousands of sorghum and corn plants and quickly repairing the front and back yards of the two families, Xiaoman and Xu Errui, the two young men, were so exhausted that they couldn't get up once they lay down.
Some of the vegetables and chili peppers were also lost.
The cotton seedlings were lucky; they escaped the disaster, thanks to the abundant rainfall. Under the sunlight, their leaves turned a deep, almost blackish green, and their branches began to grow wildly.
Jiang Zhi and Xu Errui are still waiting for these cotton plants to get through the winter.
Qiaoyun is currently in postpartum confinement and taking care of her baby, and the little clothes she made before are coming in handy.
Several days have passed since the torrential rain, and Jiang Zhi has not gone out to take care of Qiao Yun.
While the children and Qiaoyun were eating and sleeping, she took a stroll in the nearby woods to see if there were any "earth fungus" that grows after thunderstorms, also known as "thunder god's excrement" or "thunder god fungus".
Thunder fungus is a type of fungus that only grows in damp, unpolluted grass. When fresh, it resembles rotten mud, and when dry, it curls up like a wood ear mushroom, with a light green color.
As a unique ingredient, it is highly nutritious, containing a certain amount of fat, which makes it superior to ordinary wild vegetables.
It contains more calcium than white fungus, more protein than eggs, more amino acids than monkey head mushroom, and its vitamin C content is nineteen times that of laver.
There are many ways to cook wood ear fungus, including braising, stir-frying, simmering, and stewing, with no restrictions. It can also be paired with eggs, chives, chili peppers, and cured meat.
However, although its health benefits are excellent, it is not suitable for everyone, as it is a cold-natured food and should not be eaten by people with poor digestive systems.
Women who frequently experience diarrhea or are sensitive to cold should not consume this product.
Jiang Zhi was lucky; the forest did indeed have some thunder fungus a few days after the rain.
They were piled up in clusters on the ground and along the cracks in the rocks, stretching as far as the eye could see.
This thing is very delicate. If the humidity is not enough, it will shrink back into the ground when exposed to the sun, waiting for the next rain.
Jiang Zhi didn't dare to waste any time, so she grabbed handfuls of food, filling the basket to almost half full in no time.
Take it home, wash it with clean water to remove weeds, dirt, and pebbles, then dry it and store it. Whenever you want to eat it, just soak it in water like you would soak wood ear mushrooms.
Of course, such good things should be eaten fresh first.
In the evening, after the two families returned, Jiang Zhi stir-fried wild leeks, eggs, and thunder mushrooms with chicken fat.
The aroma drew Xu Errui in, who took a deep breath: "Mom! This thunder god's excrement looks disgusting, how come it smells so good after being stir-fried?" As he spoke, he reached out to pick one up and try it.
Jiang Zhi slapped his hand away, put the stir-fried dishes in a bowl, and told him to take it down the cliff: "Take a bowl to Xiaoman and the others, don't eat there, come back as soon as you get it! We have plenty at home!"
Xu Errui happily agreed and carried the steaming dishes down the cliff.
He returned quickly, but when he came back, he had a stack of pancakes and a cold salad of goji berry tips in the same bowl.
Goji berry tips are the tender stem tips of goji berries. They are blanched in boiling water, seasoned, and then served as a cold dish. They are nutritious, crisp, and refreshing, and also have the effects of clearing heat and improving eyesight, lowering blood pressure and lipids, and beautifying the skin.
The goji berry vines and leaves are growing perfectly all over the mountain now, so Xiaoman doesn't need to go far; she can just pick a handful from the cliff next to her and that's her vegetable.
Nowadays, no matter what strange or unusual foods Jiang Zhi makes, neither family has any objections, and Xiaoman's grandmother even follows suit and tries to eat them too.
The vegetables Xiaoman sent were just right. Jiang Zhi and Xu Errui could eat the mushrooms, but Qiaoyun, who was still in confinement, couldn't eat them. She could only drink a bowl of meat soup and eat some vegetables.
After eating some thunder mushrooms, Jiang Zhi dried the rest. She wanted to harvest these dried vegetables while they were still available, as they would be gone once they were exposed to the sun.
After the rainstorm, the weather changed. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and the scorching sun made it hotter and hotter every day. Farm work had to be done in the early morning and evening, and everyone rested at home at noon.
Jiang Zhi didn't sleep. While Xu Errui was at home with Qiaoyun, she went into the woods again.
There are no more thunder fungus, but there should be wood ear fungus in this kind of weather.
Oak wood ear fungus is the most famous and high-quality variety of wood ear fungus. This is an oak forest, where you're bound to find it on decaying wood and rotten trees.
This time, Jiang Zhi brought a large basket with her. If there were no wood ear mushrooms, she would gather medicinal herbs; she wouldn't return empty-handed.
After walking around, I found several piles of oak trees that had been cut down before. The rainwater had eroded the bark, revealing tiny black beans scattered around them.
Jiang Zhi examined them closely and realized that these were wood ear mushrooms, but they hadn't fully grown yet; they were only the size of rice grains.
She memorized the location and planned to come back in a few days.
Having been on the mountain for several months, Jiang Zhi has now explored most of the area and knows where the medicines are.
Sweet potatoes are ready for harvest, and dandelions also need to be dug up in large quantities.
The mountain gullies that were dry when I first went up the mountain are now flowing with water.
The shallow pond we saw while digging for houttuynia cordata had been eroded into a large pit by the recent flash flood. Now, it looked shimmering from a distance, filled with a lot of rainwater.
The cliffs on both sides of the ditch are steep, and sweet potato vines grow densely, making the water appear green.
To pick sweet potatoes, you need to climb the cliff, and to get to the cliff, you need to wade through the ditch.
The water conditions in these mountain streams are unpredictable, and the underwater conditions are also unknown, so one should not go into the water casually.
Normally, the water level is calm, which is called a pond. When it rains, the water level rises rapidly and becomes a waterfall. Once it rains, there will be a flash flood. The water in the ditch cannot stay for long.
Jiang Zhi did not immediately approach the pond, but stood a short distance away to observe the surrounding situation, in order to prevent any animals from coming to drink from being blocked by her and having to fight desperately.
After confirming that there was nothing amiss, he threw a few stones, splashing water everywhere, and clapped and stomped to make a commotion. Seeing that the entire ravine was still calm, he waited a moment before slowly walking over.
The water rippled gently, and before Jiang Zhi even got close, he saw a group of small fish frantically swim into the shadows of the grass by the water's edge.
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