Bamboo shoots are a great food. Besides dietary fiber, they also contain amino acids and trace elements. At least giant pandas can eat them to become round and plump, so humans can too.
When Jiang Zhi learned why no one was eating bamboo shoots, she immediately had an idea.
I know about herbs, which can be sold for money, but it requires a lot of expertise and is dangerous to walk in the mountains all year round.
Xiaoman and Errui only dare to dig up kudzu root and silvergrass now. They even have to check the quality of wild yam themselves. As for other medicinal herbs, it is even more difficult.
There's also a saying: "Those taking medicine cry out in their hospital beds, those digging for medicinal herbs hang themselves on the edge of cliffs, and those selling medicine laugh as they count their money."
Digging for medicinal herbs can only provide for basic needs, not lead to wealth.
She plans to teach others how to consume oak powder and kudzu root for free.
This is something that can save lives and help all living beings; Jiang Zhi will not keep it to herself.
Everyone knows that bamboo shoots are edible, but it's a matter of variety. The bamboo here isn't Nan bamboo, and the bamboo shoots are quite bitter.
Since there are no airtight jars or containers for making pickled bamboo shoots, we can only dry them in the sun. In the future, we can also use salt to make pickled bamboo shoots with peppers.
The territory of the Zhou king who raised the army during the Great Yan Dynasty was in Ba County. There were deep brine wells there. Craftsmen would draw water from the wells and boil it to make salt.
Salt has always been a major source of national tax revenue, and Ba County, which possesses numerous salt wells, was clearly not under the control of the imperial court.
There's an old saying that goes, "When the world is in chaos, Shu is in chaos first; when the world is at peace, Shu is not at peace." Ba County lacked grain, but it never lacked salt. Its most famous products, such as cured meat and pickled vegetables, required a lot of salt.
Well salt produced using low-tech methods has a high mineral content and is as hard as stone. Apart from pickling vegetables, a lot of crystallized salt blocks are usually discarded.
After the bamboo shoots had soaked until they developed a bitter taste, Jiang Zhi personally cooked a vegetarian bamboo shoot dish using the limited amount of cooking oil she had at home.
At this point, there is no bitterness or astringency, only a crisp and refreshing taste.
Looking at the stir-fried bamboo shoots that Errui brought, Xiaoman sighed. Although he had bad teeth, he ate with relish: "Alas! It's a pity that all the bamboo shoots on the mountain are picked to feed the pigs. People don't even live as well as pigs."
In the past, when there were too many bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest, affecting the density of the bamboo forest, the villagers would break off small, pointed bamboo shoots to feed the pigs. The pigs loved them and would eat them with great relish.
Grandpa Xiaoman lamented that he had lived to old age before finally tasting the flavor of bamboo shoots, feeling he had truly missed out.
Grandma Xiaoman picked up a shiny white bamboo shoot with her chopsticks, frowned and said, "Bamboo shoots are delicious, but they use a lot of oil. I bet Errui's mother used a spoonful of cooking oil to stir-fry a dish. Ordinary families can't afford that!"
She was in charge of the kitchen and could tell at a glance that this dish used a lot of oil.
Oily dishes are delicious, but they're too wasteful of your resources.
Thinking about the salt that Errui's mother used, Xiaoman's grandmother sighed, put down her chopsticks, and went to rummage through her own salt jar: "Xiaoman, after you finish eating, give the salt to your aunt."
Xiaoman, without even looking up, was busy shoveling the paste mixed with red bean paste, and readily agreed: "Okay, Grandma, I'll help Auntie dig bamboo shoots from now on. Oh, by the way, there are eels in the pond at the mountain pass behind, I'll try to catch some tonight."
He had already decided that he would have to work harder. In the future, if Errui wanted to dig bamboo shoots, he would catch rabbits during the day and catch shrimp and eels at night to provide some vegetables for both families.
Nini and Xu Dazhu didn't sit at the table; instead, they ate bamboo shoots while lying on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed).
The two ate very slowly. Aunt Jiang had said that bamboo shoots were good for bowel movements, and since their stomachs were weak, they should eat less and eat slowly.
Xu Dazhu is not letting anyone feed him now; he uses chopsticks to pick up shredded bamboo shoots and feed them to Nini.
Nini was overjoyed. Ever since she fed her father the green fruit, he had been talking more every day. He not only played with her occasionally, but now he even fed her.
His satisfied expression was impossible to hide; he was chewing bamboo shoots, and the joy in his eyes was almost overflowing.
She couldn't help but kiss Xu Dazhu's gaunt face and giggled.
Xu Dazhu felt his daughter's affection, and although he smiled, his heart ached.
As Nini grows older, her eyes look more and more like her mother's. I wonder if Chunfeng escaped safely?
I must try my best to live for my child's sake.
After the meal, everyone knew that bamboo shoots were edible and delicious, so going down the mountain to harvest bamboo shoots became the top priority for both families.
So, Jiang Zhi and the other two went to check the situation outside the village in advance, and when they felt it was safe, they entered the bamboo forest.
In Xujia Village, not only are there bamboo groves in front of and behind every house, but there are also bamboo mountains surrounding the village, so anyone can cut bamboo whenever they need it.
Unfortunately, the wildfire burned down all the bamboo forest in the village and a large area outside the village as well, leaving less than a third of the original area.
Fortunately, even this third was enough for Jiang Zhi and the other two to harvest.
Bitter bamboo shoots are not the same as moso bamboo shoots. They don't need to be dug up from the soil. The shoots grow more than ten centimeters above the ground and are very easy to find because they are pointed and thin.
You don't even need a hoe to dig it up; you can just step on it and pick it up.
One person stepped on the bamboo in front, and two people picked it up from behind. The bamboo forest was cleared in just two days.
I also caught a few reddish-brown bamboo shoot worms, pinched off their long, menacing legs, and threw them into the fire. They burned and produced a fragrant wild game.
Bamboo shoots were carried back up the mountain, and Xiaoman's grandparents and Qiaoyun also joined in, peeling off the bamboo shoot skins and boiling them in a large pot, then repeatedly soaking and changing the water.
Finally, slice the bamboo shoots that have been soaked to remove bitterness and dry them in the sun. When you want to eat them, you just need to soak them again.
So, on the high cliffs shrouded in mist and smoke, in the small courtyards deep in the woods, bamboo shoots, starch, and herbs were drying everywhere, exuding a strong sense of everyday life.
In the fields, the crops are growing rapidly, and the grain sacks in the house are slowly bulging. The anxiety of living off past savings has subsided.
Following Jiang Zhi's instructions, Xiao Man's grandfather also cleared a section of paddy field below the reservoir to serve as a nursery, sowing rice seedlings and waiting for the wheat harvest to transplant them.
They made the most of their time in this small area, not wasting a single day.
Xiaoman originally wanted to catch eels and loaches, but Jiangzhi disagreed, because this was a high mountain wilderness, no longer the fields and ditches of the village.
For people living in the mountains, the biggest worry is encountering animals.
Humans are afraid of animals, and animals are even more afraid of humans. During the day, they can see each other from a distance and avoid each other.
If you wander outside at night, stepping on snakes or insects is a minor issue, but running into large wild animals foraging for food could lead to serious trouble.
Jiang Zhi thought the same way, which is why she immediately searched for realgar and quicklime and painstakingly carried them up the mountain.
Unexpectedly, a wildfire broke out. People ran away, and some of the wild rabbits in their burrows also escaped. The snakes that were hibernating in the fire area were not so lucky; whether they were venomous or not, they were all burned to ashes.
Moreover, the fire also frightened large animals such as wild boars, causing them to stay far away and not appear.
It's already May, and normally snakes and insects should be rampant in the mountains, so this area is clean and safe.
Early summer has arrived, and all kinds of flowers are blooming in competition, enveloping the entire mountain in a rich fragrance, with wild bees busy among the flowers from morning till night.
Jiang Zhi hung a fresh rabbit meat next to the flower bushes.
Before long, a yellow and black wasp, about the size of a little finger, was attracted to the meat strip. It landed on the meat strip and began to bite it without hesitation with its sharp mandibles.
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