It's July now, the best time of year to pick mushrooms.
Moreover, now that there is one more person on the mountain, the amount of crops that can be grown is limited, and once winter arrives, food will become scarce again.
Therefore, we still need to use oak powder and kudzu root as our staple food.
These things are called life-saving food, meaning they can only be eaten when you are about to starve to death.
In terms of taste and variety, it naturally cannot compare with soybeans, wheat, and rice, which were selected by our ancestors.
In order to fill their stomachs, they can only try to add foods that taste good.
You need to stock up on plenty of dried bamboo shoots, mushrooms, dried fruits, and various seasonings.
As is customary, a batch of wood ear mushrooms is harvested first, and Jiang Zhi deliberately preserves the mushroom logs that have grown larger than the wood ear mushrooms.
The oak mushroom is now starting to appear, and Jiang Zhi has always been very cautious about this mushroom, which has an extremely delicious taste but is also very easy to cause poisoning.
The oak mushroom is edible and has a unique aroma, but it should not be consumed in excess, otherwise it may cause mild poisoning symptoms such as dizziness.
Because the location of harvesting affects the color and toxicity of the mushrooms, people are in critical condition every year after consuming oak mushrooms.
Unfamiliar with the oak mushrooms here, Jiang Zhi decided to reluctantly give up picking them and instead look for another type of mushroom that was the safest.
It is the famous termite mushroom, which is as big as a palm, with a thick cap and a pure white color. It is also known as "fighting chicken mushroom" in folk terms.
The matsutake mushroom has thick, plump flesh, fine white fibers, and a fresh, sweet, and crisp taste. Its deliciousness goes without saying, and it is universally recognized as the king of mushrooms.
Moreover, once you've seen termite mushrooms, you're unlikely to pick the wrong ones.
These mushrooms usually grow near termite mounds, so Jiang Zhi didn't have to search too hard to find them. He found a place where Termitomyces mushrooms were growing in large patches.
This is near someone else's charcoal shed, where a lot of miscellaneous wood is piled up for charcoal burning, and the sawdust attracts termites to build nests.
Digging into the damp soil reveals the long rhizomes of the termite mushroom; one dig and you can find a whole patch.
Jiang Zhi arrived early; many of the termite mushrooms here had just sprouted from the soil, their caps not yet open, and all that could be seen were pointed towers of soil.
Some impatient ones have already fully opened, with the folds under the canopy clearly defined.
All the branches, regardless of size, were picked, but those that had already fully opened needed to be set aside separately to prevent mud from sticking to their caps.
As the sun rose directly overhead, Jiang Zhi hurriedly returned home after picking just one leaf.
Termitomyces mushrooms are delicious but also delicate. Once picked, they will turn black and rot if the temperature gets high. If they are not processed quickly, no matter how many are picked, they will only spoil.
Besides, this is my first time out today and I've already collected so many termite mushrooms, so I wanted to share it with everyone.
Unexpectedly, when she got home, something happy happened again.
Suddenly, a flock of fluffy chicks appeared in the yard.
Led by the mother hen, the chicks foraged and moved about in the sunlit area.
The courtyard was filled with "clucking" and "chirping," and the once quiet woodland cottage suddenly became lively.
Qiaoyun wasn't inside; she was sitting next to Xiaocaixia, nursing the baby.
Nini didn't cling to her parents at this time. Instead, she squatted down next to them with a curious look on her face, touched her little sister's hands and feet, and then ran over to grab the chicks, making her giggle with joy.
Jiang Zhi exclaimed in surprise, "Oh my, when did these chicks hatch? How come I didn't know?"
She was genuinely happy. Once the hen was in the nest, she didn't need to worry about her much. At first, she would go and check on her, but eventually, she got busy and left her to her own devices, leaving Qiaoyun to take care of everything.
Watching the healthy chicks following behind their mother hen, pecking at the food, Jiang Zhi put down her basket and began to count: "One, two, three, four... Hey! Twenty eggs hatched into eighteen chicks. This hen is really good at hatching! And she hasn't lost any weight."
"Qiaoyun, I never knew you were so good at taking care of these chicks. If we need to hatch more chicks in the future, you'll have to take care of them too. The more you raise them, the more chickens there will be on the mountain!"
Hearing her mother-in-law's praise, Qiaoyun smiled on the surface, but she was overjoyed inside.
She managed the entire incubation process.
Every day she would go to check on the hens incubating their eggs, making sure they were all covered under their belly feathers, and she would also help the hens turn the eggs over so they could incubate evenly.
Worried that the mother hen would starve and lose weight, she would force the mother hen out every other day to eat and drink, leaving a large pile of smelly chicken droppings, before returning her to the henhouse to incubate the eggs.
While the hen is out eating, she should cover the eggs with clothes to keep them warm and prevent the chicks inside from getting cold.
With such meticulous care, except for two eggs that didn't hatch, all the other eggs hatched, and even the hen didn't suffer any losses, maintaining her bright plumage.
Seeing that everyone else was busy, Qiaoyun didn't mention that the chicks had hatched in the past two days. She only brought them out to show everyone when all the chicks had hatched, were plump, and had strong legs.
It really gave my mother-in-law a big surprise!
Jiang Zhi couldn't stop smiling; her idea of raising free-range chickens had finally found its supervisor.
In this environment, one cannot survive on one's own strength alone; one needs more assistants to share the burden.
At noon, Xu Errui and Xiaoman returned, bringing with them a fat rabbit that had been trapped and killed the night before.
They now spend all day running around in the mountains. In the beginning, they needed to find kudzu roots and dig yams, but now they catch rabbits and set traps, mostly for safety reasons.
As soon as there are traces or smells of humans, those intelligent large wild animals will consciously leave the area.
With mushrooms and rabbits around, it was the perfect time to celebrate Qiaoyun's postpartum period, and the two families gathered together for a lively celebration.
A whole basket of mushrooms was cleaned, and Chunfeng, who was by the terraced fields, was brought back by Xiaoman to help with cooking.
The baby was fast asleep in a basket lined with dry grass and covered with a straw mat. Grandma Xiaoman sat beside him, fanning away mosquitoes with a cattail leaf. Nini ran around trying to shoo the chickens into the coop, creating a scene reminiscent of a rural evening.
Grandpa Xiaoman sat on the edge of the stone, using a machete to split bamboo strips to make a pot-washing brush.
Although he didn't talk much, he was already content with the rare peace and tranquility he found in the mountains.
Chunfeng looks thin and small, but she is now quite efficient at doing things. She doesn't need anyone's help to skin rabbits or chop rabbit meat.
So Jiang Zhi went to the side to wash the mushrooms, and Qiao Yun helped to burn more firewood. Soon, the kitchen was filled with a fragrant aroma.
Before it even got dark, a pot of wild mushroom soup was served. Everyone sat down and drank their bowls of soup with gusto.
Xu Dazhu was unable to move, so he lay on a wooden plank next to him, but he was not alone.
On the left is Chunfeng, and on the right is Nini; one is feeding him meat, and the other is feeding him mushrooms…
Next, the wheat harvest will begin!
This year marks the first year of the terraced fields' development. The soil is fertile, and the water supply is plentiful. Under the watchful eyes of several people, the fields have gradually matured, and now the wheat grains are plump and golden in color.
To preserve as many grains of wheat as possible, several people stayed by the field for half a month, and now the harvest is in sight.
Even the weather cooperated; it didn't rain again that night, and the dam remained dry.
As dawn broke, Grandpa Xiaoman took Xiaoman, Errui, and Chunfeng to the fields.
After he finished thanking the Earth God and Earth Goddess and made the first cut, the group took turns working in a field, with Jiang Zhi following behind to tie bundles of wheat.
A sliver of red light appeared on the horizon, tinting the thin mist on the mountaintops and casting a golden glow on the thick clouds. This touch of gold stood out brilliantly against the verdant green of the mountains.
Smoke curled from chimneys in the distance, and a flock of chickens, led by a rooster, rushed over, hoping to steal a bite from the terraced fields, only to be chased back by Uncle Xiaoman, who was already on high alert, with clods of earth.
These past few days, besides watching over the sparrows, I also have to watch over them.
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