Chapter 134: Wine Yeast
Grease your hands with oil, pinch the glutinous rice cake into small balls, flatten them and place them on a winnowing basket.
After dipping it in oil, the glutinous rice cake will not stick to your hands. Put it on a winnowing basket to dry and then soak it in clean water, and it can be preserved for a long time.
Mu Xi likes sweet things, so the two of them sprinkled sugar on a small bowl of glutinous rice cake and shared it.
Zhao Yeqing has to stand for a while after eating glutinous food, otherwise he will easily feel stomach discomfort.
The two thought about going out for a walk and observing whether there were any traces of wolves on the meadow.
Their area is already at the edge of the meadow, so there shouldn't be any animal groups for the wolves to hunt.
Even near the lake, there were only traces of wild ducks and geese, and at most wild boars.
I don’t know if it’s because the last time the wild boar was hung up and left there for two days before being taken down, it had a certain deterrent effect, but there have been very few traces of wild boars nearby recently.
The two men walked around the meadow and found no signs of wolves hunting or walking. There were no new footprints or feces in the pine forest where the wolves were found before.
"Has he left already?"
It is relatively safe to go out in broad daylight, so the two of them just wandered around and didn't see any other animals except birds.
Wandering around the fields, the wheat was still as tall as before, but the barley was about to form ears. Once the ears were full of pulp, it would take about a month for the barley to be harvested.
There is just the right amount of rice and flour left at home. After the barley is harvested, there is enough food to last until the wheat is harvested.
The weather has to get warmer for the wheat to mature, and then we can plant rice. With a one-year rotation period, the family will no longer lack food.
Mu Xi casually cut two handfuls of ryegrass and held them in his hands, "Take it back to feed the pregnant sheep to satisfy their hunger."
The sheep haven't gone out for a few days. Fortunately, the sheep don't exercise much, but the goats are probably feeling uncomfortable, and they really like jumping around on the hills.
Two handfuls were not enough to conceive so many sheep, so Zhao Yeqing also grabbed two handfuls in his hands before walking back.
The wind on the meadow is always strong. When there is no wind, life is peaceful and quiet. But when the wind blows, it is so strong that people can hardly stand.
A gust of wind blew in from deep within the meadow, bringing with it a damp and cold breeze, pushing the two of them to hurry home.
Entering the sheep pen, the fresh grass immediately attracted the flock. Zhao Yeqing tried his best to stretch out his grass in front of the pregnant sheep, but a lot of it was still snatched away by other sheep.
There is a ram in particular, who is the most noisy, the most aggressive in snatching food, and always bullies other sheep.
Zhao Yeqing sneered, pointed at the goat and Mu Xi and said, "When the weather gets cold, this one will be slaughtered first."
The sheepskin can also be used to make clothes and scarves, or you can stock up a few to make mattresses.
Thinking of this, Zhao Yeqing remembered the wool she had cut when the weather was hot. She had been thinking about making wool felt in winter.
She had never seen wool felt when she was a child. When she found this room, there was a piece of wool felt in the cabinet of the original owner, and the notes also contained instructions on how to make wool felt.
It looked like a wool blanket, except that it didn't require weaving or sewing. The only material needed was wool. She had never seen this before, and she had always wanted to try it since she saw it.
"Take out the wool and let us see it."
Mu Xi took out the bagged wool from the hay room. He had said before that he would check it from time to time to see if there were any insects or mold, but he forgot about it later as he had more things to do.
Now that I have opened it, fortunately there are no insects or mold inside, but the smell is not very pleasant.
Spread the wool on the ground covered with plastic sheeting and let it air dry first.
The wool has been in the bag for so long that it has become a ball. It is slightly loosened up but not completely torn apart. Something is used to press down the edges so that it will not be blown away by the wind.
The tools for making wool felt also need to be taken out and dried. It is a curtain similar to a bamboo mat. It has not been used for a long time and has accumulated a lot of dust. It is rinsed and brushed clean with water and spread out aside to dry.
There is also a tool that looks like a cotton fluffing tool, which is used to fluff wool, and it is also cleaned and dried.
Mu Xi and Zhao Yeqing finished the cleaning work and had to wait until tomorrow to continue, so they made the koji first.
The washed Polygonum multiflorum flowers have been completely dried. Mu Xi chopped them into pieces and crushed them with a mill.
It would have been more convenient to use a stone to pound it, but the glutinous rice cake had been soaked in water and not washed yet, so I just used a millstone.
Add boiled pure water and grind it into a paste.
Zhao Yeqing took out the glutinous rice flour from the bag hanging on the wall, poured it into a clean small basin, and then poured the paste into it.
Mix the glutinous rice flour and pepper flower paste evenly. When it becomes floc-like like dough, gently knead it into a ball.
The paste of Polygonum hydropiper flowers is gray after being crushed, with a small amount of flowers that have turned dark purple but have not been crushed mixed in. When mixed with white glutinous rice flour, they become small gray balls wrapped with flower petals.
Mu Xi took a small dustpan and put the gray balls into it one by one.
Zhao Yeqing smashed the old distiller's yeast with the handle of a knife and gently crushed it into white powder.
Sprinkle the old koji powder on the ash ball, and Mu Xi shakes the winnowing basket to evenly coat the ash ball with the old koji powder, so that the ash ball can ferment into new koji faster.
Mu Xi spread the pine needles that he had brought back from the basket in the morning under the dustpan, put the ash ball on the pine needles, and then spread another layer of pine needles on the ash ball.
Pine needles are breathable, have a warming effect, and have a light pine fragrance, making them perfect for aiding fermentation.
The temperature was a little low now, so Zhao Yeqing went to the hay room and took a handful of hay to cover the top of the winnowing basket to increase the heat retention so that the ash balls could ferment better inside.
It was taken to the original owner's house and placed there. Now no one lives here and there is no smoke. It is clean and most suitable for fermenting koji.
It is easy for foreign bacteria to be present in the brewing of wine, and it is also easy for foreign bacteria to grow black hair when making the koji, so you have to be extra careful.
It was almost evening.
Zhao Yeqing went to the winnowing basket containing glutinous rice cakes and poked the cakes inside.
The glutinous rice cake has dried up and become hard.
Zhao Yeqing poured boiled water into a basin and put the glutinous rice cakes into the water one by one to soak.
I saved four to roast tonight.
Mu Xi pulled a radish from the vegetable garden at the back and cut a piece of bacon.
Stir-fry shredded radish with diced bacon and add a little chili.
It is originally an ordinary home-cooked dish, but it becomes different when eaten with rice cake.
While Mu Xi was cooking, Zhao Yeqing took out the net that he had used to roast palm fruits using wire.
Place the glutinous rice cake on the net and slowly bake it over charcoal fire. The inside of the cake will gradually swell, and a big bubble will appear, which will then burst and release the air. At this time, the cake has been baked to be crispy on the outside and sticky on the inside.
Putting the glutinous rice cake into the bowl, Zhao Yeqing blew air into it while gently pulling the glutinous rice cake open with his hands.
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