Chapter 284 Return to Meishan
Along the way, I didn't forget to pick some wild autumn vegetables.
After returning home, Mu Xi took the wild vegetables into the kitchen, and Zhao Yeqing spread the plastic sheet containing osmanthus flowers in the backyard and picked out the rotten and dried ones.
The front yard was already full of grass, so she was picking osmanthus flowers in the backyard, and after she finished picking they could wash them with well water.
She picked out the freshest ones, planning to dry them and make them into snacks later, and then picked out the second-best ones and stored them for later use in making tea or eating.
After picking, there were still dozens of kilograms left.
When thinking of what osmanthus flowers can be used for, the first thing that came to her mind was eating them. Osmanthus flowers that are used for eating must be cooked, that is, dried or made into sauce.
In addition to eating, those that are not so good looking can also be used to make fragrances. She has seen others use osmanthus to extract essential oils before, but their demand for essential oils is really not that great now.
Fresh osmanthus flowers are needed to make essential oil, so it takes time to process the osmanthus flowers before returning to Meishan. It will take more than two days to process so many osmanthus flowers.
Zhao Yeqing gave up this idea immediately. The weather was getting colder, and the safest thing to do was to go back as soon as possible.
She plans to dry the remaining osmanthus flowers and make them into sachets if she wants the fragrance. Although the fragrance will dissipate quickly, it saves trouble.
First- and second-grade osmanthus flowers can be dried and made into osmanthus sugar sauce, which is somewhat similar to the osmanthus honey I made in Meishan.
But now it is too late, and the two plan to return to Meishan tomorrow. Zhao Yeqing roughly washed the osmanthus flowers and placed them in the yard to dry. When night falls, he will light the oven and dry all the osmanthus flowers directly.
Fresh osmanthus flowers are not as fragrant as dried osmanthus flowers, and they are also bitter, so if you want to eat them, you have to dry them first.
After Mu Xi brought the fresh cinnamon twigs into the room, he came out to take over Zhao Yeqing's work.
"I'll wash it, and you go get the osmanthus flowers in the room."
Zhao Yeqing shook off the water on his hands, walked into the room and put the osmanthus flowers in the vase. Soon the room was filled with fragrance.
She looked through the glass window at the small garden outside. The flower seeds that had been sown previously had already grown and would probably bloom in a week. The azalea had also adapted to the current environment, taking root in the soil and producing flower buds.
They will return to Meishan tomorrow, and the trip will take a few days, just in time for them to harvest the red and green beans at home.
Dahuang and the dogs have now learned to drive away the cattle and sheep that want to destroy the grain fields and pastures, but she is still not comfortable letting the dogs let the cattle and sheep out like this.
Finally, the two decided to use a time-delay device to deliver the feed. If they could go back and forth faster, they should be able to get back in three days. They should put enough feed before leaving, and the subsequent device would only need to operate twice.
Zhao Yeqing sighed, it is technology that changes life. If there were automated equipment, he wouldn’t have to worry about so many things.
It is very simple to dry osmanthus flowers. The flowers are small and the moisture evaporates easily. The two people were busy until twelve o'clock in the evening, one drying the osmanthus flowers and the other collecting the dried hay into the hay room. In the end, there were still about ten kilograms of osmanthus flowers left that had not been dried.
Zhao Yeqing took them directly to the yard and said, "Put them in the yard to dry. If it rains, we can throw them away when we come back. If it doesn't rain, they can be dried in the next few days and we can collect them when we come back."
In the morning, before setting off back to Meishan, the two checked the house inside and out, left behind Dahuang, Xiaohuang and Xiaohua, prepared enough food for them for three days, and gave them repeated instructions.
"We can't eat it all at once! We won't be back for three days."
In the past, the dogs were relatively obedient and not greedy.
The doors and windows of the house were all locked. After the last black bear attack, Zhao Yeqing left a dog hole in the courtyard wall for them when expanding the yard to facilitate their entry and exit in emergencies.
Even if a few greedy people eat up all the food, they can still get out of the dog hole to find more food.
There was the scent of a few dogs at the entrance to the cave, so most animals wouldn't dare go inside even if they approached.
The two of them put the feed away, turned on the growing lights in the basement, sprayed the mushroom room with water, checked the luggage, and then took Xiao Hei out the door.
Worried about encountering wild animals on the road, the two of them sped up their pace. According to Mu Xi's previous experience,
"When I came back last time, the closer I got to Meishan, the fewer traces of animals I saw. But this time, it looks a little different."
The two of them had recently been on the meadow, but they had not seen many of the most common rabbits. In the sky, apart from sparrows, they had rarely seen any other species of birds. The wild boar that had appeared in the pine forest and the wolf that had appeared later had never been seen again.
On the contrary, after getting closer to Meishan, Zhao Yeqing found pheasant droppings and traces of foxes among the grass.
It was still summer when Mu Xi came back last time. She speculated, "Meishan is at a lower altitude and the temperature is relatively higher. There were no signs of animals here at the time, so they must have gone to escape the heat. Now that winter is approaching, those animals that ran away should have returned."
In summer, the temperature in the meadow is a few degrees lower than that in Meishan. In winter, the temperature here is naturally higher than that in the meadow, so the perceived temperature is probably much more comfortable.
Although there are many small hills surrounding the meadow house, which provides more shelter than the open prairie, it is still much colder than the small two-story house surrounded by trees in Meishan.
If it weren't for the fact that the arable area in Meishan is too small and there is insufficient area for growing forage and grain, it would be most comfortable to move back and spend the winter.
The two chatted about the pros and cons of the houses on both sides, but they didn't slow down their pace at all. They arrived at Meishan in the middle of the night.
After walking for more than ten hours with almost no rest, Zhao Yeqing felt a burning pain in the soles of his feet when he stopped.
She didn't care about the pain and quickly walked to the gate and opened it.
The flashlight in his hand is of high wattage, allowing him to see the surroundings clearly.
A house without people always looks a bit dilapidated, with fallen leaves scattered everywhere in the yard. The small vegetable garden in the yard is now overgrown with weeds, and the cracks in the soil in the corners of the wall are also full of weeds.
Mu Xi walked forward and pushed the door open. There was not much dust in the closed space, and Zhao Yeqing felt a little dazed looking at it.
Thinking carefully, she had left Meishan and lived in Caoyuan for more than two years. She left for the water source at the beginning and wanted to come back, but she didn't expect that when she found the water source, there would be a landslide, cutting off the original road.
Later we were able to go back, but there was an extra herd of cattle and sheep outside, and the food was stored on the meadow.
Mu Xi rubbed her hair and interrupted her wandering thoughts. "I just tried it, the water is still flowing. Go wash your face first, and I'll prepare dinner."
The rations the two men brought back were quite convenient, including a few large bread rolls, last year's smoked beef sausage, and a large tomato.
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