Chapter 384 Harvester
She did have an idea. She certainly couldn't eat so many pigs at once, so she planned to slaughter a few more piglets and freeze them directly. When she wanted to roast them, she could just thaw them directly to avoid the piglets growing up and not being able to make roast suckling pigs.
When the soy sauce is brewed, you can make some homemade fermented bean curd or sesame paste and peanut butter, and the roast suckling pig will taste even better.
Now that the pig has been weaned, it has to be slaughtered as soon as possible.
The two slaughtered most of the remaining piglets at home, kept two to raise, put the remaining half in the refrigerator, and cooked the other half to feed the dogs.
It will take more than two months for the soy sauce to be brewed as originally planned. During this time, fermented bean curd can be made. As for sesame paste and peanut butter, the stock at home is barely enough for eating, but definitely not enough for making sauce.
Still have to plant some.
Three quarters of the wheat they planted last year are still left, and half of the rice is also left. The couple does not plan to plant any more grain this season. They can plant corn and make silage later, but they will not plant wheat and rice for the time being. If they plant and cannot finish eating the wheat, it will easily get moldy if left there.
Fortunately, we have aluminum barrels for the grain at home, so the grain stored in them is fine. But the wheat in sacks that can’t fit in the barrels has to be taken out and dried every once in a while.
In addition to silage corn, the remaining fields are used to grow peanuts, sesame, soybeans, mung beans, red beans, etc.
There are also some crop seeds that have never been planted, and you have to find a field to sow some of them to save the seeds again, so that the old seeds will not germinate over time.
For example, broad beans. She doesn’t have many opportunities to eat these beans. In the past, when she saw them for sale in the market, she would buy some and boil them in water. After they were cooked, she would add some salt and eat them as a snack. But she would get tired of them after eating a lot. It’s okay to eat them occasionally.
So the broad beans at home have never been planted.
Mu Xi took out the broad beans to dry and prepare for sowing: "It's okay. If we can't finish them, we can use them to make bean paste. I remember that the red oil bean paste in Sichuan Province is made from broad beans. It can also be used when cooking."
That's a good idea.
Speaking of bean paste, Zhao Yeqing said: "I have used the remaining soybeans at home to make fermented bean curd. By the way, I can also make some water-cured black beans. After that, we can have a meal of Guizhou's oil residue hot pot."
There are more and more things to do, but we still have to prioritize them.
The most urgent task is to get back the handheld harvester from the foot of the mountain. Now the grain fields are full of weeds that are taller than the calves. If the harvesting is done manually, it will take several days to finish processing the grain fields.
The working principle of the harvester is that a circular gear blade rotates continuously to cut off the plants in the ground. It can be used for harvesting crops such as wheat, rice, corn, soybeans, etc., as well as for harvesting grass or weeding.
Sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood, and getting the harvester back can make things more efficient.
However, no one has walked down the mountain for almost two years, and I don’t know if it is still passable.
Mu Xi planned to go alone. "I'll take the dog with me. It will probably take two days for me to return. You just need to prepare the seeds for sowing at home. You have to worry about what to plant and how to plant them."
He is quite good at physical work and manual labor. Even though he has been back in the mountains for so long, he cannot learn these things as fast as Zhao Yeqing.
"That's fine. Then go early and come back early. Be careful."
There were no dangerous animals near the path down the mountain. Although the two did not go down the mountain this year, Mu Xi would sometimes go to the bamboo forest to dig some bamboo shoots to eat. They had not seen any dangerous animals, and there were no traces of them.
She felt more at ease going down the mountain.
But what she didn't expect was that she didn't encounter any ferocious animals, but instead met a group of "old friends".
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Zhao Yeqing was preparing seeds for planting at home, as well as lime and fertilizer to be spread on the ground.
The lime was brought back in blocks, and Mu Xi would break the large blocks on the spot into small blocks for easy transportation and then bring them back. When they were needed, he would sprinkle water on the small blocks of limestone, and the limestone would break up into ash or small blocks, which could then be sieved and crushed for use.
We still need to plan what to plant on which piece of land at home.
Even if you want to continue planting corn, you cannot continue planting it on the original corn field. Continuous planting of a single crop will cause serious nutrient deficiency in the soil, and other crops must be replaced.
Zhao Yeqing plans to sow various beans on the land where corn has been planted for several consecutive times, so that the rhizobia in the root system of the beans can nourish the land.
Last year, wheat was planted in the rice fields, and this year, corn was planted there as well. This realizes the crop rotation of rice, wheat and corn, and prevents the soil from being consumed by a single crop. The nutritional requirements of the several crops are different, so there will be no reduction in production.
There is also sweet potato. Even if she doesn't grow it for making sugar, she wants to grow some every year to eat as fruit.
Other crops that we don’t want to plant but have to save for seed are planted in the original rapeseed field. The land is neither too big nor too small, and after planting a variety of plants, it can still be planted even with a wider row spacing.
However, after the subsequent crops are planted, we can no longer let the pigs out at will, otherwise the food will be wasted.
Now, apart from the four old pigs kept for breeding, there are only two piglets born this year, which are not difficult to raise.
While Zhao Yeqing was waiting for Mu Xi to come back home, he went to the fields again to see if there were any new straw mushrooms.
The last meal of chicken stewed with straw mushrooms was so delicious that I ate all the straw mushrooms in one meal. The straw mushrooms soaked in chicken soup tasted better than meat.
In the rice field, she took a small wooden stick and lifted up the gradually rotten and blackened rice straw, revealing the straw mushrooms underneath. She picked up any that were the size of a thumb and took them home.
Maybe because there was extra rain in early spring, this time the harvest of straw mushrooms was more than last time. After leaving enough for one meal, the rest was taken to the drying room to dry out the moisture. Dried mushrooms are more fragrant than those dried in the sun.
It's impossible to dry the air in this weather. In the past few days, the sun only comes out for a while at noon. It's a bit gray at other times. The lowest temperature is around 19 to 20 degrees.
Zhao Yeqing went to see the ducks in the duck house this morning. The little ones had already been born. Now it was spring again, and the ducks in the house would probably lay eggs again soon.
The mother duck has not left the nest recently. The ducklings all stick their butts out and crawl under the mother duck's belly. Zhao Yeqing is very considerate and delivers their food directly to them. However, the mother duck is protecting her ducklings, and when she sees Zhao Yeqing coming, she stretches her neck to peck her.
Zhao Yeqing was mentally prepared. He took a small stick and slowly pushed the small plate of feed over to feed the baby.
Calculating the time, Mu Xi has been away for two days and should be back today, but I don’t know what time he will get home.
It would definitely be difficult to clear a mountain road that has not been used for such a long time. The food Mu Xi brought this time was only enough for two days. If he hadn't arrived home this afternoon, she would have to go and pick him up.
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