Chapter 394 Asparagus
This watermelon sauce is not the traditional sweet fruit sauce, but a sauce for rice and noodles with salt and pepper.
When Zhao Yeqing heard about it for the first time, his face wrinkled, thinking that it must be some kind of dark dish.
At this moment, she was planting watermelon seeds in a seedling pot. Mu Xi asked, "Are you going to plant so many watermelons this year?"
The moment she learned about the food called watermelon jam, the expression on her face was exactly the same as she had at the beginning.
"Oh, I'm not lying to you, it's really delicious. If you like sweet food, you will definitely like this more." The rich aroma of bean paste and the slightly sweet taste of watermelon are cleverly combined.
Mu Xi thought of the moldy tofu that had made him so addicted last time, and finally chose to believe Zhao Yeqing, "So are you going to put this seedling pot indoors or outdoors?"
"Put it in the backyard, build a simple small stand next to it, cover it with plastic sheeting when it rains, and uncover it when it's not raining. Take good care of it, and maybe this year you can have watermelon freedom."
Last year I was barely free, but the quality of the watermelons was not particularly good. There were a lot of seeds and the rind was thick.
At first she thought it was a problem with the variety. Later, during the period with the most sunshine, a fruit the size of a football matured. When she cut it open, she found that the rind was only half as thick as the previous ones.
Zhao Yeqing also specially saved the watermelon seeds and planted them in a separate seedling pot just now. He labeled it and will try again this year to see if it is a problem with the variety.
There was no material to build a shelf at home, so Mu Xi went outside the yard to cut bamboo.
After being planted for more than a year, the bamboo has grown into a small patch. Mu Xi cut one and brought it back, and also picked up three or four bamboo shoots.
The bamboo shoots were still very tender, only about the thickness of two fingers, and even less after the shells were removed. Zhao Yeqing peeled the bamboo shoots and threw the shells into the compost bin.
There is not much garbage at home, and there is almost no plastic garbage from modern civilization. Usually there are just some kitchen waste such as bones, eggshells, and vegetable leaves.
Zhao Yeqing's food waste compost bin has been put into use again since the polar night. Normally, there is no garbage to be incinerated, and all the garbage is thrown into the compost bin to become fertilizer. The bamboo shoots shells are naturally excellent materials.
The peeled fresh bamboo shoots are first soaked in water, and then in the evening, a piece of bacon is cut off and fried.
Speaking of bamboo shoots, Zhao Yeqing walked out of the kitchen again. Mu Xi had already nailed the rack almost all the way, and he would just put the plastic sheet on it later.
She walked into the greenhouse in the yard and when she was taking out seeds that had not been planted this year to save for future generations, she found a bag of black seeds in the pile of seeds. After trying to sow them, green sprouts appeared and she discovered that they were asparagus seeds.
It has been more than a month since I planted it, but I have only seen a little green. I don’t know if it is because the soil type is not suitable for asparagus growth or it is a climate problem. I always feel that it should not grow in this state.
Zhao Yeqing squatted on the ground and observed carefully, holding a handful of wet soil in his hand and speculating:
Is it because it's too humid?
As I was thinking about it, I suddenly noticed that the asparagus closest to the potato patch seemed to be taller than the asparagus next to it.
But the moisture level of the potato plots is the same...
Previously, potatoes were planted together with sweet potatoes in the vegetable garden outside. Later, the two found that they could not eat so many, so they simply planted a row of them in the yard, which was enough for the two of them.
The two of them already had a pretty clear understanding of the growth habits of potatoes. Before planting, they specially got some sandy soil and mixed it with the soil here to make the soil softer and more breathable.
Zhao Yeqing touched the soil here and was 80% sure that the problem was with the soil.
But now that the asparagus has grown out, it is not easy to plow it deeper and adjust it. This thing has a long growth cycle. If it is planted this spring, it will not grow until next spring. Fortunately, it can be harvested for many years.
How about spreading some sandy loam on it?
Zhao Yeqing sighed. There was no signal now. In the past, he could take out his mobile phone to check the growth habits of various crops. Now he could only rely on himself to observe. For every unfamiliar crop, he had to carefully observe and take notes at every stage.
This way, we can make adjustments the next time we plant. The grains and vegetables at home are grown little by little in this way, and gradually achieve a good yield.
It's just that the crops planted in recent years are all crops that the two are very familiar with, and they haven't had to spend so much time and effort to figure it out for a long time. This year, because they have to save seeds for all the crops that they haven't planted before, the more unfamiliar varieties are, the more mental effort they have to spend.
Zhao Yeqing wrote down the habits of asparagus in his notebook:
It has good temperature adaptability, likes loose sandy soil, has high drainage requirements, and has moderate fertilizer requirements...
If the land can be raised a little, the drainage will be better.
Zhao Yeqing thought about it carefully and felt that he still had to treat the soil first. After all, it was a perennial crop. If it was not treated properly now, he would have to look at the mixed quality of crops in the following years of harvest.
This laziness still cannot be stolen.
Now that the roots have just broken through the soil and the asparagus has not yet grown very deep, just shovel up the entire soil together with the asparagus, add a layer of sandy loam underneath, and then put the shoveled soil back intact. It should not have much of a problem.
There is no sandy loam left at home, so I have to go to the lake to get some.
When Zhao Yeqing stood up and walked out of the vegetable garden, Mu Xi had just spread out the plastic sheeting and moved the watermelon seedling pots in.
She said, "We seem to have forgotten one thing, the tricycle that we agreed to move back... We went back and forth to the tourist area so many times to get tiles and cabinets, and we forgot about the tricycle."
After hearing this, Mu Xi remembered that it was indeed the case. He had forgotten to harvest the ramie that he had promised to harvest.
"Let's go, get the tricycle back, and bring back a load of sandy loam from the lake. Seeing the asparagus today reminded me that it's raining a lot right now, so mixing more sandy loam before planting can help with drainage and ventilation."
It took two people to get the tricycle back. There was no room in the car, so one person had to ride it back, but the tricycle had no power...
Mu Xi thought for a moment and said, "Why don't we drive another car back? There are many pickup trucks in the tourist area. The trunk of that one is relatively large, and we can transport large logs when the time comes."
That's true. It would be a lot more convenient if I had a pickup truck. The reason I didn't get one before was because of fuel consumption and weather issues. Now that I've found a gas station, I don't have to worry about fuel consumption, and the weather is gradually getting better.
When two people go out, they sit in the front. Even if they need to take the dogs out, they will not be too cold or too hot sitting in the back of the truck in this weather.
It seems that pickup trucks are the most practical cars now.
"Okay, let's take the tools with us. The car has been parked there for too long. If there's something wrong with the tire, we need to inflate it or replace it... We still have to get the tricycle back."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
