Chapter 125 Sesame
The wild boar traps yielded a good harvest. Both wild boar traps contained prey. One was dying, while the other was probably just stepped into the trap and was still full of energy.
The one at the back was very strong, and I had to knock it unconscious with a hammer before I dared to let it go.
Most of the two wild boars were made into bacon, leaving some fresh meat for daily consumption, and the rest was made into sour meat by Zhao Yeqing.
Marinate the meat with salt and peppercorns. When the time is right, put it into an earthenware jar, sprinkle with glutinous rice and seal it.
The sour meat needs to be pickled for more than two months.
There is not much Sichuan pepper left, so Zhao Yeqing wants to go to the mountains to find some.
I didn’t dare go to the chestnut tree again because the monkeys were still intimidating.
Try to look down the mountain.
The terrain here is not very good. Most of the flat land at the foot of the mountain is reserved for growing rice, and farmers' vegetable fields are basically opened on the mountain.
Sometimes one or two pepper trees are planted next to the vegetable garden.
The weeds near the foot of the mountain are sparser than on the mountain.
Looking down from above, there will usually be a vegetable garden in a large area without trees.
After searching for only half an hour, I found the vegetable garden roughly surrounded by wood.
The house was overgrown with weeds, and only a few pumpkin and loofah vines climbing over the fence in the corner could be seen.
The two walked over, and Zhao Yeqing directed Mu Xi to cross the weeds, "Put back the pumpkin seeds, and take back the old loofah pulp to wash the dishes."
Mu Xi walked around the weeds, picked up the hatchet in his hand, cut the pumpkin and loofah and put them in a basket, then took it to the open space and started processing it.
The pumpkin was very old and the flesh inside was a little hollow. I dug out the seeds, rinsed them slightly with clean water from a kettle, and then wrapped them in large leaves.
There is no need to worry about the loofah. Just carry it back as it is not heavy and deal with it later.
There are more weeds in the vegetable garden than outside. It may be because enough fertilizer was applied before, which made these weeds grow stronger.
The two searched two vegetable gardens nearby before they found the pepper tree, but besides the pepper tree they also saw a field of sesame seeds.
The sesame seeds were already ripe, and the pods of some plants had already cracked, with the sesame seeds falling out. If they had come a dozen days later, they would probably have missed out on catching them.
Zhao Yeqing brought a sickle and harvested the sesame seeds like rice.
The sesame plant is very tall, almost as tall as a person. When mature, most of the leaves on the bottom of the plant have fallen off, and there are about three branches on the bare stem.
There are pods on the branches.
A sesame field is not big, and roughly speaking, only about four bundles can be harvested.
She paid attention to the tallest and fullest plants and kept them, and placed the few that grew well separately. These were to be used as seeds for sowing next year.
The pepper harvest on Mu Xi's side is better.
The peppercorns here are all red peppercorns, the fruits are bright red in bunches and full of peppery fragrance.
Once the peppercorns from a tree are collected, if they are not used for hot pot, they can probably be eaten until next winter.
This time, only Mu Xi carried the backpack. Four bundles of sesame seeds definitely couldn't fit in the backpack, so he could only find a piece of wood to carry it back.
After the cowshed was built in the yard, the area became smaller and smaller. There was no room to store the harvest, so we had to lay plastic sheets outside the yard to dry them.
She really wanted to imitate what she had done in the yard in the mountains before and lay a cement platform on the ground.
The subsequent highland barley wheat can also be used.
There is no shortage of limestone, but working with it is a bit hard work, as you have to pick up lime and then sand.
Fortunately, most of the preparations for winter are now completed.
There is no shortage of food. The meat of two wild boars is hung above the fire pit. The wild boar traps have been removed. The family has enough food to survive the winter, so they have to reduce hunting.
Mu Xi placed the sesame bundles upright on the plastic sheet to ensure that they could be dried in all directions.
As he worked he said, "I'll go pick the lime. It will be done in two days."
Zhao Yeqing took the loofah out of the backpack and said, "Then I'll go cut some grass and make the cement floor as big as possible."
We have been harvesting grass these days, but cows eat more than sheep, so this is far from enough.
Mu Xi suddenly thought of what he had discovered in the morning, "I forgot to tell you that when Da Huang took the sheep out this morning, two of the ewes seemed to be pregnant."
He spoke with some discomfort, and Zhao Yeqing also realized that it must be the commotion that happened in the past few days.
"Well... that means we need to get more hay. Should we eat more when we are pregnant?"
"That should be the case." Mu Xi had no experience either.
"Then let's follow the highest standards."
It usually takes about five months for a sheep to be pregnant. Based on the previous time, it is now estimated to be about one month.
Then it will take another four months for the baby to give birth, and by the time spring comes, there should be no shortage of forage.
Zhao Yeqing was a little worried. The high temperature in summer had lasted for half a year. If the winter also lasted for half a year, everyone would faint from hunger.
"Let's plant it. I'm afraid the big-leafed fast-growing locust and corn grass we had before can't hold up. Let's plant alfalfa and rye."
The notes say that these two species can survive at minus 30 degrees Celsius.
This time, Zhao Yeqing planned not to plant casually, but to plow the land carefully for planting.
The new cows in our house are Simmental cows. From a distance, they looked black against the light. When we got closer, we found that they were reddish-brown with some white on their bellies and limbs.
This kind of cattle not only produces milk and meat, but can also be used for draft.
Raise cattle for ten days and use them now.
Zhao Yeqing took the rope and put it around the neck of the cow that he ate the most.
This is the little bull that was thought to be pregnant but was later found to have eaten the wrong food. After it recovered, it ate a lot and its fur became smooth.
Whether it is the cattle pen or the sheep pen, Mu Xi will clean it almost every day if he is not busy, and he will also wash them regularly, so the cows are now clean.
The place for growing pasture grass is chosen near wheat fields and barley fields.
This time she didn't make a circle around the grass.
When raising cattle, this kind of pasture has to be harvested acre by acre.
She had no experience in growing pasture grass, but according to the book, the yield of ryegrass per acre was about 8,000 to 10,000 kilograms.
Zhao Yeqing made a worse plan. According to the minimum standard yield, she could grow 8,000 kilograms of forage grass per acre of land.
A cow needs to eat 60 kilograms of grass a day, and three cows need to eat 180 kilograms of grass a day. This is because these three cows only weigh more than 500 kilograms.
If I raise it for another half a year, it will weigh more than 700 to 800 kilograms, and it will eat even more by then.
Now, 8,000 kilograms of grass per acre can barely last for three months.
If the output is less than 8,000 kilograms, or if the winter lasts longer, the sheep and cattle will starve.
The yield of alfalfa is 5,000 to 7,000 kilograms per mu, so she plans to plant one of each variety per mu to be on the safe side.
Zhao Yeqing patted the bull's shoulder and tried PUA: "You know, when you first start working, you can work for yourself. You are already very lucky."
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