This year's matsutake mushroom season is unusually short.
In the past, they would start appearing in March and not disappear until the end of May.
It only appeared in early April this year, and was gone by mid-May.
The villagers of Shanshui Village felt regretful, but they also knew that there was nothing they could do about it.
Then I thought that bamboo mushrooms would be available in June. Unlike April, June is not a busy farming season, and there is more rain in June, so there are more bamboo mushrooms. As long as I am not afraid of hard work, I can still pick more mushrooms.
By the end of May, the busy farming season had ended early, and the matsutake mushroom season was also over, marking the most leisurely time of the first half of the year for the villagers.
Shuiqing's family decided to start harvesting potatoes.
"Dad, the Shuiqing family has decided to harvest potatoes!" Wang Guifen hurried home to tell her father-in-law.
Upon hearing this, the second son, Li Wu, asked first, "Wasn't it supposed to be harvested in June? Why is it earlier?"
Shuiqing's family started plowing the fields around the middle of the first lunar month. Later, they exchanged labor for seeds, and the earliest they went to help with planting was late January, while the latest was late January or early February.
“Yes, they said the potatoes would take about four months to harvest, but it’s less than four months in total. Maybe the harvest will be better if we delay it a few days.” The third brother, Li Qiang, frowned, his face showing concern.
Tilling the land, sowing seeds, weeding, fertilizing... farmers have worked hard for months, just waiting for this final harvest moment.
It's only a few days later, but the harvest will be much better. It would be such a waste to harvest it too early.
Wang Guifen had just returned from chatting with Shuiqing and relayed Shuiqing's thoughts: "Sigh, isn't it just because they're afraid of torrential rain and flooding!"
Shuiqing said that potatoes shouldn't be soaked. If you soak them, they'll either rot or sprout. A few months ago, Fan Laoda's family ate sprouted potatoes, and you all know how miserable they looked.
Their family figured they might as well harvest the crops early and store them; even if the harvest was poor, so be it.
The old village chief sat in his recliner, remaining silent for a long time.
The three sons and three daughters-in-law all looked at their father.
They might not know about other people's elderly, but their own father truly lived up to the saying "an elder in the family is a treasure." No matter what, he was the backbone of the family!
"Dad, do we have to harvest early too? We planted later than them," Li Qiang asked nervously.
Their family was large and hardworking. After planting potatoes for Fan Jin's family during the day, they dug the ground for half the night under the cover of darkness. Fortunately, planting potatoes during the day was not physically demanding and was not tiring for them at all. Otherwise, they would probably not have been able to handle the physical labor day and night.
In early February, the whole family went to the fields to finish planting by mid-February.
However, this was more than ten days later than Shui Qing's family.
The old village chief frowned and asked his eldest son, "Eldest son, have you been to the fields these past few days?"
Li Wen hurriedly replied, "Of course I went to see it! I wish I could see it several times a day."
"Have you dug it up and looked at it?" the old village chief asked again.
Li Wen opened his mouth, looked around, and stammered, "I... I wouldn't dare. Wouldn't digging it up before it's fully grown be a waste of food?"
The old village chief looked at his three sons and instructed them: "You three go to the fields and each of you dig up potatoes from one-tenth of an acre to take home."
Remember, no slacking off, dig it back as quickly as possible.
Although the three of them didn't know what their father meant, they obediently said "okay," ran to the yard, picked up hoes and bamboo baskets, and headed towards their potato field.
An hour later, the three of them returned to the courtyard, panting, carrying bamboo baskets.
Wang Guifen and two other women rushed forward to lend a hand.
Seeing the bamboo baskets full, Wang Guifen whispered, "Father only told you to each dig one-tenth of an acre, you didn't each dig three-tenths of an acre, did you?"
Li Wen grinned, unable to hide his joy: "Honey, this is just a small plot of land!"
"Sister-in-law, we really only dug one-tenth of an acre each!" Li Qiang's face was full of the joy of a bountiful harvest.
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