Knowing beforehand that a medicinal herb workshop was going to be built, I specially "bought" a lot of pork fat to render into lard. When the time comes, I can put this lard into the workshop kitchen. If we can't eat meat, eating some lard to supplement our diet will be good.
While rendering large quantities of pork fat, a lot of pork cracklings are also stored up along with the rendered pork fat.
These pork cracklings have come in very handy lately.
The bok choy is growing exceptionally well in September, and it's in season. I stir-fried a large bowl of it with pork cracklings, and even the broth was coated with oil.
The cowpeas are almost out of season and a bit old. After stir-frying them in water, put them on a rice rack to steam. This way, they will be soft and tender with the aroma of rice after cooking.
Soup is made with the most common loofah. It is sliced thinly, cooked, and then more than thirty eggs are beaten and poured into boiling water. The soup makes the eggs seem particularly plentiful.
The staple food is rice, but not all white rice, but a mixed rice – with the mall around, I could afford to eat rice every day, but that would be too ostentatious, so I can only eat mixed rice.
Shuiqing chose rice and millet, even though millet was cheaper than rice in the shopping mall, she still had to add millet.
However, within her means, Shuiqing increased the proportion of rice. Firstly, these days refined grains are better for the poor; secondly, millet is more expensive than rice, so why not use more of the good-looking and delicious rice!
Around noon, the women on the mountain, led by Ding Heli, picked their first batch of fruit. Their faces were beaming with joy, and they carried large baskets of fruit without complaining of being tired. They returned to their courtyards with high spirits.
Meanwhile, the workers in the courtyard, under Qin Yilin's guidance, had already completed the cleaning of the medicinal herbs.
The five women in charge of steaming and boiling, Da Ni, Er Ni, and Ding Jiajia, watched Ding Jiajia operate the equipment and explain it to them while they worked. Their expressions were tense, as if they were afraid of not remembering everything or making mistakes.
Zhao Lan, Li Tiantian, and Zhang Xiaocao, who were in charge of cutting the medicinal herbs, had no work to do. However, the three of them did not shirk their responsibilities. Instead, they helped to chop and split a large pile of firewood with a wood-chopping knife and axe, and neatly stacked it along the wall.
The subsequent steaming and boiling of medicinal herbs will require a large amount of firewood. Preparing it in advance will prevent panic and delays.
Qin Yilin was very satisfied with the firewood that Zhao Lan and the other two had prepared. They were all observant and capable people, and it would be easy and worry-free to use them.
All of these are good.
On the first day of work, everyone was working hard and learning as they went.
When Shuiqing called for lunch, they were surprised to realize how fast time had flown by; it was lunchtime in the blink of an eye.
They didn't seem to have done much work, so how come the whole morning was gone?
Qin Yilin, however, thought it was quite good. These women in the village were doing a better and faster job than her Qin family's servants had ever done!
Most of those guys were men, but they weren't as diligent, and their hands and feet weren't as quick as theirs.
As expected, the women are more capable. The men only move when whipped, and don't move at all if not whipped. But the women in the village don't need any prompting. They are used to doing farm work and housework at home, and they are very skilled and quick at washing and cleaning without being taught.
Thirty or forty people lined up to wash their hands and then went to the kitchen.
In the kitchen, a long table was temporarily set up, with two large wooden basins piled high with vegetables on it. Next to the table was a large bucket about half a person's height, filled with loofah and egg drop soup.
The lid of the pot on the stove has been lifted, revealing the rice inside the large iron pot, steaming hot.
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