When sour grape juice gets into a wound, it tastes no different from contact with salt water.
Several people wearing rubber gloves worked quickly, trying to finish picking the pieces as soon as possible, because they would start crushing them, adding rock sugar, and sealing the jars for fermentation in the afternoon.
You really can't underestimate the efficiency of children when it comes to doing these tedious tasks. They may be small, but their movements are much more agile than adults'.
It took them more than two hours to pick all the grapes they had just picked that morning.
Once Director Jin and the others got up, Chen Hong began teaching them how to crush and squeeze out grape juice.
Then, the grape seeds were removed, and the grape juice and skins were poured into a large vat. A certain proportion of rock sugar was added, and the mixture was stirred until well combined. The vat was then covered with a clean gauze and sealed.
Several people carried the large vat into the storage room and placed it there. Now they just need to press the cap on it every day to let the wine ferment naturally.
After finishing their work, everyone chatted over dinner. "Making wine isn't difficult, but there are some tricks to keep in mind, otherwise it's easy to fail."
Chen Hong nodded: "Actually, it's not difficult to brew any kind of wine. Just make sure it's free of oil, clean and hygienic, and that the fermentation temperature and fermentation are even."
Making wine is similar to making Northeastern Chinese soybean paste; it requires daily stirring and pressing. If this step is done well, fermentation will be smooth, and the finished product will taste great.
Director Jin nodded in agreement, “We just bought a courtyard house in Beijing and planted a few grapevines there. When the grapes ripen, we really won’t be able to eat them all ourselves.”
"Once we pick them, we can make wine from them. We can drink it ourselves, and it's easy to store, so nothing will go to waste."
See? Housewives are highly conscious; they learn a new life skill that they can use anytime.
To catch cicada nymphs, we ate dinner early tonight, before it got dark; we started eating at seven o'clock.
The children quickly finished their meals, wiped their mouths, grabbed their flashlights and small plastic buckets, and ran off.
Xiaoyun was washing dishes at home with Nini, and Chen Hong followed closely behind with Director Jin and Mrs. Guan.
Chen Hong led them to the woods at the edge of the village. When they arrived, there were already quite a few people in the woods.
They were all bored at home with nothing to do, so coming out to play was refreshing and they could also catch some snacks to go with their drinks. Everyone was quite interested in this activity.
Chen Hong not only brought the standard flashlight and plastic bucket, but also a three-meter-long bamboo pole.
She led Director Jin and Mrs. Guan through the woods, her ears and eyes sharp, searching for the slowly crawling cicada nymphs—she was truly an expert.
She crouched down and searched the ground, grass, and tree trunks, sweeping them one by one with her flashlight. Every yellowish-brown cicada nymph that came into her sight was picked up and put into her bucket.
Director Jin and Mrs. Guan followed behind her, watching her bend over, raise her head, and turn around. In her bucket, there were already more than a dozen plump cicada nymphs.
"Chen Hong, how did you find the cicada nymphs? We were following behind you, but we didn't see a single one!"
Chen Hong turned around and saw the empty plastic buckets belonging to Director Jin and the official's wife, and then she remembered the two of them.
Ahem! Chen Hong was a little embarrassed. It was so awkward. Once inside the woods, she had been so focused on finding the cicada nymphs that she had completely forgotten about the two people behind her.
"Aunt Jin, Aunt Guan, the three of us can't advance in a single file; we have to spread out and move forward in a horizontal line."
Here's what you two do: look ahead from the outer edge of the woods. Let's not be too far apart, four or five meters is just right.
At this time, most of the cicadas have climbed up the trees. The fast ones have climbed to about two meters up the trunk, while the slow ones have also climbed up.
Just focus on the tree trunk. If you see small bumps on the trunk that look like cicada nymphs, take a closer look.
If it's a cicada nymph, it will move slowly. If it doesn't move, it's either a tree stump or a cicada shell, which is a cicada molt.
That's a good thing too; it's a traditional Chinese medicine, and if you collect enough, you can sell it for a good price.
"Oh, I see! Okay, let's split up! But if we climb too high, we won't be able to reach it."
"If you spot a cicada nymph but can't reach it, just call me. I have a long bamboo pole with me, don't I?"
It's specifically designed to poke at cicada nymphs high up in the air.
After separating from them, Chen Hong completely let loose and darted around the woods.
Without even needing a flashlight, she can tell which is a cicada nymph, which is a cicada molt, and which is a tree stump.
She was quick and agile, catching more than a hundred cicada nymphs in an hour, which must have weighed more than two pounds.
She was getting further and further away from everyone, and had entered the depths of the forest. Looking around, she realized that there were very few people around her.
She heard Guan Tao, Xiao Hao, and the others still ahead of her. After a while, she realized that she had been following behind the children the whole time.
She ended up picking up over a hundred cicada nymphs, though she doesn't know where the kids were looking, letting her miss out on so many.
However, hearing the children shouting and yelling, she was no longer worried about their safety.
I took out my phone and saw that it was almost nine o'clock. It was already early.
Just as Chen Hong was about to shout for the children to go home, she heard a series of wailing cries coming from not far behind her!
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