Chapter 149 148: Collecting Herbs
Zhou's mother watched him leave the door, brushed off the non-existent dust on her apron, went to the kitchen to get a kitchen knife and started peeling bamboo shoots, preparing to make stir-fried bamboo shoots with meat.
She picked up a large bamboo shoot and placed it on the chopping board. She held down the tail of the shoot with her left hand, picked up a kitchen knife with her right hand, placed her index and middle fingers close to the knife, and cut from the tail of the shoot to the tip, then cut it off with force.
At this time, the right hand holding the knife pries the knife into the heart of the bamboo shoot, and the left hand presses down to peel the bamboo shoot shell outwards. At the same time, the right hand presses down on the bamboo shoot shell with the knife and pries it outwards with force, and the entire bamboo shoot is peeled out at once.
Just as I peeled most of the bamboo shoots, I heard someone outside shouting, "Is anyone in the house? Guilan, is Guilan here?"
Mother Zhou quickly put down her kitchen knife and ran to the steps. She saw Aunt Chen and a few others standing at the door with baskets on their backs. "Sister Chen, what are you doing?"
Aunt Chen and the other two walked into the yard with a smile, "Your youngest daughter-in-law said she wanted to collect wild herbs, so we dug some wild hyssop, half-flowered grass, and plantain to sell to you."
Mother Zhou frowned after hearing this. "Chunyan hasn't come back yet. Didn't she tell me she was going to collect wild herbs when she left?"
Aunt Chen smiled and said, "In the afternoon, we saw them digging herbs on the mountain... Chunyan said it was 2.5 cents per pound..."
"2.5 cents a pound?" Zhou's mother interrupted her with a glare. "They only sell it for 3 cents a pound when they deliver it to Ning'an. If you buy it back at 2.5 cents a pound and leave it overnight to reduce the water content, how much profit can you make? Sister Chen, did you hear me wrong?"
After hearing this, Aunt Chen and the other three looked at each other. It turned out that what Chunyan said was true!
"Gui Lan, did your Chun Yan really say that? We are from the same team, why would we lie to you?"
Mother Zhou also felt that the few people would not lie to her. After thinking about it, she felt that Yang Chunyan must have her reasons for doing this:
"Sister Chen, the wild herbs we sell are all picked and separated, without any mud or yellow leaves. Have you picked them clean?"
"Pick the clean ones!" Aunt Chen said as she picked up a handful of plantains. "Look, there's not a speck of mud or yellow leaves!"
The others also grabbed the wild herbs in the baskets, "Don't worry, we've picked them all and separated them."
Mother Zhou went forward and picked it up and took a look. She thought it was okay, so she went to the main room and brought out two long benches. "Sister Chen, please sit down for a while. I'll go get the basket and scale to weigh it."
"Yes, yes!"
Mother Zhou took out a scale, carefully took the herbs out of the basket and put them into the basket, then checked them from top to bottom before starting to weigh them.
Aunt Chen and the others were also helping out. "Gui Lan, your youngest son has such a good wife. She's so capable!"
Mother Zhou said happily: "Well! My Chunyan is not only capable but also kind-hearted. The youngest one made money by selling eels. She saw that our clothes were all patched up, so she asked the youngest one to buy cloth for us.
When he saw that our rubber shoes and boots were torn, he also bought some for us. Every time he came back from Ning'an, he would buy candies and fruits for the kids. Everyone in the family, young and old, loved them. "
After hearing this, several people were extremely envious, "Your youngest son found such a good daughter-in-law for you, you are so lucky!"
Zhou's mother said cheerfully: "Not only Chunyan is good to us, Huifang and the others are also good to us."
Aunt Chen: "Guilan is also very good to her daughter-in-law!"
Mother Zhou: "Isn't it right to be nice to your daughter-in-law? If the family is harmonious, it will be more comfortable even if we are poor!"
"You are so generous!"
After weighing the herbs in Aunt Chen's basket, there were 30 kilograms of plantain, 15 kilograms of mountain hyssop, and 20 kilograms of sticky grass.
The other three brought dandelions, plantain, sticky grass, and rhubarb. In total, the four of them brought over more than 200 kilograms of herbs.
Aunt Chen and the other three happily took the money and said goodbye. In the afternoon, each of them earned more than one yuan, so they could buy a pound of meat to take home for a snack.
****
At the top of the back mountain, Yang Chunyan put the herbs piled on the ground into a sack, carried it to the backpack, placed it horizontally, and then tied it up with a hemp rope.
She squatted down, put the straps on her shoulders, and tried to stand up with the backpack on her back. However, the basket was too heavy and she almost fell over with it. She hurriedly grabbed a small bush in front of her, knelt on the ground with her right leg, and stood up by holding on to the bush.
Zhao Huifang hadn't even reached her when she saw that she had already stood up. She said in a chastised tone, "Why didn't you ask me for help? It would save a lot of effort if someone helped to lift it up and carry it."
"It's okay! Have you tied it up? I'll help you carry it!"
"It's done. I wonder if Aunt Chen and the others have sent herbs home to sell?"
"They should be sent there. I'm just worried that mom won't trust them and won't accept them."
"I should go back and tell my mother."
The two walked to Zhao Huifang's backpack, and Yang Chunyan helped her lift the basket and put it on her back. Zhang Xiuxiang and Li Qiuyue also put the basket on their backs. The four sisters-in-law walked back in the afterglow of the setting sun.
The herbs that the people collected included plantain, grass licorice, ground ivy, rhubarb, and bidens... several kinds of herbs were mixed together, filling the four people's backpacks and the sacks they brought were also full.
When Zhou's mother saw the four people, she said, "You're finally back. What's going on with those herbs?"
Yang Chunyan: "Did they really sell it? Is Huai'an back?"
"I'm back. I took the shrimp basket and the trap and went to find a few people to fish." Zhou's mother helped them put down their baskets. "They said you asked them to come. They paid 0.25 cents per pound. If you take them back at such a high price, you might even lose money."
Yang Chunyan wiped her sweat and said, "Don't worry, I won't lose money, because I don't plan to sell fresh goods at all."
"Oh!" Zhou's mother suddenly realized, "I remember you said last time that it would be more cost-effective to sell them after drying."
"Mom is smart. She understood what I said."
After hearing this, Zhou's mother smiled with some pride and looked at her daughters-in-law. "There is another good news. Purchaser Huang asked the family to prepare eggs, bamboo shoots, potatoes, taro... and send them to Ning An tomorrow morning, the day after tomorrow..."
Li Qiuyue: "The fresh corn in Ning'an is more expensive than in town, so the price of vegetables in the city should be good, right?"
Zhou's mother: "The youngest son didn't ask about the price. Huang the purchaser said to pay according to the price he buys from other places. We will pick out the best and cleanest vegetables from our own garden and send them down to save Huang the trouble."
"We listen to you!"
Yang Chunyan remembered that the company cafeteria would be cancelled in the future, but there was no need to worry about the hotel and restaurant in Huang's purchasing office:
"We need to send vegetables to Ning'an, but we only have a few varieties, which is not enough. We need to grow more varieties. When we go to the city, we can go to the vegetable market to see what vegetables are available on the street. If we see some that we don't have at home, we can buy some and plant them back home!"
The Zhou family’s vegetable garden is basically filled with common vegetables found in the countryside, including rapeseed, cabbage, radish, cowpea, eggplant, winter melon, cucumber, and so on.
Li Qiuyue: "Yes, let's get some fresh vegetable seeds and change things up."
Zhao Huifang was happy but also worried, "Mom, if I have to send vegetables to Ning'an every day, I think the vegetables at home will be gone after just two or three deliveries!"
Mother Zhou smiled and said, "If the youngest says there's not enough, go to the village to collect it. If we want to send vegetables to the city, our vegetable plot is not enough. I plan to open up the remaining plots to plant vegetables tomorrow morning."
After the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law discussed it, Yang Chunyan and the others went to the steps with baskets to clean the herbs. Zhou's mother had already cleaned the herbs that Aunt Chen and the others had brought, and spread them out to dry on the medicine rack in the backyard.
Yang Chunyan and Zhang Xiuxiang poured the herbs out of the sacks and baskets and piled them on the steps.
Although some of the soil had been shaken off when the herbs were picked, there was still some mud stuck to the roots.
Zhao Huifang carried a few baskets and put them away. Several people sat on straw benches and picked out the grass clippings and dead leaves from the herbs, and sorted and put away the mixed herbs.
(End of this chapter)
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