Seeing that Zhou's mother hadn't said anything, Yang Chunyan agreed to unwrap Xiao Jiuer, and happily pulled her son's hand, "Are you happy? Grandma said that we won't wrap him in a blanket after half a month, and he'll be free then..."
Xiao Jiuer looked at her mother, her little mouth curled up and down, as if responding to her.
Zhou's mother also laughed, "You want to talk already? It's still too early!" She said this without slowing down her hands. After washing his chin and armpits, she applied some talcum powder and then wrapped him up.
Yang Chunyan picked up her son who was yawning non-stop and kissed him on the cheek. "Mmm! It smells delicious! Go to sleep obediently. Mommy will go teach your husband how to make dendrobium."
"The fine sand hasn't been sifted out yet. You just watch him first. It will be almost done when he falls asleep." Mother Zhou put the changed diaper in the basin, picked up the changed clothes and left.
Zhou Huaian and the old man were still sorting out the Dendrobiums at the door of the main hall. The two baskets were full of Dendrobiums with leaves and root fibers removed, and the bamboo basket was filled with a full basket of Dendrobium flowers.
The old man thought about it and said, "Chunyan said to stir-fry with fine sand, I think it's similar to our dried sweet potatoes."
Zhou Huaian: "I think so too. The sweet potatoes will swell up after being stir-fried for a while."
"So we won't sell wet goods this time?"
"Doctor Wang said that selling wet goods is not cost-effective, so let us make all the dry goods that can be made into dry goods and send them over to save them the trouble of hiring someone to make them."
Zhou Huaian said as he picked up the basket filled with plucked leaves and dendrobium roots. "Grandpa, what do you think of using this to feed pigs?"
The old man smiled and said, "It's good for people to eat, and it's also good for pigs to eat! Don't feed them tonight, I'll feed them tomorrow morning when I get up."
"Yes!" Zhou Huaian gave the backpack to the old man, and he followed him to the backyard carrying the Dendrobium and the bamboo basket.
Seeing him coming, Zhou's mother pointed at the fine sand in the basket and said, "The sand has been sifted clean. Put it in the pot and heat it up before adding the dendrobium, right?"
"Yes!" Zhou Huaian put down the basket and went to the kitchen with his mother, carrying half a frame of fine sand. They poured all the fine sand into the big iron pot inside. "Mom, light the fire. Heat up the fine sand and then add the dendrobium."
"I know!" Zhou's mother walked to the stove and saw that there was still some fire inside. She stuffed a handful of pine needles in it and put a few pieces of firewood in. She picked up the blowpipe and blew a few times, and the fire started.
After the firewood was lit, she went to the stove, took down the wooden shovel on the cupboard, and began to stir-fry the fine sand.
Coarse sand is used to stir-fry dried sweet potatoes, but the sand must be evenly heated so that the fried dried sweet potatoes will have a good taste. She thinks the same principle should apply since they are all stir-fried with sand.
When Yang Chunyan arrived at the kitchen, Zhou's mother had already heated up the sand. "Can you come and take a look?"
"Hey!" She stepped forward and shoveled it a few times, then tested the temperature. "Okay, it's ready to fry."
After hearing this, Zhou's mother poured the dendrobiums in the basket into the pot and asked, "Are you just going to stir-fry these?"
"Well! For the others, blanch them in boiling water for 1 or 2 minutes, pick them up and hang them on the roof. When they are half dry, rub off the film and leaf sheaths on them and they will be fine."
"Okay, you go to the stove and watch the fire. I'll go first here."
"When each section is bulging, we can scoop it up, sift out the sand, dry it, and cut it off."
"Got it!" Zhou's mother started stir-frying vigorously. When the dendrobiums in the pot were swollen, she scooped them up and put them into a rice sieve, sifted out all the fine sand, and put them in a winnowing basket to dry.
One pot weighs about four or five pounds. I fried two pots in total. After drying, I could get at most two pounds of dry goods.
Yang Chunyan planned to send some to Ning'an, and keep the rest to make soup.
Mother Zhou shoveled the sand from the pot into a basket and saw Yang Chunyan still helping to pick dendrobium flowers in front of the stove. "Why aren't you sleeping yet? Go to bed quickly, or you'll have to suffer in the future!"
"If you sleep too much during the day, you won't be able to sleep at night!" Yang Chunyan looked at her with a smile, "There's no wind here. Once I finish picking these, I can send them upstairs to dry."
"The weather is dry during this period. A wet towel hung on a bamboo pole will dry overnight. Dendrobium flowers can be placed in a large dustpan and spread out on the upper floor to dry overnight at most."
After hearing this, Zhou's mother thought for a moment and said, "There have been strong winds at night these past few days. If we want to dry the sun upstairs, we have to cover it with gauze."
"Hmm! This kind of flower is very rare. You can dry it and soak it in water to drink, or scramble it with eggs to eat. It's good for your stomach."
"Why keep good things at home? Let the youngest one send Ning An to sell them for money."
"We'll keep the harvest for ourselves this year. Next year, there will be a lot more harvested from the big pit. We'll pick them, dry them, and sell them then!"
After hearing this, Zhou's mother didn't say much. She sat in front of the stove to help pick the dendrobiums, and then told her to go to bed.
Three generations of people picked the Dendrobiums clean, blanched them with boiling water, and then hung them upstairs to dry in the sun.
The next morning, Zhou Huaishan and Li Qiuyue left, and Zhou's mother went next door to help look after Zhou Xiaoru and Zhou Xiaolin.
After seeing Li Qiuyue off, she felt a lot more relieved and just waited for her to give birth to the baby in her belly.
Zhou Huaian was busy at home for two days and finally finished cutting all the Dendrobium in the big pit. He also found a lot of yam vines, clover and some herbs in it.
After finding the main vine of the Polygonum multiflorum under the bushes, they saw that the stem was not even as thick as a little finger, so they did not dig it up, but they still cut dozens of kilograms of the Polygonum multiflorum vines.
The weather is dry, and the fried Dendrobium and the Dendrobium that is blanched and then dried turn golden in color after drying, and the quality looks good.
…
In a blink of an eye, it was March 18th, and the next day was Zhou Yiding's wedding day. Early in the morning, Zhou Huaian went to his house to pick him up and went to Ning'an to deliver the goods and purchase the things needed for the wedding banquet.
Zhou Yiding opened the gate and saw him handing over a basket. "What's that?"
"Dendrobium officinale flowers and dendrobium!" Zhou Huaian said with a smile, "Your sister-in-law said that these things are good for soaking in water or stewing in soup."
Zhou Yiding took the basket and ran back home to put it away. "When did you go up the mountain? How come I didn't know?"
Zhou Huaian was very proud. "When luck comes, nothing can stop it. A few days ago, I went to dig white wormwood and found that in the big pit that I originally planned to rent for raising cattle, there was a large area of dendrobium, Polygonum multiflorum, Chinese yam, and Tripterygium wilfordii..."
"Fuck!" Zhou Yiding looked at him, "You are so lucky, that big pit is simply a natural medicinal field!"
"Hehe! I've been unlucky for more than ten years, it's time for my luck to turn around!"
"This is called good times after bad times!"
"Tomorrow you'll be the groom!" Zhou Huaian winked at him, "Do you need Dr. Wang to help you get some medicine?"
"Stay away!" Zhou Yiding rolled his eyes at him, "I'm in good health!"
"Good intentions are not rewarded!"
"Tsk!" Zhou Yiding thought of something, "Let's kill the pig this afternoon and call my brother and the others to come along."
"Hmm! What vegetables do you want to buy in Ning'an today?"
"Dairy buds, white fungus, black fungus... and some spices. We won't need much to kill the pig tonight, and the chef has already made an order for tomorrow's dishes. We can buy all the dry goods in Ning'an, and we can buy chickens and ducks in the village. We have to go to town tomorrow to buy fresh pig trotters and fish."
"This is not difficult. Brother Huang's restaurant often needs to buy these things. Just go to Ning'an, give him the order, and ask him to help find someone to buy the dry goods."
"That's right!" Zhou Yiding said happily, "You are smart. I didn't remember it at all."
"You're being modest!" Zhou Huaian laughed, "I heard that the youngest Xiong's grandson is having a wedding on the 22nd!"
"Yes! We hired the same chef from Fangtian as mine!" Zhou Yiding counted on his fingers, "We had to build a clay stove and borrow tables, chairs and benches. The most annoying ones are the ones from my uncle's family. They came yesterday afternoon and said they were here to help. They just sat down and ate. My eldest aunt secretly took away a lot of the dried fruits and candies she bought to entertain the guests."
"What I fear most is relatives like this. Your aunt-in-law is the best." Zhou Huaian thought of his three concubines and felt that none of them was as shameless as Zhou Ding's aunt-in-law.
As they were talking, the tractor arrived at the square field. Zhou Yiding suddenly remembered something, "Did you know that something happened at Sixth Aunt's house?"
"How would I know? I've been busy in the pit these past few days!" Zhou Huaian glanced at him, "What happened?"
"The gambling addict in her family stole a yellow cattle from Fang Laoer's house in their village the day before yesterday to sell. As soon as he handed it over to the buyer, he was discovered by Fang Laoer's family who came to look for him and took him to the police station on the spot. When the sixth aunt ran to Fang Laoer's house to make a scene, she fainted and is still living there now!"
"Fuck! This is too shameless!" Zhou Huaian thought of the last time his sixth aunt came to borrow money and felt lucky. "My mother didn't even mention it in front of us. The Fang family is so unlucky!"
Zhou Yiding curled his lips and said, "Of course Second Mother didn't mention it. No one in the family wants to mention it. Not only did he steal someone's cow, he also went to their house to make a scene, and even fainted on purpose to let them take care of him. The old lady even asked her grandson to come over here to call for help. No one is ashamed to go."
“That’s right!”
The two men yelled at the top of their lungs for a long time and said they were tired. Zhou Yiding leaned back and squinted his eyes.
At 7:30, the two arrived at the guesthouse. After handing over the dishes, they went to the Tofu Shop. Zhou Huaian also prepared a bag of Dendrobium flowers and Dendrobium officinale for Huang Yongcai.
Huang Yongcai happily took it and said, "Wait, I have something good for you to take back."
Over the past year, whenever Zhou Laoyao got some game, he would never forget to send him some. He had long wanted to get some rare food to send to him as a way of repaying his favor.
Zhou Yiding also helped me a lot. When I bought the yard next door and renovated it, it was thanks to their help in getting the wood specifications, otherwise it would still be delayed until now!
Although I have helped them a little, brothers need to give and take in order for the relationship to last long!
Seeing how happy he was, Zhou Huaian asked happily, "What good stuff is that, Brother Huang?"
"Big shrimps!" Huang Yongcai took out two plastic bags from the refrigerator. "My brother-in-law brought them back from Chuncheng. They are much better than the small shrimps in our river."
Zhou Huaian and the others looked at the prawns in the transparent plastic bag, which were as thick as their fingers, and asked, "Why are the prawns over there so big?" (End of this chapter)
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