When the cow dung mushroom is tender, its color is white, like a white ball. At this time, the cow dung mushroom is still solid and tastes very delicious. It is as tender as tofu when cooked into soup, and it tastes crisp and delicious when fried.
When fully mature, they look like balloons filled with gas, very full. Old cow dung mushrooms will turn gray-brown in color.
At this time, its slightly tough skin is wrapped with a lot of spore powder, and small holes appear on the top. If you tap it lightly with your fingers, dust will fly out.
Cow dung mushroom grows very fast, with the largest one having a diameter of about 30 cm. It is harvested from July to September every year when the fruiting bodies are just ripe. After being pulled out, the mud and sand are removed, the mushroom is dried in the sun, the hard skin is removed, and the mushroom is cut into cubes or ground into powder for use.
After the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law picked up the cow dung mushrooms, they continued to move forward. Surprises always happen unexpectedly. Morels stand tall and gracefully under the low azalea trees.
Yang Chunyan suddenly felt like she had found something she had been looking for for a long time. She turned to Zhou's mother and said, "Mom, I found the nest of morels."
Zhou's mother was also happy after seeing this, "Great! So many good mushrooms, it's so satisfying to pick them up!"
Yang Chunyan plucked one and said, "Huaian and his men shot the gray storks and turtledoves last night. They also rubbed some light salt on them and put them in the wine cellar. They will be delicious for tonight's meal!"
Zhou's mother nodded with a smile, "This is the good thing about living in the mountains. After eating the mushrooms, we can go up the mountain to pick walnuts, wild chestnuts, and wild fruits."
Yang Chunyan thought that the chestnuts in the mountains would be ripe if she waited a little longer. They would be sweet and sticky if she boiled them directly. "I didn't go into the mountains to pick chestnuts last year. How about going to see them this year?"
Mother Zhou smiled and nodded. "Go into the mountains behind your third aunt's house. It takes about two or three hours to walk down. There is a mountain hollow with more than a dozen chestnut trees. She and I used to go there every year to pick chestnuts. The chestnuts there taste the best."
"Okay, remember to call me when the time comes." In fact, she knew that place. In her previous life, Zhou's mother had taken her sisters-in-law there. They would pick out the good ones and carry them to the county town to sell them, and keep the not-so-good ones for themselves.
When Yang Chunyan thinks about the past days, she sometimes feels like it was just a dream.
She pulled up a cow dung mushroom and was about to put it in the basket when she suddenly noticed a green bamboo pit viper as thick as a thumb on the branch behind Zhou's mother, slowly sliding up the tree trunk.
Yang Chunyan was so frightened that she broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly whispered, "Mom, don't move. There's a bamboo snake on your head."
"Ah!" Zhou's mother cried out, not daring to move her hands to pull out the mushrooms. "Did you see clearly? Is it a bamboo green snake?"
After listening to this, Yang Chunyan took a closer look and found that the outer side of the body of this bamboo leaf green snake had no white edges. It was dark green all over, and its tail was long and thin, and it was not red. She wiped her sweat and said thankfully, "It's a green snake, not a bamboo leaf green snake!"
Mother Zhou turned her head and saw a green tail. "I said, if it was really a bamboo snake, it would have bitten someone a long time ago."
"It's hot now, and it's cool in the big pit. There must be a lot of snakes and insects." Yang Chunyan quickly plucked the remaining flowers and said, "Let's go to the front and have a look. I found green fungus there last time."
"It's better to go and take a look. There are so many people here, and these mushrooms are not enough to eat!" Zhou's mother followed her forward with a basket, "Yan'er, there are so many yams and kudzu vines ahead, haven't you noticed them?"
"I saw it the last time I came here. I thought I would ask Huai'an to come down and dig it when the weather gets cooler." Yang Chunyan said as she stepped forward and pulled up a few brush mushrooms.
After walking forward for a dozen steps, I saw a few clusters of green mushrooms growing under the tree where I picked them last time.
Mother Zhou picked up some milk mushrooms and carried the old man's head over, "Where does the Panax notoginseng you mentioned last time grow?"
Yang Chunyan pointed behind her, "A little higher up, there should be morels there."
“Let’s go over there and take a look. I haven’t seen what Panax notoginseng looks like yet!” Mother Zhou picked up the green mushroom with a smile and followed her upstairs.
Before I even got to the place where the Panax notoginseng grew, I saw a few morels, some of which had already rotted.
Zhou's mother hurriedly squatted down and picked up the good ones. "It would be a pity not to pick up such good things. Starting tomorrow, come here every day for a walk."
"Things have all come together during this period, otherwise I would come here every day." Yang Chunyan also felt it was a pity, but there were only so many people in the family and everyone had endless things to do. By the time they were free, the mushroom picking season was over.
After picking morels, she picked up some leather strip mushrooms. She took Zhou's mother to the place where Panax notoginseng grew. The emerald green Panax notoginseng seeds had already grown out. "These are Panax notoginseng. Wait another two months and these seeds will turn bright red, as red as the seeds of Manshanxiang."
"That's pretty nice." Zhou's mother looked around the forest and said, "Let me tell you, some people in the village are faster than green-headed flies if they know where there are valuables. If people know there are so many good things at the bottom of this pit, they will come at night and steal everything."
Yang Chunyan: "I know, I told you all about it, including the Dendrobium."
"That's good!" Zhou's mother looked through all the papers and said, "It's time to go back and cook. Wait another hour or so, and your eldest brother and the others should be back."
"Huaian should be home by now. We'll pick up the trash all the way back from here, and the basket should be full by then."
"I'm so tired every day, and I went bird hunting in the dark. I even ran into Li Chuntao and her lover in the woods. It's so unlucky. I have to go to the master in the afternoon to ask for talisman paper to burn to drive away the bad luck."
"Yiding shone his flashlight on the other side. There's a river across the river and it's in the woods. I couldn't even see anyone clearly. Will there be any problems?"
"Mom tells you, some things are better to be believed than not. Think about it, the youngest and Yiding run to the woods every day to get rid of the bad luck, and they can go out and into the mountains smoothly."
"Well! Go after dinner!" Yang Chunyan felt that what she said made sense. After all, her rebirth was a very mysterious thing.
…
When Zhou Huaian got home, he saw the old man and his father tying corn in the backyard. Little Jiuer was sleeping soundly in the cradle. "When did he fall asleep? Where's Chunyan?"
"He just fell asleep, don't wake him up." Father Zhou put the tied corn into the basket and said, "Chunyan and your mother went to the big pit to pick mushrooms."
"Oh!" Zhou Huaian retracted his hand from touching his son, took out the money from selling vegetables and handed it to him, "Give it to my mother."
Father Zhou glanced at the money in his hand and said, "What are you doing with it? If you lose it, your mother will scold you to death."
Zhou Huaian smiled and said, "Then I'll put it in the house first and give it to her later!"
"Put it away and come out quickly to hang the corn up." The old man instructed.
"Oh!" Zhou Huaian then saw that on the eaves behind the house, there were several layers of bamboo racks tied diagonally with bamboo poles, and a lot of corn cobs were hung on them.
Strings of golden corn cobs are hung there in neat rows, which looks quite beautiful.
After he came out and hung up the corn that the two elders had tied up, Zhou Yiding walked into the yard with a smile, "I saw the back door was open, so I came in." Then he greeted the old man and Zhou's father.
Zhou Huaian glanced at Wangcai and Laifu who were wagging their tails at him. "They're the only ones who didn't bark when you came. If it were someone else, they would have barked a long time ago."
"You guys have a conscience. It's worth it that I've raised you for several months." Zhou Yiding happily stroked the dog's back and picked up a bunch of corn to help hang it on the bamboo rack.
Seeing his happy look, Zhou Huaian said with a smile: "You found money. Your face is almost broken from laughing."
Zhou Yiding smiled and nodded, "I'm telling you, I almost died of laughter today. Xuejiao and I were picking corn in the field, and a few old women came and pretended that my corn ears were long and full, and asked me how I planted them.
"Some of them even helped me pick corn. After going around in circles, they asked us if we had seen clearly who was with Li Chuntao by the river last night."
"Fuck~ Why do these nosy women care so much about other people's affairs?"
"They rely on this job. If they don't pay attention, how can they get first-hand information to show off to others?" Zhou Yiding said, "Don't be fooled by those talkative women. They are very efficient at work. It would take a whole day to crack the corn, but they can finish it in half a day, and they are also early workers."
Zhou Huaian didn't expect such a good thing to happen, and said regretfully: "If I had known, I would have shouted when I passed by the brigade's dam just now."
Zhou Yiding said with a smile, "Everyone knows about it. It's useless for you to yell. I'd better help you."
Zhou Huaian nodded, "What time do we go to get food this afternoon?"
"My father-in-law said that we need to dry the grain all day and use a windmill to clean it, so 4pm is the best time to go."
"Oh!" Zhou Huaian hung up the last bunch, "My mother and Chunyan are picking mushrooms in the big pit in the back mountain. We will have fresh mushrooms to eat in the evening."
Zhou Yiding rubbed his stomach and said, "Then I won't eat at noon, and save the stomach for dinner."
The old man and Zhou's father laughed when they heard this. "Call your husband and Xuejiao as well. We'll prepare some more food tonight so you can eat to your heart's content."
Zhou Yiding chuckled, "Okay, you guys should prepare a lot." He handed the last bunch of corn to Zhou Huaian, "I'll go back first, and I'll come to help you pick the corn after dinner."
Zhou Huaian: "Let's eat together here!"
"Come and eat tonight." Zhou Yiding picked up the backpack and said, "Second Grandpa, Second Dad, I'm leaving now!"
Zhou Huaian waved his hand and said, "Go ahead, no one will see you off."
"I ask you to send it off!" Zhou Yiding rolled his eyes at him and left.
Zhou Huaian sat on a straw stool, picked up a corn cob, tore off the outer husk, tied a few corns together and put them in a basket.
After a while, he said impatiently, "It's already eleven o'clock. How long have my mom and Chunyan been gone? Why haven't they come back to cook yet?"
"We've already put the porridge in the pot. We're just waiting for your mother to come back and fry the corn cakes." Father Zhou looked at the alarm clock. "It'll take a while to go back and forth from the big pit. She might have already gone back."
"Let me take a look." Zhou Huaian put down the corn cobs and just walked to the backyard door, he saw two people carrying baskets down the stairs, "It's past eleven o'clock, it's time to cook." (End of this chapter)
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