The stonemasons fixed a square stone pillar with their special glue, then put the powder collecting plate on it and fixed it, and then the upper and lower grinding plates and the grinding handle. It didn't take much time to install the stone mill.
Zhou Huaian sent the stonemason away, and Zhou's mother also came in with Luo Haili and her daughter. The whole family sat together and started eating.
The fish with pork intestines is spicy and fresh, the steamed soft-shelled turtle is tender and delicious, and the wild yam is soft and delicious.
The old man was very satisfied with the food. "Youngest, pick some yam beans next time and bury them in the forest. Then we will have yams to eat next year."
Father Zhou said: "I saw that when planting yams in Fangtian Brigade, they picked out the yams with spores, cut them open and wrapped them with plant ash like potatoes, dug deep trenches and planted them until the seedlings emerged, and then built racks, and they can be dug next year."
Mother Zhou smiled and said, "Then let's pick a few out after dinner and try planting them next to the vegetable field."
The wild yam here is mostly yam with a long cylindrical tuber that grows vertically and can be more than 1 meter long. It tastes soft and sticky and can also be used as medicine.
Zhou Huaian thought of the pond at the door, "I forgot to ask where I could buy lotus seeds when I went to the street today. I'll buy some in the spring and plant them here."
Yang Chunyan said: "It's good to grow lotus roots. The lotus flowers are beautiful and you can also raise fish in them."
Mother Yang smiled and said, "My second uncle's family in the next room planted lotus roots in the pond this spring. The last time you went there, they were fishing in the pond. The fish and loaches in our house were sent by them. I'll go back and ask them."
Yang Chunyan nodded, "If we plant in the spring, we can drain the pond and dry it out in the sun when the dry season comes."
A few people ate and chatted, and after the meal Zhou Yiding rode his bicycle to the bamboo forest to help cut bamboo.
The old man and Zhou's father went to the back mountain to help Zhou Huairong weave bamboo fences. Yang Chunyan and Zhou Huaian also took their belongings and led Lai Fu up the mountain to pick wild cotton and dig wild ginger, leaving Yang's mother and Zhou's mother at home to wash the Jerusalem artichokes.
In the morning, the two old ladies went to the fish pond and dug up a lot of Jerusalem artichokes. After slicing them and drying them, they mixed them with leaves and feed, which could feed three piglets for two months.
Yang Chunyan and her companion went up the mountain. Although it was already winter, only some trees on the mountain had begun to turn yellow.
The common herbs on the mountain had long been picked up by the villagers, and even the chicken shit vine that everyone despised was dug up with its roots and planted back.
When they climbed to the top of the mountain, Yang Chunyan saw the bright and fiery clumps of pyracantha on the slope. They looked very festive. "Huaian, pick some food for the army."
"What's so delicious about this!" Zhou Huaian said as he picked one and gave it to her. "Eat less. If you eat too much, your teeth will make noises when you bite it."
"Got it. I'll try a few!" Yang Chunyan picked a few and put them in her mouth. She chewed them for a few times and spit out the crumbs. "They taste good. Would you like to try a few too?"
“No!” Zhou Huaian shook his head like a drum, “I got hurt from eating something when I was a kid, and I feel sick when I see it.”
This small red wild fruit is known as "military rations" because during the war years when supplies were scarce and food was extremely scarce, the soldiers at that time relied on eating this small wild fruit to fill their stomachs, hence the name.
When Zhou Huaian was a child, his family did not have enough food, so he and his brothers often went to the mountains to find these red fruits to fill their stomachs.
Whenever there were the most Pyracantha fruits, Zhou's mother asked them to pick them, dry them, grind them into flour, and make cornmeal pancakes for them to eat.
The first two meals were fine, but after a few meals he got constipated. He had had enough and was tired of it.
Yang Chunyan ate a few and felt her teeth sour. She stuck the remaining pyracantha fruits on the side of the road. Seeing the weeds on the slope, she waved to Zhou Huaian, "Come here quickly. There are a lot of stinky weeds here."
Zhou Huaian looked back and said, "It's not strange that it stinks."
"This is called Tianmen Essence, and it can also be made into pesticides. We pull it back and spread some seeds in the medicinal fields to prevent pests. These are the only uncommon herbs in the mountains now."
"Yeah, I wonder if I can still find herbs next year!" Zhou Huaian put down the basket. "If I pull them all out, my hands will be stinky and I won't be able to wash them off for a long time. I think it's better to pull them out when I come back."
"Okay, remember this!"
"Are you still not confident in my memory?" Zhou Huaian took Lai Fu's dog leash, "Let me hold it, so you don't trip and fall later."
Tianmen Essence: bitter, spicy, cold in nature, slightly toxic.
It belongs to the genus Tianmingjing of the family Asteraceae in the order Asterales. It is a perennial herb with a foul smell. In some places, it is also called: Toad Orchid, Crane Lice Grass, and Bald Head Grass.
Achenes are called "Beiheshi" in traditional Chinese medicine. Grind the achenes into fine powder, take one spoonful each time, and wash it down with fatty meat soup to expel tapeworms and roundworms.
The water extract of the whole plant can be used as a pesticide to kill cabbage loopers, cutworms, etc.
…
The two first went to the place where wild cotton grew, and saw a field of white flowers on the branches.
Wild cotton is a perennial herb of the Ranunculaceae family and the Anemone genus. It is also called broken bowl flower, white-headed camellia, and autumn peony.
The flower is very beautiful, and its shape is a bit like a lotus, with pink petals and yellow stamens. It has both the elegance of lotus and the freshness and refinement unique to wild mountain flowers.
The leaves of wild cotton can kill insects after being soaked in water. In the days when pesticides were not used, old farmers often used it to make local pesticides, and they could also be cut and used as feed.
The "cotton balls" of wild cotton are fluffy and white, and look very similar to cotton, but they cannot be used to make clothes. After drying, the cotton balls are soft and fluffy, and are perfect for pillow cores.
It is said that ethnic minorities in the mountains would pick wild cotton, dry it, and mix it with buckwheat flour to increase the stickiness of the buckwheat and use it to make buckwheat cakes.
The root of wild cotton is also a traditional Chinese medicine: bitter, cold, and poisonous. It has the effects of clearing dampness and heat, detoxifying and killing insects, regulating qi and dispersing blood stasis. It can be crushed and applied to the Dazhui acupoint to treat malaria; it can also be used to kill fly maggots.
Overdose may cause poisoning symptoms such as dizziness, vomiting, and numbness of the limbs, so it should be taken with caution.
Yang Chunyan said happily: "There are so many. Let's pick some and make some cushions for the sofa chairs."
"You can pick the fruits in the upper area. There is a slope below, so don't go over there." Zhou Huaian said as he put down the backpack, untied Lai Fu's dog leash, and let it run into the woods.
"Got it." Yang Chunyan walked over to the wild cotton with a bag of urea and started picking it. "You were here to lure bees yesterday, right?"
Zhou Huaian nodded and pointed at the sticky grass. "After luring the bees here, chase them to the mixed woods below and find a nest. After returning, find another nest in the pine forest below. The wild ginger is over there in the pine forest."
After being exposed to the sun for a morning, the dew on the wild cotton has dried up, and it feels soft and fluffy, and feels no different from cotton when held in the hand.
Yang Chunyan picked a handful and put them in the bag. "Then let's move quickly, otherwise we will be busy enough here."
"Pick them slowly. This place is not far from home, so it's okay to go and dig wild ginger in a couple of days." Zhou Huaian walked to the slope, opened the bag and started picking.
The two people divided the work, one picked the fruits on the flat ground while the other picked them on the slope, and their speed was not slow.
Seeing that they had already picked more than half a bag and Lai Fu had not come back yet, Yang Chunyan said, "Huaian, go find Lai Fu."
Zhou Huaian stopped and looked at the direction where Lai Fu ran. "It's not easy to come out for a run, why doesn't it come back only when it's happy?" (End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com