The family was busy for three days. After finishing their own harvest, they also helped to harvest Zhou Yiding's two acres of land.
After carefully watching over the millet while it is drying, every grain of millet is dried thoroughly, packed into sacks and delivered to the grain station, the grain production for this season is considered complete.
After the dried new millet was sent to the rice mill and ground into new rice, some was given to Zhou Yumei, Wang Zhen and Li Qiuxia.
After the straw in the fields was dried, it was all collected and piled into two tall haystacks on the back hill. The old man picked out the brightly colored straw, combed it with a wooden rake, and when he had nothing to do, he and Lao Xiazi would make straw stools in the backyard.
Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding were busy in the mountains for a few days. They harvested all the honey they could from the beehives and brought them home. They then went back into the mountains and brought back three nests of wild bees. Altogether there were more than twenty nests of wild bees in the forest.
The two men put the wild bees into the beehive, covered the lid, and then sealed the beehive with yellow mud. The little bees would naturally go in and out through the exit left in the front.
"Look, youngest brother!" Zhou Yiding pointed at the stone on top of the beehive in surprise, "There's another nest of wild bees there."
Zhou Huaian looked in the direction he pointed and saw a group of small bees crawling in and out of the cracks in the stone slabs. He moved closer to take a closer look.
"Some of the beeswax dripped here when I was applying it last time. No wonder these little creatures don't live in the big house over there, but come to build nests under the cracks in the stone slabs."
"Is the space down there big? If it's too small, you won't be able to produce much honey even if you live in it!"
"After they settle down, we can move the queen bee into the hive." Zhou Huaian looked around, "Wait two more days and see, I'm sure there will be more wild bees moving in."
"It would be great if we had more!" Zhou Yiding smiled as he picked up the basket. "Next spring, there will be more wild bee nests. In two years at most, we will have 40 to 50 nests of wild bees here."
Zhou Huaian held up the honey bucket and said, "Only forty or fifty nests in two years. Your kid is too unambitious!"
"That's just a conservative estimate, do you understand?" Zhou Yiding rolled his eyes at him. "The ramie in the forest is growing so well. When can we dig it up and sell it?"
"Chunyan said it will take more than three years to mature, and we can dig them up and sell them next year." Zhou Huaian saw that the three-leaf green, epimedium, and mountain osmanthus that he had planted before were growing well.
I thought that after they spread the herb seeds all over these two thousand acres of forest, I could just come here to dig herbs and sell them every year and earn a lot of money.
…
Autumn is the season for harvesting medicinal herbs. When Yang Chunyan and her sister-in-law have free time, they go into the mountains to dig herbs and collect herbal seeds.
The Zhou Huaishan brothers harrowed the empty fields and spread reeds, flowers, and sweet rapeseed, which can be used to fertilize the fields. When they are ripe, they can be harvested, dried, and stored as pig feed.
After the fields were cleaned up, it was already the end of July and the beginning of August. Making bean paste was a big deal. At this time, the ericaceae and chili peppers in Yang Chunyan's vegetable garden and the vegetable garden behind the old house were already all red.
A year's worth of dried chili peppers and bean paste need to be harvested in the next few days, dried and stored, and chopped up for making the paste.
Zhou's mother and Yang Chunyan brought the moldy bean curd from the wine cellar to the backyard and removed the water spinach on top. The moldy bean curd was covered with yellow and green mold hairs.
Zhou Huaian came out with a large can of sorghum wine. "Mom, after the pickled cowpeas we made this year are dried, we'll send some to the provincial capital for them to taste. When the power station is built, Wang Zhen will help buy the equipment. Next year, we'll start making pickled vegetables and mushroom sauce to sell."
Mother Zhou thought of the report and said, "I think it's good now. If we set up such a big business, we might get reported by those who are greedy and mean. It's better to just keep doing it like now, with two seasons a year: mushrooms and truffles. In autumn, you can go to the mountains to look for herbs. That's better."
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "You can collect mushrooms and truffles as long as you are diligent, but making things depends on your skills. Everyone says that the sauces and pickles you make are delicious."
Zhou Huaian put down the wine jar, "Yes, dried radish, pickled cowpea, and cucumber taste the best!"
"It's very comfortable!" Xiao Jiuer on the side said.
"Little rascal, do you know what 'bashi' means?" Yang Chunyan hurriedly picked up her son, whose face was covered with dust, and handed him to Zhou Huaian, "Take him away. We can't work with him here."
"No, Xiaojiuer, eat some beans." The little guy pushed Zhou Huaian's hand away, his feet still shaking like he was stepping on a waterwheel.
Zhou Huaian hugged him and said, "Dad will take you to ride a bike! I'll ring the beep for you..."
The little guy nodded immediately after hearing this, "Jiuer, ring the di-ling-ling!"
Mother Zhou looked at the father and son walking towards the kitchen and said with a smile, "The little rascal is getting more and more naughty now."
"Yesterday, grandpa dozed off on the steps, and he and Xiaolong took grandpa's pipe and tobacco and imitated them to smoke." Yang Chunyan found it funny when she thought of the two men spitting continuously because of the spiciness of the tobacco leaves.
"The old man also said that the little kids' feet flipped very fast. As soon as they left the yard, they would go to the ditch to play in the water. He couldn't catch up with them. Your grandfather said that we should find some sticks to fence off the ditch when we have time to prevent the two kids from falling into the ditch."
"He also told me not to spoil the children. I think he spoils the children more than we do. In the afternoon, he often takes a bunch of children to the agency store to buy peanut sticky snacks."
"They say grandparents are close to each other. Now that we're two generations apart, how can we not be close?" Zhou's mother smiled and poured the moldy bean paste in the winnowing basket into the large jar.
Yang Chunyan picked up the bucket and poured water into it. A layer of yellow-green moldy ash floated to the surface of the water. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law simply rinsed the moldy bean curd.
Use a colander to scoop it up and put it into a large open jar, then pick up the wine jar that Zhou Huaian brought, pour an appropriate amount of white wine into the moldy bean paste, then add ground green pepper, salt, rapeseed oil, and mix well.
Mother Zhou smiled and said, "Last time you said to grind the peppercorns before putting them in, so that you wouldn't get uncomfortable biting the peppercorns when you eat. Last year I did as you said, and I didn't have to pick out the peppercorns while eating."
Yang Chunyan: "My mother grinds it into fine powder and mixes it with fermented soybeans before drying it in the sun."
"Every family has a different way of doing things. By learning from each other's strengths and making up for each other's weaknesses, the food will be better." Zhou's mother put down the long wooden stick. "Okay, carry it under the sun and expose it to the sun and dew for six or seven days. Then you can pick the thorny branches and chili peppers and chop them up."
Yang Chunyan helped her carry the vat under the sun. "I told Huai'an to go to the town and ask the blacksmith to make a few shovels, so that he wouldn't have to feel the pain on his hands every time he chopped the chili peppers."
She thought that if she really wanted to make and sell bean paste in the future, she would have to buy a blender.
Mother Zhou nodded and said, "When he comes back after the fight, it will be almost ready to dry."
…
In a blink of an eye, the fermented bean curd was dried. Yang Chunyan, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law went to the vegetable field carrying baskets and backpacks. Under the dark green pepper leaves were bunches of red, flame-like twigs of the Chinese holly.
The four families' vegetable gardens each planted three or four rows of junipers and one row of chili peppers. The red chili peppers that were harvested earlier were picked and taken home to be dried and stored. The chili powder for the rest of the year and the chili paste for cooking all depended on the peppers harvested this season.
Although life in the countryside is hard these days, as long as you are healthy and in good health and your family is hardworking and willing to work, you can be self-sufficient.
The bright red erjintiao is the best raw material for making bean paste. Adding an appropriate amount of chili peppers, the bean paste is fragrant and spicy. It is a must-have for stir-fried pork and braised dishes.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law carried the erjingtiao and chili peppers back home. They removed the erjingtiao that had become soft and rotten due to moisture, washed them carefully several times, removed the stalks of the chili peppers, and poured them into a winnowing basket and a sieve to dry the moisture.
The weather was dry, and the moisture dried up in just one noon.
Yang Chunyan, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law cut the chili peppers into short sections, and Zhou Huaian and his two brothers chopped the chili peppers into pieces with a spatula and poured in the dried fermented bean paste.
Add white wine, salt, green pepper powder, spices, and rapeseed oil until the chopped chili peppers in the two large jars are submerged, then stir and mix with a long wooden stick, trying to eliminate the excess air between the chili peppers and the rapeseed oil so that they can blend together.
The air was filled with the spicy smell of canola oil and chili peppers.
At night, cover the large jar with a wooden lid. When the sun comes out, remove the lid and let the oil dry in the sun. The rapeseed oil will emit a warm fragrance under the scorching sun.
The chopped chili peppers under the rapeseed oil shine red and gold in the sun, and they look particularly beautiful.
After drying the bean paste in the yard, the old man has one more job to do every day: cover the lid at night, stir it once when he opens the lid in the morning, and also keep an eye on the two little rascals who like to cause trouble.
…
In a flash, more than two months passed and the weather gradually became cooler. After a few light rains, everyone changed into jackets.
That morning, Zhou Huaishan, who had just returned from delivering eggs, chickens and ducks to Ning'an, told Zhou Huaian that Wang Zhen had asked Huang Yongcai to take a letter and ask the two of them to go there. He didn't say what the matter was, just asked them to go there when they were free.
The next morning, Zhou Huaian and Yang Chunyan took their children to Ning'an.
The tractor bed was filled with a bag of kudzu root powder and a sack full of herbs, which were all dried some time ago, including osmanthus fragrans, Polygonum multiflorum, Cistanche deserticola, and Polygonum multiflorum.
Little Jiuer sat on Yang Chunyan's lap, curiously watching Zhou Huaian driving the tractor forward, "Dad drives a tuk-tuk."
Zhou Huaian turned his head to look at him and said proudly: "My son is smart. Tuk-tuks sound much better than tractors."
Yang Chunyan looked down at her son and said, "He keeps talking about wanting a big train every day. Do you think he still remembers riding a train?"
"Normally, I can't remember it." Zhou Huaian said with a smile, "Boys are born to like cars, guns and so on."
"Yeah!" Yang Chunyan leaned back, "Grandpa and his friends' cotton boots are all broken, let's go to the city today and buy two pairs."
"Buy two pairs for Uncle Xia, too. The last time I bought him he was in size 42."
"Okay!" Yang Chunyan looked down at her sleeping son. "It will be nearly a month before the truffles come out. I wonder why Wang Zhen wants us to go down?"
"I can't think of it either. Don't bother guessing. It's only half an hour away. You'll know when you get there."
"Then I'll take a nap first." Yang Chunyan held the sleepy little Jiuer in her arms, leaned against the carriage board and squinted her eyes to rest. (End of this chapter)
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