Chapter 387 Chapter 388: Mulberry octopus
After Yang Chunyan and her daughter sowed the seeds, they went back, put on gloves and straw hats, and started digging up the hemp in the woods.
After a while, Zhou's mother came into the yard carrying a load of straw and a basket of Swiss chard. Seeing Lai Fu lying at the door, she shouted at the top of her voice, "Chun Yan, youngest..."
"Hey!" Yang Chunyan heard her shout and came out of the woods, "I'm over here in the vegetable field."
When Zhou's mother came out to see her, she said, "The Chen family will send the piglets over soon. I'll bring you a load of straw to make a nest."
"Okay!" Yang Chunyan agreed and looked at her with a smile, "Mom, you'll feel lonely after we leave, right?"
Mother Zhou curled her lips, "No way! After giving the food to your third brother this morning, I went back to sleep and didn't get up until dawn."
The two elders didn’t sleep well last night. They didn’t notice it before, but last night they realized that they didn’t hear the girls’ teeth grinding and snoring, and they felt empty in their hearts.
They tossed and turned until midnight, when they finally took a nap. When they woke up, they could not fall asleep again. The two elders simply got up and went to the vegetable garden with flashlights to look for vegetables.
Also, this morning when he was having breakfast, the old man left some food for the first time. He put down his bowl and went to the bamboo forest with a machete to help Huairong and the others cut bamboo.
Seeing her unnatural look, Yang Chunyan suppressed a smile and said, "That's good. I was worried that you wouldn't be used to it!"
"Stinky girl!" Zhou's mother also laughed and poked her forehead gently, "You learned bad things from the youngest one."
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law talked as they walked to the vegetable garden, and the two mothers-in-law exchanged a few polite words.
Zhou's mother said to Yang Chunyan, "When the Chen family brings the piglets over, we'll go dig some Jerusalem artichokes and pickle them for later use."
Yang Chunyan looked at her in surprise, "You have Jerusalem artichokes at home? Why didn't I see any?"
Mother Zhou smiled and said, "That thing still needs to be planted. There's a large area of it on the slope behind your third aunt's house. You can pickle as much as you want."
Mother Yang also said: "That's right, that thing is cheap, and it can be grown anywhere. We have some beside the bamboo forest."
Yang Chunyan swallowed her saliva after hearing this. "Pickled Jerusalem artichokes are delicious, crispy and sweet. The yield of this stuff is quite high. Let's get some and bury it in the woods. Then we won't have to worry about having no pig feed in the future."
In the previous life, a college student in the village returned home to start a business and set up an ecological breeding farm. He rented a mountain area to plant Jerusalem artichokes, ramie, flowers, grasses, and other crops for livestock and animals. I heard that the profits were quite good.
"I've never heard of feeding pigs. If humans can eat it, pigs can eat it too. I'll dig some more and bury it in the woods later. Don't worry about it. I'll come back to dig it up in the next two days next year!"
Jerusalem artichoke is also called devil ginger. Like sunflower, it can grow 1-3 meters tall and has yellow flowers that are somewhat similar in shape to wild chrysanthemums. The yellow color is very beautiful, and the underground tubers are a bit like ginger.
But Jerusalem artichokes have high yields and are easy to plant. You can bury a piece in the soil and harvest a large piece the next year without taking care of it. And its tubers are rich in starch, which is perfect for feeding pigs.
But most people still don’t like to grow Jerusalem artichokes, mainly because they think the land is “dirty” because land that has been used to grow Jerusalem artichokes will not produce crops.
Jerusalem artichoke is sweet and mild in nature, non-toxic, and can promote diuresis and remove dampness. The inulin extracted from it is very effective in treating diabetes.
The rhizomes of Jerusalem artichoke can be crushed and used for external application to treat swelling and mumps.
After they had talked for a few minutes, the Chen family came over with a pig cage, "Guilan, these three pigs are for the youngest family, right?"
Before he could finish his words, Lai Fu in the yard rushed to the door, baring his teeth and shouting "Woof woof woof".
"That's right!" Zhou's mother hurriedly said to Yang Chunyan, "Go and tie up Lai Fu."
"Yes!" Yang Chunyan agreed and returned to the yard. She took the dog leash, put Lai Fu on the dog leash, and tied him under the north wall.
Chen Jia carried the piglet and followed the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law to the yard, "Gui Lan, has the pigpen been sprinkled with lime powder?"
Zhou's mother smiled and nodded, "It was emptied before, it's very clean."
The old couple of the Chen family carried the piglets to the pigpen in the backyard and released them from the bamboo cage, muttering, "This will be your home from now on. Eat and sleep well here. Go to the hole to pee and poop..."
As he was talking, he drove the piglets to the manure outlet to let them know that was the place to urinate and defecate. The piglets were actually very smart. After being taught twice, they knew to urinate and defecate at the manure outlet and never defecate anywhere else.
Yang Chunyan saw the three black piglets, which were plump and shiny, and said, "Aunt Chen's piglets are really well raised."
Aunt Chen said with a smile: "What's that? Your mother is good at raising pigs. She used to be recognized as the best pig farmer in the brigade."
Zhou's mother laughed so hard that the fine lines at the corners of her eyes looked like spider webs. "Look at how you brag about me. Others will laugh at me if they hear it."
Aunt Chen looked at her enviously, "If nothing else, you are lucky to be one of the few people who married into our team!"
After hearing this, Zhou's mother couldn't stop laughing. "You are so lucky. Your children are filial and your grandchildren are well educated."
Seeing the two talking excitedly, Yang Chunyan said to Lao Chen, who was packing bamboo cages, "Uncle Chen, how much are the piglets?"
Old Chen smiled and said, "Your mother-in-law went over to watch the weighing and gave all the money for the piglets to the four families."
Aunt Chen: "You sisters-in-law are so lucky to have found such a good mother-in-law. Not only did she fix up your house, she even bought you piglets."
Zhou's mother hurriedly said, "Where would we, two old bones, get the money to repair their house? It all depends on them going back to their parents' home to borrow some money, plus the money we earned from selling herbs, eels, and vegetables these days, and us guarding the earthen kiln day and night to burn bricks and tiles, and finally we were able to build the house."
Aunt Chen nodded and said, "That's true. Where did Brother Nong get the money to build such a nice house? He had to be diligent and rely on the help of relatives and friends to build the house."
Lao Chen: "That's right, just work hard and fix it once, and then you can earn money to pay it back later."
Mother Zhou: "Yes, these people in my family are all hardworking. They worked hard for half a year to repair the house. They each earn money to pay off the debts owed to my father-in-law's family."
After seeing off the old couple from the Chen family, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law said goodbye to Yang's mother, then returned to the old house to take their belongings and went to the hillside behind Aunt Zhou San's house.
After going up the hill, Yang Chunyan saw a lot of thumb-sized, gray-brown silkworm cocoons hanging on the mulberry branches on the hillside. She walked forward, broke off the dead branches, collected them and put them in the basket.
Seeing this, Zhou's mother also stepped forward to help, "Chunyan, what are you doing picking these pee dogs?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "The urinary worm is also a traditional Chinese medicine. Like the sandworm, it has the effect of consolidating semen and reducing urine. It is good for children who wet the bed to pick it and boil it into water to drink."
She remembered that in her previous life, she went to the forest to look for mulberry silkworm cocoons and had to climb over the ridge to find them. The ecological environment is good these days, and she can see so many of them behind the house.
When Zhou's mother heard that it was Chinese medicine, she immediately became interested and said, "There are some over there. I'll go pick them."
The traditional Chinese medicine name of Lai Niugou is Sang Chan Chu, which is the dried egg sheath of the mantis, an insect of the Mantis family. Among them, the mantis nest on the mulberry tree has the best medicinal value.
Mulberry silkworm cocoons have the effects of consolidating semen and reducing urine, nourishing the kidney and supporting yang. They are often used for spermatorrhea, enuresis, frequent urination, and turbid urine.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had not yet finished searching the mulberry forest, but had found fifty or sixty of them. Seeing that it was getting late, they returned to the slope to dig Jerusalem artichokes.
(End of this chapter)
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