Chapter 80-81: The role of vegetables
Xu Erchun's loud voice rang out, "Old He, water snakes are not poisonous, what are you afraid of?"
He Dakuan looked at him in shock, "You're the one who threw away the bucket when I was climbing the rocks in the ditch last year!"
After hearing this, Zhou Huaian shouted, "Old Crow, I forgot that you haven't compensated me for the bucket!"
Xu Erchun, "I'd like to sit with you for a while, do you want to?"
Zhou Huaijun looked at the eels that slipped away and shouted in frustration, "What the hell! You scared all my eels away."
These idiots, I will never come with them again next time.
"If you don't swim, you will blame the river bend; if you plow the field, you will blame the yoke!" Zhou Huaian curled his lips and concentrated on taking care of the eels.
After everyone finished walking through the large field, their baskets were full. After reuniting, they walked back with lanterns.
When they reached the fork in the road, Xu Erchun said, "Youngest, we will send the eels to your house tomorrow afternoon, and you can help us take Ning An to sell them."
"Yes, you can pick out the small ones and put them together in one bucket so that it won't be hard to carry."
"I understand!" Xu Erchun nodded and called He Dakuan, who was talking to Zhou Huaishan, to leave.
Zhou Huairong asked worriedly: "Youngest, the three families together probably have dozens of kilograms, can you take Ning An to sell it?"
"Don't worry, those fishmongers will buy as many as they want."
"That's good."
When the four brothers got home, Zhou's mother opened the door for them and asked, "Are there many eels?"
Zhou Huaian patted the basket, "A lot, the basket is full."
"You old man, clean the broken tank and put the eel in it."
Zhou Huairong turned around and closed the gate, and said happily: "Mom, let's go again tomorrow night, we should be able to sell more than 20 yuan."
"Yes, there's money coming in every day!" Zhou's mother happily followed him back, "Hurry up and wash your face and feet and go to bed."
"You get up so early every day, you should go to bed quickly."
Zhou's mother patted his shoulder with relief, "I understand."
…
After Zhou Huaian finished washing up, he pushed the door open and walked into the room. He saw Yang Chunyan leaning against the bed and sewing clothes. "Why don't you go to bed early? What are you waiting for me for?"
"Just got into bed!" Yang Chunyan looked at him, "The swelling is starting to go down. It should be almost healed by tomorrow morning."
"Doctor Wang's medicine is good. Remember to bring me a few pills next time you go into the mountains to look for beehives."
"Let me make it clear first, you are not allowed to go into the mountains to look for cliff honey!"
"I've told you several times, you're so nagging at such a young age!" Zhou Huaian lifted the mosquito net and got on the bed, looking at Yang Chunyan with a drooling face, "Wife..."
Yang Chunyan poked his dishonest hand with a needle and said, "Be honest and wait until this month is over!"
"Hiss~" Zhou Huaian retracted his hand and looked at the needle hole on the back of his hand. He knew that there was no hope today. He lay down angrily and said unhappily, "You black-hearted woman, you are so depressed, and you are the unlucky one!"
In the first twenty years, when I wasn’t married, I didn’t think much of it. But after I tasted the sweetness of marriage, every time I thought about it, I felt like I was being bitten by ants every day.
"I'll admit defeat!" Yang Chunyan rolled her eyes, 'It's only been a few days, you didn't become a man today, why didn't I suffocate you all those years ago!'
"I think you set me up when you made the bet that day."
"Even if it's a condom, you have to drill it!"
"If I ever bother with you again I won't be named Zhou!" Zhou Huaian was so angry that he pulled the quilt over his head.
Yang Chunyan glanced at him, "..."
By the time she had finished sewing that trouser leg, Zhou Huaian had already begun to make soft sounds of snoring, and she also yawned and fell asleep.
The next morning, Yang Chunyan woke up and found that Zhou Huaian had come to her side again without her knowing when.
Hearing the voices outside, she hurriedly got out of bed, put on her clothes, opened the door and walked out, "Mom, you're up so early!"
Zhou's mother, who was pulling spinach in the vegetable garden, turned around and said, "Why don't you sleep a little longer if you're not going into town to sell herbs today?"
"Wake up!" Yang Chunyan reached out to take the washcloth, went back to the house to get the washbasin and toothbrush cup, and went to the well. After washing up, she went to the kitchen to help pick spinach.
Zhao Huifang stir-fried the potatoes for a few times and then poured the half-cooked rice on the potatoes. She scooped a bucket of water, poured it around the potato rice piled up like a small hill, and then covered the pot.
"Mom, sauerkraut and potato soup goes well with rice. Can we still make sauerkraut and potato soup in the morning?"
"Yes." Zhou's mother smiled and said, "I know you like to eat sauerkraut soup, so I planted a few cabbages this year. When they start to sprout, I'll cut them and make sauerkraut."
Zhang Xiuxiang and Li Qiuyue came in from the back door carrying oxalis on their backs. "Mom, let's cut some oxalis and cook some kimchi."
The leaves of Swiss chard are green, and their shape is a bit like a banana fan. The leaf stems are thick and white. In some places, it is also called "thick-skinned vegetable" based on its shape. There are three varieties: white-stemmed, green-stemmed and red-stemmed. The Zhou family grows white-stemmed Swiss chard.
The old leaves are broken off to feed pigs, chickens and ducks, and people eat the tenderest part of the Swiss chard, and the stalks they pick are the ones that have just sprouted.
Swiss chard also has medicinal value, and has the effects of clearing away heat and detoxifying, promoting blood circulation and stopping bleeding.
Yang Chunyan stood up and took the Swiss chard that the two were holding, "I'll go pick a handful of fennel and bring it back for stewing."
Mother Zhou nodded. "Pick a few more handfuls of fennel. After dinner, I'll go cut some broad beans and peel them to make braised oxtail vegetables."
Yang Chunyan took a colander and went to the vegetable garden behind the house. This vegetable garden was much larger than the one in the yard. There were a lot of Swiss chard, ginger, chili peppers, mung beans, green beans, cowpeas and various melons and vegetables planted in the garden.
Like fennel, coriander, onions and leeks, they will grow again after being cut. Generally, only three or four rows of one variety are enough for a family.
The fennel grown by the Zhou family is bulb fennel, the stem of which is bluish-white and has a strong aroma.
Because the green leaves of fennel are as thin as silk, it is also called fragrant silk vegetable.
Its fruit, fennel seeds, is also a traditional Chinese medicine that has the effects of warming the kidney and dispelling cold, harmonizing the stomach and regulating qi. Fennel seeds are also the main raw material of five-spice powder.
Yang Chunyan remembered that Dr. Wang in her previous life had told her that many common vegetables also have medicinal value. Li Shizhen, a medical scientist in the Ming Dynasty, included 105 kinds of vegetable medicines in the "Compendium of Materia Medica".
For example, the Chinese cabbage we often eat is boiled with sugar and drunk by country people to treat whooping cough. Mashed cabbage juice can treat lacquer sores.
Cabbage root, coriander root and onion root are boiled in water and taken orally to treat colds. Coriander root has the effect of regulating qi and strengthening the spleen.
Yang Chunyan cut a few bunches of fennel, brought them back to the kitchen, washed them and gave them to Zhao Huifang.
She returned to the room and saw Zhou Huaian still sleeping, so she patted him and said, "We are going up the mountain, hurry up and get up to eat!"
Zhou Huaian turned over and sat up, scratching his hair and looking at her with an annoyed face, "You don't allow me to do that at night. Even my dreams have to be interrupted by you!"
"The sun is shining on your butt, you are still dreaming!" Yang Chunyan threw him the clothes she wore for going up the mountain, "Hurry up, after dinner we will go up the mountain to dig up those Polygonum multiflorum you found."
Zhou Huaian waved his hand impatiently, "You go out first, I'll sit for two minutes and then come out!" His sweet dream was interrupted, and he had to go out slowly.
(End of this chapter)
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