After seeing Qu Qiulin off, Zhang Xiuxiang and Li Qiuyue returned home with the children. They put two baskets of bamboo fungus in their vegetable baskets and red mushrooms and several other kinds of mushrooms in their backpacks.
When the kids got home and washed their faces, they clamored to watch TV. Zhou Huaian went to the next door to open the TV for them and left the two younger ones with them.
Yang Chunyan and her sisters-in-law cleaned the bamboo fungus, brought it to Li Qiuyue's house upstairs under the scorching sun, and hung them on a bamboo rack. Then they went back to clean the chicken mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms and other miscellaneous fungi.
Use bamboo strips to scrape the mud off the feet of the chicken mushroom, rinse it several times, tear it into thin strips and pull it into short sections one inch long, and spread it out on the drying mat to dry.
When the kids were watching the news with great interest, Zhou's mother came to call them to eat. Zhou Jiakang pulled her waist and said, "Grandma, shall we have beef dumplings for lunch?"
"Greedy Cat, I'll have beef rice noodles for lunch."
"Really?" Zhou Xiaoqian and the others looked over happily, "Dad is back from buying rice noodles?"
"A big bag. After eating it, then help peel garlic and wash mushrooms." After saying this, Zhou's mother went to the backyard to call a few daughters-in-law.
Seeing that there was beef noodles available on the street for lunch, the kids felt that TV was no longer interesting. Zhou Jiaming picked up Xiaolong, Zhou Xiaoqian took Xiaojiuer by the hand, and the brothers and sisters swarmed to the barbecue room next door.
I could smell the aroma of beef before I even reached the gate. When I entered the yard, I saw bean paste, chili noodles, and Sichuan pepper noodles on the table. Zhou Huaian was standing in front of the stove cutting beef.
Zhou Jiakang stepped forward in surprise, "Dad, you can also cut vegetables?"
Zhou Huaian glanced at him and handed a piece of beef to Xiao Jiuer, "Cutting vegetables is nothing, I can also cook. I'll show you my cooking skills someday and surprise you!"
"Don't listen to your father. Even Wangcai and Laifu don't like the dishes he cooks." Zhou's mother came in with mint and exposed him mercilessly.
When Zhou Huaian saw her coming, he immediately put down his kitchen knife and said with a playful smile, "Come on, come on, Chef Chen's turn."
"Aren't you very capable?" Zhou's mother rolled her eyes at him, put down the colander, picked up the kitchen knife and started cutting.
Zhou Xiaoqian helped carry the bowl to the stove, "Grandma, I want to put mint in it."
"All of them. Jiaming, go to the wine cellar and call your grandfather to come for dinner."
"Oh oh!" Zhou Jiaming ran to the back of the house.
Zhou's mother grabbed some mint and put it at the bottom of the bowl, picked up a handful of rice noodles and put them into a bamboo funnel, boiled them in bone broth and poured them into the bowl, scooped two spoonfuls of bone broth and beef broth, grabbed some beef and spread it on top, sprinkled with coriander and chopped green onions, and served it on the table.
Yang Chunyan and her sisters-in-law helped bring the blanched beef noodles to the table. Several children were already sitting around the low table. Even Xiao Jiuer sat next to Zhou Xiaoqian and clamored for food.
When Zhou Jiakang scooped a large spoonful of chili noodles, Zhou's mother hurriedly reminded the children, "The chili noodles are very spicy, so put less."
"Got it!"
After wandering around the mountain for a whole morning, although they had eaten various fruits, they had already digested them. The kids put some Sichuan pepper powder, bean paste, hot pepper powder and salt, mixed them well, and started to eat them.
Mother Zhou tore the rice noodles for Xiao Jiuer and boiled them, then added the chopped beef to the noodles. "Chun Yan, it's a little hot, you feed him."
"Oh!" Yang Chunyan scooped some salt and mixed it for him, then picked up the chopsticks and prepared to feed him. The little guy didn't appreciate it. He pulled her hand away, picked up his wooden spoon, scooped two rice noodles and put them into his mouth.
The rice noodles were slippery. He put one into his mouth and the other fell on the table. He didn't make a fuss. He picked them up and put them into his mouth. He chewed them for a few times with his little mouth, then picked up a few noodles with a small wooden spoon and put them into his mouth again. He was busy and happy.
The old man looked at the table of great-grandchildren and said to Lao Xiazi cheerfully, "These youngsters are eating me out of money. They eat a lot every day."
Old Shrimp looked at the happy family, his eyes warmed up, "Yes, the current policy is good, otherwise the food we were given wouldn't even be enough to feed our kids."
Zhou Huaian said with a smile: "Uncle Xia, my grandfather and I are much more relaxed with your help. When the mushrooms are harvested and the truffles are harvested in the second half of the year, you should come to my house to help!"
The old man also nodded, "With your uncle Xia here, we really have less worries."
"Yes, yes!" Old Shrimp nodded repeatedly, "I like staying at your house too. The food is good, hot and tasty every meal. I've gained weight."
Father Zhou laughed and said, "It's hard to work in the oven when the weather is hot. It's hot and tiring. If you don't eat well, you can't stand it."
After Zhou Jiakang finished his meal, he leaned back on the bamboo chair with his belly bulging. "I'm so full, I don't even want to move."
"Me too." Zhou Xiaowen sat next to him and watched Xiao Jiuer fighting with the slippery rice noodles in the bowl.
Being full and lazy makes one feel anxious when hungry. After Zhou Jiaming and his friends had eaten their fill, they leaned there lazily and didn't want to move.
Mother Zhou pointed at the garlic cloves soaking in the large wooden basin and said, "Jiaming, don't sit there any more. Help your brother and sister-in-law peel the garlic cloves. We'll use them for frying chicken in the afternoon, making mushroom oil and mushroom sauce."
"Oh!" Zhou Jiaming agreed and looked at Yang Chunyan, "Aunt, shall we go to the next room and peel them while watching TV?"
"Okay! Bring Wangcai and Laifu's dog food with you, too."
"There are also some from our family." Zhou Jiaming and his friends ran back, each holding a bowl of dog food.
Yang Chunyan took a colander to pour out the garlic cloves in the basin, filtered out the water, and took the children back to turn on the TV. The children happily sat on the floor, peeling and watching.
The outer skin of garlic cloves is easy to peel after soaking. Just rub it gently and the red skin will come off.
Yang Chunyan, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law sat on the steps to pick up the mushrooms. They trimmed the muddy feet of the shiitake mushrooms and other mushrooms, and put the mushrooms in two baskets. It took the four of them more than an hour to clean them up. Then they took them to the sink and scrubbed them clean with loofah.
Zhou Huaian stayed with Xiao Jiuer for a while, then got up, put on his rain boots, went to the backyard to pick up the tools for collecting honey, said hello to Yang Chunyan, and went to collect wild bees behind the bamboo forest.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law washed the mushrooms, squeezed out excess water, and washed the garlic cloves and ginger brought by the children. They ran back and forth several times before delivering the things to the next door.
Yang Chunyan's sister-in-law each took a kitchen knife and cut the beef, mushrooms and other fungi into small dices. Zhou's mother fried the red-skinned peanuts, poured them into a winnowing basket, rubbed off the red skin on the outside, and then crushed them with a rolling pin for later use.
Seeing that her sisters-in-law had already cut the beef, Zhou's mother heated up the pot, picked up the oil can, and poured half a pot of rapeseed oil into two large pots.
After the rapeseed oil in the pot is boiled, divide the beef into two portions and pour half of it into the pot. Stir-fry for a few times and then pour a bowl of white wine into the pot and stir-fry until there is no foam in the diced meat, the color is browned, and the oil becomes clear, then scoop it up and put it into a porcelain bowl.
Seeing that Yang Chunyan and the others had not finished cutting the mushrooms and other fungi, he took a kitchen knife and cut the onion, and chopped the garlic and ginger. He also put the green onion, coriander, cinnamon, star anise, etc. into a colander for later use.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were busy in front of the stove. Zhou Huaian and Wangcai had already arrived at the back mountain. They walked to the wild beehive and saw the beehive hidden in the grass. After knocking on it gently with a bamboo pole, they pulled aside the grass and opened the beehive. There were no wild bees living in it yet.
"Forget it, it's better to just bring the queen bee here and build a new nest for you."
Zhou Huaian moved the beehive to the open space, used a medicine hoe to clear away the half-man-high weeds on the top of the mound, revealing the pile of earth and rocks hidden inside. He put on a bee hat, used the pickaxe head of the medicine hoe to pry open the stone in the cave where the little bees were hiding, took out moxa sticks, lit them and placed them at the entrance of the cave.
He retreated to where Wangcai was lying, found a stone to sit on, and stroked the dog. Wangcai looked up at him, then looked at the wild bees buzzing outside. He did not dare to provoke the ones with wings, so he just lay back down.
I originally thought it was a small beehive, but I didn't expect that until the moxa stick was about to burn out and two big bee balls were hanging on the honey tree not far away, I didn't see any little bees flying out of the hole.
Zhou Huaian fastened the strap of his hood and stepped forward to shovel away the rocks and mud on top of the pile of earth and rocks. After a few shovels, the mud at the entrance of the cave fell off, along with a piece of beeswax. "Why is it so shallow?"
He picked up the piece of beeswax and found it light and floating. It was an old empty nest. He put the beeswax in the backpack. He lay down at the entrance of the cave and looked inside. He saw a row of beehives inside.
Putting on gloves, he picked up a knife and knelt on the ground to cut off the first honey comb. The honey inside was already dark brown. "Fuck! I haven't found such old honey in a long time."
Zhou Huaian happily cut off the pollen comb and put it in the beehive, and the honey comb in the honey bucket. He continued to cut the second one, but it was still old honey. He cut five combs in a row before he found the queen cell.
He placed the queen cell inside the beehive, looked down, and found there was another big hole in the cave. He looked at the two big bee balls not far away, and then he understood why there were so many wild bees. It turned out that they had divided their nests into the cave inside.
Looking at the beehive in front of me, I have been digging out wild beehives for so many years, but this is the first time I have seen a wild beehive with two layers. Suddenly I felt that this hole was a bit strange.
Zhou Huaian cut off the big honey comb against the cave wall, cut off the pollen comb and put it into the beehive. He picked up the medicine hoe and used the pickaxe to widen the cave entrance.
When he dug to the entrance of the hole, he was worried that the beehive inside would collapse, so he buried the honey comb inside. He changed the shovel and started to dig down. Suddenly, there was a crisp "bang" sound, like the sound of a shovel hitting an earthen jar.
He was stunned for a moment, thinking of the graves in the bamboo forest, and felt a little scared. "Oh my god~ Could it be that some ancestor is buried here?"
He took two steps back and saw that the pile of earth and rocks was going up along the hillside. Thinking that the village had dug up rotten pottery fragments when they were reclaiming the mountain before, he felt that it was more likely that the shovel had just shoveled up rotten pottery fragments.
"Never mind. It's broad daylight and there's a dog here. There's nothing to be afraid of. Let's dig it out and have a look first!"
Zhou Huaian carefully started digging along the location where the sound was made, not even caring about the honey comb inside. After digging for about ten minutes, a black, big-bellied earthenware jar appeared in front of him.
The shape is a bit like the wine jar that Wang Zhen gave me last time. I don't think it should be used to store the things of my ancestors. Looking at the well-covered jar, I regret not bringing Yang Chunyan with me when I came here. I don't even have a courageous person. (End of this chapter)
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