Chapter 355 Chapter 356: Sesame Blossoms Rise Steadily
Zhou Daqing looked at him and laughed, "Ha'er, you are so happy to give away the bricks and tiles for a house. I'll be surprised if your old man doesn't beat you with a couple of pipes when you get home."
Zhou Huaian scratched his head, "No, that's all old news."
"Good news, it proves that you have made achievements and your words carry weight." Zhou Daqing looked at the two of them with satisfaction, "Yiding said he wanted to grow herbs with you, how are the preparations going?"
Zhou Huaian glanced at Yang Chunyan and said, "We plan to sow some common herbs first, such as plantain, Viola yedoensis, and Rhizoma Cibotii, which can yield returns in one year. We have also collected some seeds for valuable herbs such as Paris polyphylla, and we will try to see if we can grow them."
"Okay, only by planning can we get things done. Now that you have made up your mind, do it well and don't give up halfway!"
"Don't worry, uncle. Yiding and I didn't find what we wanted to do before, so we wandered around aimlessly. Now that we have something to do, we will definitely do it seriously."
Zhou Daqing patted his shoulder with relief, "I feel relieved when you say this."
Yang Chunyan hung up the golden thread lotus and went to the kitchen to see Wan Xuejiao filtering rice and Zhou Yiding plucking chicken feathers. "You guys are busy. Huai'an and I will take out the bear meat to smoke."
Zhou Yiding nodded and said, "There are cypress branches for smoking meat behind the house. If you want them, ask the youngest to cut them."
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "Of course it would be best if there were cypress branches."
Cypress leaves are rich in oil and have a special aromatic smell that can prevent moths. The bacon smoked with its branches and leaves is golden and shiny, and tastes mellow.
The bacon smoked with cypress branches has a special smell that can repel mosquitoes and flies. It will not deteriorate even after the dog days of summer, and it will not go bad even if hung on the beams for a year or two.
Yang Chunyan went out and called Zhou Huaian to go behind the house, cut a large bundle of cypress branches and carried them back to the yard.
Zhou Daqing tied a tripod with sticks, and went to the cave with Zhou Huaian to carry out the bear meat. They poked a hole with the tip of a knife, passed a thin hemp rope through it, and hung it on the tripod.
Zhou Yiding poked his head out and said, "Sister-in-law, there are still walnut shells and corn stalks in the firewood room."
"I'll go get it!" Zhou Huaian ran to the woodshed, picked up a handful of hay, and walked out holding a basket with rotten edges.
Seeing that she couldn't help, Yang Chunyan went to the kitchen to help Wan Xuejiao scrape and wash the mushrooms.
Zhou Daqing broke off the thin branches from the large cypress branches and piled them aside, saying with a smile, "It would be great if there were sugarcane peels. The smoked bacon would have a sweet aroma."
Zhou Huaian put the hay down and said, "Uncle is really good at eating. I have never had a good meal of bacon since I was a child!"
"Life was not easy in the past. We only smoked some wild boars when we killed them in the forest farm." Zhou Daqing took out a match and lit the wood. "I think your family will kill a pig for the New Year this year, right?"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Prepare to kill two pigs, and then come to my house to have a pig-killing wine."
"Great!" Zhou Daqing was really happy for his family. "Your family is getting better and better! Your husband and his family have suffered for most of their lives, but they finally made it through."
Zhou Huaian somehow remembered Yang Chunyan's dream after hearing this and sighed, "Yeah, I finally made it through."
"You're even sighing!" Zhou Daqing looked at him and smiled.
Zhou Huaian scratched his head, "Hey hey!"
Zhou Daqing waited for the fire to start. When the flames licked upwards, he broke off the thin cypress branches and put them into the fire little by little to suppress the blazing flames.
This will allow the fire to dry out the wet wood, and the wet wood to suppress the fire, producing smoke.
After a while, the white hot air emitted by the cypress branches placed on the fire turned into clouds of smoke emitting the fragrance of cypress, covering the bear meat on the tripod.
Zhou Daqing saw that the cypress branches were dried and the fire became bigger, so he added a few large wet cypress branches on top, and the fire became smaller.
The two men put a handful of hay and a handful of walnut shells on top, trying to keep a small open flame under the fire, as well as the smoke emitted by the burning cypress branches, so that the fireworks could slowly smoke the bear meat.
Zhou Huaian looked at it for a while and said, "Uncle, I smoke bacon this way for Chinese New Year."
Zhou Daqing smiled and nodded, "Just do what I did just now. The bacon you smoke will be shiny and waxy. It won't go bad for a year."
Zhou Huaian: "You need to learn from experience to do anything!"
For dinner, several people carried the dining table to the yard and ate while smoking the bear meat.
Zhou Yiding poured out some cherry wine and gave each of them a glass. "Have a couple of sips to relieve your fatigue."
Zhou Daqing drank a cup, picked up a few pieces of mushrooms and tasted them, then said with a smile: "The dishes cooked by Chunyan and Xuejiao taste good. Yiding, that lazy dog, cooks good dishes when he's happy, but when he's unhappy, we eat kimchi for every meal."
Zhou Yiding looked at him dissatisfiedly, "Old man, I helped to cook tonight's meal! I fried the shredded potatoes, Xuejiao fried the mushrooms, and my sister-in-law mixed the zheergen."
Zhou Daqing took a chopstick of potato shreds and ate them, then nodded, "It's okay today."
Zhou Yiding proudly gave him some bear meat, "We haven't touched this pot yet, try it, my sister-in-law's cooking is even better than braised pork belly."
Zhou Daqing ate two pieces and nodded, "Not bad, the cooking skills are better than those of the chef in our forest farm."
Zhou Huaian looked at Yang Chunyan with a smile, and was happier than when she praised him.
Yang Chunyan said embarrassedly: "How can such a good thing not taste good with spices added?"
She felt that Zhou Daqing was really open-minded, unlike Zhou's father who was arrogant and always scolded people.
The next morning, Zhou Daqing took Dahuang to patrol the mountains, while Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding took Dahei to the pond to get the backpack hanging on the tree, and by the way, they harvested the large bees they found yesterday.
Yang Chunyan and Wan Xuejiao went to the ditch to collect the asparagus seeds.
Wan Xuejiao pointed to the stone on the opposite side of the ditch and said, "Sister-in-law, the golden thread vine we picked yesterday is growing on it."
Yang Chunyan turned her head and took a look. "Not bad, you will remember it after picking it once. These are what we left behind last time. If you find such rare herbs in the future, you should also save some. If you pick them all, they will be gone."
Wan Xuejiao nodded seriously, "I remember it."
The two of them arrived at a place where Asparagus cochinchinensis grew, carrying baskets and picking the red fruits there.
Wan Xuejiao picked a handful and put them in the basket. "Sister-in-law, last time we came to dig up asparagus, I saw that there were buds on the tubers below. Can we use the tubers as seeds?"
Yang Chunyan thought for a moment and said, "You are really careful. I didn't think about it at all. It should be OK, right?"
"Then let's dig some up next spring and try it out."
"Yes, after we take these seeds back, let Yiding go to my house to get some fertilizer and spread the seeds first."
"I have to help him compost some manure this time, otherwise there will be no manure for planting in the rice fields next spring."
"Not bad, I'll help him with that!"
Wan Xuejiao's face turned red immediately, and she said coquettishly: "Sister-in-law, you are laughing at me."
Yang Chunyan smiled at her shy look and said, "You are right to do this. If you and your spouse are of one mind, your life will only get better and better."
"Yiding said that it is thanks to you that Brother Zhou is where he is today. Otherwise, who knows how long he would have lived!"
"It's not all my credit. He also wanted to change, so he is where he is today. Otherwise, why is there a saying that a piece of mud cannot be helped?"
Wan Xuejiao thought for a while after hearing this, then nodded and said, "Sister-in-law, you are right. He has to want to change!"
Thank you for your support, thank you! I wish you all a happy New Year! Happy family!
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com