Chapter 209 Harvesting Early Rice
As soon as the pond at the foot of the mountain was dug, the weather became hotter and hotter. It was sunny for a month in a row, with no sign of rain.
There were already signs of drought at this time, but no one cared.
I would even like to say that fortunately the weather has been good recently, making it a good time to harvest the rice and dry the millet.
The water in the reservoir has not decreased at this time, but with the planting of late rice, signs of this will begin to appear after the reservoir is released.
Gao Mingcheng felt at ease when he looked at the water in his own pond.
With this water, we can ensure that the subsequent tree planting will not fail. However, due to the weather and the seedlings, there will not be large-scale planting this year. At most, a small amount will be planted to test the waters.
As for what to plant, he had a general idea.
First of all, he contracted this hill not for a single industry. In other words, he would not use it all to plant sugar oranges, because it is still unknown whether he can successfully grow sugar oranges here.
In addition to sugar oranges, he also needs to get a batch of fruit trees from Nanfeng mandarin oranges. He has to go there in person. In his previous life, he purchased the fruit seedlings from fruit farmers. They swore that they were Nanfeng mandarin oranges, but after he grew them, they turned out to be not what he had promised.
In addition, oranges and grapefruits from the citrus family are naturally indispensable. These can be concentrated on a mountain, with a planned area of about 100 acres. Because the geographical climate here is suitable for the growth of citrus fruit trees, more will be planted.
In addition, you need to plant a small area of common fruit trees, but this depends on luck and you have to buy good varieties of fruit seedlings.
For example, they are also rich in bayberry and loquat, but the ones that can be seen everywhere are wild varieties. Bayberry is so sour that it can make your teeth fall out, and loquat has thick skin, large seeds, thin flesh and little water.
There are also large areas of wild grapes in the mountains, growing luxuriantly, but the fruits are still very sour and difficult to swallow.
In fact, if it is used to make wine, that's fine, but it requires a lot of white sugar. Nowadays, white sugar costs one dollar per pound, but no one is willing to use so much sugar to make wine.
Instead of drinking wine, villagers prefer to drink twisted wine, believing that it is more beneficial to health.
"Ming Cheng, some people in the village have started to harvest rice ears. When will we harvest them? I just went to the fields and saw that our rice ears are almost ripe." Xuanyuemei was wearing a straw hat and an old set of long clothes and trousers.
When working in the fields in hot weather, you cannot wear short clothes, you have to wear long clothes. This can prevent the sun from tanning your skin and the grass from cutting your skin.
The edges of some grasses are like saws. If people walk through them carelessly, they will leave a bloody mark on their legs. Some grasses are also poisonous, and being cut by them is extremely painful.
Gao Mingcheng casually picked up a straw hat and put it on, saying, "It's better to do it today than to wait for a day. Let's do it today! It's only one acre of land, it will only take a while!"
Many of the beauties had no objections and immediately took the sickles and shoulder poles they had prepared.
The two walked towards their own rice fields, one in front and one behind. Along the way, they saw some people harvesting and carrying rice. The whole village was filled with the joy of the harvest.
In the days when there were no harvesters, rice ears were harvested manually. Holding a handful of rice ears in one hand and a sickle in the other, they would cut them off at the roots and then pile them together. When they were about the same size, they would be tied into knots and carried back home on a shoulder pole.
Gao Mingcheng and Xuanyuemei walked to their own rice fields. Gao Mingcheng looked down at the rice ears. The golden rice ears hung their heads modestly. The wind blew, bringing bursts of rice fragrance.
The rice ears this year are planted quite well. With good weather and good harvests in the first half of the year, most people have planted good rice ears. However, there are some differences in yield.
Some people are superstitious about chemical fertilizers and like to use them, while some people think that farmyard manure is better and therefore do not use chemical fertilizers.
Gao Mingcheng's family used a mixture of farmyard manure and chemical fertilizers, but unexpectedly the crops grew so well.
Gao Mingcheng pinched a grain of millet with his hands, then rubbed off the skin and observed the rice grains inside. He found that the rice grains were very hard and were indeed ripe.
He casually threw it into his mouth, chewed it up, and savored the flavor of the new rice.
Generally speaking, the taste of early rice is slightly worse than that of late rice, but early rice makes more rice when cooked, so it is also very popular in the village.
"It's ripe, let's start harvesting!" said Gao Mingcheng, the first one to go to the field to work.
He walked down the ridge of the field and stepped into the slightly slippery soil. His footprint sank about an inch where he stepped.
If there is a lot of rain, the fields will be relatively wet at this time, but it has not rained for more than a month this year, so it is almost dry now.
Before planting late rice, the reservoir has to be opened and water released.
Gao Mingcheng works quickly and well, and Xuanyuemei also works efficiently and effectively, without the slightest sign of pampering.
Gao Mingcheng saw her working hard. After a while, the rice ears were piled all over the ground. He simply went forward, tied up the rice ears, and then carried them back home on a shoulder pole.
There is no need to put these rice ears in baskets, they can be directly tied into two large bundles, and then one bundle is inserted on each side of a carrying pole to secure them.
"I'll carry the rice ears back home. You take your time to harvest them. Don't be in a hurry." Gao Mingcheng instructed, then picked up the shoulder pole and walked quickly towards home.
The disadvantage of living at the foot of Niuweiling appeared at this time, because this large area of rice fields is closer to the old village, and naturally farther away from Niuweiling.
Fortunately, Gao Mingcheng was full of energy and was not afraid of this distance. He carried the load and walked quickly, like a gust of wind, and soon disappeared in the busy field. When he reached a deserted place, his speed increased a bit.
When he returned home, he untied the bundles of rice ears and spread them out in the yard to dry.
The yard has been completely hardened, and the cement ground is perfect for drying rice ears.
After doing all this, he did not stop and continued walking towards the rice fields.
With the concerted efforts of the two, the rice ears in an acre of field were quickly harvested. Xuanyuemei straightened up with a satisfied smile on her face.
"Let's go! Go home!" Gao Mingcheng's family was the first to finish the harvest in the village. It was because they had few rice fields, only one acre in total, and both the husband and wife were good at work.
When they got home, the first thing they did was drink tea.
Early in the morning, Xuanmei boiled water and then brewed homemade tea. The taste of this tea is naturally not as good as those famous teas, but it also has a flavor. Moreover, drinking tea in summer can relieve heat, which is worse than drinking boiled water.
The two drank tea to quench their thirst, and then continued to work.
The rice ears have been harvested, but they still need to be threshed.
If you have a thresher, that would be convenient too. You can just step on it with your feet and hold the rice ears in your hands at the same time, so that the top part of the rice will touch the iron tool and then the rice will fall down.
But Gao Mingcheng hasn't bought a thresher yet, so his family has to rely on the old way to thresh the grain.
Gao Mingcheng grabbed a handful of rice ears, held the roots of the ears with his hands, and then threw the part covered with grains against the wall. As he threw the ears, the grains fell off and burst out.
(End of this chapter)
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