Gao Mingcheng was not surprised to learn that Gao Mingpeng had come to announce the good news. After accepting the red egg, he said a few congratulations.
After Gao Mingpeng left, Gao Mingcheng asked Xuanyuemei to prepare gifts. He planned to grind the kudzu root, wash out the kudzu powder and let it settle before going to the old village to visit the newborn.
When Xuanyuemei learned that Huang Su'e had given birth to a daughter, she was a little envious. She couldn't help but say, "A daughter is also good. Look how cute Xiao Yuanyuan is!"
Gao Mingcheng glanced at her and saw that she was somewhat interested, as if she wanted to have a daughter next time, but Gao Mingcheng didn't say anything. If it was the same as in her previous life, Xuanyuemei's next child would have to be a son, and a troublesome son at that!
Of course, if something unexpected happens and he really has a daughter, he will be very happy.
Gao Mingcheng works quickly and well. He can control the strength of grinding the Pueraria root accurately, grinding it up and down with a very rhythmic motion. It took him more than half an hour to grind all the Pueraria root that he had dug up yesterday.
When Gao Mingcheng stood up, he couldn't help stretching to loosen his bones and muscles. The kudzu root he dug yesterday weighed more than 100 kilograms after washing off the mud on the surface. Grinding it into a paste was quite tiring.
It is better in later times. They have machines that can crush Pueraria root. Villagers go into the mountains to dig Pueraria root, wash it, and take it to the town. They spend some money to have the workshop crush it with machines. It only takes a few minutes to bring back the Pueraria root paste. After bringing it back, they just need to wash the powder, filter it and let it settle.
Xuanyuemei said, "Mingcheng, you fetch the water and I'll wash the powder."
"Okay." Gao Mingcheng responded, took out a bucket tied with a rope, threw it into the well, and when he pulled it up, it was full of well water.
With a splash, a bucket of well water was poured into the big basin. Many beautiful girls had rolled up their sleeves and a pair of hands were stirring the water in the basin.
While the flour was being washed, Gao Mingcheng brought over the bag and basin for filtering.
The next step was for Xuanyuemei to open the bag, and Gao Mingcheng was responsible for pouring the kudzu root residue and kudzu powder in the basin into the bag, and then squeezing out the water in the bag.
The couple worked together, doing the work that required dexterity and strength. With great skill and tacit cooperation, they quickly washed out a large basin of kudzu powder.
"Okay, it's almost all washed out." Looking at the large basin full of milky white water, Gao Mingcheng looked down at the bag again. The kudzu root residue inside was already all fiber, with no trace of starch.
The residue after grinding, washing and filtering sweet potatoes can also be fed to pigs. The kudzu root residue is all crude fiber, and pigs don’t like to eat it!
But after drying, it can be used for burning or directly composted.
My family has a large orchard and several acres of vegetable fields, and fertilizer is needed everywhere. As the saying goes, the success of crops depends on fertilizer.
Without fertilizer, vegetables cannot be grown well.
Therefore, Gao Mingcheng made two compost piles, one at the foot of Xiaofu Mountain, next to the chicken coop. After Chen Dasong cleaned out the chicken manure in the chicken coop, he poured it into the composting site for decomposition. The decomposed chicken manure can be directly used to fertilize the fruit trees, so that the fruits produced will taste better.
Another composting point is in a field near home. Domestic fertilizers, sheep manure and cow manure are piled there for fermentation. After fermentation, they can be used to fertilize nearby vegetable fields.
But even so, the annual fertilizer is not enough, and we still need to buy chemical fertilizers and farmyard manure.
Gao Mingcheng went into the house, changed into clean clothes, and said to Xuanyuemei, "Let's go to the old village. We haven't been there for a walk since we came back a few days ago."
"Okay." Xuanmei brought up a bamboo basket. The things in the basket were gifts for her sister-in-law Huang Su'e. They didn't prepare anything in advance, so they could only give whatever they had at home.
Before, Gao Mingcheng bought a lot of sugar in order to feed the honey water, so he packed two kilograms of white sugar and took two kilograms of shelled peanuts, which were grown by Zhang Chengyuan for their family. After harvesting, they were dried and preserved. If you want to eat peanuts, you can just peel them as you eat.
In addition to these two items, I also took a piece of wind-blown meat, which weighed about two kilograms.
Because gifts should be given in pairs, I also took two grapefruits. This way, the gift looked full and very nice.
"Let me carry it." Gao Mingcheng picked up little Xuxu and reached out to take the basket. Then the couple walked towards the old village.
When they got closer to the old village, there were more people working in the fields. They saw Gao Mingcheng holding his son and carrying a basket, while Xuanyuemei was walking with empty hands. The men teased Gao Mingcheng, while the women were somewhat envious of Xuanyuemei.
"Ming Cheng, your eldest brother has another daughter. When will you and Duomei have a second child?" a busybody said loudly.
Gao Mingcheng was not annoyed, and said with a smile: "It depends on fate."
"That's right, you already have a son anyway!"
Amidst the gossip, the couple followed a small path and entered the village where the old people lived.
As a member of a large family, Gao Yuanjian's home is located in the center of the old village, which has a pretty good geographical location.
However, this time they were going to the home of their eldest brother Gao Mingpeng. His home was a little bit off the beaten track, but there were people living around it, so it was a very lively place.
Xuanyuemei used to live next to Chen Dasong's family. After she married Gao Mingcheng and lived in Niuweiling, there was no one around her.
Now that she has come to the old village, she feels a little envious and a little uncomfortable.
They didn't come early, because Huang Su'e's family from the next village had already arrived. I think Gao Mingpeng first rode his bicycle to his father-in-law to report the news, and then came to Niuweiling to report the news.
Because my mother's family was there, the room was quite lively and everyone's voices mixed together to create a noisy sound.
Gao Mingcheng handed the things in his hand to Gao Mingpeng, and then stood in the yard talking to someone without even entering the house, while Xuanyuemei went into the house to take a look at the woman and the child.
Huang Su'e was in good condition. Luo Xiaohua took good care of her during her pregnancy. It was her second child, and the birth went smoothly without any pain.
The child was fair and pretty. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed next to Huang Su'e, sleeping soundly.
Huang Su'e's mother and sister were talking to her, so Xuanyuemei just took a look and walked out of the room to avoid disturbing them.
Gao Mingcheng came over with gifts, so naturally he was invited to dinner. He chatted with the men, talking about all sorts of things under the sun, and they were having a good time. However, Xuanmei was not familiar with the Huang family, so he could not strike up a conversation with them, so he simply went to help Luo Xiaohua.
We have to prepare two large tables of food for lunch today, so Luo Xiaohua has been busy in the kitchen since early morning, and he is very busy.
She felt a little relieved when she saw many beauties coming in to help wash the vegetables.
She woke up in the middle of the night to deliver Huang Su'e, and then had to wash the newborn's body, dress her, change her diapers, etc. She was really busy all the time.
"Please wash the soaked kelp in the basin!" Luo Xiaohua said, pointing to a basin in which some dried kelp was soaking.
These dried kelps were brought back by Gao Mingwan. A small piece of dried kelp can become a large piece after being soaked.
It is quite troublesome to wash kelp, because there are a lot of fine sand and mucus, as well as some dirt on it. It cannot be washed clean by hands and needs to be scrubbed with a brush.
Xuan Mi had experience in washing dried kelp before, so she picked up the brush and started brushing it without saying a word. After both sides of the kelp were washed clean, she rinsed it with clean water.
After washing the kelp, wash the cabbage and radish.
Luo Xiaohua, who had his hands free, took the opportunity to light the fire, wash the pot, and prepare to cook.
There is no special place for cutting vegetables in this small kitchen. Usually, the chopping board is placed next to the stove. When cooking, add oil first, then cut the vegetables. When the oil is hot, use a kitchen knife to sweep the vegetables into the big iron pan and stir-fry. This is much faster.
Soon, dishes such as fried peanuts, fried pork with radish, fried kelp with chili, and stir-fried cabbage were served one after another.
The dishes are not very good, but today is not a market day, so I can't buy meat even if I want to. The meat for the stir-fried radish was bought a few days ago as a backup. It is marinated with salt and can be kept for several days.
In addition to these dishes, there is also an old hen stewed in the small pot, but this is not for the guests, but for the mother who has just given birth!
With the help of many people, Luo Xiaohua finally prepared two tables of food by noon, and then arranged for everyone to sit down and eat.
During the meal, Gao Mingcheng noticed that Xuanmei's hands were red from the cold, and couldn't help but say, "We should have come later."
He didn't know that the Huang family would come so early, so he didn't expect that the family would keep him for dinner. He wanted to give the gifts, leave the ceremony, and then go sit with his grandmother.
Unexpectedly, the Huang family came and there were guests. His father and elder brother invited him to dinner, and he couldn't refuse.
As a result, many of the beauties went to help in the kitchen and their hands turned red from the cold.
Xuanyuemei looked at him with a smile. Her heart felt warm when she heard his words.
She also whispered, "Then let's come later next time."
The couple smiled at each other, understanding the meaning of each other's words.
Others didn't know what they were talking about, but from their expressions, they could tell that the two had a good relationship.
After dinner, Gao Mingcheng used the excuse that he had work to do at home, so he took his wife and children and left first.
Since we are already in the old village, we naturally have to go to my grandmother's house to sit down. After chatting for a while, I took six large pieces of Castanopsis tofu from her house and left.
This Castanopsis tofu can be soaked in water and will not go bad for several days.
But Xuanyuemei had been living a good life with Gao Mingcheng and was no longer used to eating the same dishes every day, so she said, "There are so many Castanopsis tofu, I'll give some to my second sister."
Gao Mingcheng didn't even think about it and nodded: "Okay."
There are six large pieces of Castanopsis tofu in the basket, each weighing more than one pound, enough to stir-fry a plate.
So when passing by Xuanyue's house, Xuanyuemei gave Xuanyue a piece.
Xuanyu was very happy after getting the things. He said he would go to the fields to pick some garlic sprouts so that he could stir-fry Castanopsis tofu to make it more fragrant.
Xuanyimei just smiled and didn't say that more oil would be needed to make it fragrant.
Her second sister cooks late and is also very stingy when cooking. She is reluctant to use oil and many dishes are simply boiled in water, so they have no color or flavor.
There was indeed something to do at home, so the two sisters didn't chat much. When Xuanyuemei returned home, Gao Mingcheng had already put Xiaoxuxu, who had fallen asleep on the way, into the room to sleep.
The main room of the house was filled with basins of all sizes. Fortunately, they had many basins and buckets, so they were able to make so much kudzu powder at one time.
The kudzu powder I made yesterday morning has been washed twice. Now wash it again. After it settles, you can take it out and dry it.
Just as he was doing something, Chen Dasong came over to find him.
These days, Chen Dasong has been taking his son Chen Duofu to the mountains to whitewash the fruit trees.
"Ming Cheng, the lime in the shed is all used up. We can't continue working today." Chen Dasong said.
Gao Mingcheng glanced at the time. It was already past three in the afternoon, but he still had time to run there, so he said, "Okay, I'll go buy it now."
You have to go to the town to buy quicklime. If you drive a tractor, it takes more than half an hour, and more than an hour to go back and forth.
Gao Mingcheng did what he said without hesitation. After saying goodbye to Xuanyuemei, he drove the tractor out.
He wore a thick cotton coat, a rabbit fur hat and gloves, and walked towards the town against the cold winter wind.
When he arrived in the town, he didn't know how much quicklime would be needed for the orchards on the mountain, so he just used as much as possible.
Anyway, the unused quicklime can be used to disinfect chicken coops and ponds.
If you raise too many fish in a pond, the fish will get sick. Therefore, it is best to disinfect the pond with quicklime after taking the fish out at the end of each year. This way, the fish will not be easily sick next year.
When I was buying quicklime, I saw a bakery nearby with the name "Zixi Bread".
When Gao Mingcheng saw the words "Zixi Bread", he was stunned.
In later generations, the sign of Zixi Bakery could often be seen in the county, but he didn't know that a Zixi Bakery would be opened here this year.
Speaking of Zixi bread, it has a history. It was in 1987 that two veterans opened the first bakery for Zixi people in Yingtan.
After that, they helped each other, and their business became bigger and bigger. The taste of Zixi bread was indeed very good.
However, Gao Mingcheng's deepest impression of Zixi was still Dajue Mountain.
The rafting in Dajue Mountain is also quite famous in this area.
Gao Mingcheng walked into the store and bought several kinds of bread sold in the store. He ate porridge every morning, and it was nice to change the taste occasionally.
After buying all the things, he drove the tractor back to Gaojia Village before it got completely dark.
In the western sky, the setting sun is round, emitting an orange-red light, hanging low in the air, like a red lantern on the horizon.
The dusk deepens, and when the sun sets completely and disappears, the sky becomes dark, and another day has passed.
After returning home, Gao Mingcheng was not idle. While there was still light, he quickly moved all the quicklime into the shed and piled it up, and also checked the condition of the beehives.
But by now the bees had already hidden in the beehive to rest.
The activities of bees are affected by light, so in areas with long sunshine, bees will produce more honey. (End of this chapter)
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