Chapter 248 Preparing to Make Sweet Potato Flour
Xuanyiyu has no parents, no parents-in-law, no elders at home, and only a younger sister, Xuanyimei, is by her side. Confinement after childbirth is a big deal for a woman, so the task of taking care of her during the confinement period falls on Xuanyimei's shoulders.
Recently, Xuanyimei had to take care of Xuanyi Yuyuezi, so naturally she neglected her family. However, Gao Mingcheng expressed her understanding, as sisters have deep affection for each other, and the child's surname is Xu, not Zhang. In this way, Xuanyimei would be happy to take care of the child.
Therefore, Xuanmei only took care of the three meals a day at home and stayed at Xuanyu's house most of the time. It was not until Xuanyu's body had almost recovered that she went there less often.
Nowadays, most of the women in the village give birth naturally, and because they need to work all the time, they give birth quickly after going into labor. Only when the fetus is in an abnormal position will it be troublesome.
Women who give birth naturally recover faster than those who give birth by caesarean section. Generally, they will recover almost completely in about three days and be able to get out of bed and walk around, and take care of themselves, but their bodies will still be a little weak.
Gao Mingcheng contracted the work in the fields. Fortunately, he was in good physical condition, so farming, which was a physically demanding job, was not too tiring for him.
He planted sweet clover in his own field and his grandmother's field. As for his parents' field, firstly, there were not enough seeds, and secondly, his father thought that this thing was like a weed that would take away the fertility of the soil. His father even wanted to pull out the wild growth, let alone plant it.
But Xi Nainai and Gao Zhuang would obviously listen to his opinions and approve of his behavior.
In my grandmother's words, since weeds are going to grow anyway, it might as well plant sweet clover. The flowers are pretty, and when the sweet clover is very tender, it can still be eaten as a vegetable.
There was nothing important to do that day, so Gao Mingcheng found some free time and went to his grandmother's house to sit for a while.
Since he moved to Niuweiling, he visited his grandmother's house less often, but fortunately his grandmother had just married a new wife who was very supportive and soon became pregnant. Therefore, this small courtyard was filled with laughter and expectations for the future every day.
It is completely different from the dead and gloomy atmosphere of the previous life.
This change of fate made Gao Mingcheng feel very good.
Grandma's housework is almost done. Recently, she has been mainly turning the soil, sowing seeds, planting winter vegetables, watering them, and waiting for the seeds to break through the soil, sprout and grow.
Grandma looked at Gao Mingcheng with a worried look on her face and said, "Mingcheng, how is your well? Is there a lot of water?"
Water is scarce in the old village. We have to use a pool of water several times. If we can avoid taking a bath, we will do so.
So if you smell carefully, you can smell a scent coming from the villagers.
Gao Mingcheng thought that the grandmother was worried about not having enough water, so he said, "My well is very good. There is a spring underneath. The water is good and there is plenty of water. How about this, if I am free, I will bring you two buckets of water every day, or you can ask Gao Zhuang to go to my place to fetch water at any time."
Gao Zhuang said quickly, "Brother Mingcheng, you don't need to fetch water. We are really short of water. I will fetch it myself. The water supply at home is barely enough. Grandma is thinking about making sweet potato flour. We planted a lot of sweet potatoes in the first half of this year. Now the sweet potatoes are stored in the cellar, but if they are kept for too long, some will go bad, so we are thinking about making sweet potato flour."
Gao Mingcheng understood it as soon as he heard it. Making sweet potato flour requires a lot of water. Given the current situation of the wells in the old village, there is not enough water to supply the sweet potato flour.
But his family was small and had a well with plenty of water, which was enough to make sweet potato flour. He also liked sweet potato flour very much, so he said decisively: "Okay, let's make it today! Take the sweet potatoes out of the cellar right now, and then start grinding and settling them! We can make sweet potato flour tomorrow!"
Gao Zhuang was happy when he heard this.
Grandma has been worrying about sweet potatoes these days.
The original plan was good, but unfortunately there was a shortage of water in the second half of the year, so many things became difficult to do.
Because of the dry weather, they dug up the sweet potatoes in advance. It would definitely not be possible to pile them up at home, but the people here would dig a cellar in the mountains specifically for storing vegetables such as sweet potatoes and potatoes.
In the bamboo forest a little in front of the old village, there are more than ten cellars dug in this small bamboo forest. Gao Zhuang's cellar was also dug there.
After the deal was settled, Gao Mingcheng and Gao Zhuang went to the bamboo forest cellar to get sweet potatoes.
The cellar here was not deep, only about three meters. He was tall and strong but thin, so it was natural for him to go down to the cellar to move the sweet potatoes.
He stepped on a simple homemade ladder, went down to the cellar, and began to put the sweet potatoes into the bamboo basket. When the basket was full, Gao Mingcheng would bring it up.
There was a thick rope tied to the handle of the bamboo basket, and Gao Mingcheng lifted the bamboo basket up along the rope. Then he piled the sweet potatoes in a larger basket and threw it down for Gao Zhuang to load.
The two worked together for a while and finally moved most of the sweet potatoes. Gao Zhuang came up the ladder and said, "There are about 20 to 30 kilograms left. Grandma said she wanted to save them for making porridge in the winter."
"Okay, you guys make the arrangements." Gao Mingcheng said, then went straight to his house carrying the sweet potatoes on a shoulder pole.
He carried one load, and Gao Zhuang also carried one. When they arrived at his house, Gao Mingcheng fetched two buckets of water from the well, found a large basin, and said to Gao Zhuang, "You pick the sweet potatoes here, throw away the bad ones, and wash the good ones to remove the mud. I'll pick the rest."
He was stronger than Gao Zhuang, so he assigned Gao Zhuang a relatively easy job.
Gao Zhuang agreed, took a small stool to sit on, and started working.
Not long after, Gao Mingcheng came over carrying a load of sweet potatoes, and with him came Xi Nainai and He Xiuman.
He Xiuman's belly was getting bigger, but she was still able to move around easily and do some light work.
Gao Mingcheng made another trip back and forth before he picked all the sweet potatoes from Gao Zhuang's house.
Of course, his family had more than just these sweet potatoes. Except for those kept in the cellar, the rest were eaten one after another. Since the sweet potatoes ripened, the family's breakfast has basically been sweet potato porridge.
"Mingcheng, where are your sweet potatoes? Take them out and let's cook together!" said the grandmother while washing the sweet potatoes.
Gao Mingcheng was embarrassed for a few seconds. There were too few sweet potatoes in his house.
He didn't grow much to begin with, so he made a batch of dried sweet potatoes as snacks. The remaining ones were probably about 100 pounds at most. Just for this reason, he himself was too impatient to make sweet potato flour.
Sweet potato noodles are delicious, but the process is very complicated.
Nowadays, most people are self-sufficient and cook whatever they want to eat by themselves. But in the future, they will take the sweet potatoes to special workshops to be made into sweet potato flour instead of making it themselves.
Although his family has fewer sweet potatoes, it is possible to mix them together and then add some sweet potato flour.
So Gao Mingcheng went and got the sweet potatoes back from his home.
Gao Zhuang's family had a cellar, so Gao Mingcheng naturally dug a cellar as well. His cellar was dug in a forest at the foot of Niuweiling Mountain.
When he brought the sweet potatoes back, the sharp-eyed Gao Zhuang exclaimed, "Brother Mingcheng, why are your sweet potatoes so big? They are twice as big as mine!"
Xi Nainai and He Xiuman also looked over quickly and found that the sweet potatoes Gao Mingcheng brought back were indeed bigger than those in their family.
Sweet potatoes are drought-resistant crops, but dry weather will still affect the yield. This year the weather was dry, Gao Zhuang's family was short of labor, and they were not as diligent in watering and fertilizing, so the sweet potatoes were not very big.
But Gao Mingcheng has no shortage of water, so he waters the potatoes diligently, and the sweet potatoes naturally grow better.
"This shows that I'm good at farming!" Gao Mingcheng smiled, piled the sweet potatoes on the ground, and started working together.
If you want to eat delicious sweet potato noodles, start by washing the sweet potatoes.
First wash the sweet potatoes, there is no need to peel them, just scrape off the unsightly scars and marks, and rub the rest on an iron plate.
Of course, there is another secret behind this iron plate. Many holes are nailed on it with iron nails, so that the back of the iron plate will be uneven. These uneven positions are used to grind the sweet potatoes into residue.
(End of this chapter)
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