Chapter 76 Planting Corn and Picking Mushrooms
As the dawn breaks, soft light falls on Taohua Village, giving this quiet little village a golden edge.
Gu Jiayue finished her morning lessons and was about to pack up her textbooks and teaching aids to go to the fields to help with the work.
Everyone had finished replanting the seedlings yesterday, and today they will start planting corn.
Farmers rely on the weather for their livelihood and never have a moment of leisure.
At this time, Gu Yuhe came over like a little loach, with anticipation glittering in his eyes, and said, "Second sister, let's go pick some mushrooms?"
Picking mushrooms?
Gu Jiayue instantly became interested, but when she thought of the busy farm work at home, she shook her head and said, "But we have to go and help with the work. Let's go in a few days."
When Gu Yuhe heard this, he became as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. He didn't want to work in the first place, so he came up with the idea of picking mushrooms.
Planting corn is much more tiring than planting seedlings. At least seedlings are planted in flat paddy fields with smooth roads; but corn is planted on mountainous areas, and transporting the corn seedlings up and down can make people tired to death after just two trips.
"Second sister, can we just go for a while? Don't you want to experience the surprise of discovering mushrooms?" Gu Yuhe continued to coax her, "Besides, in a few days, the mushrooms will have been picked by others."
Gu Jiayue smacked her lips. She actually wanted to go very much.
But the elders in the family are all busy, even the fifteen-year-old Gu Bailu is still working in the mountains. As the second sister, she can't just stay at home and be lazy all day like a child.
After thinking for a moment, she said, "How about this? Let's go to the mountain and help with the work first, and then we'll go pick mushrooms later in the afternoon."
Seeing that his second sister was unmoved, Gu Yuhe had no choice but to pick up the hoe listlessly, with his head hung, and follow Gu Jiayue up the mountain.
There is an old saying that goes, "There is no three-day clear sky in the southwest, and no three-quarters flat land." This is vividly reflected in Taohua Village.
The fields in Taohua Village are mostly terraced, long and narrow, stretching from the foot of the mountain to the middle of the mountain.
The same is true for dry land. Any slightly flat area has been reclaimed by the hardworking villagers and gradually turned into arable land.
This kind of land that is reclaimed by oneself also needs to be registered. Fortunately, there is no tax for the first three years, but after three years, it must be taxed according to normal land tax.
Everyone adopted the seedling cultivation method provided by Gu Jiayue. In just seven or eight days, the corn seedlings grew to the size of an adult's palm. They were placed in backpacks and carried up the mountain one by one.
Uncle Gu and Uncle Gu dug holes about ten centimeters deep with hoes; Chunyan and Xi Que deftly threw three seedlings into the holes; Grandpa and Grandma sprinkled wood ash inside; Aunt Gu, Aunt Gu and Mother Gu used hoes to straighten the seedlings and covered them with mud.
The family members have a clear division of labor, cooperate well, and work in an orderly manner. From time to time, a melodious song or two can be heard from the fields. Although the work is hard, everyone is in a very happy mood.
When Gu Jiayue arrived with her three younger brothers and sisters, her family had already planted a lot.
The four of them were not idle either. They put the lunch they had delivered on the open space and invited their family members to come and eat.
After they had eaten at home, they chose to do the work they were good at.
Planting corn was something Gu Jiayue had been doing since she was a child in her previous life, but it was different from here.
In her previous life, she hadn't thrown away plant ash, but manure. Human feces, pig manure, cow manure, horse manure, all kinds of fermented manure. She would grab a handful and throw it at the roots of the seedlings, then cover it with soil.
This job was her nightmare when she was a child. Every time during the busy farming season, she felt like she stinked all over.
But there is no other way. If farmers want to survive, they need food, and they have to work no matter how hard or tiring it is.
"Grandma, after we're done with this busy period, why don't we get some piglets to raise? We can kill them and eat the meat during the New Year, and the pig manure can also fertilize the soil." Gu Jiayue suggested to her grandmother while throwing some wood ash.
"I have the same plan, but I don't know where to buy piglets. After this period of time, I will go and ask around." Grandma Gu responded while eating.
"Then I'll have to build a pigsty when I have time."
"I've never raised pigs before, so I don't know if it's easy or not."
"I heard that pigs need to eat grain. How can we have so much grain to feed them at home?"
Rural people don't have many rules about eating, and they chat while eating. Even people working next door will join in the conversation if they hear it.
Everyone was talking at once, and Gu Jiayue couldn't get a word in.
Okay, as long as grandma knows what’s going on, she will continue to do her work.
After dinner, everyone rested for quarter of an hour and then started working again in full swing.
There is strength in numbers, and a piece of land can be planted quickly.
Grandma took out another bag of soybeans from her backpack and sprinkled them evenly along the furrows she had dug when planting corn.
"Jiayue, is this really possible?"
This was something Gu Jiayue had proposed to the villagers, called vertical agriculture. For example, raising fish in rice fields, or intercropping corn with soybeans, etc.
No one has ever heard of this way of planting before. If you plant two things together, won’t neither of them grow well in the end?
Many people didn't believe it and were unwilling to try. But as Gu Jiayue's relatives, the Gu family had to give her face, right? So Grandma Gu made the final decision and listened to Jiayue!
"Don't worry, Grandma. It'll work. If it doesn't, I'll compensate you." Gu Jiayue wanted to pat her chest and promise, but looking at the ash on her hands, she gave up. This method is sure to work, no guarantee is needed.
Intercropping corn with soybeans, that's written in the book, how can it be wrong?
Corn plants are tall and prefer strong light; soybeans are relatively short and have better shade tolerance. The combination of the two can make full use of light resources.
Corn uses the upper space, soybeans use the lower space, and soybean rhizobia have nitrogen fixation function, which can improve soil fertility and benefit corn growth.
Fish farming in rice paddies also involves raising fish. The rice provides shade and shelter for the fish, while the plankton, insects, and weeds in the paddies provide a rich natural food source. Furthermore, the fish's foraging and swimming in the paddies loosen the soil, weed, and kill insects. Their excrement also serves as high-quality organic fertilizer, promoting rice growth and enabling material recycling and multi-level energy utilization within the paddy ecosystem.
There are many other models. Gu Jiayue wrote them down and gave them to the village chief. It is not known whether the village chief has told the villagers.
"You naughty girl, I'll just give it a try. If it fails, I won't forgive you." Grandma Gu laughed.
Everyone was laughing and chatting while working, and there was no boredom. Before we knew it, it was four or five in the afternoon.
Gu Yuhe, who had been waiting for a whole day, could no longer hold back and kept winking at Gu Jiayue.
Gu Jiayue had no choice. After all, she had promised it herself, so she had to put down the farm tools in her hands and said, "Grandma, I'm going home with Gu Yuhe first."
Grandma Gu didn't ask any more questions. She assumed they were going back to study, so she said, "Go ahead."
After getting permission, Gu Yuhe couldn't wait to pull Gu Jiayue and run down the mountain.
The two ran all the way to the foot of a mountain, and Gu Jiayue felt like all the bones in her body were about to fall apart.
She couldn't help but ask herself, is it really worth it to cross mountains and rivers for these mushrooms?
At this moment, she no longer cared about mushrooms. She just wanted to find a rock to sit down and have a good rest.
But the energetic Gu Yuhe had already run away.
Before Gu Jiayue could catch her breath, Gu Yuhe ran back and shouted, "Second sister, come here quickly."
Gu Jiayue had no choice but to stand up and walk towards his position. Seeing that Gu Jiayue was walking slowly, Gu Yuhe kept urging her: "Second sister, come and see what this is?"
Gu Yuhe made way for him, and Gu Jiayue then discovered that there was a patch of mushrooms behind them.
It is not quite accurate to say that it is a patch. In fact, there are only about ten mushrooms, but these mushrooms are very huge. Some of them are even three or four times bigger than a human face.
"Oh my God, such a big mushroom?" Gu Jiayue was also shocked.
She had seen some of the world. Before she went to college, when she was at home on holidays, she would go up the mountain with her friends in the village to pick mushrooms after it rained. However, she had never seen one this big.
"Second sister, can this mushroom be eaten?" Gu Yuhe felt that his saliva was about to flow out. It was the first time he had seen this kind of mushroom.
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