The summer harvest and planting work lasted from the end of May to mid-June. After they were almost done with the work, Cuihua and Zhao Lingli returned to the county town, while Tao Changyi stayed behind to finish the remaining chores with the old man and the others.
For example, a land divider is created to separate the land. This divider also makes it easier to weed the fields later, so that the crops won't be affected.
For example, they would wash some of the wheat and dry it in the sun. Then they would grind it into enough flour to eat using a stone mill at home. After that, they would filter out the wheat bran with a sieve, leaving the finer part for consumption. The wheat bran could be used to make coarse pancakes, or it could be used to feed chickens, ducks, and geese with vegetables when there wasn't enough food.
In short, as long as you have the farm work in mind, there will always be more to do.
My father worked really hard, juggling household chores with buying and selling goods in the city for my mother's business.
Xiao Jiu isn't completely helpless now; at least the vegetables and fruits she secretly planted have sprouted. When her grandmother was weeding, she didn't pull up these unfamiliar plants as weeds. She just asked curiously, "Did your mother plant these? I don't think I planted them here."
Xiao Jiu nodded quickly, "It was planted by my mother, I saw it."
She'd just try to smooth things over for now. She was afraid her mother would be taken advantage of, so whenever she saw her mother taking advantage of someone, she'd follow her everywhere.
During the days my mother was home, the family was busy. She would go to work in the fields before dawn and not return home until it was almost dark. She hardly worried about anything except eating. My grandmother couldn't find a chance to ask her anything. By the time she had a chance, my mother had also gone to the city, which conveniently made the time difference.
"Then what is this, do you know?"
Xiao Jiu nodded vigorously, pointing to the sugarcane and saying, "Sweet stalk, Mother said this is sweet stalk."
Then, pointing to the abundant and thriving Panax notoginseng (Sanqi), he said, "This is a cold dish; it's delicious when pickled."
"Did she bring it back from the city?" Xiao Jiu nodded as if she understood, and Grandma stopped asking questions, but then pinched off a little bit of Tianqi (a type of medicinal herb).
After she finished making the cold salad that evening, she stared in surprise, "Hey? This tastes really good! It's crisp and refreshing, even better than dandelion! Not bad, not bad. It seems like this stuff can be prepared anytime, right?"
Xiao Jiu pretended not to hear. The next day, she clamored for wood ear fungus, which she had casually planted in the corner of the wall. Now it had sprouted dark green leaves and climbed up the corner of the wall. Grandma had never eaten this before and found it very interesting. She picked off the leaves one by one and found that the leaves were still covered with sticky liquid. She clicked her tongue and took them to a basin of water to wash them. Then, before the soup noodles were served, she sprinkled a handful into them.
When it was time to eat, the soft and tender texture of the wood ear fungus was exactly to her liking, and she was once again completely won over.
"This vegetable is really good. When your mother comes back, I have to give her a good compliment. Where did she find such good seedlings? What were they called again?"
"My mother said it's called wood ear vegetable because its leaves are big and look like black fungus."
Grandma chuckled, "You sure know how to make things up. This doesn't look like wood ear mushrooms at all! But if you want to call it wood ear vegetable, then it's wood ear vegetable!"
Purple potatoes and regular potatoes don't look much different, so Grandma didn't notice.
She didn't notice that the cilantro looked like the local mint, but she found the catnip to be peculiar. This time, she didn't even ask, assuming that her daughter-in-law must have brought it back. Xiao Jiu even told her to sprinkle some into cold noodles or regular noodles.
Then, their family fell in love with this flavor that the people of the Central Plains were so enamored with.
Thus, the new varieties she brought were gradually accepted by her family.
When the cicadas started chirping, the older brothers were on summer vacation, so they started going out at night to catch cicadas and then going out in the morning to collect their shells.
When the weather is dry, they will water the corn and turn over the sweet potato vines. The sweet potato vines need to be turned over several times during their growth cycle, which is beneficial to the growth of the sweet potatoes. This is a big project because they grow a lot of crops, and they are exhausted from working on each acre.
If the sweet potato leaves and stems are too long or not fully developed, they will be broken off and taken home. Both sweet potato leaves and stems are edible.
Grandma usually makes sweet potato leaf pancakes, thin pancakes with sweet potato leaves sandwiched in the middle. They're baked until fragrant, piled up one by one, and the leaves soften with their own heat. They're also called "flat vegetable pancakes." To eat them, you tear them in half, roll them up, dip them in garlic sauce, open your mouth wide, and take a bite. Oh, the taste! It's absolutely delicious.
Xiao Jiu was too small to finish it before, but now Grandma specially rolled two small rolls for her. Because she was worried that the garlic sauce would be too spicy, she also made a sauce without garlic and chili, and added extra sesame oil. When she dipped the sauce in the vinegar sauce, she squinted her eyes with delight.
"Grandma, this is so delicious! I want more!" After finishing one, he ate another, but when he wanted a third, Grandma wouldn't give him any.
"Have some soup, sweetie. Grandma made you egg drop soup with chopped eggs in it. You're too young to eat too much, or you won't be able to digest it. If you don't digest it, your tummy will get hot, and your head will get hot too. If you get sick, you won't be able to eat anything. So let's eat a little, okay?"
Xiao Jiu was too embarrassed to refuse. Although she really wanted to eat it, she had to admit that Grandma was telling the truth. She could only watch her brothers wolf down their food and swallow her saliva.
In the evening, sweet potato stems were stir-fried with chili peppers and served on the side. Although she wanted to say that she wasn't afraid of spicy food, her grandmother directly said that the dish was too spicy and she couldn't eat it.
Therefore, sweet potatoes are a treasure trove of resources. If it weren't for sweet potatoes, countless people would have starved to death during famine years in my country.
Because of its high yield, every household grows sweet potatoes. Even if a family doesn't grow any other vegetables this year, they won't miss out on sweet potatoes. Having sweet potatoes is equivalent to eating vegetables in the early stages and root vegetables in the later stages. It's a way to eat multiple things at once, so who wouldn't want that?
Overall, she didn't suffer much after coming to this family. When there were more sweet potato vines than they could eat, her grandmother would feed them to the sheep. When the sheep were full and produced milk, the whole family would drink it because it was nutritious. Sometimes, when her father took the eggs, her grandmother would let them drink the milk to supplement their nutrition. So, even after she was weaned, she couldn't bear to sell the sheep.
Previously, the mother sheep gave birth to three lambs, but Grandma didn't keep any of them; she sold them all and used the money to help with her father's shop.
This year, someone came to their family's ewe for breeding again, and the grandmother agreed, but it seems that the breeding didn't work, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to produce milk.
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