After the wheat was planted, the corn in the courtyard was also braided and neatly hung around the tree stumps. During the day, the tarpaulin was taken down to let it be exposed to the sun, and then it was covered up again at night.
Although I'm no longer in business, I still collected a lot of clean corn husks from the fields this year. I chose those with clean and soft inner layers. Instead of washing them directly, I dried them and collected them. I wash them when I need to use them. Using these to steam buns not only prevents the husks from sticking, but also gives them a natural corn aroma. It's both environmentally friendly and easy to use.
A large portion of the corn stalks were hauled back to the old house, mainly because the old house was spacious. Grandpa and Grandma even built a kang (heated brick bed) in their room when the weather was nice, so they could heat it if it got cold this winter. To accumulate enough firewood, my father and grandfather, who were free, went up the mountain to chop and collect firewood almost every day.
Now that their household registration has been transferred from the town to the village, it's not as easy to buy coal as before; without a ticket, they simply can't buy it.
Before the Frost's Descent solar term, people start harvesting potatoes, sweet potatoes, radishes, and cabbages again. Once this busy season is over, the year's work will be completely finished.
My parents were responsible for harvesting what was grown in town, while my grandparents were responsible for harvesting what was grown at the old house. In addition to those four things, there were also winter melons and pumpkins, which were all put into the cellar before the first frost. If stored well, they could last all winter.
The sisters moved in the summer, just in time for the right time. Although they didn't plant sweet potatoes, they planted radishes, cabbages, and potatoes. The front and back yards were so big, they didn't waste a single thing. They even planted potatoes in every nook and cranny, just to have an extra layer of protection in the winter.
Although they had vegetables, the three sisters had no land, so food was a big problem. It would be another two or three years before a production team was established!
Cuihua does have ten yuan a month, but how much grain can ten yuan buy? Grain stores require grain coupons, and you can't buy grain without them. You also need grain coupons for everyday meals. So, when you think about it, these sisters' lives are not easy at all.
Xiao Jiu knew her sisters were having a hard time, so she insisted on going too, taking advantage of the opportunity when the Tao family sent them food. For Xiao Jiu's sake, everyone changed their plans and went when it was just getting dark. Xiao Jiu was wearing a hat, so you couldn't tell unless you looked closely.
The Tao family wanted to adopt a long-term, sustainable approach. Although they had grain now, they couldn't use it all up at once, so they exchanged a lot of coarse grains for it.
The fifty catties of grain delivered to the three sisters included ten catties of coarse cornmeal, which is whole corn kernels ground directly into cornmeal without peeling. It tastes very coarse and can cause heartburn for people with sensitive stomachs, but that's how people eat nowadays.
Not only corn grits, but also 20 jin of sorghum, 10 jin of millet, and 10 jin of sweet potato starch. These 50 jin together will be enough for them to eat for a while.
Xiao Jiu came because she wanted to take the opportunity to help her older sister and the others. While they were talking in the main room, Xiao Jiu went to a corner of the west wing and secretly put in ten catties of soybeans, ten catties of buckwheat, ten catties of oats, ten catties of millet, and ten catties of red beans, which added up to fifty catties of mixed grains.
If she were to add flour or rice, both would be considered refined grains. In this era, there simply weren't staple foods that were that white and of such high quality. After thinking about it, she decided to switch to mixed grains. With these 100 pounds of grain, the sisters would have no problem getting through the winter.
The sisters planted so many vegetables and dried a lot of them. Although there wasn't much oil in them, at least they wouldn't starve.
She can check what they need next time she comes.
Xiao Jiu was unaware that as soon as the Tao family left, Cui Ju discovered the grain in the west wing.
"Where did these come from? We didn't see them carrying these when we brought Uncle and Aunt in."
Cuilian also looked confused: "That's right, look how clean this grain is, there isn't even a single pebble, every grain is plump, it looks like good stuff, could it be that they brought it in again when we weren't looking?"
"Perhaps they were afraid of giving us too much at once and we wouldn't want it, so they secretly let it in?"
The two recalled that they did indeed leave at the same time, and perhaps they moved in during that gap.
"We don't know if we can ever repay the Tao family's kindness in this lifetime."
Tang Cuiju touched the precious grains with a choked voice, her words filled with gratitude.
Cuilian was also deeply moved, feeling as grateful to the Tao family as she hated her own parents.
"Luckily, we don't open the door when we're at home, and we lock it when we go out. The courtyard wall is high enough that we don't give them a chance to come in, either in the front or back yard. Otherwise, with that old woman Tang's shamelessness, we wouldn't be able to keep anything in this yard. We would have to hide all this grain in the cellar."
After moving in, they discovered a cellar entrance in the corner of the west wing. The space below was quite large, providing a place to store their grain. They even put the freshly harvested radishes, cabbages, and potatoes down there.
The cellar has ventilation openings right under the eaves, so there's no need to do a ventilation test before going down into the cellar, which is quite convenient.
“We don’t have a millstone at home. We’ll go to our neighbor’s house and borrow one to grind these grains into a few pounds of flour.”
Because powdered grains are difficult to store, only what is needed is ground, and the rest is saved.
“After the New Year, I will try to find a job. It’s probably not enough for my eldest sister to support the three of us. Even if I can’t find a job that pays wages, at least she should provide meals. As long as she provides meals, I can endure any hardship.”
When Cuilian, who was fifteen years old this year, heard this, she also wanted to go, but was interrupted by Cuiju.
"Don't even think about it. If the two of us do some work, regardless of how much money we make, at least we'll save our family's grain. You have to stay home and grow vegetables and grains. Next year, you should plant more potatoes and sweet potatoes. Potatoes can be planted twice a year, and although sweet potatoes can only be planted once a year, we won't plant any leafy vegetables. Sweet potato leaves are edible too. We can save some land to plant winter melons and pumpkins. These grow a lot, so we can plant them outside the wall so they can climb up to our house and be easy to harvest."
While their eldest sister was away, the two sisters made plans for the spring of next year. Their goal was the same: to fill their stomachs first, and to persevere no matter how difficult things got.
Unbeknownst to the Tao family, the gratitude of the three Tang sisters had transformed into motivation, and they secretly vowed to repay this kindness one day.
By mid-November, people were already wearing light cotton-padded clothes; the weather was such that winter could arrive at any time.
Grandpa and Grandma chose a clear, crisp autumn day to prepare to paste paper on the windows.
She only learned after arriving in the village that pasting paper on windows was a very important thing for the villagers every year.
In those days, everyone was poor and lived in these mud-brick houses, small rooms with four windows, the kind that open from the top and bottom.
In the hot summer, the upper window is opened for ventilation and hung on a wooden hook on the roof.
In winter, to keep warm and brighten simple rooms, people usually choose a good day in the eleventh lunar month to paste the windows.
The paper used to paste windows is called Korean paper. Window paper is relatively small, about one foot wide and one and a half feet long. It is white, thin and soft, and has great toughness, making it not easy to tear. It belongs to the category of cotton paper.
Even if the wind blows and the paper windows rattle, they won't easily break.
However, while this type of window paper is not afraid of wind, it is afraid of water.
The house was covered with paper when it was built, but it's been several years now. We haven't been here in previous winters, so we haven't paid much attention to it.
This year is different. We'll be staying here this year, so we need to first tear off the remaining old window paper, sweep the dust off the window frames with a broom, and then apply paste and paste paper onto the window frames.
She's still a child, and children have their own nature; they like to join in the fun and get involved.
When they were pasting paper on the windows, she wanted to help. Her grandparents didn't mind and watched with a smile as she climbed onto the windowsill and tore off the old paper with her little hands. The way she carefully and meticulously peeled off the paper bit by bit was, to say the least, much cleaner than what the adults did.
"Wow, my little Jiu is so amazing! Look how clean she's picked it! Not bad at all! Little Jiu helped so much today, so she deserves a good lunch. How about I make you some scrambled eggs?"
"We don't need milk, but we still need to keep the eggs to sell for money. An egg can sell for four or five cents. In the future, we can sell the eggs to exchange for salt and matches. I don't crave wine, and this is what I should do."
Look how sweet her little mouth is! Her grandma keeps praising her, while also talking about how troublesome other people's children are.
Children always like to dig holes in this papered window. Once discovered by an adult, it will definitely be a mixed doubles fight between husband and wife, and maybe even an attack from the grandparents. At the least, they will be scolded, at the most serious, they will be beaten!
Making paper for windows is troublesome and allows drafts in; after patching the holes, the paper looks old and new, and it's unsightly.
Some families found it too troublesome and simply stuffed it with a rag. Fortunately, the window frames were very close together and the window panes were small, so it was easy to stuff it in.
They've already plugged several holes in their house this year, and they were planning to replace them all in the winter, as they were too lazy to fix them at other times.
After finally tearing off the old window paper from each window pane, before they could even catch their breath, Grandpa and Grandma started cleaning again.
They had to painstakingly tear off the remaining window paper from the window frames, then stand on the kang (a heated brick bed) with a broom handle and scrub back and forth vigorously. After scrubbing, they would sweep away the ash and dust before they could even begin to paste the window paper.
It's really not easy to paste window covers without some skill. If you paste them with wrinkles, they won't look good, and if you paste them too loosely, they'll rattle and squeak in the wind.
To prevent the window paper from getting wet and damaged by rain, some poor families couldn't afford window paper and had to use rags and reed curtains to block it.
My parents bought Korean paper, which is relatively expensive.
Before pasting, spray a thin paste made of salt water and ghee onto Korean paper to prevent it from getting wet in the rain.
The windows are covered up, so people outside can't see inside, and people inside can't see outside either. But my grandparents haven't planned to install glass in the old house yet, mainly because they don't think it's necessary and they don't want to spend the money. They'll just make do with what they have!
Before the Laba Festival even arrived, the first snow of the winter came, and the earth turned white overnight. Xiao Jiu, who usually gets up early, stayed in bed and didn't get up for a rare occasion.
She now sleeps with her grandparents. She used to sleep in the middle, but her grandfather started snoring and woke her up, so her grandmother moved her to the other end of the bed. After sleeping separately from her grandfather, her sleep quality improved significantly.
She loved her grandmother's scent and would often snuggle into her arms, melting her grandmother's heart.
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