Compared to those bland wild vegetables, her favorite is the small wild garlic, which tastes similar to scallions, stimulating the taste buds. After washing it and dipping it in sauce, it's perfect with rice.
Oh, there's another one that's practically a staple food in rural areas: elm seeds. Mix in a little bit of cornmeal—just enough to form a ball without falling apart—and steam it. Once cooked, it becomes fragrant elm seed buns.
Compared to other wild vegetables, this is the most food-efficient. During the short period when elm seeds are in season, the elm trees in the village and the surrounding areas are visited by many people almost every day, especially children, who are determined to pluck them all.
Actually, there are other ways to cook elm seeds, such as elm seed scrambled eggs or elm seed egg pancakes. But no matter which one you make, you need either eggs or flour, which are precious ingredients for farmers. The most suitable way is to make elm seed steamed buns, which save on grain.
When some well-off families make this, they might add some flour or a handful of sugar to make it, which will naturally improve the taste.
But for most poor families, during this lean season, being able to make a living by eating elm seed buns is a good thing. Rural children don't have many concerns; as long as they have food and aren't hungry, they're happy.
Among these educated youth, only Lin Dongfang and his wife, and a few others like Ling Weidong were relatively well-off. The others, although different in their circumstances—some had some savings, some had saved every penny they had, and some spent every penny they earned—were all, in essence, extremely poor.
Now that we're talking about going up the mountain, we naturally want to find tools. But we can't just go up the mountain to play. We can't let go of any wild vegetables, firewood or anything else we see.
It wasn't just the villagers who were running out of food; the educated youth were in a similar situation. No matter how resourceful they were, they couldn't overcome the lack of supplies. It was already quite remarkable that they had managed to hold on until now. Liu Weimin had imagined the worst-case scenario: after the first month of the lunar calendar, some educated youth would have to go to the village to borrow food. The fact that they had managed to hold on until now was already very good.
Recently, the educated youth who have experienced a double blow have indeed calmed down a lot. Even the most talkative Wang Hongmei has quieted down. She obediently goes to work every day and tidies up the vegetable garden after work. Her enthusiasm made Su Hong and the others who have lived with her for several years think that something had happened to her.
This spring, Jian Dan didn't go up the mountain much, but once he was allowed out, things got a bit out of control.
When she left home in the morning, it was just getting light. By the time she realized it, the sun was already setting in the west, and she checked her watch; it was already two o'clock in the afternoon.
She herself was somewhat surprised.
"So fast?"
She had a great time today, and everything went very smoothly. She encountered quite a few prey, including some large ones, but released several nests of small pheasants and rabbits.
There are still quite a few animals in the space. The pheasants and rabbits that we collected before but didn't have a chance to eat have already taken over their territory and reproduced for countless generations. There are also quite a few large wild goats, wild cattle, red deer, and roe deer. Even the bears have several families.
The wild boar, a master at destroying crops that the villagers both fear and worry about, is even more so. It has long since made its home on the mountain in the space, and apart from pheasants and rabbits, it is the largest family in the space.
If she liked to eat wild boar meat, this meat would be more than enough for her to eat for a lifetime, but it would certainly be more than enough for ten or twenty years. Unfortunately, she doesn't like to eat it, which is why they have been able to live peacefully ever since.
There were also yaks, lambs, and dairy goats that I bought in the Northwest. I bought them for convenience, but I never thought about them. They've found a grassland and settled down there.
Right now, she really has everything, to put it nicely, but she also has everything.
To put it bluntly, it's chaotic, extremely chaotic.
The animals were alright; they found their way up the mountain on their own. But the cattle, sheep, and chickens, ducks, geese, and other animals that I've forgotten when they were brought in have already taken over a patch of grassland at the foot of the mountain. Luckily, they don't have the habit of running around, otherwise, given their simple nature, they would probably have become meat on a chopping board long ago.
Once inside, after walking around, I simply grabbed a bowl of rice noodles and settled down for lunch.
To be honest, I haven't had their fast food in ages, and I really miss it.
When I came out again, it was already 3:30 pm. Although the days were getting longer, there were really only a few hours left before it got dark.
She hadn't had enough fun yet, but the vegetable selling business wasn't settled yet, and she wasn't sure if someone would come looking for her or if a meeting would suddenly be called. She didn't want any complications at this time, so she decided not to provoke Liu Weimin any further.
It hasn't rained much lately, so the paths in the woods aren't particularly dry, but they're still manageable. For Jian Dan, his shoes don't get muddy, his steps are light, and he moves at a decent pace.
Once they were out of the deep mountains, they slowed down. Seeing that it was still early, they decided to turn around and head towards the stream they had come from. They had been there all day, so what was a little longer? They had come all this way, and she had been thinking about the grilled fish here all spring. She couldn't let the trip be in vain.
Her basket was her standard equipment when she went out. Today's harvest was all in the base space. Right now, there was only a shovel and a water bottle in the basket. She simply emptied them out, skillfully put fish food in the basket, put it in the water, and weighed it down on the bank before getting up to find firewood and build a stove.
Besides gathering firewood, Lin Dongfang and his companions also wanted to try their luck here today and see if they could catch any fish. Lately, they had only been eating wild vegetables, and their mouths were full of bitterness. They couldn't wait to catch a fish to take back and change their taste, or even just make a fish soup.
Simple knew nothing of these things. After setting up two stones and building a fire, she got up to check her basket.
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