Chapter 195 Locust Powder

The livestock raised at home need to eat. If there are no wild vegetables or grasses, and they cannot be fed grain, we can only find other food substitutes for them.

Otherwise...these livestock won't be able to be fed.

Liu Yinyin thought for a moment and asked, "People in the county are also catching locusts, so...are the locusts they catch useless?"

She thought that if possible, she might as well spend some money to buy these locusts. After all, the locusts could be dried and ground into powder, and they could be preserved for at least one or two years.

Apart from other things, this thing is really good for feeding chickens and pigs.

Not only that, if the villagers could stockpile more locusts, they would at least be able to fill their stomachs.

Gu Cheng glanced at her and said, "What are you thinking about? Not everyone in the city can eat enough."

Moreover, the current situation is so bad that the monthly food ration for city dwellers is expected to decrease soon.

Gu Cheng continued, "One of the dishes served at noon in the cafeteria was fried locusts. If the people in the factory caught locusts, they had to send them to the cafeteria."

Even if the food is not sent to the canteen, people in the city will keep it for themselves so it won’t be wasted.

As people who have experienced difficult times, it is impossible for them not to understand the importance of food.

Therefore, Liu Yinyin's idea of ​​buying locusts at a low price from the city is not realistic.

Liu Yinyin was splashed with cold water and said disappointedly, "Okay, I'll go to the village tomorrow and catch some locusts to store."

Gu Cheng was right. At this critical juncture, everyone was eager to stock up on food at home. How could they sell it outside, even if it was just an insignificant locust?

After dinner, Liu Yinyin steamed two bags of locusts overnight and spread them on a winnowing basket to dry.

The next day, there were still locusts flying around in the yard, but not in large numbers.

Liu Yinyin packed up and carried Gu Yanyan to the Liu family.

There are even more locusts in the village, especially in the farmland, which is truly a disaster area.

In some places, there were so many locusts that it was like rain, and you couldn't even see the road clearly.

At this moment, the fields were full of villagers catching locusts. Each of them was fully armed, with a bag around their waist and tools for catching locusts in their hands.

The other members of the Liu family were also outside catching locusts, leaving only Liu Ersao at home to look after the children.

Liu Yinyin handed Gu Yanyan over to Liu Ersao, and she herself, carrying a bag, rushed into the army of locust catchers.

She wanted to take the opportunity to stock up more locusts, but gave up after working for a whole morning.

There's no other way. It's so hot, catching locusts outside is really a torture.

Liu Yinyin's clothes were soaked and her hair was wet as well, as if she had just been pulled out of the water.

Seeing this, Mrs. Liu was puzzled and asked, "Why do you have to go catch locusts? It's such a pain!"

She didn't understand. Her younger sister's husband's family was so well off that they didn't need to catch locusts to eat.

That thing stinks, and if there were food shortages, no one would want to eat it.

Yesterday afternoon, she ate the stir-fried locusts made in the cafeteria and almost vomited.

Liu Yinyin drank a large bowl of water and said with a smile, "I stocked up some for the chickens. Second sister-in-law, you don't know that this stuff is quite nutritious. I fed locusts to the chickens at home last night, and this morning, they even got two extra eggs."

This is true. Chickens don't like to lay eggs when it's hot. Recently, the chickens in Liu Yinyin's family can only lay two or three eggs a day.

But this morning, Liu Yinyin picked up five eggs, and I don’t know if it was because she ate locusts.

Mrs. Liu didn't know that locusts could have this function, and asked in surprise, "Really?"

If locusts can really make chickens lay more eggs, then they are quite useful.

Liu Yinyin thought: "No matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat, not to mention it is a locust. If we feed insects, small fish and shrimp to chickens, they will lay more eggs than usual, right? It's the same logic."

Mrs. Liu thought about it and said hurriedly, "I'll feed more locusts to the chickens later."

If she could lay two more eggs a day, in a month...that would be sixty!

Anyway, there are plenty of these things at home now. Seven or eight people from the Liu family are catching locusts outside, and they can catch at least ten sacks a day.

It's definitely enough to feed the chickens, and they don't eat much.

Liu Yinyin added: "You can also feed it to pigs. Pigs grow meat after eating it."

After the steamed locusts at home were dried, she would bring a few bags to Liu's house to use as food for the pigs.

The two pigs raised by the Liu family are not fat, weighing only about 100 pounds.

But don’t worry, there are still several months before the Chinese New Year, so you can still take care of it.

After being tired for a morning, Liu Yinyin decided not to catch locusts as the weather would be even hotter in the afternoon.

This time the locust plague was so severe that almost the entire county was attacked by locusts, causing heavy losses.

Liu Yinyin was not very clear about the situation in other places.

But according to Gu Cheng, other counties and cities were also suffering from the ravages of locusts.

This natural disaster was large-scale and wide-ranging, affecting many places in the country.

The losses caused by the locust plague are incalculable and have dealt a huge blow to the people of the entire country.

At that time, supplies were already scarce, and natural disasters occurred for two consecutive years, making life even more difficult for the people.

That afternoon, Gu Chengcheng told Liu Yinyin that the monthly food ration for the city residents had been reduced by two kilograms.

Gu Cheng originally had 36 kilograms of food per month, but later it dropped to 34 kilograms and then 32 kilograms.

Now there are two pounds less, and there are only 30 pounds of food per month, 8 pounds of fine grains and 22 pounds of coarse grains.

Gu Cheng is a leader, and his situation is already like this, let alone other ordinary workers.

I heard that some people don’t even have 20 kilograms of food a month, and most of it is coarse food, which is not enough to eat.

This is still considered good. The people in the countryside are suffering even more.

The canteen in the village serves steamed buns made from locust powder every day.

To be honest, this thing is not very delicious. Liu Yinyin's family has made locusts several times, but they were all fried and the taste was okay.

The food in the cafeteria is different. Not a drop of oil is added. The steamed buns have a fishy smell and are really a bit unpalatable.

The same is true for the steel plant cafeteria, which has been eating locusts every meal recently in order to save food.

Liu Yinyin asked Gu Cheng: "How about I steam some cornmeal steamed buns for you this morning so you can take them to the factory to eat?"

After several days of catching, the locust plague in the county town has been brought under control.

There are fewer locusts in the countryside, so you don’t need to dress so conservatively when you go out to catch locusts.

Liu Yinyin's family stockpiled a lot of locusts this time. Liu Yinyin steamed and dried the locusts she caught.

There were a total of ten large sacks, which was too much, so Liu Yinyin did not grind it all into powder and would make it when needed.

Anyway, the locusts have been dried out by the sun and won’t go bad in a short time.

Locust powder is really good for feeding livestock. In recent days, the chickens in Liu Yinyin's family have laid five or six eggs every day.

The same goes for the Liu family's chickens. It's hard to tell for the two pigs because the time is too short and they can't grow meat that fast.