Chapter 200 Your hair is messy, and mugwort tofu
Lin Heng threw stones for a while, and Xiaoxia also picked up small stones and threw them into the river.
When she saw the water splashing, she burst into laughter.
The child is full of curiosity about the world, and she is learning about two things, water and stone, by throwing stones.
Lin Heng pulled her to Xiulan, and then he lay down on the large bluestone next to Xiulan to bask in the sun.
It’s still early, so there’s no harm in basking in the sun.
Life doesn’t have so many purposes. The beautiful and clean bluestone, the warm sun, and the gurgling water all make people want to lie down and bask in the sun.
Xiulan looked at Lin Heng, who was basking in the sun with his eyes closed, and reached out to pick off a small piece of leaf debris from his head, her hand staying on his head for a while.
Xiaoxia played for more than ten minutes before she felt tired, and she also came to lie down on the bluestone to bask in the sun.
Xiulan also took the opportunity to lie down. The bluestone had been heated by the sun, and her body felt warm both front and back when she lay on it.
Close your eyes and you will hear the gentle river breeze, the crisp bird songs and the gurgling water.
After basking in the sun for a while, the wind suddenly became stronger, making the sun no longer warm. Lin Heng got up, stretched, and said with a smile: "Let's go."
After saying that, she extended her hand to Xiulan.
"good!"
Xiulan took his hand and sat up, then pulled Xiaoxia up as well.
Afterwards, Xiulan carried a bamboo basket, and Lin Heng held a hoe, and the three of them came into the bamboo forest together.
As far as the eye can see, both sides of the ditch are covered with bamboo forests. The smallest bamboos are as thick as an adult's forearm, while most of them are as thick as an adult's arm or thigh.
There are not many people digging winter bamboo shoots here, and almost no one has ever visited the Lin family's bamboo forest.
Digging winter bamboo shoots is different from picking spring bamboo shoots. Spring bamboo shoots have grown out and can be seen at a glance.
Winter bamboo shoots are all underground, and finding them without a certain method is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Lin Heng is naturally very experienced in this regard. To find bamboo shoots, the main thing is to look at the bamboo.
Generally speaking, the ones that produce bamboo shoots are the new green bamboos that are just one or two years old. It is almost impossible for gray-green bamboos that are more than three years old to produce bamboo shoots.
After determining the type of bamboo, the next step is to look at the bamboo leaves.
Bamboos with dense, green leaves and some burnt yellow leaves are likely to have bamboo shoots.
Because growing winter bamboo shoots requires nutrients, the bamboo leaves will be in short supply and some yellow leaves will appear.
Lin Heng took a look and quickly found a bamboo that met the requirements.
After confirming it, he looked at the ground around the bamboo, and at first glance he saw a small protruding mound of earth.
After digging gently with a hoe, I immediately saw the tips of winter bamboo shoots sticking out of the soil.
"Sure enough, there is one."
Lin Heng grinned, picked up the hoe and started digging. In a few minutes he dug out a brilliant bamboo shoot.
“That’s great.”
Xiulan picked them up with a smile and put them into the bamboo basket. The winter bamboo shoots were brown in color, and the shells were tightly wrapped without any gaps. They were high-quality products.
"There should be more." Lin Heng looked at the bamboo whip and dug down along the bamboo whip.
A bamboo usually has two bamboo rhizomes. If you search along the rhizomes, you will often get a good harvest, but this method is a bit harmful to the bamboo.
But Lin Heng doesn't care, because a lot of new bamboo grows every year.
"Then I'll look somewhere else." Xiulan was not idle either, and she pulled Xiaoxia around to look for it.
While she was looking for bamboo shoots, Lin Heng dug up two small bamboo shoots weighing three taels each.
Then he looked for another bamboo that met his target, and soon found two bamboo shoots on its bamboo whip.
“These two are quite big.”
After digging them out, Lin Heng was a little happy. One of them weighed more than one kilogram, and the other one weighed more than half a kilogram.
"Hubby, there are some here, and they're not small."
Xiulan shouted at him and pointed to the place she was talking about.
Lin Heng came over with bamboo shoots and a hoe and saw a big bulge on the ground.
"There's water here, and you can see lots of bamboo shoots."
Xiulan pointed to the flat ground in front of her and said with a smile.
“Yes, they are all quite big.”
Lin Heng smiled and nodded. There was no stream in this ditch, but water seeped through it and the stone surface was wet all year round.
The area in the middle is very moist, and the bamboos are thicker than those on the hillsides on both sides.
Lin Heng dug out a tree with a hoe in a few strokes. Xiulan weighed it in her hand and smiled: "This one must be one and a half kilograms."
Lin Heng nodded: "That's great, I guess the remaining few will weigh about one kilogram."
Xiaoxia danced with joy and praised: "Daddy, dig quickly!"
Lin Heng smiled and agreed: "Okay!"
With his wife and daughter by his side, he was full of motivation and started digging hard.
After a short while, all the remaining five bamboo shoots were dug out. Because they were full of water, they weighed about one kilogram each.
“There are some here, too.”
Soon Xiulan and Xiaoxia found two more bamboo shoots. The place was humid and the bamboo shoots were big and abundant, so they could be found without any skills.
After harvesting about fifteen or sixteen winter bamboo shoots, Lin Heng sat on the hoe handle to rest.
Xiulan took out a handkerchief and wiped Lin Heng's sweat. After just a few wipes, Xiaoxia snatched the handkerchief away, shouting, "I want to wipe Dad's sweat, too."
"Okay, okay." Lin Heng smiled and lowered his head, letting his daughter wipe the sweat off her face.
Xiaoxia’s sweat wiping technique was definitely not as good as Xiulan’s, but Lin Heng didn’t want to interrupt her enthusiasm and endured it patiently.
After resting for a while, Lin Heng looked at the bamboo shoots in the bamboo basket, which weighed about ten pounds.
However, after peeling the bamboo shoots, there would probably only be four or five pounds, which was far from enough for Lin Heng.
Then he continued digging. There were many bamboo shoots on both sides of this relatively moist ravine. Lin Heng spent two hours digging more than 30 bamboo shoots.
All the bamboo shoots add up to about 30 kilograms.
However, Lin Heng was still not satisfied and started searching on the hillsides on both sides.
There is little water on the hillside and the bamboo shoots are all in the ground, making them difficult to find.
Xiulan noticed that Lin Heng could always find it, and couldn't help but ask curiously: "How did you find it? Do you have any tricks?"
"Of course."
Lin Heng smiled mysteriously. There were few people digging bamboo shoots here, and most people didn't know this trick.
"Hurry up and tell me."
Xiulan looked at him and urged.
Lin Heng didn't keep her in suspense and told her with a smile: "It's not that difficult..."
After hearing this, Xiulan's face was filled with enlightenment: "So that's how it is."
She couldn't wait to try it out and soon found a bamboo shoot.
"How do you know?" Xiulan became more and more curious. Why did she feel like Lin Heng knew everything?
Lin Heng smiled slightly: "My husband has a pair of observant eyes."
"You're so conceited again. Forget it." Xiulan pouted and pulled her daughter to look for bamboo shoots nearby.
In the blink of an eye, it was already one o'clock. The three of them had been digging bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest for three or four hours.
"Let's go back. I'm a little hungry." Lin Heng stopped and said with a smile.
Today's harvest was good. The bamboo basket was not full, and the snakeskin bag was also half full. All together, there were about sixty to seventy kilograms of winter bamboo shoots.
But they were not shelled.
"I'm hungry too!" Xiaoxia patted her belly and said crisply.
Xiulan pulled her aside and said, "Then make something delicious for Xiaoxia when we get home."
"good!"
…
Lin Heng walked in front, facing the gentle breeze and listening to the conversation between the mother and daughter.
After carrying the bamboo shoots across the river, Lin Heng turned back to pull Xiaoxia and Xiulan.
There was no sun by the river now, and it was a bit cold when the wind blew. After crossing the river, the three of them walked quickly towards home.
Father Lin and his men are still roasting the wine, and it will probably take two days to finish.
Lin Heng brought some bamboo shoots and placed them in the yard: "Dad, I'll give you some bamboo shoots to eat. We dug a lot."
Father Lin smiled and nodded: "Okay, let your mother fry some meat tonight, and you can shovel some charcoal to grill it."
Lin Heng didn't hesitate and shoveled some wood, burned charcoal and went home.
Xiulan also gave a few bamboo shoots to her sister-in-law Liu Juan, and kept the rest for herself.
Xiaoxia ate the Pueraria powder prepared by Xiulan, and her little face was full of joy.
While their daughter was not around to mess around, Xiulan and Lin Heng peeled bamboo shoots while roasting a fire.
It is not difficult to remove bamboo shoots. Just cut them vertically with a knife and then you can easily remove the shells with your hands.
The bamboo shoots in winter have less shells than those in spring, but from a pound of winter bamboo shoots, only four or five ounces of bamboo shoot flesh can be peeled out, and the good ones can have six or seven ounces.
The two chatted while peeling.
Xiulan looked at Lin Heng and said, "The New Year is coming soon. Let's soak some soybeans and make dried tofu. We don't have any fermented tofu at home, so we can make some to eat next year."
"Okay, make more fermented tofu." Lin Heng nodded. Fermented tofu was one of his favorite foods.
Xiulan smiled and nodded: "Then I will go get thirty kilograms of soybeans to soak, and make tofu tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."
Lin Heng thought for a moment and said, "Okay, we can also make some mugwort tofu. I'll go get some mugwort tomorrow morning."
The so-called mugwort tofu is made with the tender leaves of mugwort. In winter, all the grass withers, but some tender mugwort will still grow near the mud.
Here they like to pick it, chop it into pieces and put it into tofu to make mugwort tofu.
In fact, this is vegetable tofu, but the material used is wormwood instead of cabbage.
But the taste is so delicious that you will miss it every time you eat it. It is usually only made in winter.
Because the mugwort grown in winter does not have such a strong taste and is still very tender.
Paired with garlic and chili, the taste made Lin Heng drool just thinking about it.
Xiulan blinked and said, "Okay, let's go together tomorrow morning. I actually want to eat mugwort tofu too."
"good."
Lin Heng nodded, and as he was a little hungry, he quickened the pace of peeling the bamboo shoots.
In more than half an hour, the two finished peeling the bamboo shoots, and Lin Heng took a scale from the cabinet to weigh them.
After looking at the scale, Lin Heng grinned: "Not bad, there are still 21 pounds and 6 ounces of pure bamboo shoots."
If it weren't for his parents and elder brother, there would probably be nearly 30 kilograms of bamboo shoots.
Xiulan looked at him and said, "Then we keep five pounds and make sour bamboo shoots out of the rest?"
"Just ten kilograms. Winter bamboo shoots are delicious. When the time comes to soak the bamboo shoots, we can just pick the spring bamboo shoots." Lin Heng said after thinking for a while.
Xiulan nodded and took the bamboo shoots to the kitchen to cook.
Winter bamboo shoots do not have a bitter taste and can be eaten directly without blanching.
Xiulan made a dish of stir-fried bamboo shoots with meat and a dish of vegetable and egg drop soup.
After a while, the two of them brought the food to the table.
The meat is bacon. The beautiful bacon belly is deep red in color, and it goes really well with bamboo shoots and pickled radish slices.
It not only tastes like meat, but also has the sweetness of bamboo shoots and the sourness of pickled radish slices. It has a rich taste in the mouth and goes very well with rice.
"tasty."
Lin Heng finished his meal in big mouthfuls, drank a bowl of soup, and burped comfortably.
He eats quickly and after he finishes eating he is responsible for feeding Xiaoxia.
They have now started teaching Xiaoxia to use chopsticks and a spoon. There is no need to feed her all the time; just watch her eat.
After dinner, Lin Heng washed the dishes and soaked the soybeans, while Xiulan was making pickled bamboo shoots.
After taking out the soybeans, Lin Heng asked, "Thirty kilograms seems a bit too little, how about soaking fifty kilograms directly?"
Xiulan took a look and said, "Okay, but it may take a long time tomorrow."
"That's okay." Lin Heng waved his hand, not caring.
Because it was the ox that pulled the mill, not him.
After finishing, she took Xiaoxia to her parents' house to wash the sheets.
Lin Hengze cleaned the stone mill in the yard carefully.
"You are going to make tofu. Your sister-in-law is also preparing to make tofu to eat these days." Lin Yue asked with a smile.
Lin Heng smiled and said, "That's perfect. I'll wash the millstone and we can all use it."
His family doesn't have a small stone mill. This stone mill is very large, with a total capacity of nearly a thousand kilograms, and a single millstone weighs two hundred kilograms.
If you want to pull it, you need two grown men, or you can use a cow.
After Lin Heng washed the millstone, Xiulan's sheets were not washed yet. He said something and took Xiaoxia to the village to look for wormwood.
This thing is everywhere in the countryside. Lin Heng took a bamboo basket and picked wormwood and shepherd's purse.
Even with Xiaoxia helping him, it only took Lin Heng an hour to get half a basket of wormwood and half a basket of shepherd's purse.
Shepherd's purse is one of the few delicious wild vegetables, and it tastes great simply when served cold.
After Xiulan finished washing the clothes, she cooked for him when she got home in the evening.
The next morning, the two stayed in bed for a while and didn't get up until nine o'clock.
It was already half past ten after they finished exercising and had breakfast, and then the two of them came to their parents' yard carrying the soaked soybeans.
Seeing Lin Heng coming over, Lin Yue asked with a smile: "Brother, are you going to be pushed?"
Lin Heng shook his head: "Of course we use cows. Why waste human energy when we have cows?"
After saying this, he went out to lead the cow.
The cows were fed with straw today. Lin Heng walked over and took a look, feeling a little helpless.
Because the cow was too dirty and there was no cow dung in the cowshed, it was stuck everywhere on its body.
If it shakes its body while working, you won't get any tofu.
"It's okay, I'll wash it for you!"
Lin Heng went back to get the laundry and brushes, and called his eldest brother to go to the river together.
In just half an hour, his big yellow cow looked brand new again.
“Moo!!”
It seemed that he felt comfortable after the wash. He raised his head and shouted, his voice unusually loud.
"Go home and grind the mill for me well, and I'll give you some bean dregs to eat later." Lin Heng patted its head, smiled and led it back.
Although it is already noon now, sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood.
But what Lin Heng didn't expect was that Lin's mother and Xiulan had already started to negotiate.
This made him a little speechless: "Didn't we say we would start after the cows arrived?"
Mother Lin said nonchalantly, "It's the same with people. By the time the cows come, we've already ground ten pounds."
Lin Heng looked at his mother helplessly: "You have to do it yourself when there is an ox to do it, what can I say?"
His mother's idea is not good. She wants to be the first to do everything.
Not only did she feel tired, but Xiulan was also sweating profusely. She obviously didn't need to be so exhausted.
He spread his hands and harnessed the cow, letting his mother rest aside.
He drove the cattle, and Xiulan added soybeans and water.
With the cow, this became a very easy job. Originally, it took them half an hour to grind ten kilograms by human labor, but with the cow, it only took half an hour to grind the remaining forty kilograms.
Lin Heng couldn't understand why his mother always liked to do such tiring work. Wouldn't it be better for her to take a rest?
(End of this chapter)
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