Chapter 334: A bumper harvest of wild fruits
Lin Heng glanced at the falling rain, went into the study, sat down and read for a while. Xiaoxia ran in and pulled him and said, "Dad, let's go feed the turtle."
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded and carried her out.
I caught two creek groupers from the bucket and threw them into the wooden basin where turtles were kept. There are four turtles in it now, including the yellow mutant box turtle and three ordinary small grass turtles.
When the fish is thrown in, the turtles immediately start to grab it. Now they are not afraid of people at all. The main reason may be that they have little to eat, and if they don't grab it, it will be gone.
But because of this, Xiaoxia can see these turtles eating and giggle happily.
After looking at the turtle, Lin fed the goldfish and observed the ecology of the fish pond. The giant salamander was living surprisingly well here and had eaten quite a few fish. This showed that Lin Heng's pond was quite good.
Back in the house, Xiulan and her mother Wang Zhi were making clothes with a sewing machine. This year, she had nothing else to do except making clothes and reading books at home.
Her skin became fair, and she gradually lost the wild air. She gained an elegance and tranquility brought by culture and books. This is the kind of change that comes from reading a lot of books. There is no change in appearance, but it is a temperament that radiates from the inside out.
Reading is magical. Even if you forget what you have read after finishing it, your conversation and temperament will change unconsciously. This is probably because you have learned about the warmth and coldness of human nature, seen all kinds of things in the world, and understood the true meaning and significance of life from the book.
If you know too little and think too much, you will be troubled. When you gradually understand everything through books, you will become clear and calm from the inside out, and thus have a different temperament.
"What are we having for lunch?" Lin Heng walked over and asked.
Xiulan looked up at him and suggested, "How about some corn stew?"
The so-called corn stir-fry is a corn paste made by cooking crushed corn. The more it is stirred, the thicker it becomes, so it is figuratively called "stir-fry" in the local dialect.
"That's OK. I haven't eaten it for a long time." Lin Heng nodded.
"Then I'll help you. I can do this." Wang Zhi said with a smile.
"I'll go pick some vegetables." Lin Heng nodded. There was really nothing to do at home on a rainy day. His father-in-law Chen Changxia had gone to Hongfeng Mountain to play.
The watermelons and cantaloupes in the yard have all grown. We can pull them out and plant other ones when the weather clears up.
I picked some green vegetables and eggplants and just when I finished picking them, Lin's mother came over and brought a lot of magical tofu.
"Xiu Lan, look at the magical tofu I made yesterday." Mother Lin walked over with the magical tofu and said.
"This one looks good." Xiulan looked at it and nodded.
Mother Lin was immediately happy after being praised and said she would help make lunch.
After lunch, the rain gradually stopped in the afternoon. It was unexpected that the rain did not last as long as before. After all, it was autumn, and autumn rain is the most continuous.
Lin Heng didn't go out in the afternoon because there was too much mud outside and he hated getting his feet covered in mud. But Xiaoxia wanted to go out and play, so she went out with her grandmother.
"The weather is the best after the rain, cool and refreshing." Xiulan said while sitting on the bench looking at the sky.
At this time, the sky was blue, with a few sporadic cotton candy-like white clouds, which looked particularly beautiful.
"Yes, if it weren't for the yellow mud outside, I could take you out for a walk." Lin Heng said as he pulled out the watermelon and cantaloupe vines.
"The yard is fine." Xiulan shook her head. She didn't have much desire to go out.
Lin Heng put all the fruits and vines into the basket and said, "Recently, wax gourds, schisandra chinensis, and wild plums are all ripe. I will pick some for you tomorrow."
"I've wanted to eat it for a long time." Xiulan smiled and nodded, and reminded: "And remember to go to Sanyegou to see the hawthorn tree and bring some back to make hawthorn cakes or something."
There are quite a few wild hawthorn trees in the mountains, but there are fewer that are close by.
"I know." Lin Heng nodded.
After clearing the melon vines and dismantling the racks, Lin Heng basically had nothing else to do. He went to the back mountain to check on the cows and let the chickens out for a walk.
Then he looked at the melons on the back hill and the saplings that had grown in spring and summer. Most of the original acorn trees and other miscellaneous trees had been killed by his method of covering them with black plastic bags, and only a few were still tenaciously alive.
These newly planted fruit trees in spring are growing very well. The tallest one is two and a half meters tall. Because these are grafted seedlings, they will be able to bear fruit next year. They will be even more perfect if they are dwarfed later.
After looking around at the fruit trees, Lin Heng was just about to go home when his elder brother came back with the cow and said hello, "Brother, I was just about to look for you. Do you want to go to Sanyegou to pick wild fruits tomorrow?"
After Lin's father gave the cow to his family, he took care of it himself. He would leave it alone when he was free, and cut grass to feed it when he was busy. He also used the grass seeds he had harvested before to open a forest and planted half an acre of land.
"Go, how about going tomorrow afternoon?" Lin Heng asked.
"I plan to go in the afternoon too." Lin Yue nodded in agreement.
Lin Heng returned to his room and sat in the study, writing in his diary and reading a book out of boredom.
Xiaoxia came back when it was almost dark, carrying a one-liter bamboo basket that her grandfather had specially made for her. In the basket was the cranberries that her grandmother had picked with her in the afternoon.
"Mom and Dad, grandma and I picked some cranberries for you. They are delicious." Xiaoxia walked the small bamboo basket to Lin Heng and Xiulan and said with her head tilted.
There was about one third of the red and black cranberries in the basket. Each cranberry was only the size of a little finger, and it took a lot of effort to pick so many.
"Xiaoxia is so awesome, thank you, my dear." Lin Heng touched her head.
"My daughter is the most filial. These blackberries are so beautiful." Xiulan leaned over and put her face close to hers. Although there was mud on her trouser legs, she did not blame her for it.
Xiaoxia was praised by her parents and danced with joy. She picked some cranberries and fed them to them herself: "Mom and Dad, eat them quickly~"
Lin Heng and Xiulan both benefited from her feeding, the sour and sweet taste of the prickly rose was very good.
"I'll make rose hip yogurt for you with the rest of this." Lin Heng said to Xiaoxia.
Although there is no milk to make yogurt, I still have a bottle of old yogurt that I bought, which can be used to make yogurt rose.
"Okay, I like yogurt~" Xiaoxia said happily.
This is also very simple to make. Pour the rose hips into a basin, soak them in salt water, wash them clean, drain the water, put them into yogurt and stir evenly.
After it’s done, set it aside and eat it simply with noodles in the evening, and add the leftover vegetables from lunch to make a cold dish.
After the meal, yogurt rose hips became the dessert. Everyone ate a little, and most was left for Xiaoxia.
In the evening, the sun shines through cotton candy-like clouds, and golden clouds appear in the sky.
The next morning, you can still see this beautiful scenery, but one is the sunset and the other is the sunrise.
After breakfast, Lin Heng rode his horse to the town and "collected" 500 yuan.
The sky had just cleared up and there were many puddles on the road. Riding a horse was much more convenient than driving.
The morning breeze was cool and riding a horse was very comfortable.
“Brother Lin!”
Wang Zhou saw Lin Heng and greeted him with a smile.
"Has the wedding date been set?" Lin Heng looked at him and asked.
"It's confirmed. It's scheduled for the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month." Wang Zhou nodded.
"Congratulations." Lin Heng said with a smile, and then asked: "What are you going to do after you get married?"
"I haven't thought about it yet. I can just live in my old house for now." Wang Zhou scratched his head and said that he had no money to build a house now.
"Okay, I got it." Lin Heng patted him on the shoulder, looked at the business in the store, went to the credit union and got five hundred yuan, which he exchanged for crumpled small bills.
He has to go through the motions and he certainly can't just go back with the new money.
After exchanging the money, he went to the river to play again and found Grandpa Gao fishing for catfish and yellowtail fish by the water.
This kind of muddy water after the rain is the best for fishing catfish and yellowtail fish. Lin Heng went over to see and found that Grandpa Gao had already caught three or four kilograms of yellowtail fish.
He just went to take a look and then went back home. He didn't have time to go fishing today.
When he got home, Lin Heng called his father-in-law and mother-in-law and gave them the money in public: "Mom and Dad, this is 500 yuan."
Chen Changxia took it and counted it twice with a smile, then said, "Thank you, son-in-law. It will take about three to five years to return the money to you."
"It's okay, you can take it and use it." Lin Heng waved his hand and said.
He also didn't expect them to pay him back any time soon.
Chen Changxia wrapped the money in several layers of cloth and kept it close to his body, then said goodbye again.
"How about this, I'll drive you back tomorrow morning." Lin Heng said to the two of them.
After some polite exchanges, it was confirmed. After lunch, Lin Heng went to take a look at Hongfeng Mountain.
In the afternoon, he took a bow and arrow, carried a backpack, and went to Sanyegou with Xiongba and his elder brother.
In the summer and autumn forests, the leaves and vines are so dense that when you walk in them you can only see a tiny glimpse of the sky.
"The Schisandra chinensis is very abundant this year." Lin Yue said in surprise.
Looking up, I saw that the Schisandra vines were covered with beautiful bunches of Schisandra berries, just like bunches of red grapes.
There are also some vines with purple-red wax gourds that look like pig kidneys hanging on them, which also look very tempting.
"There's no rush for these. Let's go check out the hawthorn tree first." Lin Heng said. There were patches of Schisandra chinensis and wax gourd in the mountains, so there was no need to rush to pick them. Instead, the hawthorn tree was more precious.
"Let's go." Lin Yue nodded and picked a bunch of red Schisandra chinensis and ate them one by one.
Schisandra chinensis has no other disadvantages except that its skin is thick and its seeds are large. Its sour and sweet taste is very good. Lin Heng has been eating it since he was a child and never gets tired of it.
Even compared to the sweet and greasy wax gourd, Schisandra chinensis is more appetizing.
"The fruits of this wild hawthorn tree are not very good this year." Lin Heng was a little disappointed when he came under the hawthorn tree.
This wild hawthorn is also called Shanlihong. It belongs to the same genus as hawthorn. They all call it wild hawthorn in their local dialect. Shanlihong is more cold-resistant than hawthorn and its fruit is a little larger.
"It should be no problem to harvest thirty or forty kilograms." Lin Yue nodded. These fruits are indeed not as good as last year's. There are much fewer of them, but the grains are relatively large.
Now all of them are red, and many of the treetops have been damaged by birds.
"Woof woof~~" Xiongba circled around the tree, very happy.
Lin Heng and his elder brother surrounded the area under the tree with sticks, stones and other things. It was a slope, and if they didn't stop the felled hawthorns, they would all roll down the ravine.
"I'll climb up the tree and beat you, just watch." Lin Yue said, and then climbed up the tree. After he stood up, Lin Heng handed him a bamboo stick.
As Lin Yue continued to knock with the bamboo stick, the red hawthorns fell like rain and soon covered the ground.
Lin Heng picked up all of them, regardless of whether they were good or bad. He basically finished picking all the fruits from the tree and picked up about 30 kilograms, which was a good harvest.
"Let's go pick Schisandra chinensis and wax gourd." Lin Yue said with a smile as he walked down the tree.
"I'm going to pick more wax gourds this time," said Lin Heng.
Lin Yue was puzzled: "That thing can't be sold for money, why did you pick so many?"
"Make delicious food, and I'll give you some when I succeed." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"Okay." Lin Yue couldn't help but feel a little excited. His younger brother had a lot of creative ideas and often cooked some strange but delicious food.
Then the two of them continued picking Schisandra chinensis and wax gourd. Both of these are vine plants and can be easily picked by cutting down the trees they climb.
On the way back, Lin Heng filled a basket with wax gourds and a bag of schisandra chinensis, tied them up in the basket and carried them back.
Unfortunately, the two did not catch any prey in the afternoon, but they did hear a few calls of yellow muntjacs, but they were too far away.
Lin Heng opened the door, and Xiulan was shocked to see him carrying a large basket of wax gourds on his back: "Oh my God, why did you get so many wax gourds? How many days will it take to finish them?"
"I feel like it's not enough to be used to make delicious food," Lin Heng said with a smile.
"What to eat?" Xiulan was curious again.
"You'll know when I make it." Lin Heng kept it a secret.
"Forget it." Xiulan pouted and asked, "Did you pick the hawthorns and plums?"
"I picked some. There weren't many hawthorns, and the plums were too sour, so I just picked a few."
Lin Heng took out the hawthorns and plums. The hawthorns weighed 31 kilograms. His eldest brother took a few kilograms for the children to eat. He planned to go to the mountains to pick a large number of hawthorns in a few days to make hawthorn paste and hawthorn cake.
"It's really sour!" Xiulan couldn't resist after tasting a plum.
There are two kinds of wild plums, one turns purple-red when it gets old, and the other turns bright yellow when it gets old. The one Lin Heng picked today is purple-red.
"We have to wait another half a month to pick them, and then we have to keep them for a few days before we can eat them." Lin Heng nodded. The sight of these plums made his teeth ache.
"Hawthorn and Schisandra chinensis are delicious." Xiulan nodded and sat there eating several hawthorns in a row.
When Xiaoxia came back, she had eaten so much hawthorn and wax gourd that she was almost full.
In the evening, Lin Heng and Xiu La prepared a sumptuous meal together, called their parents over, and treated their parents-in-law well.
The next morning, after breakfast, Lin Heng filled up the tricycle with gas and sent them home.
When the three brothers-in-law learned that their parents had borrowed the money, they happily invited him to stay and have breakfast.
After finishing his meal, Lin Heng did not stay for long and drove to the downtown area of Taibai City. His main purpose was to find a channel to sell green shrimps. He asked several channels he knew, including private resellers and state-owned stores.
The person who offered the highest price was Ge Qingshan's father, and he said he wanted to come and take a look at the situation. Lin Heng agreed on a time with him.
Then he went to Liu Chao to ask about buying a house. Over the past few days, Liu Chao had found many good houses for Lin Heng, and all the transfers were smooth through his hands.
However, Lin Heng didn’t like any of the houses and hadn’t made a decision yet. So he treated him to a meal and bought some daily necessities to go home.
He couldn't wait to try making new delicacies, and now that the ingredients had been bought, everything was ready.
(End of this chapter)
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