After breakfast that morning, Lu Chuan and the others went to plant fruit trees, while Xu Han took the opportunity to wash the sweet potatoes and prepare to make sweet potato wine.
However, the group had just gotten drunk a couple of days ago, so Xu Han didn't publicize the sweet potato wine making; she just quietly did it on her own.
First, she moved baskets of sweet potatoes to the pond in the backyard, and then Xu Han brought over a small stool to start washing the sweet potatoes.
When washing sweet potatoes, you need to cut off any bad ones.
This is the only way to ensure that the sweet potato liquor tastes better and purer; otherwise, the liquor will have an off-taste.
Cut the washed sweet potatoes into small pieces so they'll cook more easily later.
Xu Han spent the whole morning washing sweet potatoes by herself, washing more than thirty baskets in total. Once she finished all of these, she could make a lot of sweet potato wine.
After washing them clean, Xu Han started cooking the sweet potatoes in the big iron pot outside.
I also used a pot in the kitchen to cook a large pot of rice porridge. After it was cooked, I put it into a wooden bucket to cool and set it aside.
Mash the cooked sweet potatoes with a tool and spread them out on a clean oilcloth to cool.
With three pots cooking at the same time, it took Xu Han a whole day to finish cooking them all.
Once the sweet potatoes have cooled down sufficiently, dissolve the crushed yeast in water and then sprinkle it evenly over the sweet potatoes.
Then add an appropriate amount of rice water, stir well, add an appropriate amount of water, and put it into a jar.
The amount of water should not be too much or too little; it should be about the consistency of a thick paste. It will become thinner after fermentation.
Now that there are many empty wine jars at home, Xu Han directly puts them into large wine jars and seals them for storage. After about a month of fermentation, she can start distilling the liquor.
Because a lot of sweet potato wine was made this time, it was filled into five large jars. Since there wasn't enough room left, Xu Han took 10 small jars to fill them all.
Xu Han moved all the wine jars into the warehouse and left them there to ferment temporarily.
I spent a whole day working on all of these things by myself at home.
Of course, everyone else must have seen such a commotion, but since Xu Han was very angry about the last time she got drunk, the others didn't say anything.
But he still couldn't contain his excitement and paced back and forth in the yard.
Finally, Xu Han couldn't take it anymore and said directly, "Why aren't you all working? What are you doing standing around here? This sweet potato wine can't be drunk yet. It's still a long way off, at least a month from now."
"Ah, a month? That's longer than the time it takes for rice wine to ripen."
Xu Han said irritably, "You think it takes too long? Then we're not doing it?"
Upon hearing this, Lu Chuan quickly pulled the Taoist priest outside, saying, "Let's get to work right away."
Xu Han couldn't bear to look at Lu Chuan; he was being far too attentive, almost like a grown man. The other two weren't much better, though they weren't as obvious about it.
As it was getting dark, Xu Han had no idea how many fruit trees they had planted. After cleaning up the house, she carried Ze'er up the mountain behind the house.
The place where the new fruit trees were planted was the one Xu Han had mentioned to Lu Chuan before, and then the orchard next to it spread out to the back mountain behind the house.
When Xu Han arrived, she saw that the larger shrubs around had been cut down and were lying around, probably drying out.
The small fruit trees planted on the ground were very inconspicuous; you couldn't tell where they were growing unless you looked closely.
Fortunately, not many fruit trees were subjected to high-pressure treatment this year. After all, these fruit trees have just stabilized and are not suitable for major pruning or repair. Otherwise, they might have died accidentally.
When Grandpa Zhao saw Xu Han, he asked, "It's getting dark soon, why are you here?"
Xu Han replied with a smile, "Everything at home is done. I'm just having a meal and taking a walk around to stretch my legs, and also to see if you've finished planting."
"We're almost done planting. There are only a few trees left on the side. You take Mu'er back first, we'll leave right away."
Xu Han pointed to the bushes nearby and said, "I see you've cut down all the big bushes. Should I take them back later?"
Lu Chuan looked up at his wife and said, "Don't rush to take it back. Let's leave it here to dry for now."
I was worried that the large shrubs would block the sunlight from reaching the saplings, so I cut them down first.
"We'll leave the rest for now and do it slowly during the winter when we're hibernating."
"Yes, I've finished all the chores at home. I was just telling Xiaochuan that we'd go into the mountains tomorrow. It's been a long time since I've been in the mountains, and I don't know what the situation is like there now."
It's late autumn now, let's go for a walk in the mountains and see if we can catch some pheasants or rabbits."
Xu Han smiled even more happily upon hearing this, "Okay, then I'll make some pancakes for you guys to take with you when I get back. We don't have much chicken or duck left at home, so it would be great if we could catch some pheasants."
"Haha, no wonder we've been eating less chicken and duck lately. It seems that if something is missing from the table, the house will be lacking too. We'd better hunt more pheasants and ducks. Winter is so long, how can we go without chicken and duck?"
Lu Chuan then asked, "Besides chickens and ducks, do you need anything else?"
"It would be best to see if there are any cattle. If there are, headhunting a cow would be good. It can be used to make cured meat in a while. There isn't much mutton left."
Although we had hunted a lot of cattle before, we still had a large family and needed meat at every meal, plus the dogs also needed some, so we ate quickly.
Not only that, Xu Han also made a lot of beef jerky, and her family liked to chew on a piece whenever they had nothing to do.
Over the past five years, beef has been the most consumed meat in our family, but we've also eaten a lot of lamb. In the summer, we grill lamb skewers, and in the winter, we have hot pot lamb.
Everyone in the family loves meat, and even Mu'er and Ze'er especially enjoy eating it. In addition, the Taoist priest and Lu Chuan have large appetites, so they ate quite a lot of the meat that was prepared.
Lu Chuan thought for a moment and said, "Okay, let's go into the mountains first and see what's going on. If we find one, we'll come back to pick you up. Otherwise, the two of us can only hunt one at most."
"Okay, you guys go scout ahead first, and then I'll come with you."
As they talked, Lu Chuan and the others finished planting the last few fruit trees, and then they all went home together.
As soon as they arrived home, the Taoist priest pulled Lu Chuan and Grandpa Zhao toward the storeroom. He was overjoyed to see so many wine jars of all sizes inside.
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