After tidying up the things in the woodshed, the two ate lunch and then took their tools to pick walnuts from the walnut tree.
Upon arriving at the location, Lu Chuan first climbed up a tree and shook the branches, causing many ripe walnuts to fall down with a single shake.
When the walnuts fell to the ground, some of them cracked open, revealing the walnut kernels inside.
Lu Chuan used a long bamboo pole to knock down the remaining walnuts from the tree, while Xu Han picked them up from below.
This makes the process much faster, eliminating the need to take them down one by one.
Some of the walnuts that are harvested still have their outer walnut shells on; these need to be peeled off slowly once they are taken home.
After knocking down that tree, the two went together to other walnut trees nearby.
They continued harvesting all the walnuts in the vicinity until it got dark, and then the two of them started heading home.
Back home, after dinner, I sat in the yard and used a small wooden stick to knock off the inedible kernels from the walnuts.
If you can't knock the skin off, use a knife. You can easily cut off the skin by gently cutting it off. The rest can be peeled off by hand. Ripe walnuts are very easy to handle, as the kernel and walnut meat can be separated.
You must wear gloves when shelling walnuts, otherwise your hands will be stained yellow by the shells and the stain won't wash off. It will only fade gradually over time.
Xu Han didn't want her hands to turn black, so she first put on a pair of gloves used for eating, and then on a pair of cloth gloves to completely prevent the walnuts from coming into contact with her hands before putting them down.
The processed walnuts need to be placed in the yard to dry for a few days. After they are dried, they can be stored in the warehouse.
After finishing processing today's walnuts, the two went to rest, as they planned to go deep into the mountains to pick more walnuts tomorrow!
If you come across prickly pears, pick them too; take all the edible ones.
As the weather gets colder, some root and rhizome medicinal herbs are about to enter their dormancy period, and it will be the perfect time to harvest them soon.
We can pick some and sell them at the pharmacy in the county town for money.
Most medicinal materials, such as leaves, flowers, or seeds, are not very valuable. They are also quite troublesome to harvest and do not add much weight.
Of course, only rare and precious medicinal materials like Dendrobium will be much more expensive.
Xu Han didn't have that much time to do these things, so she never went to collect herbs to exchange for money.
However, when the rhizomes of medicinal herbs are ready for harvesting, it's still worthwhile to look for them, as they are much more valuable than herbs.
Lu Chuan knows far more medicinal herbs than I do, so I'll need to go searching for them with him.
There's no rush to gather herbs; we can postpone it for now!
Right now, picking mountain produce and buying grain are the most important things.
The next morning, the two set off into the deep mountains to pick walnuts and prickly pears.
The two of them didn't plan to go back today; to save time, they decided to stay in the cave.
So when she arrived, Xu Han put the bed and other things into her space so she could take them out and use them later.
The two first arrived at a walnut grove with about a dozen walnut trees.
Perhaps due to the passage of time, the walnuts that fall from the walnut tree take root and sprout nearby.
Then, after a long period of accumulation, it has now become a smaller walnut grove.
Lu Chuan said there was an even bigger walnut forest deep in the mountains! The two planned to go there early tomorrow morning, since they had traveled for quite some time today and it was already getting late.
We can't finish picking everything if we go over there, so let's pick some nearby first! We'll go over there first thing tomorrow morning.
After putting down his basket, Lu Chuan climbed up the tree and started shaking the trunk.
Xu Han waited until Lu Chuan finished shaking the tree before starting to collect the walnuts. Whether shaking the tree or knocking down the walnuts, they would always fall everywhere.
Therefore, it inevitably takes more effort to pick them up.
Fortunately, the dogs at home are all wonderful. Yesterday, when they saw Xu Han picking walnuts by herself, they started imitating her, picking up the walnuts with their mouths and then putting them into the basket.
Xu Han was both happy and surprised to see their actions. Could it be that the dogs had become sentient? They were so intelligent. It was really worth raising them. Now they could even help her with chores.
So today, Xu Han specially prepared bamboo baskets for the dogs so they could carry the baskets and pick up walnuts themselves.
Before letting the dogs start working, Xu Han specially took out the beef bones she had cooked for them earlier from her space. Each bone had a lot of meat on it, so they could both gnaw on the bones and eat the meat.
After the dogs finished eating, Lu Chuan also finished shaking the walnut tree, and then Xu Han led the dogs to officially start picking walnuts.
With the dogs joining in, the process was indeed much faster. After the dogs filled the bamboo basket, they would bring it over and hand it to Xu Han. Xu Han would then pour the walnuts into the basket and repeat the process.
However, not all dogs are obedient. For example, Peanut and Black Wind started running around wildly while picking things up.
Lu Chuan scolded them, and they behaved for a while before going back to slacking off. By the time lunch was over, all the other dogs had lunch, but the two of them didn't!
"Serves you two right for not having lunch! You ate my beef bones and didn't work! I can't make you spit it out, so I'll take it from your lunch." Xu Han pointed at the two naughty boys and said with exasperation.
When they started collecting walnuts in the afternoon, the other dogs got extra meat bones, but Blackwind and Peanut didn't.
This trick worked quite well. Seeing this, Black Wind and Peanut didn't dare to slack off in the afternoon and obediently started picking walnuts.
After the two finished harvesting the walnuts nearby, they went to pick prickly pears. The prickly pears in the deep mountains are quite large, although there are also some that are very small.
Since they're wild, they can't all be big, nor can they all be small.
Xu Han wasn't greedy; she picked whatever she could find. She kept the big ones to eat raw and the small ones to make wine.
As the sun set, the two returned to a nearby cave.
Xu Han cleaned up inside and outside the cave, while Lu Chuan went to gather firewood.
The cave was very large. Xu Han swept away the dust inside and then used mugwort to fumigate it, hoping to drive out any snakes or insects so she wouldn't get bitten while sleeping at night.
After Lu Chuan returned, he first set up a fire and boiled water so he could wash his face and feet later.
After cleaning the cave, Xu Han brought out the bed and table and chairs, ate a simple dinner, and then prepared food for the dogs.
Then they soaked their feet and rested.
The night was already quite cold in the mountains, but thankfully the fire kept burning...
The next day, after getting up and having breakfast, the two put their things into their spatial storage and set off for the new walnut grove.
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