At this time, Tang Xinmei also got up to help, and Qiao Mo went back to the kitchen to continue steaming the sweet potato chips. After a busy morning, he finally dried all the cut sweet potato chips.
After breakfast, Qiao Mo, Kang Mingyuan and Han Yimo went up the mountain to dig winter bamboo shoots, while Tang Xinmei stayed in the house to read. These days, she saw Qiao Mo and Kang Mingyuan reading whenever they had nothing to do, and she also heard some things from their words. She also had a plan in her mind and decided to pick up the textbooks that she had put aside for a few years, so as not to miss the opportunity in the future.
Qiao Mo and his friends didn't stay in the mountains for long. They came back before midnight, had lunch and took an hour nap. Then they washed the sweet potatoes and cut them into slices, which they would steam and dry the next morning. In the next few days, they went up the mountain to dig winter bamboo shoots in the morning, washed the sweet potatoes and cut them into slices at home in the afternoon, and steamed and dried them in the morning until they had processed all the sweet potatoes.
Time passed quickly, and it was already the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month. Tang Xinmei asked for leave to return to Kyoto to visit relatives, Chu Maoshen and Liu Ruolin also returned to Donghai City, and Wang Jiaqi and Wu Shudong also asked for leave after returning from the construction site. Only Qiao Mo and his three companions were left at the educated youth site.
"Brother Yuan, Momo, let's go hunt wild boars tomorrow and kill them and eat the meat ourselves." Now that there were no outsiders around, Han Yimo said happily.
"Yes." Qiao Mo and Kang Mingyuan agreed in unison: This is a great opportunity. There is no one else at the educated youth site, and they can hunt some things and make some cured meat to eat later.
They set out early the next morning in the dew, worked in the mountains all day, and only returned to the educated youth site at dusk, carrying their harvest on their shoulders and in their hands.
This time they hunted a half-grown wild boar, two roe deer, a gazelle, and several pheasants and hares.
Kang Mingyuan asked Qiao Mo to boil water, while he and Han Yimo slaughtered pigs and sheep. Because they were going to make bacon, all the prey were not skinned, but scalded with boiling water to remove the hair, then branded with an iron, washed clean, and then the belly was cut open to take out the internal organs and cut the meat into strips.
The three of them worked until half the night to cut the meat, and then they dealt with the internal organs.
The only offal left from the wild boar were the heart, stomach and intestines, and the rest were left with only the heart and stomach. It was too late, so they just washed them roughly and left them there to drain the water before going to rest, waiting for the next day to carry out in-depth processing.
After a tiring day, Qiao Mo was so exhausted that he lay down on the bed and played chess with Zhou Gong. He didn't wake up until noon the next day.
After breakfast, they began to process the meat: they kept ten pounds of pork, ten pounds of roe deer meat, five pounds of mutton, two pheasants, and two hares for the New Year, and made the rest into cured meat.
Qiao Mo cut 20 pounds of pork belly, peeled the pig skin and minced the meat into a paste, added seasonings and stuffed it into the cleaned small intestine to make sausages. The rest of the pork, pheasant and hare were all spread with seasonings and marinated. After marinating, they were dried in the sun for eight hours and finally smoked with pine branches. This is Hunan Province's most famous specialty - cured products.
The roe deer meat and mutton can be hung in a ventilated place to dry, while the internal organs, pig tripe and a pheasant are made into a pig tripe and chicken meal, and the rest are all braised.
The three of them worked all day to finish the work, but with the delicious pork belly chicken and a plate of spiced beef, everyone felt that the effort was worth it.
The next step was to prepare for the New Year. The chickens and rabbits were slaughtered, and the meat was also prepared. All they had to do was go fishing and catch a fish. Qiao Mo didn't care about fishing, and she unceremoniously threw this task to Kang Mingyuan.
Kang Mingyuan did not disappoint them. In one afternoon, he caught two grass carps weighing three or four pounds, a carp weighing more than two pounds, and several miscellaneous fish the size of a palm. After bringing them back, Qiao Mo cut open the miscellaneous fish and cooked them into soup. He kept the rest in a water tank, preparing to use them during the Chinese New Year. The temperature was relatively low at that time, and as long as he changed the water frequently, there would be no problem keeping the fish for the Chinese New Year.
The Chinese New Year is coming in two days, and Qiao Mo wants to take advantage of his free time to visit He Dongqing and the others in Xishan Brigade. In fact, Dongshan Brigade and Xishan Brigade are separated by only one mountain, which is the mountain northwest of Dongshan Village. People here call it Woniu Mountain.
To the east of Woniu Mountain is the Dongshan Brigade, and to the west of Woniu Mountain is the Xishan Brigade. Woniu Mountain is connected to Beishan Mountain. It has an altitude of more than 1,000 meters and is shaped like a lying cow. There is a narrow path on the mountain connecting the two brigades.
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