slack farmer in the wasteland

Chapter 284 Pickles
Several bamboo poles were placed horizontally on four or five long stools, and a layer of bamboo curtains were spread on the bamboo poles. On the bamboo curtains, strips of radish soaked in salt were placed.

The strips of radish that have lost most of their water due to the action of salt now seem to have shrunk by four-fifths in size compared to when they first started. The original red skin has been seen, and only light brown remains.Now these strips of radish are going through the final step of becoming radish, which is drying in the sun.After drying, these radish strips become radish rings, which can be preserved for a long time, and live on the table for more than half a year as a side dish porridge in the farmhouse.

When eating, whether it is eaten directly or soaked in ingredients, it is a porridge killer.

Shi Wei is holding a bamboo rake, and is turning over the radish sticks on the bamboo curtain. Cang Hai originally had a rake in her hand, but unfortunately, the little girl Mengmeng thought that the bright radish sticks were fun, so she snatched the rake from Cang Hai's hand. Going over, standing on a small bench, happily picked up carrot strips.

The little girl's playfulness is far greater than the old-fashioned mind for work. Fortunately, there is nothing particular about this job, as long as the radish sticks are not turned over, it is considered a pass, so Cang Hai can rest assured that the little girl can play.

Seeing that Mengmeng was having fun, Tietou found a small bamboo pole from nowhere, and imitated Mengmeng's appearance and stood on the bench to poke carrot sticks.

"Tie Tou, don't poke the radish on the ground, if you do this again, I will beat you up." Shi Wei yelled at Tie Tou when she saw that Tie Tou poked the radish on the ground again.

After hearing this, Tietou immediately jumped off the small bench, picked up the radish sticks on the ground, and put them in his mouth, apparently ready to 'destroy the corpse and wipe out the traces'.

Apparently, Tie Tou underestimated the taste of the radish sticks a little bit. After it stuffed the radish sticks into its mouth, its whole face wrinkled immediately. It was so salty that it wanted to spit it out immediately, and its whole body He was so motionless as if he had been tapped on the Dingshen acupoint, his small face wrinkled into a ball.

Seeing that Shi Wei didn't look at them, the two little thieves immediately spit out the radish sticks in their mouths, threw their arms towards the fruit trees downhill.Seeing the radish flying away, Tietou once again stood on the bench, pretending that nothing happened, grabbed the bamboo pole and continued poking happily.

Slippery happened to see the radish flying up, thought Tietou was playing with it, stuck out his tongue and chased after it excitedly, when it reached the fruit forest, he was a little confused, not knowing where the radish flew to After wandering around for a long time, he had no choice but to casually pick up a dead branch, and pretending to run to Tietou's side, wagging his tail to ask for credit for Tietou.

In return for Huatou's solicitation of credit, Tietou stretched out his little black hand and scratched its fat brain twice. Even with such a perfunctory action, Huatou seemed very satisfied, and ran to the base of the wall where he was lying with a dead branch in his mouth. , Holding the dead branch and biting it to play.A silly dog ​​and a dead branch began to compete.

Cang Hai is the happiest now, lying under the shelf, taking a leisurely sip of warm tea, and then flipping through his mobile phone to read electronic novels, humming a song or two from time to time, I don’t know the tune What is singing.

Hutou is as idle as Canghai. At the moment, Hutou is obediently lying next to Canghai's recliner, with his eyes closed as if he is sleeping, but if you observe carefully, you will find that Hutou's ears turn from time to time. It is the tiger head who is alert to the movements around him and is always ready to protect his family and property.

After turning the radish strips over, Shi Wei put down the rake, gave Mengmeng and Tietou a few words, and then Shi Wei sat on the deck chair beside Cang Hai.

"My lord, the work is done." Seeing Cang Hai's exhausted appearance, Shi Wei couldn't help saying something to Cang Hai.

Cang Hai turned his head, glanced at Shi Wei, stretched out his finger and hooked Shi Wei's chin flirtatiously: "Well, good, the little girl is doing a good job, and the master will love you at night!"

"Go away!" Shi Wei was blushed by Cang Hai, she looked around guiltily, and found that no one around stretched out her hands and twisted Cang Hai, then put her hands on the armrests, and lay down on the reclining chair for a long time. He let out a sigh of relief: "This little life is really comfortable."

"That's right, we have entered retirement life ahead of schedule, how many people envy us?" Cang Hai said beautifully, looking at Shi Wei with squinted eyes and looking at the sun that was not too strong above her head.

Hearing what Cang Hai said, Shi Wei smiled and reached out to grab Cang Hai's hand, Cang Hai held Shi Wei's hand in the palm of his hand, and the two held hands quietly, enjoying this rare quiet afternoon .

Ah!Ah!Ah!

As the ugly donkey brayed, Cang Hai and Shi Wei sat up straight from the reclining chairs at the same time, and looked towards the direction of the sound.

At this moment, the ugly donkey was pulling the cart, on both sides of the cart were Ping An and Wu Hui, who were smiling, and behind the cart was the third aunt Wei Qin.There are piles of old and tall mustard on the cart.Behind the third aunt was the third uncle Cang Shiyuan who was driving a mule cart, and on top of the mule cart was a cart full of long cabbages.

Early in the morning, Ping An and his three uncles and aunts went to Jishang to buy vegetables. Originally, Cang Hai thought that he would come back at night, but who knew that these people rushed back so soon.One is that these people are eager to go home, and the other is that the road repairs in the county have achieved some results, at least it is smoother than before, so the speed of the cart is naturally much faster.

The potherb mustard looks very good, with dark green leaves and stems, and almost every plant is slightly thinner than a little finger. It is the tenderest and most crisp time of potherb mustard, and this time is the best time to pickle pickles.

The cabbage on the mule cart is also very good, each one is about the same size, about [-] to [-] centimeters, with white cabbage and light green leaves. This kind of long Chinese cabbage is pickled local sauerkraut in northern Jiangsu Canghai’s pickled vegetables are different from the common Sichuan-style pickled vegetables on the market, as well as Northeast pickled vegetables, and have a unique flavor. This is the pickling method Canghai learned from his friends in northern Jiangsu.

This kind of sauerkraut is best paired with roasted mutton, a plate of sauerkraut and mutton, which is so roasted by sauerkraut, completely suppresses the trembling taste and maximizes the umami taste of the lamb, which can swallow the tongue of the glutton.

"Haiwazi, I got all the vegetables back!"

The third aunt looked at Cang Hai and shouted loudly with a smile.

"Here we come, we come!" Cang Hai happily pulled on his shoes and walked towards the cart.

The third uncle Cang Shiyuan held the mule by the bridle at this time, smiled and said to the nephew who was coming up: "I don't know what kind of style you smoke, you have to pickle so many things even though you don't have a few people, and you want to pickle so many things?" This kind of high-bang cabbage is quite hard to find, if I hadn’t been well-informed here, someone else might not be able to buy this cart of high-bang cabbage.”

"You'll know when you're waiting to eat. The sauerkraut pickled from this dish can be said to be a perfect match with mutton!" Cang Hai smiled and came to the side of the cart, stretched out his hand to caress the cabbage he bought, satisfied nodded.

The third aunt Wei Qin said: "Let me tell you, this dish is not cheap. It is four to fifty cents a catty more expensive than the cabbage we pickle here, and they don't sell it if there is less. I heard that it is supplied to supermarkets in the provincial capital. You Uncle San found a friend to help you get such a big cart."

Cang Hai said nonchalantly: "If it's more expensive this year, let's make it more expensive. I'll replant this kind of cabbage myself when the peanuts in the field are harvested next year, and I'll pay them back for my money next year!"

Cang Hai doesn't care if he doesn't have money, who made himself lazy and didn't plant, as long as it can be bought, then the main course of Maodong this winter is almost ready.

"Third Uncle, Third Aunt, how many pickles are you planning to pickle?" Cang Hai asked.

The third aunt smiled and stretched out her finger on the cart: "Our family doesn't have much pickled food, about thirty catties, how much can your third uncle and I eat?"

Following the direction of the third aunt's finger, Cang Hai saw that there were two bundles of potherb mustard with red plastic ropes on them, and he understood that the pickles at the third aunt's house this year were really not many.

There are quite a lot of pickled vegetables in Cang Hai’s family, not only in quantity but also in variety. The big ones are three kinds, pickled vegetables, radish and sauerkraut. As for the small ones, let’s not talk about them, such as peppers and sour bamboo shoots. Well, the sour radishes have been pickled in several jars, but the portions of these things are small, and the vegetable garden at Cang Hai's house can solve the problem, so I didn't go to the market to buy them.

Ping An wiped the sweat from the top of his forehead, and asked Cang Hai: "Second brother, what should we do next?"

"What to do, of course it's unloading, you guys rest for a while, I'll do the unloading work, you two rest for a while to recover your strength, and you will start washing vegetables and cooking pots later, there is still a lot of work ahead" Cang Hai He rolled up his sleeves and said.

To marinate mustard mustard, you must first wash the mustard mustard, wash off the soil on it, and remove the old leaves and dead leaves. After drying the water, cut the mustard mustard into small pieces and put them in In the jar, put a layer of salt on each layer of vegetables, and the best salt to use is well salt, for example, the taste of salted sea salt is only a layer worse than well salt.

Such a layer of vegetables and a layer of salt are tightly pressed into a porcelain jar and finally sealed. After half a month, the pickles will be ready to eat. This kind of fried white beans with pickles is delicious with rice. As for roasted frozen tofu The taste is craving.

Sauerkraut can’t be pickled like this. You don’t need to wash the sauerkraut, just pat the soil on it. At this time, the cabbage has no dead leaves. Use a knife to cut the cabbage root into a cross-shaped knife, and then put the root down in the pot to cook. After the boil is wilted, put it into the tank and put stones on it.

Pickling potherb mustard is a jar, which is a small mouth and needs to be sealed. Sauerkraut is different. It must be in an open jar to facilitate the fermentation of cabbage. At the same time, a clean stone must be placed on the mouth of the jar to hold down the vegetables. After about a month, if the pickles are well pickled, the sauerkraut will become. If the pickles are not well pickled, the whole jar of vegetables will rot and be wasted.

Both Wu Hui and Ping An are children who can't be idle. Cang Hai said to let them rest. How could they rest? They continued to help Cang Hai unload the vegetables. The two started picking cabbage, while Ping An and Cang Hai started washing stones.

There are no stones in the village. Cang Hai bought the two stones for the cylinder from the bridge repair team. They are not expensive stones, but ordinary large bluestones. The grinding plate of the small hand grinder is slightly larger, which is the most suitable for pressing cylinders.

After washing the stone, Cang Hai wiped the stone with a dry cloth and put it outside to dry, while Ping An went back to the kitchen to light the stove.The big stove and the small stove are the same. Cang Hai directly adds well water mixed with a certain amount of space water into the pot, waits for the water in the pot to boil, and then puts the cabbage picked by Shi Wei and Wu Hui with the roots facing down in the pot. In the beginning, the lid of the pot can't be covered naturally, but when the vegetables are soft, the lid can be covered. As long as the lid is on, it means that the pot of cabbage has been cooked and can be cooked. The pot is swinging.

In this way, Shi Wei and Wu Hui took care of the dishes, and Ping An and Cang Hai cooked and set up the vats. They were busy from the afternoon until the sun went down, and continued to work for a long time the next day. The whole cart of cabbage became almost five Pickled cabbage in a jar, the job of pickling sauerkraut on the pressed stone is officially completed.

After the sauerkraut was pickled, the first batch of potherb mustard was also dried. Everyone continued to roll up their sleeves and started to pickle the pickled vegetables. The work of Weicai was even more tiring, because it was necessary to sprinkle the salt and compact the jars. Everyone stroked together It took almost three days to pickle the potherb mustard.

So far, one old kiln of Cang Hai’s family has become a pickle kiln, while the other old kiln has become a grain kiln. One kiln for pickles and one kiln for grain, made Cang Hai feel that even if there is no harvest next year, his family will be able to rely on These things can live for several years.Looking at the dishes in the altar and the food in the circle, I feel at ease.

(End of this chapter)