Free Days in Siheyuan

Chapter 1343

After harvesting pumpkins, it’s time to store winter vegetables. In order to prepare for the winter, the whole family has to get busy.

In later generations, as people's living conditions continued to improve, the custom of storing winter vegetables in autumn was rarely seen and talked about, and it was only mentioned when reminiscing.

In later times, due to convenient transportation and greenhouse technology, even in the cold winter, there are all kinds of fresh vegetables supplied to the market for people to choose and enjoy. Therefore, except for some special periods, Zhang Yu really did not stock up on vegetables, and bought them when he needed them.

Because he has started working now, his aunt thinks that he has grown up and it is time for him to learn some life skills, so she called him to join in the stockpiling of vegetables, and of course others did not fall behind.

Although the supply may not be sufficient this year due to some reasons, the supply in Beijing is still okay. Although not as much as in previous years, it is still okay at this time of year.

This period of time should be the busiest time in Beijing. There are people queuing up everywhere and mountains of cabbage everywhere.

Every morning, people line up to buy cabbage, and the place is bustling with people coming and going.

"This cabbage is the signature dish for us old Beijingers. We depend on this little cabbage for the entire winter and spring." Zhang Guifang said, pointing to the pile of cabbage in front.

By the time Zhang Yu and his sister-in-law arrived at the vegetable station with their receipts for buying cabbage, the line had already stretched quite far.

Seeing this, the aunt gave the voucher to Zhang Yu and said, "Xiao Yu, you wait in line here first. I'll go see what else is available in other places. Okay, let's buy it together."

"Okay, aunt, then you go first."

Looking at the long line, Zhang Yu felt that it might not be his turn today. Just when he was about to give up, a seven or eight-year-old child suddenly ran by and said to a woman in the line in front of him, "Mom, don't queue here. We have set up cabbage sales points at the entrance of the alley and on the roadside. They will start selling soon. My brother is queuing there. Let me call you."

"Go, go, go, hurry up!" Upon hearing this, the lady in the queue in front of her stopped queuing, picked up her things and trotted towards the alley.

After hearing this, several people nearby gave up queuing and ran towards the entrance of the alley.

Thanks to the results of his recent morning jogging exercises, Zhang Yu got ahead of many people and lined up at the front of the team.

However, because the line was quite long at the beginning, my aunt and the others thought it would take a long time, so they did not let him bring the bag of cabbages, and planned to send it to him later.

But after the change of lines, it will be his turn soon. If he goes home to get it now, he will not be able to get in line when he comes back. If he doesn't go back to get it, he will have nothing to put in it.

Just when Zhang Yu was feeling caught in a dilemma, he saw some kids playing nearby. He happened to know one of them, so he shouted, "Qi Gang, Qi Gang, come here."

"Uncle Xiaoyu, why are you calling me?" Qi Gang, who was playing with a group of friends, heard someone calling him. He looked up and saw that it was Uncle Xiaoyu in the yard. He ran over quickly.

"Go to the yard and call people for me. When you come back, check who is at home and call them. Ask them to bring the things they need to buy cabbage and tell them that it will be my turn soon."

Then he took out a few candies from his pocket under the cover of his pocket and put them in his hand, "This is a reward from Uncle Xiaoyu."

Qi Gang looked at the candy in his hand and immediately put it into his pocket. "Uncle Xiaoyu, I run the fastest. Wait for me, I'll be back soon." After saying this to his friend, he was about to run back.

"By the way, when you go back, shout in the yard that we have started selling cabbages at the entrance of the alley, and ask everyone in the yard to come quickly, otherwise it will be too late." Zhang Yu thought of something and gave a loud instruction.

"Okay," the voice came, and the child had already run far away.

After a while, his uncle-in-law and eldest brother Zhao Feng came over pushing a floor cart. It was his turn. They took the purchase receipts of the whole family and bought a whole cart of cabbage.

The eldest brother pulled the boat in front, and he and his uncle-in-law pushed it from the back. They pulled it home and put it at the door first, preparing to dry it in the sun for a few days. Then they would stack it under the eaves and cover it with a few layers of straw mats so that it could be eaten for the whole winter.

At this time, the aunt came back, looked at the cabbage they bought and said in surprise: "Xiaoyu, you lined up so quickly?"

"No, I heard someone say there was a temporary sales point at the entrance of a nearby alley, so I ran over there and I happened to catch it."

"I was wondering, how come it's so fast!" Zhang Guifang took a cabbage and patted it with satisfaction, squeezed it, and pinched it a few times, saying, "The cabbage you bought today is good. I see that the cabbage is big and firm. I just pinched it and it's crisp and juicy. It will definitely be refreshing to eat when the time comes."

Seeing that his aunt was in a good mood, Zhang Yu said, "Aunt, this cabbage stuffing is the best for dumplings, right? Let's eat dumplings today."

"Yes, yes, yes. It would be a shame not to eat dumplings with such good cabbage." The eldest brother also echoed. He knew that as long as Xiaoyu asked, his mother would most likely agree.

"Okay, then go get some cabbage and I'll make some stuffing. We'll eat cabbage-stuffed dumplings today."

As she spoke, Zhang Guifang began to wash her hands and prepare the tools for chopping the stuffing.

Zhang Yu took out a pound of meat from the kitchen and placed it in front of his aunt: "Dangdangdang, aunt, look what this is?"

"When did you buy it? I lined up early yesterday morning but couldn't get a chance." Zhang Guifang was delighted when she saw the meat on the chopping board. You know, she had been planning to have a good meal while storing winter vegetables since last week, but she hadn't been able to get any meat due to supply problems.

"My colleague went to queue up at three or four in the morning yesterday, and got three kilograms of meat in total, but he just started dating someone and needed cloth coupons, so he gave me one kilogram in exchange." He knew that my aunt would ask, so this really happened, and he happened to have extra cloth coupons.

Zhang Guifang originally planned to cut out only a part of it and put it in the cabbage stuffing. Zhang Yu sucked his teeth after seeing it. If there was anything he was not used to, it was the attitude of people in this era towards meat. They attached great importance to it and a pound of meat had to be divided into several portions to eat.

"Put it all in, aunt. It's not much anyway." Then he took the remaining meat from his aunt and chopped it up.

A meal of dumplings stuffed with cabbage and pork made the whole family satisfied.

We still have a few days to work and a lot of things need to be stored.

In addition to cabbage, radish and winter melon are also important items that need to be stored.

There are also various kinds of pickled vegetables, which need to be made by my sister-in-law herself. The others can’t make them taste good, so they can only help from the side.

The family has been very busy these past two days, preparing the materials needed for pickling vegetables. Buying vegetables and pickling pickles is a laborious job, and it requires the whole family to work together. After all, these pickles are the side dishes for the whole year, especially in winter. In addition to cabbage and radish, the rest depends on these pickles.

Just imagine, one morning in the dead of winter, when the ground is covered with ice and snow, you reluctantly come out of your warm bed and find yourself shivering.

Scoop a bowl of hot rice porridge from the pot, and take a small dish of pickled vegetables from the jar. Because the porridge is too hot, you need to swirl it around while drinking it. Then pick up a small piece of pickled vegetable and put it in your mouth. You will feel satisfied immediately. The taste is like a ray of sunshine in winter, comfortable and warm.

After the first frost, the moisture in the vegetables is reduced a lot, and the pickles pickled at this time taste much better.

"Xiao Yu, do you have any salt at home?" Zhang Guifang turned and asked Zhang Yu.

"There are more than two kilograms left. I wonder if it's enough?" Zhang Yu went back to the house and looked at the coarse salt in the cupboard. It was the same salt he bought last time to pickle fish. There was not much left.

"It's not enough. We have to pickle everything here today." She said, pointing to the washed vegetables placed at the door to drain the water.

"Then I'll go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some more." Zhang Yu wiped the water on his hands from washing vegetables and prepared to go out.

Just then, I bumped into my uncle-in-law who was coming home from get off work. "Xiao Yu, what are you going to do?"

"We are making pickles at home today, but we don't have enough salt at home."

"I brought it back." Zhao Wenzhuo raised the cloth bag in his hand, and then continued: "I thought that my family would need some salt to pickle vegetables today, so when I passed by the supply and marketing cooperative after get off work, I brought it back."

After saying that, he put the bicycle away and went to his sister-in-law to ask for credit with the big piece of salt in his hand.

"Look what I brought?"

Seeing the big salt brought by Zhao Wenzhuo, Zhang Guifang praised him for a rare moment: "Wow, did the sun rise from the west today? There is actually something going on in his eyes!"

"Isn't this because I thought you've been busy these days?" Zhao Wenzhuo felt a little embarrassed. Due to work reasons, he really hadn't been able to take care of his family much, and he felt a little guilty about it.

"Okay, okay, let's see how the water in the vegetables is being drained. If they're dry, we'll prepare to marinate them." Seeing her husband's guilty look, Zhang Guifang quickly changed the subject.

In fact, he had done well enough. When his elder brother and sister-in-law were serving in the army, he was the one who always encouraged and supported her. Especially after they died, it was he who pulled her out of the grief of losing her family.

He even educates and loves Xiaoyu as if he were his own child, and silently protects his family in a corner where he can't see.

I patted my face, thinking, am I really getting old? I tend to have random thoughts. I have so much work to do, how can I have time to think about random things?

My elder brother and his friends had already taken out the large and small jars for pickling pickles yesterday, taking advantage of the good weather. They had cleaned them and dried them. Now they were neatly placed under the eaves, waiting for my younger sister-in-law to use them.

The first things to be pickled were the cucumbers. A few days ago, when Zhang Yu went to the countryside to purchase things, he happened to meet a few families cleaning cucumber vines. He saw that there were still quite a few cucumbers on them, so he picked them up and replaced them.

Those families thought they had other vegetables, so they were not too interested in these small cucumbers. Now that someone wanted to exchange them, they readily agreed.

At this time, Zhang Guifang was looking at the full basket of small cucumbers. Although they grew crooked, they tasted good when pickled.

"Mom, why are these cucumbers so ugly?" Zhao Xiaoping said to her sister-in-law while looking at the cucumbers that were hung out to dry.

"What's so ugly about it? This kind of cucumber is perfect for pickling." Zhang Guifang replied unhappily, then turned to Zhang Yu and said, "Xiao Yu, don't listen to your sister's nonsense. You made the right choice by buying this time's young cucumbers. Even though they don't look very good, this kind of cucumber tastes better when pickled."

Then he continued to educate Zhao Xiaoping: "These cucumbers grown on vines are not only cheap, but also seedless, so they are crispier and taste better when pickled."

After pickling the cucumbers, my sister-in-law also pickled sauerkraut. She peeled off the excess stalks and rotten leaves of the cabbage she bought that day, rinsed the cabbage hearts with hot water, and then placed them directly in the vegetable jar.

Pour the cooled rice soup into the vegetable jar, cover the jar with a lid, and press a large stone on it. Then just wait for time to pass and you can eat it.

Of course, the peeled cabbage stalks were not wasted. I made some at noon. I cut the cabbage stalks into shreds and seasoned them with vinegar and chili. It tasted pretty good.

By the way, more importantly, I also got a lot of pickled mustard greens.

In winter, when you have some free time, you can buy some meat, chop it into minced meat, and stir-fry it with pickled mustard greens, or make pickled mustard greens buns and eat them with hot rice porridge. The taste makes you drool just thinking about it.

My sister-in-law’s method of pickling Chinese mustard greens is relatively simple. She spreads a layer of Chinese mustard greens and a layer of salt evenly in the jar, and then continues to spread layer by layer. After all the layers are spread, sprinkle a layer of salt on the jar to seal it.

After finishing, Zhang Guifang straightened up, patted the salt particles on her hands and said, "It's done, just put the lid on it."

"Aunt, is it ready now?" Zhang Yu had eaten many delicacies made with Chinese mustard greens in his later life, but he had never seen how it was pickled. He always thought it would be troublesome, but he did not expect it to be so simple.

"That's not that difficult. You can eat it in a month. I'll make you some mustard greens buns then."

The following day, Zhang Guifang pickled a bunch of things including radishes and mustard greens.

Especially the mustard greens, because they are not easy to buy this year, Zhang Guifang finally bought some. She treated it very carefully and did not pickle the whole thing like in previous years. Instead, she pickled it very carefully and even served it with radishes.

Wash, trim the hair on both sides of the lower half, cut into thick strips and blanch in boiling water. While hot, mix the shredded radish and mustard balls together and simmer in a sealed container.

"Mom, how long does it take to simmer?" Zhao Xiaoping was the only girl among several children. Her aunt thought it was time for her to learn some housekeeping skills, so she pulled her over, one to help out, and the other to let her learn from the side.

"Simmer it for a day or two, and when you open it and smell the pungent aroma, it's done."

Zhang Yu.