My village can't be like this

Chapter 179

"Zhang An, I have your letter."

A few days after Wang Hua called, Zhang Changming from the post office in the town came to the village to deliver letters.

Zhang Changming is from Wang Jiachong next door, and now works as a postman in the town.

Every day, I ride a Erba Dagang to deliver mail to several nearby villages.

"What are you sending here? It's a big package, and it's quite heavy."

Zhang Changming entered the yard and handed Zhang An a large envelope from the postal bag in the backseat of Erba Dalong.

Zhang An glanced at it, yes, it was sent by Wang Hua.

"Hey, it's a photo sent by a friend."

Hearing that it was a photo, Zhang Changming felt that these people were really rich.

How many photos must there be in such a big envelope?

It is very expensive to find someone to take a photo now, and their family only takes their children to take a photo once a year.

Time flies like a white horse, and it will soon be April.

"Xiao An, why don't you go to the town to buy some rice seeds and come back, it's time to soak the rice seeds."

When she got up in the morning, Wang Fang arranged work for Zhang An.

"Mom, the blood rice that our family planted a few years ago has no seeds left."

Blood rice is one of the local rice varieties handed down from a long time ago in Zhang An's place.

Blood rice is not only blood-red, but also the unhulled grains are also blood-red.

Even its plants, from the stems to the leaves, are tinged with blood, which is why they are called blood rice.

The rice cooked with this blood rice is much more fragrant than ordinary rice.

It just looks as red as blood.

During the years when Grandpa Zhang An was still there, many families in the village planted it.

It's just that there are not many people planting these years, and they all switch to hybrid rice sold by the country.

Because in the past years, everyone has been hungry, let alone food, even the roots of trees and grass.

So now, in order to be able to have enough food, I have chosen hybrid rice with a relatively high yield.

Not only can you have enough food every year, but you can also sell the excess millet for money.

Of course, in terms of taste and nutrition, rice cooked with blood rice is much better, but the yield of blood rice is not high.

"Our family hasn't planted it for many years. Where can we keep some seeds? It seems that the second grandpa's house has some."

Wang Fang thought about it. The last season of blood rice in her family was seven or eight years ago. Where did she grow it now?

"Mom, blood rice is still delicious for cooking. Why don't our family grow blood rice this year, and we don't sell it anyway, so we can eat it at home."

Anyway, my home is different now, so I don't have to worry about food and clothing.

Now the life of the family is so much better than before, and so much millet is planted a year, and it can't be sold for much money.

"Well, if you want to eat it, you can plant it. You go to the second grandpa's house and ask for some rice seeds."

Before Wang Fang could make up his mind, Zhang Jianguo, who was next to him, spoke.

He is thinking clearly now, anyway, as long as the family is not hungry.

Last year, the family planted so many millet and bracts, and finally sold them all for only about two thousand yuan.

And the fish pond built by my son usually doesn't need to be taken care of, just cut some grass and throw it in to feed the fish.

Only half of it was sold last time, which is enough to sell the grain for the family for several years.

Seeing that her man had already spoken, Wang Fang didn't speak.

For major family matters, the two of them can make up their minds.

She just needs to take care of the house and take care of her husband and children.

Zhang An quickly washed up and headed towards Second Master Zhang's house.

"Second Grandma, you are planting corn."

Zhang An walked all the way, and many people were soaking corn and preparing to raise young seedlings.

"Xiao An is here, everyone is soaking the millet, I will take it out and soak it too."

"Grandma, do you keep some bloody rice seeds?"

Zhang An helped Second Mistress bring water and soak the millet in the bucket.

"Yes, your grandfather has always kept some, and he has to plant some every year. I am afraid that he will not be able to find them in the future. Why, you have to plant them."

"Yeah, I told my dad that this year the family will only grow blood rice, and it's okay to harvest less. Anyway, I eat it at home, and I don't plan to sell it to outsiders."

Hearing that her grandson said that she wanted to plant blood rice, she came to look for grain seeds, so Grandma Zhang called Erye Zhang from the backyard.

When Second Master Zhang heard that Zhang An was looking for grain seeds, he climbed up to the wooden building and rummaged for a while.

Finally, he brought down a bag of blood-red rice.

"Yo, there are so many, I didn't think there were many."

In any case, this bag weighs forty to fifty catties.

"I grew up well last year, so I kept some more, so that people don't have enough time to look for them."

Zhang Erye heard from Zhang An that their family will plant all blood rice this year, so he kept a few catties for himself, and let Zhang Security take the rest.

Zhang An was not polite to his second grandfather. Anyway, he would keep more of the rice seeds in the space.

And after the harvest at home, they also packed food for the two old people.

"Master, chicken blood glutinous rice, if you have some, give me some. Anyway, the blood rice has been planted, so I will add some chicken blood glutinous rice."

Chicken blood glutinous rice is similar to blood rice, but the color of chicken blood glutinous rice is darker and more glutinous.

"You're here to snatch me up today. You know exactly what's in the house."

Zhang Erye cursed a few words with a smile, and brought out a small bag of rice seeds from upstairs.

"Oh, you are my master, I don't want to take care of you."

Playing around and playing tricks made Second Master Zhang and Mistress Zhang happy.

Zhang Erye left a lot of chicken blood glutinous rice seeds, but Zhang An packed a few catties back.

This chicken blood glutinous rice looks similar to blood rice, but it is slightly shorter and more glutinous.

I don't usually eat a lot, and I don't use this kind of rice cakes for brewing rice wine.

So you don’t need to grow too much, just enough to eat at ordinary times.

After returning home, Wang Fang soaked the rice seeds brought back by Zhang An.

Of course, Zhang An himself kept some in the space, and used the seeds cultivated in the space next season.

"Brother An Zi, do you want to pick up screws in the field dam?"

Zhang An had just soaked the rice seeds when he heard Huang Ming shouting.

"Where have you been recently, I haven't seen you much."

Zhang An felt like he hadn't seen Huang Ming for more than a week. Normally, when this guy was in the village, there would always be some movement.

"Send my grandma to my aunt's house for a few days, and I just came back last night."

Huang Ming's eldest aunt married in the next province. She said it was not far away, but she said it was not close.

A few days ago, Grandma Huang heard that Huang Ming's eldest aunt was ill, so the old man wanted to go and see for herself.

The second grandmother Huang is an old lady on this road, and she can't find her way by car.

The sons and daughters-in-law were also unwilling to go, so Huang Ming accompanied the old lady there.

"Let's go, pick up the screws, I see a lot of gutter head screws."

"All right, let's go, you go and call Ha Zhouyang, I'll find a bucket and we'll go together."

Qingming snails are more delicious than big geese.

Before you know it, a year has passed, and it's time to eat snails again.

In the Changqing area, a large number of snails can be found in the ditches and beside the ditches every spring.

And now the environment is good, and there is no apple snail invasion.

Every Spring Festival, this is a delicacy that locals, old people and children like.

Zhang An found a small bucket to carry it. After a while, Huang Ming and Zhou Yang came over. They both brought a bucket and tongs.

"Brother, don't you bring tongs?"

"What kind of tongs do you bring? You have to bend down to clamp it, and it's better to use your hands."

Hearing Zhang An's words, Zhou Yang simply put the tongs in Zhang An's yard and didn't take them there.

Huang Ming saw that Zhou Yang didn't bring it, so he didn't bring it either.

In the past few days, the fields are still full of rapeseed, but the water in the big river has begun to rise.

There are already several villages in Tianba who are driving cattle to sow seedling fields.

When they got to the ditch, they stepped on it one by one and started touching the screws.

"Hehe, this year's screws are so big."

As soon as Huang Ming went down into the ditch, he saw several snails clinging to the stone wall.

I reached out and touched it, and it was all taken out.

"Yes, this year's screws are much bigger than last year's."

Zhou Yang also touched a few out of the water, and they were all bigger than a thumb.

Seeing that Huang Ming and Zhou Yang were both open, Zhang An picked up his trousers and stood in the ditch as well.

He began to bend down and search in the ditch.

In fact, there are many screws in the gutter, but most of them are very small.

So when everyone came out to pick up screws, they all touched the big ones.

It's not that no one eats that kind of small screw cubs. In later generations, those street stalls sell screw cubs.

There are also many food factories that like to make such screws and package them for retail.

Zhang An and the others don't touch the small ones because the snacks are not enjoyable to eat.

And everyone touches the small ones, and within a few years, there will be no trace of snails in the ditch.

"Haha, look, I touched another big leopard."

Huang Ming held up a large snail to show off to Zhou Yang and Zhang An.

"Throw it over and let me have a look."

Looking from a distance, Zhang An saw that the eldest one was almost like a native egg.

But it was far away, and I looked down upon it. Zhang An thought he had touched a golden apple snail.

As soon as Huang Ming heard this, he threw the big snail in his hand to Zhang An.

Zhang An took a second look and found that it was indeed an escargot, so he was relieved that it wasn't a golden apple snail.

Several people touched along this small ditch, and several catties had already been filled in the bucket.

This year, the three of them should be the first batch of people in the village to touch snails.

Now the big ones in the ditch are still there, if the kids in the school don't go to class.

After they touched it once, there were really only a few snails left.

"Okay, okay, that's enough."

After touching a few ditches, Zhang An's bucket was already half full, and Zhou Yang and Huang Ming's harvest was not bad either.

So when Zhang An shouted, everyone prepared to carry their buckets and go home.

Eat what you touch first, and touch it another day if you want to eat it.

The snails that have just been brought home are full of sand inside the shell, so they cannot be cooked directly.

Put it in a bucket first, soak it in water, and pour some salt and rapeseed oil into it.

Just let it stand for a while, and they will spit out the sand in their stomachs.

Generally, people are not in a hurry to eat the ones they touched the day before. After leaving them overnight, they will almost spit out the sediment the next day.

Finally, knock off their butts, and they can be boiled in a pot.

If it was before, you have to wait until the next day to eat it.

Now Zhang An doesn't want to wait any longer, and wants to cook them at night.

So after returning home, after putting in some rapeseed oil, Zhang An put the bucket into the space.

In this case, after an hour or so, you can take it out and tap the screw tip.

Screws are not only slow to eat, but also slow to handle.

It is necessary to knock off their butts one by one before they can be put into the pot for cooking.

Zhang An and the others eat snails here, which are usually boiled directly.

Unless it is a very big one, like Huang Ming's big ones today, the snail meat inside will be picked out and fried.

"Hey, go and touch the screws and come back, it's not a lot."

After lunch, Zhang Jianguo drove the sheep out and didn't come back until now.

In fact, Zhang An's sheep don't need to be driven out, and the grass in the woods behind grows very well.

It's just that Zhang Jianguo likes to go out for stocking, and he has nothing to do now, so let him go.

"There is nothing to do today. They came to call, and I followed suit."

At the beginning, Zhang An knocked alone, and the speed was relatively slow.

But after Zhang Jianguo came back, the two knocked together, and the speed increased.

After handling the screws, Zhang An handed them over to the old mother who was cooking in the kitchen.

Zhang An can cook it himself, but the taste is not as good.

When it was time to eat, Wang Fang brought out a bowl full of spicy snails and put them on the table.

At this moment, the spicy snails in the pot have just come out of the pot, and they are still smoking hot.

Just smelling this smell, Zhang An already started to choke.

"You two eat first, and I'll send some of the pot next to you to the second and third family."

As Wang Fang said, she picked up the half pot that was separated separately from the side and went out.

In the evening, Zhang An didn't eat anything, and he was always smoking snails, which were really delicious.

It took the family more than an hour to eat this dinner before they wiped out the pot of snails.

This stuff, in fact, does not have much meat, but it is slow to eat and durable.

In later generations, there were people who ordered two plates of boiled snails and drank dozens of bottles of beer at a street food stall.

. . .

There are few idle months in the farmhouse, and people are busy in May.

In fact, it's not just May, April has already begun to be busy.

A few days before Qingming, Zhang An took the time to beat up the seedling fields at home.

After the ancestor worship in the Qingming Festival, the rice seeds sown before have grown to small seedlings that can be transplanted.

During this time, many people came to the village.

Most of them came to the cherry blossom forest on the mountain behind Zhang An's house to enjoy the flowers.

After Zhang An asked, he realized that most of them had read Wu Ming's report.

Only then did I know that there is such a place in Changqing, so I came here on the weekend to enjoy the cherry blossoms.

In fact, on Friday, there were already a few people who came over, and Zhang An thought they were just passing by.

Unexpectedly, on Saturday, the village seemed to be as lively as the Chinese New Year.

Fortunately, the seedlings of Zhang An's family had been transplanted two days ago, and the rapeseeds had not yet been harvested.

So during this time, Wang Fang received many tourists at home.

The ladies who set up stalls selling snacks in the village last year have been dispatched again in the past few days.

From the bridgehead to the village, you can see many people setting up stalls.

In the past two days, Zhou Yang spent money to collect snails from everyone.

When they are ready during the day, they are sold as snacks to people who come to the village to play. There are quite a lot of people who buy them, and the business is very good.

(End of this chapter)