My village can't be like this

Chapter 248 Making Silk Quilts

In the early morning of September 07st, at 30:[-], it looked like the clock.

Today is the start of school, and now on the road in the village, there are a group here and a group there.

These are students who have been on summer vacation for several months.

Now whether it is elementary school or junior high school, morning reading starts at [-]:[-].

Most of the students will arrive at school around [-]:[-], so the road is full of students now.

This year, because two new classes were opened on the first day of junior high school, there were many more students on the road than before.

And Su Ying also got up early in the morning, because today, Monday, she has her morning reading class.

Although it is not a regular class and the class has not yet started, the teacher they are assigned to still has to come to the classroom.

And Wang Fang also prepared breakfast early, Su Ying quickly finished eating, and went out to school.

"Anzi, is your mother at home?"

As soon as Su Ying went out, the second aunt came over.

"My mother's second aunt at home is ordering food in the garden."

While Zhang An was talking to his second aunt, he called out to his mother in the backyard.

It's not time for autumn harvest yet, so everyone is not too busy.

On weekdays, they harvest crops such as beans and peanuts in the field.

So Wang Fang took advantage of this time to plant the vegetable garden first.

After one or two months, this batch of cabbage can be put into the pot.

"Sister-in-law, do you want to go to the field today? If you're not busy, help me open silk cotton together."

Seeing Wang Fang coming out of the backyard, Second Aunt Zhang spoke directly.

"Well, I'll order these cabbage seeds and come."

With Zhang An's help, Wang Fang didn't spend much time planting the opened rapeseed, and then went to Zhang An's second uncle's house to help.

It is not cotton that is opened, but a process in the process of making silk quilts.

Before making silk quilts, the prepared cocoons need to be screened again.

It is necessary to put alkali in clean water to boil the cocoons for a period of time, and then peel the cocoons.

And the word that people often say "stripping the cocoon out of the cocoon" comes from this process.

After the silkworm cocoons are processed, the opened silkworm cocoons need to be stretched.

This is what Zhang An's second aunt came to ask Wang Fang for help today.

If the production process of silk quilt is carried out in the factory, it will be much easier.

But if it is made by hand, it is much more troublesome than in the factory.

The process of making cotton is not difficult to say, but it is not easy.

Because it is really slow to do this job if you are not skilled.

In order for the silk to maintain good toughness, these open cocoons need to be opened in water.

In the yard of Zhang Bin's house, each of them was holding a big wooden basin.

On the edge of the wooden basin, a bamboo bow bent into a semicircle has been fixed.

When everything was ready, Wang Fang picked up a silkworm cocoon from the basin.

Use your hands to stretch it to the size of your palm, then put it on the bamboo bow, and stretch it hard.

In this way, a silkworm cocoon is stretched and pulled into a silk pocket, which is as big as a bamboo bow.

And in the process of opening cotton, there may be some hard nodules on some cocoons.

If these nodules are not removed, the silk quilt will have obvious hard lumps.

It will get knotted after a long time, and the quilt will be uneven in thickness.

So when you encounter this kind of nodules, you need to deal with them. If you make them by hand, you can only rub them hard with your hands.

Repeat this step all the time, unravel the cocoons one by one, and then put them on the bamboo bow one by one, until there are enough cocoons on the bamboo bow.

At this time, after the silk cotton pocket on the bamboo bow is thick enough, it can be removed.

When all the silkworm cocoons are wrapped into silk bags, the cotton-making process is almost over.

Zhang An didn't know this job before, but it's not difficult. Now he watched his mother and second aunt do it for a long time, and he probably knows how to do it.

So I asked my second aunt for a big pot and a bamboo bow, and joined the Kaimian brigade.

Just now when Zhang An was just watching what they were doing, he just felt that it was not difficult.

But after he got started, he realized that this was not the case, because a lot of strength was needed in the process of drawing the bow.

But although Zhang An had great strength, due to lack of proficiency, he broke the silkworm cocoon all at once.

After breaking several times, Zhang An entered the door and made a complete silk bag.

This time, Aunt Zhang and Aunt Zhang discussed it. One person will make a thick quilt and the other will make a thin quilt.

Here, Second Aunt Zhang made thick quilts, using six catties of silkworm cocoons.

Including Zhang An, the three of them did it all morning, and only one third of it was done.

Seeing that it was almost noon, Wang Fang stopped what she was doing and went home to clean up and cook.

At this moment, Zhang An already felt a little sore in his wrist.

Only then did Zhang An realize that it was not unreasonable for silk to be sold so expensively.

From silkworm rearing to subsequent production, no step is easy.

But this is made by hand, if it is in a factory, it will be much easier.

It was not until the afternoon that the cocoons prepared by Second Aunt Zhang were opened.

The subsequent process is much simpler. These opened silk bags need to be wrung out as much as possible.

In the past, this step can only be wrung out with both hands.

But now there is no need to do it, because Zhang An's family has a washing machine.

You can put these wet silk cotton bags directly into them and shake them for a few minutes, which is much more dry than wringing them by hand.

The silk cotton pockets that are finally taken out need to be spread out and then placed in the sun to dry.

Don't be lazy in this step, and make sure that the sun is the dryest, otherwise the silk quilt may not be soft.

As for this step, Second Aunt Zhang spent two full days in the sun. In this way, the materials for the silk quilt were prepared.

After all the silk cotton bags were dried, Aunt Zhang and Wang Fang used scissors to cut them into a cloth bag.

The next step is drawing, which is also a labor-intensive process.

Hand-made silk quilts, if you want to make these small pieces of silk cotton into large quilts, you have to do manual drawing.

Several people dragged the cut silk cotton bag around and pulled it around. As for the size, it depends on how big a quilt you want to make.

This time Aunt Zhang is going to make a 180x200 double quilt for Zhang An, which is very spacious.

So a small piece of silk cotton is pulled into a large thin cotton net by several people.

Only then did Zhang An realize that this thing is really strong.

Seeing how light and delicate a piece of cloth pocket can be stretched into such a large layer.

Until all the silk pockets are pulled apart and stacked together, the quilt has already taken shape.

The rest of the work is just needlework, which is very easy for Wang Fang and his sister-in-law.

They had already bought high-quality fabrics, and now after fixing the quilt core, they sewed the cut fabrics with the silk inside.

It took an afternoon, the three sisters-in-law were busy, and two meconium quilts, one thin and one thick, had been made.

Accompanied by the ringing of the half iron bar in the school, Su Ying also came back from school.

"Xiaoying is back from school, come and see if you like this quilt."

At this time, Second Aunt Zhang just took out a quilt, and it was not the kind of quilt that separates the face from the inside.

It's the one sewn with a zipper, so you can put the quilt directly into it.

Now everyone's quilts are bound directly with quilt covers and quilts, at least the quilts that Zhang An's family makes now are still like this.

It's just that such a quilt is very troublesome to remove and wash every time.

Over the years, bedding has been sold, but because the price is not cheap, people don't want to waste the money.

But this time Zhang An's two aunts not only spent money, but also bought the kind with excellent materials.

They feel that these two quilts have been tossed for several months.

If you just cut any material and sew it, it will be somewhat inconsistent.

Moreover, it is not convenient to change and wash the two small ones in the future, so I simply spent money to buy this ready-made one.

After a while, a big red quilt was fitted out. It was made of bright red and festive fabric, and there was a pattern of mandarin ducks playing in the water.

"I like it. It's just that the two aunts have spent so much time. It's really hard."

Zhang An's two aunts had already started preparing quilts for them, and Su Ying knew about it before.

Not to mention the matter of raising silkworms before, just the two aunts have spent their minds on it these few days, and she sees it.

"It's hard work or not. This quilt will last a lifetime for you young couple, so it doesn't matter if we spend a little time."

Aunt Zhang smiled and said, she really didn't find it hard.

On the contrary, she was very happy to do these things. They have treated Zhang An like their own sons since they were young.

Now that Zhang An is going to start a family, they are willing to spend their time on it.

Unlike some families, there are indeed not many sisters-in-law, but each of them has seven or eight hundred hearts.

In the next few days, Su Ying had to go to school every day.

Zhang An was at home, discussing with his parents to see which relatives needed to be invited.

As the days passed and October was getting closer, Zhang An's family also began to notify relatives at home.

Apart from the strangers in Zhang An's grandmother's family, Zhang An's family actually didn't have many relatives.

As for Zhang An's friends, they are just some friends I met after leaving school in the past two years.

Most of the classmates in the school before, but now most of them have no contact.

Even if I met a few occasionally before, they are all away from home now.

But Mr. Wu Zhonghai can't forget it. He told Zhang An a long time ago that if Zhang An gets married, he must be notified.

So Zhang An spent two days notifying some relatives and friends at home.

"Second Uncle is here, come and have a treat."

When the family was having dinner, Zhang Jianjun came with a basket.

Zhang An got up and took a pair of bowls and chopsticks, and poured wine for his second uncle.

"Xiao An, Xiao Ying, these are sheep peaches from our field, and they are ready to eat these two days."

Zhang Jianjun put the bamboo basket full of kiwis beside him and said.

"So I picked some and gave you a taste. Ours is very sweet, much better than the ones in the mountains."

Speaking of this kiwi, Zhang Jianjun is very happy now.

Their family has spent more than half a year on these few acres of land.

Now the kiwi fruit is ripe, not only much bigger than the ones in the mountains, but also very sweet.

Although the number of fruit hanging this year is not much, it is fruit hanging after all, and it is so delicious.

If it is replaced by other ones, whoever's family will bear fruit in the first year after planting.

So this is a very good sign, and Zhang Jianjun feels that there will be more hope in the future.

"Hey, it's already matured. I thought I'd have to wait until next month."

Zhang An just visited it not long ago. At that time, the fruits hanging on the vines were still very small, so Zhang An felt that they were not ripe so quickly.

Unexpectedly, it has only been more than ten days, and it is already ready to eat.

The kiwi fruit on Wumeng Mountain may be affected by the geographical environment such as altitude or sunshine temperature.

Therefore, the maturity period is relatively later, and it will not mature until the end of September in previous years.

Zhang An didn't expect that the ones grown at home this year would be eaten so many days in advance.

"That's what I thought before. The ones growing in Guanyin Mountain are still hard. Maybe our family can take good care of it."

Zhang Jianjun was also surprised, that is, when he went to see the land today, he found that it was ready to eat.

"Enough is enough, Xiao An, half a bowl is enough. If you drink too much, your aunt will talk about me again when you go home."

Seeing that Zhang An was about to fill up the bowl, Zhang Jianjun hurriedly said.

It's not that he can't drink. The three brothers in his family are all drunk, but they are also all ears.

It used to be a little bit better, and it was okay to drink more, but now it's not good, and I will be talked about for a long time when I go home with two more mouthfuls.

Ever since Zhang Jianguo, the boss, listened to Zhang An's persuasion and only drank so much money each time, Zhang An's two aunts would use them as teaching materials every time they drank.

"It's okay, second uncle, this is Tianma wine, it's okay to drink a little more, it can lower blood pressure."

This day, Zhang An prepared a lot of medicinal wine soaked in Tianma. Every time Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang had a meal, they had to drink a few dollars.

Although they are not too old in their 40s, their blood pressure has risen somewhat now.

If you drink some for a long time, it will help lower blood pressure, and it will also have the effect of expelling wind, dehumidification, and dredging meridians.

Anyway, as long as you don't drink too much, it is good for your body.

Zhang Jianjun was not polite, he found a bench to sit down, and took the Gastrodia Ma wine poured by Zhang An.

"Xiao An, I want to pick these sheep peaches and display them in the town. What price do you think we should set?"

After the meal, Zhang Jianjun told Zhang An what he wanted to say.

No one had sold this kiwi fruit before, so Huang Ming picked a few baskets from the mountain and sold it.

Zhang Jianjun was a little unsure about the pricing. If the price was set high, others would not want to buy it, and if the price was set low, he would suffer.

So when the kiwi fruit in this field was ripe, he came to ask Zhang An.

"Last year, Huang Ming sold it for one piece, so we have to sell it for one piece, right? This fruit is much bigger than the one in the mountains, and it's so sweet."

Zhang An peeled one and handed it to Su Ying, and then tasted one himself.

Although the taste is not as good as the ones grown in the space, it is indeed quite good, even better than the ones grown in later generations.

(End of this chapter)