The rural life of a peasant girl

Chapter 31 Harvesting Wheat

At that time, Su Ling would look at the corn every day to see if its buds had grown and if there was less water. She was also happy to think that she would have corn to eat in the future!

In particular, this corn can not only be eaten, but also cooked, and can also be made into corn cakes, polenta, etc., which she misses very much.

Su Dong was on vacation, and Su Ling followed Su Dong to learn to write. Although she could recognize many characters in this era, she hadn't specially learned brush calligraphy in modern times. She was afraid when she used that soft brush to write. But you have to learn to be afraid.

At the same time, she also talked about some modern knowledge with Su Dong. Every time Su Dong listened with great interest, he didn't know how this younger sister knew so many things, but she didn't tell him and he didn't ask. tacit agreement.

In particular, the Arabic numeral accounting method taught by Su Ling is very time-saving, and the Four Books and Five Classics also let him understand a lot.

After the corn germinated, Su Ling asked Su's father to turn over a few ridges of land for her in the backyard. There were not many corn seeds. Su Ling planned to keep most of the first season's corn as seeds, and sell a small part. Although she also wanted to eat, but in order to improve the conditions at home, especially looking at this thatched cottage, she had a strong desire to build a new house.

It takes a long time to build a new house and it will cost a lot of money, so the most important thing now is to earn money and strive to build a new house this year.

The days passed by quickly, and soon came the Great Heat, the hottest solar term of the year, and it was also the season when wheat matured.Spring wheat has a relatively short growth period and is sown earlier than other crops, so it is the earliest to be harvested.Wheat harvesting is different from other crops such as corn and sorghum. Its harvest must be timed, neither too early nor too late.If it is too early, the grouting of the wheat grains is not full enough, and if it is too late, the wheat grains will fall off from the ears of wheat, and the time gap between morning and evening is extremely short, one day, two days, maybe missed time.

In the wheat season, rain is the most taboo.If the wheat is ripe and cannot be harvested before the rain, the grains of wheat will germinate and the harvest will be affected.

So when it comes to harvesting wheat, we must grasp the timing.

Father Su watched the field for several days, and finally waited until the wheat was ripe, so he waved his hand.

"The wheat is ripe, start to cut the wheat."

The harvesting of wheat is similar to the harvesting of millet, that is, the whole wheat is cut off with a sickle, and then bundled into bundles and transported back to the drying field.

In order to harvest the wheat, Su's father hired a few part-time workers, even Su Ling's grandfather, uncle and uncle Li came to help, and it took two full days to harvest the ten mu of wheat.

In the wheat fields after harvesting, there are only short stubbles left.Su's mother, Su Ling and Su He did not participate in the wheat harvest, but they were not idle either.The three women were all wearing clothes for going to the ground, straw hats on their heads, tightly tied trouser legs with bandages, and wrapped their feet. Each of them carried a basket in his hand and picked up in the harvested wheat fields. ears of wheat.

Ten acres of land, the three went back and forth two or three times, and called Aunt Li and Xiaocao to help.

The hard work of planting crops, each grain contains the sweat and hard work of the farmer, so it should not be wasted. Even those farmers who have never read a book and cannot read a single word understand this simple truth.Therefore, I can often hear adults teaching children at the dinner table that there should be no rice grains left in the eating bowl.They don't know how to speak big principles, even if they talk about it, children may not understand it.

The harvested wheat has been transported back to the yard of Su Ling's family and started to dry. , The ears of wheat were also picked up, and Su's father started to go down to the field again, trimming the stubble, and preparing to plant another stubble.

The wheat stubble was finely crushed, and the soil on it was cleaned after digging out, but it was not transported home.If these stubbles are used as firewood, they will not be burned.

So Father Su simply dried and burned the wheat stubble, piled it on the ground, brought some manure, dug a hole in the ground, put the wheat stubble in it, poured the manure in, watered it, and composted it. For a bumper harvest, Su's father also saw the benefits of the fertilizer. Needless to say, Su Ling would prepare the fertilizer himself.

The ten mu of land, after being re-trimmed, is half used to grow soybeans and half used to grow cabbage.

Planting vegetables in the field has never happened in Huaxi Village, but Su Ling has his own ideas. Now his family is cooperating with Tianyue Restaurant. The cabbage on the five-acre field can be made into sauerkraut by then. Soybeans can be used to grow bean sprouts, and can also be used to make tofu. If we can research the tofu skin and add another dish, the business of Tianyue Restaurant will definitely be improved.

After the cabbage and soybeans are planted and the wheat is dried, it is time to start threshing.

There are two methods of threshing wheat.One is the same way as millet threshing, which is to spread the dried ears of wheat on the solid ground, and then use a roller to press it round and round. This roller is so heavy that people cannot move it, so we have to borrow mules and oxen to pull it. Roller.

Another method is to use manual beating, which is the same way that jade handles sorghum.After beating, some of the wheat remains on the ears, so it is necessary to do it, and of course it is best to go through the mill.

The two approaches complement each other.

After being pressed again and again by the stone roller, the wheat grains will come out of the skin.And to completely separate the wheat grains from the skins, one more process is needed, which is to raise the field.

After passing through the lifting field, you have to use a dustpan to shake out the remaining wheat husks, and at the same time pick out some sundries, such as small stones, small soil clods, etc., leaving only clean peeled wheat grains. That way it can be bagged and stored in the barn.

Su Ling's family had a bumper harvest of wheat this year. Su's father borrowed a scale to weigh it. The yield per mu was more than 300 to [-]. Compared with the previous yield of one or two hundred catties, this is already considered Very good.Father Su stroked the wheat happily, just like touching his own child.

The harvested wheat was all weighed, and Su's father sent a bag of wheat to the mill for grinding. The whole family couldn't wait to taste the fine grains produced by themselves.

Soon, the noodles will be ground back.The white flour exudes a faint fragrance of wheat. Su Ling is very satisfied. When grinding the flour, she specifically ordered the flour to be finer.

When the noodles were brought back, Mother Su and Su Ho also came over to look at them. Seeing the thin white noodles exuding a faint fragrance of wheat, Mother Su was also sincerely happy. It was grown by herself. The most important thing is that this year is a In a good harvest year, when spring comes next year, there is no need to worry about being hungry. How can she be unhappy!

"It looks good!" Su's father squeezed a little white flour with his hands.

After the flour is ground, it is natural to eat it.

"Mother, let's use this to make dumplings tonight!" Su Ling suggested.

"Okay." Mother Su readily agreed, scooped up a basin of wheat noodles, and started kneading the noodles.

(End of this chapter)