peasant young lady

Chapter 41 You Can Finally Grow Peppers
Yang Lihua quickly twisted her water snake's waist and followed, "Sister-in-law, let me go with you, and I will also pick some herbs and wild vegetables to supplement the family."

Cheng Xia quickly waved her hand, "No, no, you have always looked down on these few coins, you should embroider at home."

Cheng Xia also couldn't figure it out, picking a herb cost five cents, and doing embroidery for a few days only cost three or four cents. If she didn't understand, why did she look down on Yang Lihua? Maybe it was because she didn't want to work hard and felt ashamed.

"Sister-in-law, five cents is also money. I was not sensible before, but from now on, I will follow my sister-in-law, and I will go wherever my sister-in-law goes." Yang Lihua said, holding Cheng Xia's arm affectionately, and was about to go out.

"Hey wait a minute," Cheng Xia raised her eyebrows and looked at Yang Lihua with a smile, "The sun is getting higher and higher, and you will be tanned by then, will you look good when you get married? It's just a matter of a few pennies , I’ll give it to you when I pick it up.”

Yang Lihua struggled to think about it, but she didn't follow.

Cheng Xia went out happily, and went all the way to the mountain smoothly. After carefully checking that there was no one around, she quickly jumped into the rose bushes.I ran to the lake in three or two steps, removed the thick weeds, and saw the bag of pepper seeds lying in the hole I dug safe and sound.

Fortunately, it was packed in a plastic bag, otherwise the heavy rain the day before yesterday would have washed away the chili seeds.

The instructor said that this is a high-quality pepper seed newly developed by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences. I don’t know how high the quality is. The bag of pepper seeds says no soaking and no fertilization. Maybe this is the advantage.

Cheng Xia sat on the ground by the lake and carefully thought about how to plant pepper seeds. It is said that peppers like high temperature and humidity, which happens to be the case in Fujian.As for the need for flat terrain and not being able to plant in low-lying areas, that is simpler. Just plant peppers by the lake in a while.

Although she has never grown peppers on the ground, she has planted several on the balcony of their house. She has seen her mother grow potted peppers with her own eyes, so maybe it shouldn't be much different.

Go ahead and do it, Cheng Xia tightened the skirt on her body a little bit, making it uncomfortable to do long-winded work.She walked around the lake twice and chose the most flat and open place, where there is more sunlight, then cleaned up all the weeds on the ground, and then loosened the large piece of land with a small hoe , and then compacted, so several times, to make the soil more convenient to use.

When the soil was finished, Cheng Xia saw that the sun had reached the middle of the day. Afraid of arousing suspicion, and fearing that Yang Lihua, who was having cramps, would go up the mountain to look for her, Cheng Xia decided to pick some herbs and go home first, and take a bite by the way. The meal will come again in the afternoon.

Seeing Cheng Xia's return, Yang Lihua greeted her considerately and took the pannier from her back, picked out the wild vegetables by herself, and spread the remaining herbs to dry in the yard.

The more Cheng Xia looked at Yang Lihua, the more she felt strange, but there was no definite evidence, so Cheng Xia decided to wait and see what kind of medicine Yang Lihua was selling in her gourd.

After lunch and a brief rest, Cheng Xia took advantage of Yang Lihua's afternoon nap and took a hoe and a basket, along with a bucket, to the back mountain.

Turning into the rose bushes again, looking at the piece of land she had sorted out, Cheng Xia made an estimate, not knowing how much it was or how big it was, but it felt about the size of the house her parents bought in Beijing, forty to fifty years old. flat.

Anyway, in Cheng Xia's opinion, she is not too young, and she already has a premonition that taking care of these peppers will exhaust her to death in the future.

If the planting goes well.Cheng Xia silently added in her heart.

It stands to reason that before sowing pepper seeds, the seeds need to be soaked in clean water for about eight hours. Only in this way can the seeds germinate better, but Cheng Xia saw that it says no soaking, which means that this step can be done. Omitted.

Cheng Xia didn't know how to grow peppers in a large area, but she remembered that her mother sprinkled a few pepper seeds in each container, and then watered them so that the pepper seeds would naturally blend into the cracks in the soil.

Cheng Xia decided to follow this procedure. The pepper seeds in her hand were a heavy bag, but Cheng Xia didn't dare to use them all. If they didn't germinate, she would lose money.

Cheng Xia sowed most of the chili seeds, leaving a small part still in the bag, buried in the original pit and covered it with weeds, thinking that if it didn't work this time, she would wait until autumn to plant it again.

In everything, you have to leave a way out for yourself.

After the seeds were sown, Cheng Xia began to carefully sprinkle the soil with a bucket of water little by little, for fear that the seeds would be drowned by watering too much suddenly.After carrying more than a dozen buckets of water from the lake and finally watering all the soil twice, Cheng Xia felt like his waist was broken.

Before crossing, Cheng Xia liked to read the so-called farming articles, thinking that it would be good for others to make a fortune by farming, but it was only after he practiced it himself that Cheng Xia realized that ordinary people really couldn’t do this job, they were exhausted to death.

She only has this bit of land now, and she is dying. The people in the village often have dozens of acres, but it seems to be easy, which is really amazing.

Since he brought a bucket, Cheng Xia simply caught two fish in the lake and took them home to eat, so he had to improve the food properly.

Finally, he checked the chili field carefully, and felt that there was nothing missing, so Cheng Xia came out of the rose bush contentedly.

When she came out, she accidentally pricked her finger with a rose, and instantly bright red blood flowed out. Cheng Xia put her finger in her mouth and sucked it for a moment, then suddenly stared at the blooming rose bushes and became dazed.

She went in and out of the rosebushes several times, ignoring the important means of making money from roses.

Roses are not rare, and unlike peppers and pineapples, which were introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty, roses have existed since ancient times, but ancient people did not like roses, and in modern society, roses seem to have become the representative of Western love. , causing many people to think that roses were introduced from the West, which is actually quite wrong.

There were already records about roses in the Han Dynasty more than 2000 years ago. It is written in "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes" in the Han Dynasty: There are self-growing rose trees in Dongyou Garden.

Wen Tingyun, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote "the rose blows the ground red", and Yang Wanli of the Song Dynasty even wrote the words "it is not the name of Guan Yuexiu, and it is not related to the genealogy of roses", which shows that in the Song Dynasty, people already associated roses with Chinese roses, Qiangwei distinguished them.

Since the rose appeared so early, why has it been ignored in ancient times?Cheng Xia once really thought about this problem seriously, no wonder she thinks too much, you are like the peach blossoms in "the world is full of fragrance in April, and the peach blossoms in mountain temples begin to bloom"; The chrysanthemums in the "medium"; the lotus like "the little lotus just showed its sharp horns, and the dragonfly stood on its head"; The true national color, the peony, the national flower of the capital, is widely praised by the world, and countless famous sayings through the ages have been handed down to the world.

As for roses, there are very few people who sing them, making roses rarely seen in ancient poems and songs.

Later Cheng Xia found out that the reason why roses have been neglected is because there are too many flowers similar to roses.

For example, the same species of rose, rose, and ditang, as well as Tumi and Muxiang are all plants of the Rosaceae family. They have so many similarities that they are possible substitutes for each other.Especially in ancient times, roses were already widely known, which made roses not so prominent.Moreover, the ancient roses were not as exquisite and beautiful as modern people see. Most of the ancient roses were single-petal roses, which looked very thin and ordinary.The most common roses in modern times are varieties that have been improved in the West, but they did not exist in ancient times.

Second, because roses have thorns.There are thorns on the stem of the rose, so it has been called "the hero" and "assassin" in ancient literature records. These names all carry unspeakable irony, and the preference of the ancients is obvious.

Third, because roses have a particularly unpleasant name called "Li Niang Grass". Every time a new branch is inserted into a rose, the old tree is easy to wither. Such a name.Since the implication is not good, who can pay more attention to roses?

And the most important point is that the ancient people loved some tall and straight trees to show their uprightness, or flowers with simple and elegant colors to show their low-key and connotation, and roses don't occupy any of them.The rose is a low shrub with a strong fragrance. For this reason, the rose has another name called wandering flower because of its strong fragrance.

How can such a rose with all kinds of "disadvantages" shine in ancient times?So Tao Yuanming only loved chrysanthemums, Zhou Dunyi only loved lotuses, Wu Zetian only loved peonies, but none of them preferred roses.On the contrary, in modern times, roses are shown as a representative of love because of their unique fragrance and meaning, but they are proud of themselves.

Speaking of roses, if you can sprinkle some rose petals in the bath, it will smell really good.

And the roses in the dishes are also top-notch. Cheng Xia still has an unforgettable memory of the rose ice porridge that his father made.Not only is it delicious, but it is also beautiful. The bright color makes people want to eat it.

Others, such as crispy fried young lotus sprouts rolled roses, rose mung bean cake, rose sour fish soup, etc., are all delicious.

A flash of inspiration flashed in Cheng Xia's head, and she suddenly thought that rose sauce is a good thing, and it was not until the Qing Dynasty that someone made rose sauce, so she had an advantage.

It is already a matter of July and August for the left and right peppers to mature. Before that, you can’t just rely on candied winter melon to make money. Candied winter melon can only be promoted to Shangji Pharmacy. The channels are too narrow and the income is too little. Three months It is impossible to earn enough 50 taels of silver.

But rose sauce is different. It is a good thing. Not to mention the beauty and medicinal value, it is said that rose sauce is fragrant and fragrant after it is made. Although literati and elegant guests do not like this taste, those who are kept in deep boudoir like it Ah, who doesn’t love rose sauce that smells good all over the body, maybe it can even make your husband love it even more with this taste.

While thinking about the possibility of making rose sauce, Cheng Xia quickly picked a basket of herbs and wild vegetables and went home.

After returning to Yang's house, seeing what Mrs. Chen and Lin Xiu who had come back from her mother's house were busy doing, Cheng Xia took a closer look and couldn't help but be overjoyed.

(End of this chapter)