Wang family small peasant girl

Chapter 19

When he woke up the next morning, Zhang Yun realized that there had been snow in the sky overnight, and thin snow had accumulated on the roof and the ground. The father and son of the Zhang family walked home on snow before noon. He and Zhou had been pounding the camellia seeds for a day, but they didn't even get half a bamboo basket. It was really not easy to crush the seed shells to get the kernels.

After the father and son returned, Mrs. Zhou told Zhang Youqing what Zhang Yun thought, and then got up and took out a new padded jacket for Zhang Xing and Zhang Zhang, and asked Zhang Youqing to put on the old one as well.As soon as it snows in the sky, the temperature will drop a lot. It is impossible not to dress warmly.

Hearing what Mrs. Zhou said, Zhang Youqing, who had put on the padded jacket and left the house, joined in to pound camellia seeds without saying a word. After putting on the padded jacket, Zhang Zhangxing and Zhang Xing also joined in. Zhangzhang pounded camellia seeds while Zhang Xing stood aside. Helping to use a sieve to sieve some of the broken seed husks, and then pick out the kernels, the whole family sat on the benches under the eaves in front of the main room, and worked hard.

After noon, Zhang Liangen came back from the field early. Yesterday, he followed Zhang Yun and Mrs. Zhou to pound camellia seeds for a long time, and the three of them stopped until it was dark. No, today Thinking that there were tea oil seeds to pound at home, Er shoveled off the snow in the field and spread dry straw to preserve the seeds. He hurried so quickly, roughly finished the work at hand, and came back early to help.

This time, the manpower was doubled, and the work was done much faster. The whole family worked in full swing, until it was too dark to see clearly. After all the seeds and kernels were packed, Mrs. Zhou quickly picked out the pot of noodles, each filled a large bowl, lit a weak oil lamp in the main room, and the family ate dinner.

The whole Zhang family held bowls around an oil lamp, ate noodles, and chatted a few or two gossips, interspersed with the sound of soup drinking, and looked up at the courtyard from time to time, and now the sky began to drift again. Flakes of snow.After working so hard all day, the whole family can sit together and have a bowl of hot food. This is what ordinary people look forward to.

Zhang Yun listened to his father, mother, and grandpa discussing the matter of keeping warm in the ground for a while. After eating a bowl of gnocchi, he was almost overwhelmed. His stomach was full. After drinking the hot soup, his body became warm again, and his hands and feet became hot. Get up, so that you have the energy to think about the next thing. When the noodles are all eaten, Zhang Yun puts down the bowl and chopsticks and starts talking.

"Father, mother, there are only two sets of stone mortars and pestles at home. Our family is all crowded together to pound seeds. It always feels like there are too many people. You see, it has been more than half a day since father and elder brother came back at noon. The seeds are not enough for a basket, so I didn’t think too much about it, I think we should split up and do it faster.” When Zhang Yungang was eating the noodles, he was thinking about this problem. It is the most ideal way. If you arrange it well, it can be much faster.

After Zhang Youqing and Zhou Shi heard this, they thought for a while that it really made sense, so they all nodded in agreement. Zhang Yun saw that his family members agreed, so he carefully thought about the subsequent procedures to see how to divide them.

The first step is to pound the seeds and extract the kernels. After the seeds are taken out, they must be ground into powder in a stone mill, then steamed with a wooden steamer, and then fried in an iron pan. The oil cakes are squeezed out with a wooden press, and these tasks have to be done in the next ten to 20 days. If there is no division of labor and cooperation, I am afraid that it will be too late to sell the oil before the end of the year.

Thinking about it this way, Zhang Yun felt even more urgent, and hurriedly said: "Father, mother, let's divide up the work at hand today." When Zhang Yun mentioned this, everyone nodded, and the whole family quickly poured it into the bowl. After eating the gnocchi, I wiped my mouth and gathered around to discuss.

Several people met and discussed for a while, and then divided up all the things to be done.Mrs. Zhou and Zhang Zhang each have a pair of stone mortar and pestle, and are responsible for pounding the seeds. Zhang Xing is still the same as today, helping to sieve. Zhang Liangen has to continue to shovel snow and lay straw in the field. After the work is done, it will not be too late to help. From tomorrow onwards, you will have to start grinding the kernels into powder. The work of grinding and grinding will be handed over to Zhang Youqing, and Zhang Yun will help him pour the material and brush the powder. Let's start, and there will be a series of tasks such as steaming noodles, frying noodles, making oil cakes, and pressing oil.

After agreeing on the division of labor, the whole family got the task, and then they will all be busy, so after eating and cleaning up, they all went to bed and rested, thinking about getting a good night's sleep, so that they can change tomorrow. Driven.

The next day the whole family got up early, and as soon as they opened the door, they saw heavy snow flying, and the whole world became white. When the snow was heavy, the sky became colder. The work became more difficult, but no one in the Zhang family cared about it. Regardless of whether it was cold winter or midsummer, ordinary people had to rely on hard work to support their families, so after everyone washed up, they started to work.

Zhang Yun followed behind his father. Zhang Youqing moved the bamboo basket containing the seeds to the stone mill in the kitchen. Inside were the kernels taken out yesterday. The bamboo basket was heavy. If Zhang Yun lifted it up and poured it into the feeding hole It took a lot of effort, so she took the Shau Kei, and grabbed the seeds into the Shau Kei, which made it easier to pour the ingredients. When taking the Shau Kei, she took a clean cloth, a cooking broom, and a big bamboo basket. , When you get to the stone mill, first use a cloth to wipe the mill table carefully, so that you don’t have to brush off the dust and fine stones when you are painting the powder.

After all the preparations were done, Zhang Youqing set up the crutches. Zhang Yun poured the benevolence from the Shau Kei into the feeding hole. Zhang Youqing held the crutches and slowly pushed up the stone mill. Amidst the creaking sound, powder particles fell from the gap between the two stone plates.

After Zhang Yun poured all the seeds and kernels in the Shau Kei down little by little, he picked up the broom and quickly brushed all the powder particles that fell on the stone platform into the basket, and when the kernels in the stone mill were almost ground, he put it down. Take the broom and the basket, take the dustpan and refill the seeds, and continue to pour the material into the feeding hole. After repeated operations like this, the powder in the basket will accumulate more and more.

After all the seeds and kernels in the bamboo bamboo basket have been ground, a large basket of powder has been filled. However, the process of grinding powder is not good, and the powder has to be ground again. , the powder will be more fine and even, in order to have a better oil yield.After the powder was finely ground, Zhang Yun picked up the empty bamboo basket, went to Zhou's and Zhangzhang's place to replace the bamboo basket containing the seeds, and brought it to the stone mill to grind the powder.

After such a few hours, the stone mill will not be able to pick up the seeds. After all, the stone mill grinds flour faster, while the pound seeds are much slower. It is common sense that Zhou and Zhang Zhang cannot keep up with the speed of the stone mill. In this way, the stone mill was handed over to Dad, and he was allowed to pour the material and paint the powder by himself, while she ran to help with a process of pounding seeds. Zhang Xing also had no time to help, so he had to help.

The whole family has been so busy for half a day, but when Zhang Liangen came back, he brought back a pair of stone mortar and pestle, which he said were borrowed from Chang Siliang's house. Sticky Snow moved the stone mortar to Zhou's side, sat down on a bench, didn't even move the dry tobacco that he used to smoke when he entered the door, and pounded the camellia seeds together, added a pair of stone mortar and pestle, and pounded Seed's progress accelerated a bit, and the three of them moved forward at the same time, and the stone mill on Zhang Youqing's side never failed to connect again.

After the division of labor and cooperation, the speed is really faster. When the work was done in the dark, the ground powder had already filled nearly half of a bamboo basket, and the camellia seeds had been pounded out of a whole basket. In the next day, the remaining five baskets could be ground into powder.

The Zhang family kept busy for more than ten days, and by the time the six baskets of camellia seeds were all ground into powder, it was already the end of the month, and the twelfth lunar month was about to enter in a blink of an eye. After the pounded and crushed camellia oleifera fruit peels were moved into the cellar, the noodles were steamed and fried. After another five days, the process of steaming and frying the noodles was completely completed. It is full of four baskets.

On the third day of the twelfth lunar month, the days of snow finally stopped. Zhang Youqing and Zhang Liangen carried four baskets of fried noodles and went to the old ancestral hall in the village. Although it was in disrepair for a long time, the village moved a new one early No one goes to the ancestral hall anymore, but the old wooden press that has been handed down for several generations in the village has been kept in the old ancestral hall because of its size and is difficult to carry. Whenever villagers want to press oil, they will go to went over there.

Mrs. Zhou went there with Zhang Youqing and Zhang Liangen, thinking that she could help, and Zhang Yun also said that she would go with her. The difference between her and Mrs. Zhou was not because she wanted to help, but because she had never seen this kind of ancient wood press before. She felt fresh and curious, so she wanted to follow. Mrs. Zhou saw that it was not snowing today, so she let her go.

The four of them stepped on the snow, crossed the path of the village, and headed towards the entrance of the village. The old ancestral hall was not far from the entrance of the village.It has been three or nine days now, the land has been frozen, there is no more work in the field, and the farmers are all resting at home, so when the Zhang family walked through the village carrying baskets, they encountered many people coming up Greetings, most people in the same village are familiar with each other, and there are a few people who asked about the fried noodles in the basket. Without delay, go to the old ancestral hall.

Zhang Yun followed all the way, and after seeing his father and mother went back to press the oil, everyone showed surprise on their faces. Most people in the village press rapeseed oil, and rapeseed is harvested in spring, so the oil press is naturally at that time. Even if it is peanut and soybean oil, it will be in August or September. During the twelfth lunar month, no one has ever pressed oil. No wonder everyone was surprised when the Zhang family said they would press oil at this time.

When Zhang's family walked through the entire village house, Zhang Yun glanced back, thinking in his heart that the story of oil extraction from camellia oleifera fruit would spread in the near future.

(End of this chapter)