take a wife to support the family

Chapter 71

The vegetable field is lush green, and several vegetables are growing flourishingly. The corn is as tall as a person, and its inflorescences are slowly coming out. The lentils and cowpeas are also growing tender pods, and they are gradually plumping up.

The pumpkin vines crawl out of the ground and produce many light yellow flowers. The lily leaves a part to form pumpkins. The extra flowers are picked off, dipped in flour and fried with eggs, and it becomes a very good dish: fried pumpkin flowers.

In a few days, small green and furry pumpkins will grow on the melon vines, hidden in the leaves, grow up slowly, and turn yellow when the autumn cools down.

The root of the radish cannot be seen in the ground, and the leaves are clustered in clusters, which makes people think that this radish must grow very well.

Cabbage is what she eats every day, crop after crop, the leaves grow greener and greener, unlike the soft and palatable cabbage at the beginning of summer, but it has more flavor and is more suitable for frying.

What surprised Lily the most was that cucumbers also grew out. This thing sounded strange, but it was actually the cucumber she used to eat in her previous life.

Small pale yellow flowers bloom on the courgette vine, and after the flowers wither, small courgettes grow out. At first, they are only one finger long, but they grow up quickly, changing every day.

Flowers bloom in batches, and courgettes grow in batches. In the beginning, only three or four roots grew every day.

After Lily rolled out the noodles, she went to the vegetable field to pick two fresh courgettes. The stalks and body of the melons had hairy thorns, which were very sticky. After returning home, they soaked them in water and washed them with lard residue, scallion oil, and minced garlic. , vinegar, autumn oil, etc. to make a cold noodle juice.

When Song Haonian came home, Lily put the noodles into the boiling water pot, and rubbed the courgette into long strands with a grater.Take out the noodles and rinse them with cold water, put courgette shreds in the bowl as a base, put a layer on top, cover with a few cabbage leaves, pour the seasoning juice and mix well, it is a bowl of courgette mixed with cold noodles.

Freshly picked courgettes are crisp and tender, with an indescribable sweetness that whets the appetite.

Song Haonian ate two bowls of noodles with courgette shreds, but he still felt that it was not enough, so he ate half a plate of fried pumpkin flowers before he breathed a sigh of relief, and slowly drank the noodle soup to help digestion.

The weather is hot these days, even people like cold noodles are too lazy to eat, Song Haonian hasn't eaten like today for several days, Lily also has a rare appetite, he ate more than one bowl.

Song Haonian drank the soup and said: "I only know that courgettes can be eaten raw, but I didn't expect it to taste better mixed with noodles."

Lily smiled and said, "It's also eaten raw when mixed with noodles. You can't make it tender when it's heated. It's just eaten fresh, and it won't taste so good in a few days."

There are many varieties of courgettes that can be eaten, and they age quickly. Lily picks the thorny young courgettes every day, and tries to make various kinds of food.

Cold cucumbers can be eaten with rice, smashed with the side of a kitchen knife, and then chopped into sections and placed in a sea bowl.If you cut it directly with a knife, it will not be tasty.

Autumn oil, vinegar, green onions, ginger, and garlic are sprinkled on the crushed courgettes, poured with a spoonful of hot rapeseed oil to stimulate the aroma of the ingredients, then sprinkled with salt, mixed well and ready to eat.

Lily also learned a secret when she worked in a restaurant in her previous life: when mixing cold dishes, add two or three drops of lettuce oil to the dishes, and the dishes will be extra delicious.

Rapeseed oil has a special pungent taste, so don't add more, otherwise the cold dishes will have a strange taste, just a little bit can make the dishes several times more delicious than ordinary ones.

Such a secret lily will not be easily passed on to others, even Li Caifeng was surprised when she ate the pickled cucumber made by lily: "Why is it so fresh!"

Only then did Li Caifeng pass on the secret to her, and Li Caifeng tried it at home, and it was even more delicious than the previous one.Turning around, she said to Lily: "Sister, you have such skills, you should open a restaurant."

Qingliu Town is crossed by a big road, and there are countless merchants passing by every day. Most of them stop to rest, drink water and eat. The restaurants along the road in the town are called Li Caifeng. Lily, with such a skill, he still earns a lot of money, which makes people envious.

Lily said: "Opening a restaurant requires capital, and now I don't have the capital. I'll talk about it after I save enough capital."

Hearing that Bai He was concerned, Li Caifeng knew that she was a person with a clear mind, so she didn't say any more, but went home and thought about it with Liu Yi: "You said how about we open a restaurant later?"

Liu Yi said: "Okay!"

Li Caifeng hesitated again: "Forget it, let's talk about it in two years."

She is good at cooking, but she only comes and goes with a few home-cooked dishes, and it's not like Baihe always has new ideas. If she opens a restaurant, she will definitely not be able to compete with the well-known old restaurants, and I'm afraid she will lose money in vain.

Since then, I have not mentioned this.

Cucumbers are fragrant and sweet, and they are perfect for quenching thirst. The courgettes grown in lilies grow more and more, and they can't be eaten at home, and it's not good to let them grow too old on the melon vines.

Later, as soon as fresh courgettes were ripe, she picked a few and kept them at home for cooking or eating them raw, and sold the rest, earning a few pennies.

Some courgettes are hidden under the leaves, and if one doesn’t pay attention, they will grow old. Lily cuts them into slices and cooks soup with cabbage and sausage.

She read a little story before, saying that courgettes and kelp are extra fresh when boiled together, and there will be a taste of monosodium glutamate.

No one can master the technology of extracting monosodium glutamate from rice these days, and the umami depends entirely on the food itself.Taiping County is not far from the sea, and occasionally there are people who come from the sea to sell dried seafood. Lily thought, next time I meet such a person, I should also buy some kelp and the like to keep at home.

These days, the wheat has gradually become golden and plump, and it is time to harvest the wheat.People in Taiping County grow both rice and wheat.

The rice is planted in the paddy fields near the river, and it is not yet ready for harvest.Wheat is planted in the hilly area. In this season, the rice flowers are fragrant and the wheat waves are golden. Against the white walls and black tiles in the shade of green willows, scholars from the city can write two more poems.

Harvesting wheat is a hard job. You have to get up at the hour of the day every day. Before the sun comes out, you will organize people to cut the wheat. At the end of the day, the sun is too dry to cut. Transport it back to the threshing ground for threshing and stacking.

The Liu Mansion also hired some little dolls, each of them gave them a basket to pick up wheat ears, and gave them a piece of maltose for each basket they picked up. The adults in their family didn’t have to look after the children, and the little dolls had candy to eat, and the wheat ears in Liu Mansion were picked. All happy.

No matter who the family is, as long as the wheat is planted, the whole family can't finish harvesting. They must ask someone to help them, take care of the food, and put a few liters of wheat at the end as a thank you gift.

Mr. Liu's farm is the largest farm in Qingliu Town. There are over a hundred mu of wheat planted. All his parents and workers have to get up early and work late to harvest and thresh wheat.

Liu Sheng hastily asked Mr. Liu to prescribe the prescription and get the medicine. All the expenses will be borne by the accountant of Liu's house. Years are worthless.

Song Haonian had the straw hat and honeysuckle water prepared by Lily, and he didn't suffer from heatstroke, but he became darker and thinner, and his palms also had a few blisters.

When harvesting wheat, one has to grab a bundle of straw with the left hand and stretch it forward, hold a sickle in the right and cut off the straw from under the left hand, pile up a dozen of the same length on the ground, twist the straw of last year into a rope, and tie it into a bundle.

When transporting wheat to the threshing ground, a stick is poked on both ends of the straw and left, just like carrying a pole.

Some people were so exhausted that they either cut their hand accidentally, or swiped the sickle on their calf, and immediately the blood flowed profusely, turning red all over.Song Haonian was afraid of scaring Lily, so he refused to let her know about such things, but said that his palms were a little itchy.

Lily stretched out the shape of his hand, and made a pair of mitts out of linen. Song Haonian tried them on. The linen fit very well on his hands, without being too tight or too hot. He repeatedly said that Lily was smart.

The activity on the farm was so fast that it didn't dare to stop. Hundreds of acres of wheat were harvested in a few days, and all of them were moved back to the threshing ground to pile up several hills.

When it is time to thresh, clean the ground and ask a few sturdy young men to roll the stone roller back and forth to compact the ground.Then the wheat was spread on top in sheaves by sheaves, and beaten with a flail.

The lower part of the flail is a wooden handle more than ten feet long. The top is connected with a row of bamboo sticks to form a knocking rod, and the middle is connected with a shaft.The wheat is laid out on the ground, and the flail is thrown, and the knocking rod is raised high, and it falls heavily on the wheat, knocking the wheat grains from the stalks with such strength.

Wheat stalks are dried and stacked on the turf, which can be eaten by cows, horses and mules for a year. The wheat grains are spread out on the threshing ground every morning to dry, turn over, grind the husks with a wooden roller, and blow them to the wind when the wind blows in the afternoon. , Let the wind blow away the light chaff, leaving behind the plump wheat grains.

Three to five days later, the wheat grains are dried and dehydrated. At this time, a wooden windmill is used to blow them again to blow out the chaff and shriveled wheat grains, which are used to feed pigs and chickens, and the remaining good grains can be put into warehouses. Put it in the cupboard and store it. From September to October, you can go to the mill by the river to grind the flour, and you can eat fresh flour.

In Liu Yi's group of sworn brothers, except for Song Haonian, every family grows wheat, so Liu Yi gathers a few people together to see who's wheat will turn yellow first and whose wheat will be a few days later, and gather the strength of the brothers Cut off the whole family first, and then cut off the whole family, lest everyone sweep the snow in front of their own doors, and in the end, no one’s family’s wheat can be harvested.

Song Haonian was at the Liufu Farm, he was not allowed to help his brothers, and felt a little anxious.Lily told him not to worry, work hard, and go to the brothers' house to help their women cook.

The men of several families worked together, and the women also cooked together. Mrs. Wang's syrup tasted the best. At noon, everyone had to drink starch water noodles, spread egg pancakes, and honeysuckle water with sugar to avoid heat stroke.

In the evening, I cook miscellaneous rice. Song Dagui's family has good stewed meat. Everyone loves to eat stewed pig ears. Lily adds a cold pickled cucumber and boiled pickled cucumber and cabbage soup.

After the sun went down, there was a cool breeze on the Baishui River, and the heat was gone.The men ate around the table and drank a few cups. Xing'er was not afraid of the heat, sitting on his father's lap, holding a piece of ribs with both hands, and eating with relish. Liu Yi dipped his chopsticks in the wine and put it on the tip of her tongue, asking her to taste the wine Son.

Then Xing'er was so hot that the wine brought tears to her eyes, and she came to find her mother crying.The women opened another table and sat down to eat. They didn't drink white wine, but some fermented glutinous rice. Li Caifeng couldn't stop laughing, so she washed some fermented glutinous rice with white water for her daughter to drink, and Xing'er finally stopped crying.

(End of this chapter)