Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

The next day, everyone got up early. After breakfast, Zhixin and the old man led Wenhan and Wencheng up the mountain. The third and fourth children also took their families home. Jingwan and Jingxian both followed their parents back to the county town. Jinghan was a little reluctant to let them go and kept asking them to come back when they had time. Before leaving, Zhiming told Chen that Zhixin would finish planting the sticks in two days and then take all the red goods made this year to the county and sell them. Mrs. Chen agreed and said she would go in two days.

Mrs. Chen was still the same, bringing a lot of things to both families, including pine nuts, walnuts, mushrooms, etc., and she took a lot of them. This time Han didn't pick anything, he took them all. Seeing the departing figures of these people, Ms. Chen felt uncomfortable. What people of her age wanted most was for their children and grandchildren to be around and lively.

Last night, Mrs. Zhu told Mrs. Chen about adopting Wenchang, but Mrs. Chen did not agree. First, the Zhus are still young and may have another child. Furthermore, brothers Wencheng and Wenchang cannot be separated. If they are adopted together by the third child, they are afraid that the third child will not be able to afford it, so it is better to just keep them by their side. The old couple can still work hard and support their two children. However, Mrs. Chen also said that if after waiting four or five years, Ms. Zhu still didn’t have it, she would record Wenchang in Zhiming’s name, and let Wenchang provide for Zhiming and his wife in the future.

Mrs. Zhu thought about it and felt that it was true. She had two daughters in her family. It would be really troublesome to have two more sons. So I no longer think about adoption.

After seeing off her son and daughter-in-law, Ms. Chen and Mrs. Xue led Jinghan and the others to the garden to pull cabbages and radishes. This year's cabbages and radishes are growing well. Mrs. Chen and others first pulled out the radish, and then Mrs. Xue took a kitchen knife and chopped off all the leaves and a bit of the top of the radish. In this way, the radish will not sprout and turn into chaff. Of course, it is also necessary to leave a few larger ones so that they can be used as seeds for next year.

The cut radish tassels cannot be thrown away. They are tied up with ropes and hung in a shady place. After drying in the shade, you can make small tofu in winter. In winter, especially in the days before spring, most people will make some small tofu, which is very good as a dish.

After all the radishes were chopped, Xue dug a hole in the ground with a shovel, put the radishes in the hole, and then filled it with soil. Of course, when filling the soil, a few corn stalks should be inserted in the middle so that the radishes underneath can breathe and will not go bad. The Xu family grew two kinds of radishes, one was the red radish they ate yesterday, and the other was an ordinary green radish. Mrs. Xue saved a lot of red radishes for the children to eat as snacks, and buried all the green radishes.

Work goes faster when there are more people. The carrots haven't been buried yet, so Bianshi led the children to pull cabbages again. This cabbage is generally used for two purposes, one is to pickle sauerkraut, and the other is to store it in the cellar and wait until winter to stir-fry and eat it. The cabbage for pickling sauerkraut does not need to be too good, keep the good ones for storage. So Mrs. Chen took a kitchen knife and chopped down the cabbage that was to be pickled, and then Jinghan and the others carried the chopped cabbage into a pile. The rest that needs to be stored in the cellar can wait for a few more days.

Mrs. Chen cut down all the cabbages that were to be pickled, and then repaired the cabbages. That is to say, break off all the old leaves on the outside and keep the tender heart inside. Of course, don't repair it too hard. Just break off two or three old leaves and that's enough. The repaired cabbage is all stacked together, and the sauerkraut will be pickled in the afternoon. We can pick up the ginseng seeds tonight. Next we have to pick the seeds and plant the ginseng, so we don’t have much time to pickle the sauerkraut. Furthermore, if you marinate it early, you can eat it early. In the winter here, we just live with sauerkraut.

Mr. Xue buried the radishes and asked Jinghan and the others to take the ones they kept for eating raw back home, and then came to help Mr. Chen repair the cabbage. "Mom, the vegetables are growing well this year. It looks like you don't have to worry about the winter. This is good, otherwise it would be really embarrassing." While talking, Ms. Xue kept repairing the cabbage.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law worked together for more than an hour before they had all the cabbage repaired. "Okay, it's almost done. Let's pickle the sauerkraut in the afternoon. There are so many people at home, so we have to pickle three large tanks of sauerkraut. I don't know if it's possible."

After a busy day, everyone was tired, and it was time to make lunch. When I returned to the kitchen, I saw that Huixin had already started cooking. "Huixin, you can cook for lunch today. You and your sister-in-law have been learning how to cook for a while. How are you doing?" Mrs. Chen ordered. When this daughter gets older, she will eventually get married. To be a wife, not only must she be good at needlework, she must also be good at cooking and cooking. Didn’t you tell them all? A pair of scissors on the kang and a shovel on the pot table. If she can hold both, she is considered a good wife.

After hearing her mother's words, Huixin nodded, "Hey, Mom, I'll cook for lunch today." She usually helped Mr. Terrified.

Mrs. Xue washed her hands, "Okay, I'll give Hui Xin a hand today, and we'll have a taste of Hui Xin's craftsmanship this noon." He said. Just help light the fire.

I saw Huixin cutting vegetables on the chopping board. She looked quite skilled, not bad. Huixin was cooking there, and Mrs. Xue helped light the fire. After a while, the aroma of food filled the kitchen.

Jinghan went into the kitchen and took a look. It turned out that her sister-in-law was cooking. Haha, it smells good, it should be pretty good. "Mom, when are we going to eat? We also want to go to the mountains to pick up some acorns in the afternoon. Those things are good for feeding pigs." Jinghan does know that acorns can be ground into powder. During the famine in the past, , people use it to satisfy their hunger.

"Okay, you go ahead. There are a lot of oak trees on the mountain in front of us, and there are a lot of acorns. Come back before it snows. You can also save a lot of food by feeding the pigs." Of course Xue didn't object, the child They were willing to work, but it was too late for her to be happy. The work of going up to the mountains to get things is usually done by children from various families. Some children are diligent and bring home a lot of things every autumn, while others are lazy and unwilling to do anything.

The food was all ready. Everyone put the food on the table and started eating. Jinghan tasted these dishes and found that they tasted pretty good. They were a little worse than what her mother cooked. However, my sister-in-law had just learned these dishes a few days ago, so she should be pretty good at them. When it comes to cooking, practice makes perfect, so the more you do, the better.

Mrs. Chen ate the food and nodded, "Well, it's okay. I'll practice more in the future. You're not young anymore. After you've been busy for a while, I have to arrange a marriage for you. When you have your husband's family, you won't be able to get married." You feel so relaxed at home. You have been weak since you were young, so I didn’t let you work much. You have to be diligent when you get married. Look at your fourth sister-in-law, although your mother doesn’t say anything, she is not happy in her heart. How can a daughter-in-law not do any work? If the men in the Xu family don't beat their wives, how can you tell me if it's yours? The food is good, and I can feel less angry." Mrs. Chen also felt sorry for Hui Xin, so she told her little by little.

Huixin naturally understood this, "Mom, don't worry, I will definitely learn it well." Marriage between a man and a woman is a necessary process, so Huixin naturally didn't say anything about not getting married. These days, how can a girl not marry when she reaches her age? That way it won’t make people laugh to death.

Everyone ate quickly. After the meal, Jinghan, Jingya, Wenxuan and Wenchang all went up the mountain with baskets on their backs. In autumn, Jingya went up the mountain with him, because at this time, one more person can get a lot more things. Several people went into the woods and picked up acorns on the ground. Acorns are the fruit of a kind of oak tree here. There is a tree in the south called oak, which also bears acorns.

There are really many oak trees in the woods, so there are a lot of acorns. After a while, Jinghan picked up a basket. Empty the contents of the basket into the basket on your back, and then carry the basket to pick it up. Jingya can do this because she doesn't have to go up a tree or anything, she just picks it up in the basket when she sees it. "Jinghan, how many should we pick up?"

"Sister, the more the better, of course. This is good for feeding pigs and chickens. It can save food. Won't we have more food to eat? Pick it up. If there is more, our family will have more next year. If you catch a few pigs, you can make a lot of money by raising them like this." Jinghan is still focused on making money. Although she doesn't have any good ideas now, raising pigs is also a good way.

After listening to Jinghan's words, everyone felt that it made sense. If you raise more pigs at home, you can sell them for more money, and you can keep more meat for your own consumption during the Chinese New Year. When they think of meat, everyone gets excited and picks it up in the basket.

At home, Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Xue are making pickled vegetables. The two large pots in the kitchen were all cleaned and water was added to boil them. When the water boils, put the cabbage brought back from the garden, root side down, into the pot and blanch it. When the roots are almost blanched, turn over and lightly blanche the cabbage leaves. Of course, this job is very dangerous. The cabbage is very hot in the boiling water. Xue used a shovel to turn the cabbage, which was much better than using his hands. The blanched cabbage can be put into the jar. The Xu family has several large vats, which are used for pickling sauerkraut.

The two mothers were busy working non-stop, putting the blanched cabbage into the vat and stacking it up. This was a laborious task, and you had to press hard to make it fit, otherwise the vegetables would easily rot. After stacking a jar, I went to find a large, flat stone and put it on top of the stacked cabbage. This way, the vegetables would not rot easily.

After the three large vats were all installed and pressed down with big stones, Xue poured the boiling water in the pot into the three large vats respectively. If the hot water was not enough, he boiled two more pots. "When the sauerkraut falls tomorrow, we will seal the mouth of the jar with yellow mud, so that we don't have to worry about the fumes." One afternoon, Mrs. Chen was so tired that she couldn't straighten up.