After a simple rebirth

Fu's mother asked Fu Ying to take out the things she brought back. Fu Ying squatted down beside the backpack and started to rummage.

There are a few grasses on the top, which should be medicinal herbs. I don’t know what they are called. But Fu Ying seems to have seen them before. Fu’s mother picked them and used them to boil Chinese medicine.

"Mom, what kind of grass is this and what is it for?"

"Don't worry about it, kid. Just leave it aside and I can do it myself."

Oh, what Fu Ma refused to tell me, is it related to gynecology? Motherwort? She had only seen dried motherwort, and had never heard that fresh motherwort should be used, and motherwort was not widely used locally.

What else? None of the ones she could remember looked like this. The main thing was that this grass looked very much like grass, and looked quite similar to the weeds on the roadside. Any itchy kid passing by could pull up a handful and play with them.

If it's not gynecology, then what is it? Fu's mother didn't look uncomfortable. She didn't remember why she took this medicine last time.

In her previous life, Fu's mother accidentally fell down from the building when adding the second floor. She had surgery on her lumbar spine and recovered after two months. Since then, she has suffered from frequent back pain and cannot sit for long periods of time.

But that was in the previous life. The house hasn’t been renovated yet, and Mother Fu didn’t get hurt from the fall, so it’s unlikely to be back pain. The chances of it being a gynecological problem are greater.

I can only pay more attention to where Fu Ma is feeling unwell.

Under those herbs was Codonopsis pilosula. The strong smell of Codonopsis pilosula was something Fu Ying could smell even before she got close to the basket. The Codonopsis pilosula Fu's mother brought back was quite large, almost as big as the sweet carrots grown locally. There were nearly twenty of them, all covered in dirt.

The other side of the reservoir is full of deep mountains and old forests, with a lot of medicinal herbs. In addition, there has not been large-scale development yet and not many people dig them up and sell them, so they are all relatively primitive and large in size.

Codonopsis pilosula is a ginseng with high medicinal value. It has a long beard at the very end that looks like ginseng, but in fact, the whole thing looks more like an immature white radish.

Speaking of Codonopsis pilosula, when Fu Ying lived in Zhang Zun's house in her previous life, Zhang Zun's mother went to the market to buy Codonopsis pilosula to make soup. But I don't know if it was because Fu Ying hadn't eaten it for a long time, Fu Ying felt that the Codonopsis pilosula was bitter, so she just drank the soup like them.

Locally, Codonopsis pilosula is mostly eaten fresh and used to make soup. It is also dried and stewed with pig's feet and chicken, but it loses its sweet taste after being dried.

When entertaining others for dinner, people usually add Codonopsis pilosula to the soup.

The local custom is to entertain guests with mainly fried meat dishes, because vegetarian dishes are green vegetables, and green vegetables are eaten while being hot, just like hot pot.

After the dishes are fried, they are placed in a circle around the stove. The middle space is reserved for a large iron pot to cook soup. If there are stewed bones and pig's feet, pour them in and heat them. If not, boil them in lard. After the water boils, add Codonopsis pilosula, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms to cook. Once it boils, you can start eating.

Guests eat some meat dishes first, and rice if needed, then start to put in the greens, which are cooked after a few turns, and then put in new ones to cook after they are finished. By the end, the codonopsis is cooked enough and tasty enough, and the medicinal materials and mushrooms inside can be picked out and eaten.

You can also buy fresh Codonopsis pilosula at the market, but it is not necessarily wild. Some people who live close to the mountains grow Codonopsis pilosula specifically to sell.

Fu Ying asked Fu Ma, "Do you want to eat Codonopsis today? If so, I'll wash it later."

Mother Fu took a look and said, "It's okay to eat. Go to your second aunt's field and pick two green vegetables. We won't stir-fry, we can just cook some vegetables."

Fu Ying immediately called out, "Fu Zhe, go tell Second Aunt, and then go to her field and pick two green vegetables, one onion, and one cilantro."

Fu's mother glanced at Fu Ying and said nothing. If she said anything, Fu Ying would argue with her again.

Fu Ying asked Fu Ma, "How many roots of Codonopsis should I wash?"

Fu Ying was not quite sure. Generally, when there were many people, she would not cook a lot of Codonopsis pilosula. There were only three people in her family, and she didn't know if cooking too much would cause over-nutrition.

"Just wash three of them. Fu Zhe may not eat them. Put the rest in the main room and eat them another day."

Fu Ying picked out three roots of the same size and took the rest to the main room. Codonopsis and radish, which had just been dug out of the ground, should not be piled up, as they would easily get damp and rot. They should be spread out a little, with the roots still covered with soil, and then slowly dried in the air so that they can be preserved for a longer time.

There was something under the basket, covered with a layer of cloth. Fu Ying thought it was Gastrodia elata, because this was the main producing area. Stewing Gastrodia elata with pork ribs was the most common way to eat it, and soaking Gastrodia elata in wine was available in every household.

The result was kiwi fruit, also known as Actinidia chinensis. This thing is purely wild in the local area. I have never heard of anyone planting it because there are so many of them in the mountains.

Fu Ying picked up the kiwi fruit and squeezed it. It was still raw. "Mom, did you pick this kiwi fruit in the mountains?"

"What's kiwi? It's called carambola (first tone). What a weird name for kiwi."

Fu Ying was speechless. The scientific name of this thing is Actinidia chinensis. It is called kiwi fruit outside. She just suddenly forgot that it is called carambola in the local dialect.

Speaking of this, Fu Ying remembered a joke of her own.

At that time, I was studying in a technical secondary school in the city. I went to a classmate's house on weekends. The classmate's relative planted carambolas and guavas, and she asked Fu Ying if she wanted to pick some to eat. Fu Ying thought it was the carambolas from her hometown, so she ran over happily, but it turned out to be completely different.

The carambolas grown in Guangdong Province are also called star fruits. They have an irregular shape and a smooth skin. The carambolas grown in the mountains of Yunnan Province are kiwi fruits, which are oval in shape and have a fuzzy skin.

Fu Ying also mistook the star fruit from Guangdong Province for a papaya, and told her classmates that star fruit doesn't look like this, it's a papaya. Her classmates said that star fruit looks like this, and papayas are oval and big. The two argued for several times, neither giving in.

Later, when Fu Ying saw papaya when she was shopping, and also ate real carambolas and kiwis, she corrected her misconception. When she went to her classmate's house again, she still told her about it and laughed at her.

The star fruits that Fu Ying touched were very hard, so she asked her mother, "The star fruits are so raw now, should we ripen them before eating them?"

"It will be ready to eat tomorrow. Take some unused clothes and wrap them in them, cover them tightly like a quilt, and place them by the stove overnight and they will be cooked."

Fu Yingjing's mother reminded her that, yes, people use this little wisdom to deal with different life situations. If there is no ripening agent, then use high temperature to ripen it. There is always a way.

Fu Ying also remembered that Aunt Fu's home was on the mountain, so there were a lot of carambolas there. In the past, Dad Fu would go to Aunt Fu's home at this time of year to visit her and pick carambolas. He usually stayed at her home for a night, and the next morning he and Aunt Fu's eldest son went into the mountains early to pick kiwis, and then carried them back home to store.

They are all specially picked green fruits. After returning home, they are arranged according to their hardness and covered with quilts or clothes. Because the fire is always hot near the stove, the quilt is also warm. After covering it, touch it the next day and if it is soft, it is ready to eat.

Sometimes a few are cooked at once so that everyone can get a few to eat. Sometimes one or two are cooked first and there will be a quarrel over who gets to eat first, and the adults have to come out and make sure who gets to eat next.

Worried that she couldn't cover it well, Fu Ying brought clothes to Fu Ma. Fu Ma took the dustpan, first spread two layers of cloth on the bottom, then arranged the star fruits one by one, then spread two layers of cloth, and then arranged the star fruits, and then the top was the key point, and she covered it carefully with thick clothes, leaving no gaps, and it would be ready to eat on the second day at the fastest, or the third day at the slowest.