The Garden Life of a Little Gardener

Under the bright autumn sun, on the threshing ground of Liangsurname Village, all the people from the village committee and some villagers who had spare time gathered together to pluck corn from the threshing ground.

Although their village has never expected to rely on farming to make a living, every household has more or less planted corn on their own plots. These grains will not be sold when they are mature, and the villagers will keep them for themselves. eat.

The corn that has been grown for one year, each cob is very thick, golden yellow and heavy, which makes people feel the feeling of a bumper harvest just by looking at it.

The autumn harvest in Liangxing Village ended yesterday, and some of the harvested corn cobs were gathered at the threshing ground for skinning.

Originally, the skinning of corn cobs should have been done on the ground, or in the villagers’ homes, but early in the morning, the village committee members received a notice from the village head, saying that they should come here to gather for discussion. For some things, it happened that there were still several corns in the sun at the threshing floor, so they helped peel the skins.

For the corn that is going to be dried, the layers of light green skin on the outside must be peeled off, otherwise it will be difficult to dry the water in a short time, and if it is not done well, it will become moldy.

And peeling the corn cob is also very simple. Find a hole from the bearded head of the corn, grab the outer skin and pull it hard to the two sides, tearing it backwards, and when you reach the tail, grab the long end of the cob. Connectors, if you break them off hard, you can see that the connectors and the outer skin are torn off together.

It sounds very simple, and it is not difficult to do, but you need enough strength, otherwise, after pulling out the outer skin of a few corn cobs, either the nails hurt or the wrist has no strength.

People living in the village are used to this kind of simple farm work, so within a few minutes after they got together, piles of plucked corn husks appeared on the threshing floor.

When Zhou Quan came over, the people here were in full swing. Seeing this, Zhou Quan greeted everyone, without saying anything, and silently joined the team of pulling out corn husk coats.

By the time the village chief Chen Youde finally put down the phone and hurried out from the village committee office, half of the corn on the threshing floor had been pulled out.

"You guys are really neat at your work. Now Ergenzi and Baozhuzi's family have finished their last farm work with your help. The two families will have a treat later."

"No problem, come to my house to eat dumplings, I'll ask Xiaoyan to make meat fillings for everyone."

"You can eat your meat dumplings at any time. Come to my house. My mother makes glutinous rice noodles at noon today. It is made of sorghum, corn, and white flour. There are two kinds of marinated meat sauce and egg tofu. If you want to eat, you must go."

Hehe is a very common pasta snack in the northern region. The method is to put all kinds of reconciled dough into the Hehe bed, and squeeze the dough in the Hehe bed from the bottom of the round shape through mechanical or manual extrusion. Squeeze it out of the gap, drop it into the boiling water pot, and cook it out of the pot.

Compared with ordinary white noodles, because the proportion of coarse grains in the selected raw materials is very large, the taste of Hehe will be more special. The buckwheat-based Hehe is smooth and chewy, while the cornmeal-based Hehe is soft and delicious. The 饸饹, which is based on sorghum and bean noodles, is rich in nutrition, and it tastes even more special after being topped with brine.

The mother of Baozhuzi in the village is a master at making 饸饹, and the 饸饹 made are delicious whether it is noodles or marinade.

The staple food of the farmhouse in their family is 饸饹. Because of its high quality, low price, economical benefits and high-quality products, it occupies its own place among the farmhouses in the village.

Hearing that Baozhuzi showed off his family's signature staple food, the others were not to be outdone. They were all from the village with two surnames, and they were all taught by the same master. Who dared to open a farmhouse in the village? Don't have a few unique skills?

All of a sudden, chicken stewed with mushrooms, catfish stewed with eggplant, pork ribs stewed in iron pot with big goose, sauerkraut stewed pork, etc. all came out. The villagers who are very confident in their own craftsmanship are very eager to try, and they are quite a bit of a contest. .

Seeing that the 'infighting' in the village was about to be provoked, Chen Youde, the village head, cleared his throat and said, "Okay, those who want to ask for advice go home and ask for advice in private, I called everyone here today to Discuss with you about the operation of the farmhouse in the village."

People who have opened farmhouses in the village are basically there. When they heard the words, they continued to pull out the corn husks and said: "Village head, our farmhouse is running very well. During the National Day holiday, it is crowded every day. Although it is not Holidays, but the occupancy rate of every household can be maintained at more than 40%. Of course, we dare not compare with Ah Juan and Ah Quan, but we can maintain the status quo with careful management. We are already satisfied, you don't have to worry about it."

Because it is a farmhouse rebuilt from your own house, the scale of the farmhouses in the village is not very large.

There are six or seven rooms in the small ones, and a dozen or so rooms in the large ones. Basically, there is no problem for each room to accommodate seven or eight people. The room rate is [-] yuan in off-season and [-] yuan in peak season.

For the villagers who pay for the labor of the house themselves, and only need to pay extra for water and electricity raw materials, as long as there is a group of visitors every day, they will not lose money, and they will make money if they have more.

The village chief shook his head repeatedly when he heard the words. He really had nothing to say to the guy who said this, and what made him even more angry was that many people echoed what this guy said.

Ken's attitude of being content with the status quo and not forcing it is very good, but the villagers who have no foresight and sense of crisis are really a headache for the village head.

The village chief, who didn't want to say anything more, waved his hand, signaled for everyone to be quiet, and then shouted to Zhou Quan's side, "Ah Quan, tell everyone about your concerns."

Zhou Quan, who was originally sitting quietly at the side, put down the half-plucked corn cobs in his hands, patted the corn whiskers on his hands and said: "Everyone, uncles, aunts, uncles, aunts, cousins, cousins, don't you think about it?" Have you discussed the future business plan of your own farmhouse?"

"What's the plan? We don't know how to plan. Then how to run it, Murakami has already thought it out for us a long time ago. Before the opening, there are trainings, so we just follow suit."

It was Aunt Zaohua who was talking. The man in her family was surnamed Bao, and he was very skilled in craftsmanship. This time, he deliberately gave up his job in the back kitchen of the Provincial City Hotel and returned to the village to run his own business.

Aunt Zaohua's education is not high, and she has not graduated from elementary school. Most of the time, she takes care of the elderly and children at home, and the family affairs are all handled by her husband who has broken through the society.

However, there were many guests in their house today, and her husband was busy preparing lunch and couldn't leave. As the hostess of the family, she came out to the meeting on behalf of the family.

As Aunt Zaohua's words fell, Zhou Quan found that there were quite a few people nodding along with her, which really made him dumbfounded.

Without going around in circles at all, Zhou Quan pointed to the mountains behind him and said, "Everyone, it's already autumn, and the number of mushrooms and herbs on the mountains has begun to decrease. Everyone agrees that the temperature changes quickly on our side." I know, snow may fall at any time after October, which means that the activities of identifying herbs and picking mushrooms that we can provide to guests will not be able to go on for another month at most. We must find something that can Let the guests play games in winter."

After Zhou Quan's voice fell, the threshing floor immediately became noisy. Those people who were leisurely picking corn husks now began to ask around in a panic to the people around them in low voices.

After a few minutes of chaos, someone asked again: "Ah Quan, as you said, any village can do this kind of identification of herbs and picking mushrooms, but only our village can do it. Do it. You said that as long as the craftsmanship is good, guests will be indispensable, and now our craftsmanship is very good, why are you worried about those things on the mountain?"

"Uncle Baocheng, I'm not worrying unnecessarily. The guests come out to play. The purpose is to eat, drink and have fun. As long as they can satisfy them in these matters, the basic source of tourists can be guaranteed. But when winter comes, there will be no mountain goods on the mountain. , there is no fun, only eating and drinking, and the things that can be done are reduced by half, which will not only affect the source of customers, but also shorten the stay of the guests who come. "

The villagers heard what he said and thought about it and thought what he said made sense. In summer and autumn, there are mushrooms to pick, herbs to know, and flowers to pick. It is definitely not enough time to finish these things in one day. What about the people who come here? You have to play for two or three days.

Who would live for the next day if the mushrooms and herbs were all gone and there was only flower picking left to finish the day?

The inexplicable income was reduced by half, and the villagers would not do this kind of thing, so the threshing floor began to be noisy again.

The villagers began to brainstorm ideas one after another, thinking about what fun things can be done in the village in winter to attract tourists.

"Otherwise, let's take tourists up the mountain to pick up pine cones in winter. This thing is full of mountains and falls. How about playing and eating it?"

"Let's pull it out. The pine nuts of Chinese pine are hard to pick apart. Occasionally chewing one would be harsh. You still want the guests to eat it? What do you think? Are you afraid of accidents?"

The mountains near Liangxing Village are all planted with Pinus tabulaeformis. This kind of tree is resistant to cold, drought, barrenness, and pests. It is a very good sand-proof greening variety.

But relatively, the economic benefits of this kind of tree are not high. Chinese pine grows slowly, and the yield rate is very low. Even a strong Chinese pine that has grown for decades cannot be used to make furniture.

Although there are pine nuts in the pine cones joined by pine trees, the pine nuts are very small and oily, and have a strong smell of pine oil. We don't know if it is poisonous, but no one likes this kind of thing anyway.

"Then what should we do? Otherwise, let the guests skate. The streams in our village and the river outside the village freeze over in winter. The ice is thick and the water is not deep. It's a good place for skating."

This is a small idea. The creek in Liangxing Village and the small river outside the village will not stop flowing in winter, so thick ice will form.

As native-born locals, they are very familiar with the conditions of streams and rivers. Needless to say, the creeks in the village are the deepest to the ankles.

They also swam from small to large in the small river outside the village. The average depth of the water over there was below the knees, and the deepest point was only up to the thighs. There are many fish in the shallow water, and the villagers know it with their eyes closed, and there will be absolutely no problems.

The more I thought about it, the bigger guys felt that this idea was feasible. Zhou Quan recorded the idea of ​​ice play, thinking about going back and developing it.

Seeing that everyone was chattering, saying nothing but skating was useless, Zhou Quan thought for a while, put away his handwriting and began to express his opinions.

"Elders, apart from tourists, residents in our village can still help each other."

"Ah Quan, what do you mean by that?"

"Ah Quan, if you have something to say, just say it. We don't read as much as you do. We have been in the imperial capital for almost ten years. Your knowledge is definitely greater than ours. We definitely agree with your ideas."

"That's right, tell me, we're all listening."

Zhou Quan smiled when he heard the words, the dimples on his face were faintly visible, and the people around him scratched their heads, feeling that the boy Ah Quan really grew and became more handsome.

"Uncles, sisters-in-law, uncles and aunts, the business of the farmhouse is good in summer, and the flower shed has a large output due to seasonal problems, but the price is not high. Those who run the flower shed come to the farmhouse to work part-time in order to subsidize their families. Be a guide. Now the situation is just the opposite. The colder the weather, the higher the price of the flower market. The number of new greenhouses in our village this year is very large, and the number of acres has almost doubled. Such a high planting area depends on the owner of the flower shed. Manpower is definitely not enough for management, planting and harvesting, so when hiring helpers, the villagers who know the basics must be the first choice. In this case, why don’t we integrate resources? In summer, the owner of the flower shed works part-time for the farmhouse, and in winter On the other hand, when the business of the flower shed is good, they hire people from the farmhouse to help them, so that everyone can earn more by sharing resources.”

Everyone started buzzing and discussing in low voices after hearing the words, but after all, they all felt that Zhou Quan's idea was very good.

So this proposal was quickly approved, and how to implement it was a matter for the village committee, and Zhou Quan, a technical consultant, was out of his control.