Defeat natural disasters with farming

After drinking a bowl of dark brown medicine, Ye Yu peeled a pine nut and put it in his mouth with a bitter face. The slightly sweet pine nuts wiped away the bitter taste of the medicine.

He had just sent the bowl to the stove, and when he came out, he saw Ye Jing and Xinghua waving to him with bright eyes in the main room, "Brother Bao, come quickly."

Ye Yu turned around and found that the two of them were facing the vigorous Xiaomi with their front paws together, "What are you doing?"

Ye Jing coughed lightly and didn't answer, just raised his left hand, "Xiaomi stretched out his hand."

Xiaomi opened a pair of brown almond eyes, and his head was slightly tilted. After hearing its name, his ears moved, and then he raised his left paw and placed it on Ye Jing's hand.

Ye Jing held it cheerfully, shook it, and said happily, "How is it? Xinghua and I taught Xiaomi this."

Ye Yu patted Xiaomi's head and praised, "It's amazing."

Millet is considered to be a very smart breed among dogs. It is said that when it grows up, it can have an IQ equivalent to that of an eight-year-old human child.

When they were playing with Xiaomi, Ye He suddenly came out with a wooden basin. When he saw the three younger siblings, he asked, "Do you want to eat frozen persimmons?"

The pears and persimmons picked some time ago have been washed and frozen in the yard for several days, and now they are all placed in the kitchen.

Thinking of the taste of frozen persimmons, Ye Jing almost drooled, "I want one too."

Xinghua hesitated for a while, but still shook her head, "It's almost dinner time, you still eat frozen persimmons."

As for Ye Yu, Ye He didn't even ask, he must not eat anything cold after drinking the medicine.

"It's okay, let's eat one." Ye He hesitated for a while, then took out a hard persimmon with hoarfrost from the basket and put it into the warm water basin.

Ye Yu glanced greedily.

After Ye He saw his eyes, he thought for a while and poured hot water from the stove into the basin. With white smoke rising, the frozen persimmons softened faster and faster.

Remove the stalks of the persimmons, peel off the outer skin, and put the pulp inside in a bowl.

"Let's share one piece for four, and it's enough for everyone to taste it. I just went in and saw grandma was making soup. It seemed to be crucian carp soup."

A small bite is really a small bite, Ye Yu can only taste it, it really has a taste like ice cream, and there are fine shards of ice when you bite it down, it's a pity that what they eat is soaked in hot water, not frozen normally. Persimmons are so cool.

However, compared with ordinary persimmons, frozen persimmons are less astringent and more sweet, and Ye Yu is also very happy to eat them.

He was savoring the taste of frozen persimmons when his trousers were suddenly torn, and when he looked over, he realized that it was Xiaomi staring at their bowls, begging for food.

Ye Yu smiled, "Little greedy dog, you can't eat this."

He bent down, picked up Xiaomi and walked into the house, and took out a specially made molar stick for it.

Millet is not picky either. If there is no persimmon, the molar sticks are also very good. Besides, the molar sticks made by his mother are made of good noodles and eggs. A small one can make millet eat for several days.

He once tasted it secretly. Although it was very hard and tasteless, it was really a waste of time, and he had to chew it off with his teeth.

Ye Yu put Xiaomi in the main room, and let it bite the molar stick with Xiaomi's teeth.

There was indeed a pot of crucian carp tofu soup on the table during dinner. The milky white fish soup was paired with tender white tofu and emerald green onions. The body exudes a soft luster.

As soon as you eat it, you will find that the fish is tender and delicious, the fish soup is light and delicious, and the mushrooms are full of soup, which is sweet and delicious. Pour a spoonful of soup on the brown rice to make up for the roughness of the brown rice.

Ye Yu's liking for fish is average, mainly because he is afraid of fishy fish, but the soup stewed by crucian carp is an exception. There is no fishy smell in the soup, and it is extraordinarily delicious.

Speaking of which, he is not a picky eater, but there are a few foods that he does not like to eat. One is Houttuynia cordata, which is called zheergen in some places. It tastes very strange. It is light to say that it is difficult to swallow; Kwai, mainly because he doesn't like the taste of okra.

The old lady Ye was halfway through eating at the dinner table, when she suddenly remembered something, "After a few days, the boss and the third will come back, you three brothers should go fishing together, it happens that Xiaobei is pregnant and is about to give birth, if there are crucian carp, send some over there .”

Ye Xiaobei is the youngest daughter of the old couple. She has been favored since she was a child. She has a cheerful and generous temperament.

Ye Lao Er swallowed the rice in his mouth, and replied: "The fish in winter is the most plump, so catch more fish to eat during the Chinese New Year."

Every year during the Chinese New Year, fish is an indispensable dish on the New Year's Eve dinner, and there will be a little leftover specially, which is a good sign of surplus every year.

Ye Yu only heard the news that his father was coming back, "Is father coming back?"

His mother carefully picked out the fishbone, and then put the fish meat into his bowl, "Yes, Brother Bao, do you miss your father?"

Ye Yu nodded. He hadn't seen his father for nearly a month, so he thought it was natural.

"Brother Hai is very useful in the shop now, everything is done well, the third child doesn't have to worry about everything, it's very suitable for father and son to entrust the task of collecting chickens and ducks."

Mrs. Ye felt a little proud when she heard Mother Ye's praise, "Although that kid is mischievous, he is serious about his work. Sometimes he has a softer temper than his sister. Among the children, I am the least worried about him."

"It's a good thing to learn more from his third uncle in the county. Don't be afraid of suffering when you are young. It's good to learn more."

Old man Ye seldom opened his mouth. He was talking about Ye He on the surface, but he was actually talking to all the children at the table. This was his many years of experience.

As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere on the table suddenly became serious. Seeing this, Mrs. Ye quickly smoothed things over and said, "Hurry up and eat, and we'll talk about the rest after eating."

Old man Ye shut his mouth when he heard this, and gave each of the children a piece of fish with chopsticks.

After dinner, it was completely dark, and one after another bright and twinkling stars could be seen in the completely unpolluted sky.

Because the price of kerosene is not cheap, the saving farmers go to bed early.The village is as quiet as if there is no one inhabited, and only when there are a few dogs barking occasionally will it show a little anger.

The Ye family still lights oil lamps. Their lamp oil is animal fat, which consists of three parts: the oil container, the oil and the twister (that is, the wick).

The overall shape of the oil lamp is very simple, just like a small bowl. The solidified oil is covered with twisters made of rushes. After being lit, there is light, but the light is really only as big as a soybean, and it can barely illuminate the vicinity of the oil lamp. That little place.

Ye Yu finished washing in the bright light of the beans, and took the oil lamp back to the house. As soon as he came back, he saw Ye Mu put a basin beside his kang bed. Taking the medicine powder recommended by Dr. Wu will make the medicine you take internally more effective."

The wooden basin was sixty percent full of tan water, and the scalding hot water was steaming white, Ye Yu couldn't help but shrink his toes when he saw it.

"It's so hot."

"Doctor Wu said that it should be hot! Put your feet in slowly, and you won't feel hot when you get used to the temperature."

Ye Yu put the oil lamp on the table. After sitting down, he carefully touched the water surface with his left heel. As a result, he immediately retracted his foot from the scalding water, and his toes moved irregularly before he recovered.

Mother Ye didn't wait for him to finish soaking his feet in the room, but just told him, "Take out your feet when the water is warm, at least for a quarter of an hour."

Then he left in a hurry.

Ye Yu put his feet on the edge of the wooden basin, trying to adapt to the water temperature a little bit. This process took a while, but it was obviously worth the wait. When his feet were submerged in the water, he really experienced the cold weather. The comfort of soaking your feet.

He sighed and curled his toes in the water twice.

Mother Ye's timing was just right, she walked in when the water was already warm, and she was still holding a leather water bag when she came in.

"Remember to put the water bladder under your feet when you go to bed at night."

Ye Yu was taken aback when he heard the words, he just said something this morning that his feet would be cold when he sleeps at night, he himself said it and then he forgot it, unexpectedly, Mother Ye remembered it firmly.

"It's burning the kang. It's just that it will be a little cold when the kang is extinguished in the middle of the night, but it's okay to have residual warmth."

"Isn't it still cold? Just tell me when it's cold. If you hadn't been arguing to sleep alone, I still want our mother to sleep together."

Mother Ye helped him tuck up the quilt while thinking about it, "Go to bed early."

After Ye Yu answered, Mother Ye blew out the oil lamp, and touched his face before leaving through the small door on the wall.

Now there was no other light in the room except the moonlight coming in from outside. Ye Yu felt warm all over his body. He retracted his neck into the quilt and found a comfortable position to enter the space.

He basically looks for a book to read before going to bed every night. First, it can learn knowledge, and second, it is also a good sleep aid, especially some theoretical books. He often falls asleep after reading two pages.

Today I read the first section of Chapter 3 of "Practical Farming Techniques", about spring plowing and land preparation.

Treatment of previous crop stubble...

Looking at Ye Yu, he unconsciously fell into a dark and sweet dreamland. With the warm water bag under his feet, he had no dreams all night.

When she woke up the next day, the water bag was already half-warmed, and Mother Ye poured the water out to water the field. In such a cold environment, some green onions and coriander were still growing tenaciously in the vegetable field at home.

Ye Yu and the others went to feed the chickens and ducks, and picked up the eggs and duck eggs by the way, because they had saved more than [-] duck eggs during this period, and Mrs. Ye thought about salting them all to make salted duck eggs.

The salt tax here is not high, so every household can afford salt. All kinds of pickled goods are very popular, such as pickled vegetables, miso, and cured meat are all commonly eaten foods, and naturally salted duck eggs are no exception. .

The method of salted duck eggs is very simple, that is, pour salt water into the jar, put the duck eggs in one by one when the water is cold, seal the jar, put it in a cool place, and wait for a month to prepare it.

The salted duck eggs produced in this way have a lot of oil in the yolk, and the salty and fragrant egg whites. After being cut open, butter comes out straight away. Ye Yu can eat a big bowl of rice with it.

Mrs. Ye said while doing it: "Not only duck eggs can be pickled, but eggs can also be pickled, but the taste is not as good as duck eggs, and egg whites are delicious when boiled, so you don't need to worry about cooking."

Ye Yu helped put the duck eggs into the jar, but when he heard the eggs, he thought of marinated eggs again, and he missed the taste of them.

It’s easy to talk about marinated eggs. Their family still has marinade. Although it is used to marinate meat, it is not impossible to use it in this situation.

At noon, the eggs were marinated at home, and the shelled eggs were put into the bubbling marinade, and rolled for a few hours, the tender white was dyed reddish brown, and the taste of the marinade penetrated deeply into the egg yolk.

Eggs marinated in this way can even be eaten by people who don't like egg yolks.

With his mouth full, Ye He said indistinctly: "Braised eggs are much more delicious than hard-boiled eggs, let's eat more marinated eggs."

"Most of the eggs left at home are marinated, and the rest have to be kept and exchanged during the New Year's market."

After Mrs. Ye finished speaking, she asked again: "I think our sheep have already been bred. Please pay more attention when you go to feed them."

Their family's two sheep, one male and one female, began to breed at the end of October. After such a long time, it is normal for ewes to conceive babies.

Ye Yu calculated the time when the ewes gave birth, and estimated that it would be February or March next year. When the ewes gave birth to lambs, they would have goat milk to drink.

Compared with cow's milk, goat milk is better absorbed and rich in nutrition. The disadvantage is that it has a strong smell, but this is not impossible to remove. Simply put, adding almonds or tea leaves to cook together can remove the smell to the greatest extent.

Therefore, in the following days, when Ye Yu and the others were feeding the livestock, they would take extra care of the ewe that was pregnant with a lamb.