Defeat natural disasters with farming

Dr. Chen withdrew his hand and said with relief: "I didn't expect that I made a wrong diagnosis. Your physical condition is very stable now."

Ye Yu rolled down his sleeves and replied with a smile: "In the past two months, I did catch colds twice, but they were not serious. Drinking ginger tea and sleeping will be fine."

"It's a good thing. Now you just need to remember to drink a bowl of red dates and ginger tea every day before going to bed." Dr. Chen instructed: "Don't worry, conditioning your body is a long-term thing, don't rush it."

Ye Yu nodded yes.

After Dr. Chen left with the medicine box, Ye Yu also went out wearing a straw hat. He was going to the lake beach to see if the pigs and sheep would eat the newly grown pasture. If not, he had to find a way, after all. There are so many livestock today that it takes a long time to feed them every day.

Recently, the water level of Mingzhu Lake has dropped a lot due to the drought, but the pastures around the lake are growing very luxuriantly. Ye Yu stood on the hill and watched the children drive the pigs and sheep to the lake beach. Now the pigs and sheep in their village have multiplied, and the number is already low. Breaking through three digits, there are a total of 32 big pigs and small pigs, 38 mutton sheep, and 31 dairy sheep.

These livestock are enough for the whole village to slaughter one for meat in half a month, so they didn't let the pigs and sheep continue to multiply, leaving only one breeding pig, and the rest were all castrated, not to mention, the pigs after being castrated can be called the world The speed visible to the naked eye is fattening, and in just one month, he has grown fatter than before.

"Eat, eat!" A child couldn't help shouting excitedly when he saw the sheep grazing with their heads down. He grabbed the corner of Ye Yu's clothes, "Brother Yu, look quickly."

This child is Ye Zhouyuan's eldest son, Ye Ling.

Seeing this, Ye Yu showed a smile on his face, "I saw it."

With his hands behind his back, he looked at the entire lake and the beach, feeling a rare sense of comfort in his heart. Walking along the shore of the lake, he could occasionally feel the light breeze blowing from the opposite side.

After a while, he vaguely saw a trace of greenery on the lake, and couldn't help but take two steps forward, only then did he see clearly that it turned out to be a clump of lotus leaves.

That's right, Ye Yu suddenly realized, isn't it the season when lotus flowers wither and grow lotus pods and roots?

It's just that he didn't see the lotus when he came over a while ago?Could it be that the lotus seeds didn't grow flowers?If this is the case, I am afraid that there will be no lotus pods and lotus roots.

After thinking about it, Ye Yu didn't think about it, so he simply didn't think about it, and dragged the raft out directly, planning to go and see for himself.

However, he overestimated his ability, and the raft swung several times on the lake without reaching the shore.

Ye He, who was standing on the shore of the lake waiting for him, couldn't bear to watch anymore, walked over to take the bamboo pole in Ye Yu's hand, and rowed the raft to the center of the lake in two or three strokes. The speed was neither fast nor slow, and there was no wind today. , the raft can be regarded as stable.

"Swipe a little more to the left, pass by, eh, stop here."

Ye Yu directed Ye He to stop beside a bunch of lotus leaves, then stood up, stood on the edge of the raft while shaking slightly, and looked down at the center of the lotus leaves.

After watching for a while, he barely saw the lotus pod hidden in the lotus leaves.

"The lotus hasn't even bloomed yet, yet there are lotus pods." Ye Yu exclaimed in amazement while pinching the lotus pod.

Ye He stood on the other side and saw this scene, and immediately asked happily: "Is it ready to pick?"

Ye Yu let go of his hand when he heard the words and responded, "It's ok."

Immediately afterwards, the villagers who had nothing to do in the village couldn't wait to start picking lotus pods. They were divided into two teams, one team rowed a raft and started picking mature lotus pods, and the other team put on light clothes and went into the water to get lotus roots.

They worked so hard that they didn't finish picking all the lotus pods and roots until a crescent moon hung in the sky and piled them on the shore.

Ye Yu picked up a lotus pod, knocked off the lotus seeds inside, and divided one by one, "Peel off the skin and eat it raw, try it."

The freshly harvested lotus seeds are sweet and delicious. If the lotus seed core is not extracted, it will have a bit of bitterness, but the bitterness makes the sweetness of the lotus seed flesh more vivid.

Men feel that they are not strong enough after eating two lotus seeds, like what women and children eat. Children like to eat sweet things, and the sweetness of lotus seeds is not as sweet as caramel and maltose. They want to eat it after eating It's too sugary, so in the end it's just the women around him asking questions.

Ye Yu taught them: "Lotus seeds can be made into a sweet soup with white fungus and red dates. For example, white fungus and lotus seed soup can beautify the skin and sleep well. It is the most suitable for you to eat."

Women are quite moved when they hear about beauty and beauty.

These lotus pods and lotus roots are placed in public cellars, and anyone who wants to eat can redeem them with points.

Ye Yu himself just changed the lotus pod and lotus root to go home, preparing to make tremella lotus seed soup and hot and sour lotus root slices.

Dried white fungus regains its elasticity after being soaked in water, cut into small pieces and cook together with lotus seeds and red date slices, pour a little syrup into it before leaving the pot, and cook until thick.

The hot and sour lotus root slices use the chili grown at home. Ye Yu looks a bit like Chaotian pepper. The spiciness is much higher than ordinary chili, but it tastes very fragrant, especially when made into chili oil and served on cold dishes Once poured, the hotter the day, the more appetizing.

After finishing the dishes, wait for Mother Ye to steam the miscellaneous rice and they can start the meal.

Ye Yu first served his mother a bowl of white fungus and lotus seed soup, "Taste it and see if it tastes good."

Mother Ye sat down and took a bite, and said in surprise, "It's delicious." It was very sweet and delicious.

"Just eat it," Ye Yu said, "From now on, you can make a bowl of white fungus and lotus seed soup every day, it will be good for your health."

"Okay." Mother Ye replied, she suddenly remembered something when she was halfway through eating, "Remember to remind me to serve two bowls for your grandma later."

Ye Yu said: "Don't worry, my grandma's has already been served and put on the table. It will taste better if it is cooled a little."

After he finished speaking, he dug a spoonful of lotus seed soup and put it into his mouth. The lotus seeds were so stewed that they melted as soon as he sipped it. The white fungus was soft and tasted very sweet. It is colloid.

Mother Ye sighed while eating: "Your father doesn't know what he's busy with? He doesn't even come back for dinner, so you go and deliver food to him later, and I'll deliver white fungus soup to your grandma."

Ye Yu said hello.

As for what Father Ye was busy with, Ye Yu knew when he delivered the meal.

"Tomorrow, let's start the kiln and make pottery, let's go back and make preparations."

When Father Ye saw Ye Yu coming in, he told them to break up. One of the people who merged into Yejia Village was good at making pottery, so the matter of pottery making was quickly put on the agenda.

Ye Yu asked, "Is the pottery going to start tomorrow?"

Father Ye washed his hands, picked up the chopsticks, and replied, "Let's try it first. Pottery Yao said that there is clay suitable for making pottery near our village."

Ye Yu nodded thoughtfully upon hearing this.

Clay suitable for firing pottery requires fine soil quality and uniform particle size. It is convenient to have such soil on the edge of the village, so you don’t need to look for it elsewhere.

Early the next morning, they began to choose soil to make pottery blanks. At this time, it was just dawn, and there was already a circle of people around Yao Potter, but he was still calm and calm, and ordered people to wash and filter the shoveled clay carefully. Small stones and debris such as grass roots are removed, and the clay that is finally dried on the grass mat shows a dark brown color.

Yao potter puts a piece of clay on the turntable, kicks the turntable with his feet at a constant speed, and the clay gradually turns into a clay body through his hands and drawing tools.

While doing it, he said: "At the beginning, the speed of turning the turntable should be a little slower. You need to hold the clay with your hands all the time. To make clay pots, you need to pull them outward. This will make them wider. You can pull them up to make kettles, and they will be higher. "

Following his words, a complete clay pot gradually appeared in his hands. It was not beautiful, but it had a kind of simple beauty.

After potter Yao finished making the pots, he moved out of the way and asked others to come and try.

Ye Yu was the first to grab the seat. He rubbed his hands and broke off a piece of clay and put it in the palm of his hand. When he saw it, he felt that Yao Potter made it very easily. However, he knew how difficult it is to shape it when he started it. It's not that there is a lack of one here. The mouth is uneven in thickness.

In the end, he simply broke the pot, no matter what the shortcomings, let's make it into a pottery blank first.

After Ye Yu finished the pottery cup, potter Yao picked it up, observed it carefully for a while, and then said, "It's not smooth enough. When the pottery is fired in the kiln, it may be cracked or completely broken."

Ye Yu didn't feel any embarrassment when he heard this. After all, it was the first production, and it was normal for problems to occur.

Sure enough, Pottery Yao said the same thing later, "He was already gifted to be able to do this at the beginning, as long as he makes two more, these problems will no longer appear when he becomes proficient."

Then the whole village tried to make pottery, not to mention, although there were various problems, some of them could really be sent into the kiln for firing.

Because they don't have any requirements on the outside of the pottery blanks, and they don't need to have beautiful patterns, so the step of drawing the blanks is omitted in the middle.

The steamed bun kiln in their village can hold hundreds of pieces of pottery at a time, so the number of pottery blanks produced is also quite considerable. Ye Yu took a look and saw that there were a lot of pottery blanks on the straw mat, including pottery pots, cups, bowls, pots, and pottery. Tanks, etc., are commonly used utensils.

Pottery Yao said: "Starting tomorrow, I will make some molds with Carpenter Qin, so that we don't have to worry about kneading pottery embryos in the future."

Father Ye said, "Then I will trouble you both."

A few polite words are enough, and then Ye Yu and the others put all the pottery blanks into the kiln sagger according to the instructions of potter Yao. Smaller and thinner ones should be placed farther away, and in order to allow the pottery to be heated evenly, there needs to be a certain distance between the various blanks.

Generally speaking, pottery firing takes a whole night, about four hours, and the supply of coal to the kiln cannot be stopped during this time, so the village specially sent people to guard the kiln, and they were also responsible for observing the color of the fire mark , in order to determine when it is more appropriate to open the furnace.