Four Foods in the Mountains

Lidong radish, light snow cabbage.

This year's weather was exceptionally cold, Lu Yunchuan went up the mountain to cut firewood, Cen Ning rolled up the sleeves of his cotton coat, carried a bamboo basket on his back, and went to pull radishes and cabbages from the vegetable field.

At this time, the green carrots are extremely tender and crisp, and the cabbage is also green and green.

There are few fresh vegetables in winter, and looking at the fresh water in the vegetable field makes people salivate.

With a basket of cabbage and a basket of radishes, Cen Ning carried them back and forth to the yard twice, took out the wooden tub from home to wash the vegetables, and was about to start pickling side dishes for winter.

After cutting off the radish tassels, Cen Ning washed the two pots of vegetables in cold water, his hands were already red.

Cut off the tail of the radish, cut it into evenly sized strips and put it in a wooden basin, sprinkle a lot of salt on it, knead and squeeze it repeatedly, fold out the water, then pour it into a dustpan, and put it in the yard to dry .

Boil hot water in the pot, pour the cabbage into the pot, put the cabbage into the pickle tank, put a layer of cabbage on it, sprinkle a layer of salt, and finally put a vegetable stone on it, so that a jar of pickled cabbage can be eaten until next spring Neither will be bad.

Cen Ning took another small jar, squeezed out the water from the watered cabbage, boiled the glutinous rice to make a glutinous rice paste, chopped the garlic into garlic paste, shredded the radish and leek, and poured in the chili powder, salt and cooking wine, To make a thick sauce, spread the sauce on each cabbage leaf.

After the cabbage is wiped red, it is still put into the jar and sealed. After a while, it will be spicy cabbage.

After the beginning of winter and before the snow falls, it should be the busiest time for the villagers besides the busy farming.

Every family is busy chopping firewood, pickling vegetables and bacon, and after a while, the village kills pigs and fills sausages.

Xueqian had to go to the town to buy all the family's sugar, salt, cooking wine and roasted fruits and nuts. When the family was doing well, he had to bring some extra pastries back. Putting them on the table during the Chinese New Year would be honorable.

In short, after busy work, I have never been idle every day.

But the busier I get, the happier I am. Now that everything is done, when the cat winter comes after the snow, I will have nothing to worry about, and I can just stay at home and have a good rest.

Two days later, the radishes were dried in the sun, and each of them was shrunk into a ball on the dustpan. The radish dried in the sun for a long time, and it was hard to eat, and the skin curled up in the sun.

Cen Ning poured most of the dried radishes into the wooden basin, sprinkled with chili powder and a little sugar, then poured in the fried sesame seeds and peppercorns, and rubbed them evenly with his hands.

After mixing a pot, put the red dried radishes into a jar that has been washed and sun-dried, tightly sealed the mouth of the jar with cloth and cotton thread, and put it in the corner of the kitchen.

There are a lot of jars piled up in the corner. After the New Year’s Eve, I eat fish stew every day. I open the jar and take a pile of dried pickled radishes or pickled cabbage, and fry them with the bacon. It’s spicy, crispy and refreshing.

There are some dried radishes left without dressing, which is also delicious to chew as snacks in winter.

For two days in a row, the firewood that Lu Yunchuan cut down from up the mountain filled the yard of his house. Cen Ning cleaned up the radishes and cabbage in the vegetable field at home, put some of them in the granary for his own food, and sold some in the town.

Two days later, the rally in the town was held.

Lu Yunchuan and Lu Yunlang went to the town to rent a scooter the day before and came back.

There are a lot of things, and two people can't carry much in bamboo baskets, they have to be pulled by carts.

Early in the morning, when it was still dark, Lu Yunchuan gently lifted the quilt to get up.

After the winter, Lu Yunchuan was afraid that Cen Ning would be frozen, so he burned the kang in the house early, and the kang was still warm at this time, the doors and windows in the house were sealed all night and there was still heat, and Lu Yunchuan didn't feel too cold when he lifted the quilt.

He was just about to put on a padded coat when behind him, Cen Ning rubbed his eyes, stretched out his hand and pulled the hem of his clothes, and muttered, "Are you leaving now?"

"Well, you can get a booth if you go earlier." Lu Yunchuan stretched out his hands to rub Cen Ning's hair scattered on the bed, "You can sleep a little longer, it's still early."

The winter fair is very lively. After the fair, it can be said that there are huge crowds of people. If you go late and can’t occupy a booth, you can only squat in the corner to sell. The business is not good.

Cen Ning sat up propped up and looked out the window. It was pitch black outside the window, and the wind was blowing loudly.

"The wind is too strong, and the wind blows even stronger when you walk on the mountain road. I'll get up and make you an egg and boil a bowl of noodles. You can leave after you eat it warm."

"You don't need to get up." Lu Yunchuan got up and put on his shoes and socks, "There are pancakes left over from last night in the pot, I can just take a couple of bites with me on the way, I'm afraid I won't be able to catch up if it's too late, I'll close the courtyard door later, and you lie down sleep."

Cen Ning moved to the side of the kang, sat up straight, tied the belt of Lu Yunchuan's tunic, and helped him put on the padded coat, saying: "Then you and elder brother go to the rally to buy something warm to eat, and it's good to drink the hot soup, too. Wait until you have warmed up before opening the stall, in such a cold day, just eating pancakes won’t keep you warm at all.”

As he spoke, he lifted the blanket and took out a money bag from inside and handed it to Lu Yunchuan.

Cen Ning kept all the money in the family, Lu Yunchuan just kept his head on the work, and when the work was done, he took the money back home and handed it to Cen Ning. He usually didn't carry a single coin with him.

There were dozens of coins in the purse, which Cen Ning usually used to buy things. Lu Yunchuan didn't take the purse, but just touched a few coins from it and put it away.

Cen Ning straightened his collar, and said: "It's dark, you and your elder brother are walking on the mountain road and pulling a cart, so be careful. You have to buy food at noon, whether it's noodles or wontons, you have to fill your stomach , don’t just eat pancakes just to save money, I’m going to ask my elder brother later.”

Just now he had an awkward fight with Cen Ning, but now Lu Yunchuan obeyed Fu Lang's words, and nodded quickly after hearing what Cen Ning said to show that he understood.

Cen Ning was satisfied, and finally said: "I will cook dinner tonight and wait for you to come back."

Lu Yunchuan went to the yard, piled the bundled firewood on the cart, put baskets of cabbage and radishes on it, tied them with rope, opened the gate of the yard and left.

Hearing the sound of the courtyard door being closed again, Cen Ning lay back under the quilt, it was still early when he usually woke up, there was no difference between the room and the night at this point, and the kang was still warm.

It's just that he's used to Lu Yunchuan sleeping with his arms around him, holding his feet between his legs to warm him up. Now that Lu Yunchuan is gone, he can't fall asleep after tossing and turning on the kang alone.

Unable to fall asleep, he simply sat up, put on a cotton coat, lit the oil lamp, put the sewing basket on his lap, put on a thimble and held a needle cone under the oil lamp to give Lu Yunchuan the soles of his shoes.

Stitching the soles is a labor-intensive job. You have to use an awl to drill holes in the soles, and then thread them through the hemp rope to sew. Each stitch must be tightly tightened, so that the soles can be durable.

Because they are cotton shoes worn in winter, Cen Ning made the shoes extra thick. The thick-soled shoes don't hurt your feet, and your feet won't get too wet when you walk in the snow.

Also because of the thickness of the hole, it took a lot of effort to drill through the hole. Cen Ning only took in a small half, but his arms began to ache, and after a while, he felt sleepy.

Yawning, the sewing basket was placed on the kang table, the cotton coat was put on the quilt, Cen Ning got under the quilt again, and fell asleep again after a while.

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The author has something to say:

Cen Ning: Wait until I get back to sleep.

There is nothing happier than opening your eyes in the winter morning and finding that you can go back to sleep (*︶*)