frightfiction Chapter 342: Going up Fangshan
Chapter 342: Going up Fangshan
The next day, it was just dawn and a light rain was falling from the sky.
Fortunately, the drizzle stopped soon, and the land was only slightly wet, which did not affect the following autumn harvest.
But the villagers of Tangjia Village take it more seriously, because at times like this, they are afraid that it will rain lightly first and then heavily, and the crops will not be harvested.
As soon as the rain stopped, the men of the Jiu clan went to the east side of the river to help, and the women followed Li Jingshu to make kudzu starch with the sweet potatoes they had just harvested.
The production of sweet potato starch and kudzu root powder is similar. The only troublesome part is the pounding work. However, there is a mill in Tangjia Village. It is called a mill, but it is actually a small wooden pavilion with several stone mills inside.
It doesn't belong to anyone, but it belongs to Tangjia Village. Everyone in the village shares it and just needs to clean it after each use.
If the Jiu clan makes starch all year round, they will have to buy a stone mill sooner or later. But now they are short of money, so they borrow the stone mill from Tangjia Village first.
Li Jingshu and her friends got up early in the morning to wash sweet potatoes. In order to avoid fetching water, they took the sweet potatoes and the tools to the mill to wash them. There was a well next to the mill.
After cleaning, cut into pieces and grind into pulp. Then pack them in plastic bags and transport them back. Fortunately, the stone bridge has been built, otherwise it would be very tiring for a group of women to carry them back and forth across the river.
Now all you have to do is push it with the blanket.
The stone bridge is built very wide, with a flat surface and gentle slopes on both sides, making it very convenient to push a cart across the bridge.
Aunt-in-law Song took a handful of dry straw and rolled it into a ball, rubbing it against the grass to wash the sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes were uneven and had a lot of dirt on them, so it was difficult to wash them clean with just hands.
Using straw can effectively remove the dirt from the sweet potatoes. Although the skin of the sweet potatoes may be broken sometimes, you can grind them into pulp immediately after washing so that they will not go bad soon.
But farmers don't like to see things wasted, so she couldn't help but say, "Hey, we don't raise many pigs, otherwise the residue left over from making starch can be fed to pigs."
Douzi's wife also interrupted, "How about we take it back and dry it, then buy some chickens and ducks and use it to feed the chickens?"
When Xiao Yang was in her hometown, she liked to inquire about gossip, so she was no exception when she came here. If there was any movement in Tangjia Village, she would find out everything while working with the young wives in Tangjia Village.
"Uncle Guangshen's family has given birth to piglets, right? Why don't we talk to Grandpa about getting a few to raise? These dregs are perfect for feeding pigs."
Li Jingshu listened to everyone's words and laughed, "In fact, the dregs of sweet potatoes can also be eaten. Think about it, the sweet potatoes can be dried and ground into flour to make noodles.
In fact, sweet potato residue can be used with cornmeal to make steamed bread. Of course, white flour is also fine, but we can’t afford white flour at the moment. Corn cakes are also fine.”
In fact, Li Jingshu has thought about raising pigs, chickens and ducks, but it is not necessary for the time being because they are short of manpower in the short term, and the sweet potato residue left over from making starch every day may not be enough for them to eat.
It can also be used to feed pigs. In the future, as there is more sweet potato residue, there will be no shortage of food, so it can be used to feed pigs.
And the sweet potato residue has many uses. Adding some starch can make fried sweet potato balls, which are sweet and fragrant. The outside is crispy and the inside is glutinous, but you have to wait for the soybean oil to be made.
You can also stir-fry sweet potato batter and add some chopped green onions. It is also delicious if you have small river shrimps.
Hearing about so many ways to eat it, the women also discussed making sweet potato residue steamed bread and sweet potato residue paste to try in the evening.
As for Shen Youyou, she deliberately left Guo Daya, Erzhuang and Erhu behind today. In addition, Shen Zhiqiu knew that they were going to Fangshan, so he gave them Da Huye and told them not to go too deep and to wander around the periphery. If they couldn't find the dye, he would pay for it.
There is a damp atmosphere in the mountains after the rain, all kinds of vegetation grow lushly, and there are countless flying insects and animals.
But that was all, because the rain was too light and only wet the ground, there was no sign of slipping when walking up the mountain.
In order to pick some mushrooms, Shen Youyou also called Tang Xin. This little girl knew a lot about these wild mushrooms.
This saves Shen Youyou, who has only watched a lot of videos but has not picked many mushrooms herself, from making mistakes and picking poisonous wild mushrooms.
Early in the morning, they set off after breakfast. Except for Sister Daya and Sister Taohua, there were Shen Xingya and Shen Cuiya who went to set up stalls to sell jelly and steamed cakes. The rest were all here.
Yes! That’s right, Erya didn’t go either. The main reason was that Shen Youyou always took Erya with her, because Erya was her happy pill.
Although the road up the mountain is not muddy at all, you still need to be careful. After all, there is a lot of rain water on the thatch, and if you are not careful, you will slip because of the rain water on the thatch.
Tang Xin seemed very excited on the way, mainly because she had rarely been to Fangshan. They mostly picked mushrooms in the woods on the east side of the river.
Ever since she was a child, she had heard that Fangshan was dangerous, with wolves, tigers and wild boars growing up. But how could she not yearn for it when she could see the beautiful and mysterious Fangshan from afar every day?
But they didn't come up very often, because usually only during the slack season when many uncles and aunts in the village went to Fangshan to hunt or pick up mountain products, did the little girls have the opportunity to follow them. And that was in the last two years when they had grown up, so the little girls were definitely not allowed to follow them.
Fangshan has a unique terrain, with cliffs all around, and mountains and rivers below the cliffs, forming a layered terrain from high to low. Now at the foot of the mountain is the wasteland that Shen Youyou and his team have reclaimed.
Fangshan is connected to the wasteland. From a distance, the newly built houses of the Jiuzu clan seem to be wrapped in the middle of the valley.
The mountains are verdant and the rivers are clear. Just talking about the scenery, Shen Youyou could not be more satisfied, so she is also full of yearning for Fangshan.
Along the way, they listened to Tang Xin chattering about various poisonous and non-toxic mushrooms. They also picked some, but maybe because there has been little rain recently, they didn't find many mushrooms. Fortunately, Shen Youyou didn't come here for the mushrooms.
Even if the rain was not heavy and not slippery, the road up the mountain was still muddy and sticky to the soles of shoes. Every time they walked a certain distance, they had to use branches to clean the large pieces of mud off their feet, otherwise it would be very heavy to walk.
Tang Xin sighed again: "Wow, your shoes are so good, they are waterproof and my feet won't get wet at all."
This was the third time she had said this since she went up the mountain. Shen Youyou laughed and said, "Don't worry, we'll make the shoes in a few days. I'll give you a pair when they're done."
Tang Xin waved her hands repeatedly: "No, no, I have never seen this kind of "cloth" before, and it is not animal skin. It must be difficult to make."
"These are plastic shoes, also called rain boots, which keep your feet from getting wet when it rains or snows. We made them to sell them, so we'll give you a pair. Wearing them around will also be a promotion for us."
Of course Shen Youyou said this to make Tang Xin feel at ease to accept it. She liked Tang Xin very much. She had a similar personality to her second sister and was also a kind and good girl.
When they were clearing the land and building houses, Tang Xin often brought a few girls from Tangjia Village to dig wild vegetables for them.
Tang Xinniang is a nice person. There were some misunderstandings when we were not familiar with each other at first, but she became warm and sincere after we got to know each other.
She also often comes to the Jiu Clan to play, and has the best relationship with her fourth aunt. Maybe the two of them have similar interests and both like to inquire about all kinds of gossip.