Chapter 52 Uninvited
chickens, ducks, cattle, sheep, and pigs are the most basic poultry for rural people. Times are different now, and the countryside is also advancing with the times. Many farmers do not raise pigs, cattle, and sheep. If they do not go out to work, they usually raise some chickens. Duck, after all, I don’t raise any livestock, so it doesn’t feel like home.
Lejia also keeps chickens, with an average of about six or seven, sometimes more than a dozen. When they grow to a certain age, they are sold or slaughtered during festivals. Most of the roosters are slaughtered or sold first, and the hens are kept. Raw eggs can be eaten by yourself or sold on the street.
The Le family originally had twelve chickens, but one was slaughtered during the Dragon Boat Festival. Le's father sold two of them a few days ago, and there are nine more chickens left, including a breeding rooster, seven hens, and a medium-sized rooster.
In the morning, Le Yun sent her father, who had a bit of a gynophilic tendency, to work, and took chicken food to the pig pen behind the house to feed the chickens. The domestic chickens were fed corn, rice, and sometimes cooked pig food.
The rice is not yet mature, so chickens and ducks are free-ranging during this season. Let them out during the day and let them run wherever they want. In the evening, they will return to their pens. When the rice is about to mature, they need to be kept for about a month.
Opening the chicken coop, a group of chickens came out like a swarm, and each one grew strong. Leyun counted the corn kernels and let them eat by themselves. She scattered the corn kernels on the ground and let them eat by themselves. She returned to the bungalow to clean, cleaning every corner inside and outside the house. Every corner is cleaned.
Do a good job of general cleaning, tidy up, go to the kitchen, light a fire in the old-style fire pit, and fry dendrobium in a pan. I fried a batch last night. Those are just a drop in the bucket of space inventory. While the weather is good, I will seize the time to continue frying some and dry them.
The best way to stir-fry medicinal materials is to use firewood. Use natural firewood to stir-fry medicinal materials from the wild to maintain the most original essence.
Lejia also has firewood, some of which are the remaining branches after selling the economical wood, some are the leftovers of the raw materials used to grow mushrooms and fungus in Leba’s workshop, and the waste materials that can no longer be used after growing mushrooms, Boss Wu Taking care of Le's father, he gave it to the Le family at almost half the gift price. If he sold it to others, it would cost at least 10,000 to 20,000 yuan at a time. He gave the Le family only 1,000 to 2,000 yuan as the cost of work. Therefore, the Le family accumulated a lot of firewood and burned it for three years. No problem for years.
The fire in the fire pit is burning brightly. When the flame is stable, put the pot in the pot. Le Yun takes out a basket of dendrobium seedlings, puts a handful in the pot and stir-fries slowly. Processing medicinal materials is a delicate job, and the heat must be controlled well. If it is too strong, it will burn. , too weak and useless.
Le Yun controls the fire by herself, stirs the dendrobium seedlings by herself, stirs them slowly with her hands, twists them while frying, twists the dendrobium into a spiral shape, and waits until it becomes a dried product, which is the well-known iron maple bucket.
Zhou Qiufeng finished her housework in the morning and went to the fields to see the water. When she returned home, her brother and sister-in-law were nowhere to be seen. She guessed that she went to Xiang Street to play mahjong again.
Grandma Zhou smiled when she saw the girl coming back: "You're back? Can we leave then?"
"Okay." Zhou Qiufeng put down the hoe and picked up the straw hat to protect the sun.
The mother and daughter closed the two doors of their home and went outside. Grandma Zhou went straight to the garden in front of the Le family's house. Zhou Qiufeng went to the pig pen behind the Le family's house. She opened the courtyard door with ease and went into the Le family's backyard to find Take a bucket and pole to the place where manure is stored, fill it with a load of fertilizer, and carry it to the garden in front of Lejia.
Grandma Zhou is responsible for distributing fertilizers and placing dung and grass at the roots of each sweet potato. She is having fun while working. She doesn’t know yet whether her daughter is willing to marry. Anyway, her old man has already regarded Yueqing as his prospective son-in-law. Just like last night, her girl and She said she had nothing to do at home and wanted to help Lejia for a day or two. Without saying anything, her old man volunteered to come and help.
The mother and daughter did not tell the owner, but they went to the fields by themselves, one picking fertilizer and the other putting fertilizer. They were obviously working for the Le family, and they were more serious and responsible than working for their own family.
Le Yun was frying dendrobium in the kitchen. She heard the sound of Aunt Feng and Grandma Zhou talking and the sound of Aunt Feng picking fertilizer behind the house. She didn't look around. She was frying the medicine. If she stopped in the middle, the heat would be low. , the quality of the fried finished products will also be greatly reduced.
After frying a pot of herbs, twist them all into a spiral shape, pour them into the spare bamboo sieve on the stand in the living room to cool, put down the pot, run out of the house quickly, and take a look at the door. Although the corn seedlings are very tall and somewhat obscured, You can still see the two people in the garden. Aunt Feng walked into the corn row carrying a load of fertilizer, and Grandma Zhou was quickly spreading the fertilizer.
"Grandma Zhou, Aunt Feng!" Seeing the mother and daughter who came to help with farm work uninvited, Le Yun shouted with a smile and ran to the garden in front of the house.
"Lele, what are you busy with? I smell something sweet."
A mother and daughter heard the crisp and sweet voice, turned their heads and saw little Lele running towards him, ding-dong-ding-dong, Zhou Grandma smiled and talked to the child.
Zhou Qiufeng said nothing, put down the burden on her shoulders with a smile, poured out the fertilizer neatly, and gently tapped the bottom of the pan with a pole to remove the dung and grass.
"I'm frying medicinal materials. Grandma Zhou, you and Aunt Feng are too busy with your own affairs. How can you help us? We don't have much sweet potato land at home. I will spend a day with my father tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. You and Aunt Feng, take a rest."
"We have finished all the work at home, and we are idle when we are idle. Xiao Lele, aren't you sorting out the medicinal materials? Don't come. If you step in the mud and have to wash your hands and feet, you don't have to worry about it. Let's quickly go do what you are good at. Just remember to add half a kilogram more rice when cooking at noon. Your Aunt Feng, her brother and her sister-in-law are going to play mahjong on the street today. Your Aunt Feng and I are going to have dinner at your house at noon. ."
Hearing that Xiao Lele was frying medicinal materials, Grandma Zhou smiled and stopped her from running to the garden to join in. The crow's feet at the corners of her old face were rippling like ripples.
Zhou Qiufeng poured the dung and grass in the other basket into the ground, carried the empty basket out of the ground, and asked Xiao Lele to do her work. They were better at field work than Xiao Lele, and the two families were good at it. They are so familiar that there is no need for children to greet them.
"Okay. Then I'll take care of my herbs first. I'll come back after I've finished drying the herbs." Le Yun was not pretentious. She really didn't go to the garden and ran back happily.
The Zhou family's mother and daughter were very happy when they saw little Lele bouncing and lively like a newborn calf. They also sincerely lamented that time flies so fast. Back then, she could not walk unsteadily and her speech was slurred. The little boy grew so big in a blink of an eye.
Back in the kitchen, Le Yun washed her hands again and continued to stir-fry the medicine. A pot of dendrobium would accumulate some juice, and she was reluctant to pour it out, so she collected it in a clean bowl.
After frying several pots in a row, when the sun rose as high as a pole, the dendrobium twisted into a maple bucket was sent to the second floor. The steamed and washed medicinal materials last night were taken out from the roof shed and put in the sun to dry. Good medicinal materials, hurry up and work in the fields.
(End of chapter)