Volume 1: Reborn in the 1980s, selling lunch boxes with my mother Chapter 27: Breaking Wild Rice White
After setting the eel fishing line, Aunt Cuizhi, who was on good terms with Hu Qiongfang in the village, came with a bamboo basket and invited them to go to the river to pick water bamboo.
There is a big river outside their village. Where the river bends, a large mudflat is naturally formed. Since some time ago, large areas of wild water chestnuts have gradually grown here.
Hu Qiongfang cried out and slapped her forehead in annoyance.
"I felt like I had forgotten something these days. We haven't dried the wild rice stems yet. Cuizhi, you go first. I'll go home and get two fertilizer bags!"
When Jiang Tian heard her mother say that they were going to the riverbank to pick water chestnuts, she suddenly thought of something else.
"Mom, I remember there's a lot of silt on the riverbank. I'm afraid there are a lot of loaches underneath?"
Hu Qiongfang froze for a moment, then suddenly stamped her feet: "How could I have forgotten about this? Go, go, go home and get a shovel and two buckets!"
two?
Are there really so many loaches on the river beach?
Hu Qiongfang rolled her eyes at her daughter and said, "Have you forgotten? When you were a kid, I took you there to dig reed roots."
Nowadays, ordinary people do not go to the hospital for minor illnesses, but instead use some folk remedies at home.
Reed root is a folk medicine often used in rural areas.
The mother and daughter hurried back home and took two woven bags and two sickles.
After thinking about it, I decided not to take the bucket.
Afraid that her daughter didn't understand, Hu Qiongfang whispered to her daughter: " When you meet the villagers later, don't tell them that we are going to the riverbank to dig loaches. Let's go there at noon tomorrow when there is no one outside."
If they could really dig up loaches on the riverbank, it would become an "important source of goods" for their family in the future, and it would be free.
After all, there are only a limited number of loaches in the rice fields. After harvesting the rice, every household has to dig out the rice stubble and re-cultivate the land to plant wheat and rapeseed.
When the time comes, there will be no water in the fields, and the loaches will not be able to survive. They will definitely crawl into the ditches along the ridges.
If a loach escapes into the water, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack, which is a hundred times harder to catch than in a rice field!
If there really were loaches under the mud on the river beach, it would be much easier to deal with.
Hu Qiongfang is not afraid of hard work and perseverance. With just one shovel, she can dig up a few loaches. It is no exaggeration to say that she can even produce sparks with the shovel.
Jiang Tian was also very excited.
She knew the river beach beside the big river outside the village. Wow, it’s so big!
When water chestnuts grow out in the summer, the large green leaves stretch as far as the eye can see.
If there really were loaches under the mud, they would not have to worry about not being able to catch them even in winter.
Besides...loaches are hard to catch in winter, so the price will definitely go up then.
Mom is right, we can’t let the villagers know about this!
Otherwise, when winter comes, there will be no work in the fields. If all the men in the village come to dig loaches, how can the mother and daughter compete with those big men?
While discussing what time to go digging loaches without being noticed by the villagers, the mother and daughter hurried on their way. After a while, they arrived outside the village. From a distance, they could see many people picking water chestnuts on the river bank.
Wild茭白 is not big, but the problem is that it is free!
In addition to being used for cooking, the茭白 can also be sliced and dried, and is especially delicious when stewed with meat in the winter.
The main reason is that ordinary people of that era could not afford greenhouse vegetables. In winter, the only vegetables grown in the fields were radishes, cabbages, coriander, spinach, and garlic. After eating them for a few months, people would get sick of them.
Therefore, every summer and autumn, diligent housewives will dry a lot of dried vegetables, such as dried eggplants, dried beans, dried lettuce, sesame leaves, dried cabbage, dried cucumbers, potato chips, day lilies and so on.
Because their village has a "unique geographical advantage" and is closest to the river beach, many families go to the river beach every year to cut water chestnuts and dry them in the sun.
There was a vast expanse of wild water chestnuts that stretched as far as the eye could see, and there was no need to fight over them at all. Hu Qiongfang shouted towards the riverbank, and when he heard Hu Cuizhi's response, he immediately walked towards her, put down the fertilizer bag, picked up the sickle and started cutting.
Wild茭白 are relatively small in size, and if you try to break them off one by one, you won’t get many even after a long time.
So if the villagers are in a hurry, they usually do what they do, using a sickle to cut the water chestnuts directly along the roots, and then cut them from the top, leaving only the water chestnuts close to the roots with the skin attached, and take them home to slowly peel them.
The women in the countryside are all good at working. After a while, the two old sisters waved their sickles and cut down a large area of water chestnuts.
Hu Qiongfang was cutting water bamboo while Jiang Tian followed behind her and picked them up. Soon, the two fertilizer bags they brought were full.
On the way back, Hu Cuizhi invited them to go to her house to dig water chestnuts in a few days.
Hu Cuizhi and Hu Qiongfang's maiden families are from the same village. They grew up together and happened to marry into the same village. The two sisters have always had a good relationship. Last time when something happened to the Jiang family and Hu Qiongfang fainted, Hu Cuizhi was the first to run over to help.
Hu Cuizhi is relatively lucky. Her husband has no brothers, only two older sisters. Her parents-in-law rely on the couple for support in their old age, so they treat her well as a daughter-in-law and are willing to help the young couple with their lives.
Hu Cuizhi gave birth to two children for her husband's family, both sons. Every year, her family would set aside half an acre of land next to the rice field to grow water chestnuts because her two eldest grandsons loved to eat them.
However, although water chestnuts are delicious, they are very hard to dig. You have to drain the water first, wait for the silt on top to dry up, and then use a shovel to dig out the silt and pick out the water chestnuts hidden in the mud bit by bit.
Although the harvesting process is troublesome, fresh water chestnuts can also be sold for money.
If harvesting water chestnuts wasn't so tiring, Hu Qiongfang would have wanted to grow some herself.
But it doesn’t matter. Although she doesn’t have any at home, she can go to her good friend’s house to get some.
And that’s how it is in the countryside. If you have a good relationship with someone, sometimes you will go and lend a hand just by hearing from them.
After agreeing on the time to dig water chestnuts, Hu Qiongfang and her friends arrived home first.
After arriving home, the mother and daughter poured two large bags of water chestnuts on the ground. Seeing Hu Qiongfang pounding her waist with exhaustion, Jiang Tian immediately brought over a bamboo chair with a backrest and let Hu Qiongfang sit down to peel the water chestnuts.
"Mom, peel some wild rice stems first. We'll stir-fry some wild rice stems with chili peppers tonight. I'll show you how to do it."
As she spoke, Jiang Tian washed the yellow mud off her hands and hurried to the kitchen to cook .
It was almost dark at this time, and he estimated that no one would come to visit at dinner time, so Jiang Cheng, the "bedridden patient", jumped out of bed, ran to bolt the door, and came over to help his mother peel water bamboo.
Stretch your legs while you're at it .
Lying in bed all day pretending to be sick is actually quite tiring.
