"It's raining!"
When he woke up in the morning, Lin Heng looked at the drizzle outside the window and sighed. The pillow made by Qiu Ju made sleeping refreshing.
"It seems like it's not a big deal." Xiulan walked to the window sill and took a look, then went back to combing her hair.
After closing the window, Lin Heng came back and said with a smile: "It seems that God asked us to eat mutton today."
If it rains and you can’t do anything, then naturally you can only eat some delicious food.
"Are you going to kill the sheep after breakfast?" Xiulan raised her head and asked.
Lin Heng thought for a while and suggested: "How about we go directly to Hongfeng Mountain and have breakfast at my parents' place, then kill the sheep at noon and eat mutton hot pot or simply boil the mutton."
"That's okay." Xiulan nodded and said, there is not much work to do at home now.
"Then let's go." Lin Heng decided to say.
The two of them finished their exercise first, and then woke up their children to go to Red Maple Mountain.
"Dad, why have all the turtles disappeared?" Xiaoxia suddenly screamed, ran over and hugged Lin Heng's thigh and asked. She came over every morning to see the turtles.
Lu Ming and Du Heng were still looking at their sister and father blankly, not knowing what was going on.
"Of course it's hibernating. I'll show you."
Lin Heng walked to the big wooden basin where the tortoise was kept and said that he doted on the children very much. A large wooden basin with a diameter of one meter was specially customized for the tortoise. After it was painted with tung oil, it was kept in the open air.
He also made a landscape with the children in the pot, including sand, stones, moss, calamus, etc. There was water and beach. It can be said that no one in the countryside would do this with the children except him, and a big wooden pot was wasted.
"It's winter now, and the turtles are hibernating, so they're all burrowing into the sand." Lin Heng pulled Xiaoxia and explained.
While talking, Lin Heng dug a hole in the sand and showed it to Xiaoxia. He has put a lot of water in the tub, and now the remaining water is just to keep the sand moist.
"It's really hibernating." Xiaoxia was a little surprised and seemed to have forgotten that Lin Heng told her about this last year.
"Don't disturb the turtle's hibernation. Let's go play at the Red Maple Mountain." Lin Heng said, and took some grass to cover it and keep warm.
Then he changed into rain boots, carried Du Heng with a strap, held Lu Ming in his arms, and let Lu Ming hold the umbrella. Xiulan took Xiaoxia to carry the seasonings for mutton shabu-shabu and barbecue.
Xiongba followed them, Jinbao
"Brother, let's go kill the black goat. Let's go over and eat mutton at noon." Lin Heng opened the door of the eldest brother's house and shouted.
Lin Yue nodded and agreed: "Okay, we'll go in a moment. We'll go after feeding the cows and pigs."
"Okay, let's go first." Lin Heng nodded and agreed.
Next, they took their children to Hongfeng Mountain under umbrellas.
Opening the door and walking in, Father Lin and Mother Lin had just gotten up. When he saw them coming, Father Lin smiled and said, "I guessed that it was raining and you would come here to kill the sheep. I didn't expect you to come here without eating breakfast."
"We came over for breakfast, you didn't eat it, right?" Lin Heng asked with a smile.
"Grandpa, I want to eat eggs."
"I eat candy!"
"I eat fruit!"
Without waiting to speak, the children chirped and shouted, running towards the house one by one, like little penguins.
"We have everything. My dear grandchildren have everything they want." Mother Lin walked out of the house with a smile and hugged the children. Her two twin grandchildren were her favorite and one of the things she showed off to everyone. .
"We must not have eaten either. We are just getting ready to milk the cows." Father Lin said with a smile.
"Then I'll help." Lin Heng nodded.
After a while, they prepared milk and eggs. Mother Lin fried potato cakes and peeled apples for the three children.
After they had finished breakfast, his eldest brother and his family came over. The six children were so lively together, they were running around and couldn't stop at all.
Lin Heng and his father and brother went up the mountain, first fed the cattle and sheep, and then selected suitable targets while the sheep were grazing.
"These fanned sheep can actually be sold, and they won't grow much if they are raised again." Father Lin said while looking at the sheep.
"Then sell a batch next year, otherwise we won't be able to keep them anymore." Lin Heng nodded and said.
These stirred sheep can indeed be disposed of. Now that the price of mutton is getting higher and higher, it is not a special loss to sell them. Moreover, he will need a lot of money in the spring of next year and has a new investment to make.
Even those astragalus, he is planning to sell next year, it is not the same thing to accumulate them in his hands for a long time. Although according to his memory, there have been no large-scale animal diseases in the past few years, there is no guarantee that this will change.
"Let's see if we can sell it at the end of the year. I estimate the price of mutton will be very good at the end of the year." Lin's father said.
"That's okay, then I'll find time to go to Ancheng next month and have a look. The prices there should be better than here." Lin Heng nodded in agreement.
Now that he has a car, he can bear the freight costs himself. If he can sell it to Anseong, he will definitely not sell it here in Taebaek City.
"Just this end."
While chatting, Lin Heng suddenly took action and grabbed the head of a Jie Yang.
"Baa!! Baa!!"
With screams, all the other sheep ran away, and only the poor guy was struggling.
"I'll come."
Lin Yue turned over twice, grabbed the sheep from the pen, and carried it out with Father Lin. The other sheep just watched from a distance, and then continued to eat grass after the sheep was taken away, as if nothing had happened.
"This one is fat enough. I wonder if it weighs eighty pounds." Lin Heng said with a smile, lifting one leg of the black goat.
"If you don't have eighty, you can still have more than seventy." Father Lin said with a smile.
"There must be more than seventy. This black goat looks very fat." Lin Yue said with a smile.
After grabbing the sheep and going down the mountain, they found a suitable position. Lin Heng took a hammer and hit the sheep on the head. With a thud, the sheep stopped moving.
Lifting the fainted sheep to the large scale and weighing it, Lin Heng smiled: "We thought it was too small. This black goat actually weighs eighty-six pounds."
"I really can't tell. It seems that this black goat is really different." Lin Yue was a little shocked.
"This weight can be sold." Father Lin grinned and repeated this topic. He didn't know what the future would be like, and was worried that if there was an accident, all these black goats would rot in his hands.
"Yes, you can sell it." Mother Lin understood this and nodded in agreement.
Then they carried the sheep aside, caught it in a basin, killed it with a knife and bled it. After killing them, they hang them up under the eaves and skin them bit by bit.
The skin of the black goat is still very thick, but it is not difficult for three people to kill it.
After peeling off the sheepskin and gutting it, you can take it into the house and warm yourself over the fire while doing the rest of the work. It's raining and the wind is strong outside, and the cold is a bit unbearable.
After killing, the pure meat weighs about forty pounds, which is pretty good.
"Come on, let's put on some skewers and grill them for a taste." Lin Heng cut off a strip of fat and thin mutton and asked. "Give it to me and I'll wear it." Xiulan took the meat and cut it into small pieces with Lin Heng's hundred-smelted steel dagger and threaded it on an iron skewer.
Within two minutes of being roasted on the fire, a strong smell of meat came out, causing all the children playing to gather around and drool when looking at the mutton on the grill.
Soon Xiulan, Liu Juan and others had roasted the first batch of meat, which was enough for one person to eat two pieces.
"Well, it smells so good!"
“It smells good, I want to eat it~”
"The roasted mutton is really delicious. Dad, let's raise two sheep at home. I'll take care of them, okay?"
"I'm helping my brother."
Before the adults could say anything, the children spoke up first.
"It's really good." Lin Yue tasted it carefully, and then looked at his son, "If you really want to let it go, then I will buy one for you."
"Definitely, we have to let them go." Lin Wei nodded repeatedly. He thought herding sheep was a very interesting thing.
"I am willing too." Lin Tao also nodded.
Mother Lin chewed and said: "The mutton of this black goat tastes pretty good, but it doesn't seem to be much different from the white-bearded goat."
"I think it smells better than white goat." Father Lin said with a smile.
Lin Heng said: "You can't actually taste it when it's roasted, and our white goats are good, so the taste is really not much different."
After a pause, he continued: "We will definitely be able to tell the difference after eating it in a simmer, but it is a pity that there is no white goat meat for comparison."
"Then shall I continue baking?" Xiulan asked.
"Of course it's roasted. It won't be roasted much." Lin Heng nodded and cut some more meat.
Then he cut up all the remaining meat. Except for the lamb chops, he kicked off the meat from all four legs. He chopped the leg bones into small pieces and put them in a pot to stew soup and make stock.
He doesn't need to worry about how to make mutton-shabu-shabu. Xiulan made it last year and her skills are very good. She also studied several cookbooks he bought this year.
He used his finely ground Damascus dagger to break the meat with just one scratch. He first cut five kilograms of mutton slices and waited for the hot pot at noon.
Father Lin and his eldest brother were busy processing the sheep's offal. They were going to boil some sheep tripe and eat it later.
The mutton bone broth was simmered for two hours. During the simmering period, Xiulan made some dipping sauce for the mutton. Lin Hengze roasted some mutton over there.
At 12:30 noon, Xiulan looked at Lin Heng and said: "Wipe the table, let's eat mutton."
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded quickly.
After setting the table and cleaning it, she went to get the electric stove. Xiulan brought over the iron pot with the soup stock and put it on the stand. After taking the other things, everyone sat together and it was time to start.
Apart from the mutton, the only ingredients on the table were a large plate of coriander. After sitting down, Lin Heng picked up his chopsticks and said, "It's ready to eat. Everyone, hurry up and eat."
When the mutton was brought over, there was already some cooked mutton in it. Shabu-shabu mutton is very simple. There are some ginger, green onions and basic spices in the soup stock, but nothing else.
"Eat them all!" Father Lin also said.
Everyone couldn't wait to pick up their chopsticks and pick some, mainly because they could smell the aroma of the broth from very early on, and their mouths were already drooling.
With the mutton in his mouth, Lin Heng kept nodding: "It's delicious, it's delicious."
This mutton tastes very delicious and has a layered texture. It is chewy but not chewy and has almost no fishy taste.
"Absolutely good mutton." Father Lin said with a smile. This mutton will make people's tongues drop.
Xiulan said: "I think it tastes better than white goat when cooked."
Even Mother Lin nodded repeatedly, saying that it was indeed delicious.
Then Lin Heng took another piece of fatty mutton. Generally, this kind of mutton would be very fishy, but it tasted okay, with the smell of mutton fat, but not offensive.
You must know that these muttons have not been soaked in water or other methods to remove the fishy smell, and they also have this kind of taste, which shows that they are indeed very good.
It's delicious when eaten alone, and when you add some sesame sauce as a dipping sauce, the taste becomes even more delicious. Everyone just nodded, barely spoke, and even didn't drink much wine.
Because this mutton tastes so good, it makes your whole body warm, and the delicious taste is even more addictive.
Eat a chopstick of mutton with a piece of coriander. The taste is so unique that it feels like it can be swallowed by your tongue.
After a while, the five kilograms of mutton bottomed out, and everyone finally stopped. Both children and adults had satisfied expressions on their faces.
"I'll cut some more when I get up. I'm full of mutton today." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"I'll help you." Lin Yue also nodded.
The rain outside is getting heavier now, the sound of rain is accompanied by the roar of mountain wind, and the yellow leaves all over the mountain are falling continuously.
Inside the house, they cut another five kilograms of mutton and continued to eat. They had enough coriander and mutton. There was no one in their family who didn't eat coriander.
After eating for a while, the children hugged me first and ran away to play when they stopped eating.
The adults poured a glass of rice wine and continued drinking. They could still eat a lot. It was already two o'clock in the afternoon when we finally finished eating. Everyone leaned back in their chairs with satisfaction, feeling unprecedentedly satisfied physically and mentally.
"What a wonderful day!"
Father Lin looked at the rain outside and said with emotion that he had never thought that he would be able to eat mutton one day.
"Our whole family has eaten ten pounds of mutton, and we can still eat it." Lin Yue said with a smile.
"We ate even one sheep." Liu Juan also said with a smile.
Lin Heng smiled and said: "What's the point? People should be kind to themselves while they are alive, and eat whatever they want."
There is no end to suffering. Those who preach that suffering is blessing must not suffer. No matter how hard you suffer, most of the time it will have no effect. No matter how bad it is, you should think about who made you suffer. Why are some people born without having to endure hardship?
Everyone nodded with all their thoughts in mind, and Mother Lin also started thinking. She didn't know where her thoughts were drifting along with the continuous drizzle.
After clearing away the dishes and chopsticks, Mother Lin took out hawthorns, oranges and apples, as well as a bag of sugar and an iron spoon.
"It's time to eat candied haws. Does anyone want to eat?" Xiulan shouted to the children. She was afraid that the children would suffer from indigestion after eating too much meat, so she brought hawthorn over.
"Eat, I want to eat candied haws!"
"I want to eat too!"
Soon a group of children gathered around, eager to eat delicious food.
Xiulan added some water into the spoon and quickly boiled the sugar. She wrapped the dressed candied haws in a stick and the strings of candied haws were made. Each child got the candied haws they wanted to eat. With the mountain breeze, the laughter spread to the distance. (End of chapter)