Chapter 51: Drying persimmons, good persimmons happen, and the persimmons go well
In the early morning of winter, the backyard lawn was covered with white frost, and it was just dawning.
Li Xiang got up early in the morning, washed up, and then went to release the chickens and ducks that had been waiting impatiently. After throwing in a few handfuls of grain, he took a pickaxe and started digging the ground in the backyard.
Two big yellow dogs were running around with their owners.
The big rooster with red crest and colorful feathers started crowing around 5:30 in the morning these days. "Oh oh oh~", the sound was like a bell, so Li Xiang basically didn't need an alarm clock. He would know when the rooster crows. It's about half past five and it's time to get up.
Very accurate every day.
What surprised Li Xiang was that the rooster crowed at around four o'clock in the morning a few days ago, and on those days, the dawn happened to be earlier.
It's not that chickens become sleepy when winter comes. Chickens are also divided into winter time and summer time, but roosters are more sensitive to light, and they have a biological clock in their bodies that can adjust the time by themselves.
Studies have shown that roosters have a pineal gland that secretes melatonin in their brains. When it gets dark, they croak when their melatonin levels drop.
As for some chickens crowing at twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, that was Zhou Bapi pretending. If not, there is a high probability that the rooster's hormones are out of balance.
According to Feng Shui, raising chickens will keep the house in check and ward off evil spirits. Venomous insects such as centipedes will not dare to come near. In ancient times, the rooster's crow in the middle of the night indicated that there was something unlucky around, which would be resolved after the rooster's crow. But there is also a saying that the rooster is possessed by something bad. Therefore, if you find the rooster crows at night, you need to cut off the rooster's head immediately and sprinkle chicken blood around the house to resolve it.
Li Xiang used his breathing techniques and physical skills to dig up the ground with pickaxe after pickaxe. He wants to plow all the unused land in the backyard before the super heavy snow comes.
When the heavy snow comes, the dug soil will be frozen and loosened, and the insect eggs inside will also be frozen to death. When the spring warms and the flowers bloom, crops can be planted.
It's not all about working, it's mainly about practicing breathing techniques and physical skills.
The inheritance he received has the best effect when practicing while working. For him who returns to his hometown to farm, he can kill two birds with one stone, so why not do it?
In the eyes of the villagers, Li Xiang was particularly diligent. Even though he went to college and worked in a big city, his farm work skills were not forgotten at all. In fact, he was far better than the average mud-legged guy.
Li Xiang worked until about eight o'clock, then went to make breakfast for himself and his grandma. After breakfast, he asked his grandma to pick persimmons with him.
As for the unfinished plowing of the land, I will continue it tomorrow morning, and do "morning exercise" every day, integrating breathing methods and physical skills into farm work, and persevere and persevere.
As we all know, morning jogging is not allowed in rural areas. People like Li Xiang who work early in the morning are the correct way to start exercising.
At this time, the leaves of the persimmon tree have almost fallen off, leaving only the tree full of red fruits, which are very pleasant to look at.
But picking persimmons requires specific tools. Because his persimmon tree is too tall, and the branches at the far end where the persimmons hang are often slender.
But rural people have their own means.
Li Xiang took out his family's ancestral persimmon-picking tool, which was a long bamboo pole with a thin iron hook at the top. Usually it was hooked by one person. He hooked the fruit base and twisted it gently, and the persimmons fell down. , and then there was a person waiting there, looking up at the path of the persimmons falling, and catching them in a cloth bag.
There are also more "advanced" fruit-picking tools on the Internet, but I don't want to buy them.
After hooking up a few, Li Xiang stopped and "upgraded and iterated" this ancestral artifact because his grandma was older and it was more difficult to pick it up.
He removed the iron hook and replaced it with a small sickle. The handle of the sickle was tightly tied to the bamboo pole, and then he added a large cloth bag underneath. The mouth of the bag was made of two pieces of bamboo about twenty or thirty centimeters long. Open it in a triangular shape with the main trunk and fix it.
Then Li Xiang started to try it, and sure enough, it was much more convenient. After the persimmon stem was cut off, the persimmon fell directly into the cloth bag.
After he put seven or eight persimmons in the cloth bag, he paused, slowly took it back, and took out the persimmons inside.
But grandma still had to help because the persimmon tree was too tall and the bamboo poles were not long enough.
For the things below, Li Xiang could just stay on the ground alone, but for the things above, he had to climb into the trees.
Although the scattered far-end branches of the persimmon tree are too slender to stand on, the main trunk below is still very thick, especially there is a large branch more than two meters high.
Li Xiang climbed up the tree with agility, more agile than a monkey. After he collected seven or eight, he hung down the bamboo pole and slowly lowered it to the ground. Grandma took the persimmons from the cloth bag. Li Xiang continued.
This persimmon tree is full of fruits, and there are really too many fruits. It takes some effort to pick them, but Li Xiang and grandma don't feel tired at all, but are very happy. This is the joy of harvest. As the saying goes: "If you feed jujube and persimmon for half a year, you will not be afraid of famine." The yield of persimmon is huge, and its ability to adapt to the environment is also very strong. Basically, if you have a persimmon tree at home and encounters bad years and famines, it will You can take it out to save people's hunger.
Persimmon is also called "Lingshuanghou", which was granted by Zhu Yuanzhang!
It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang once went to Fuping County, Shaanxi Province to beg for food. Persimmon saved him when he was hungry and cold. After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he named Fuping's Persimmon "Lingshuanghou" with a stroke of his pen.
I have to say that the name given by Lao Zhu is quite good. It not only praises the persimmon's rescue function, but also praises the persimmon's attitude of standing proud of the snow when all things are withering.
Li Xiang did not pick all the persimmons. As a common practice, some must be left behind. This is called "retaining the persimmons".
It's not because it can't be picked, even if it can't be reached, it can be hooked off with tools. Is it because it looks good on the tree?
It is indeed very beautiful, but more importantly, it is food left for the birds.
There is a poem to prove it: "The dark tiles of the farmhouse are covered with heavy frost, and three branches of red persimmon hang down over the wall. Perhaps the owner has no intention of picking them, and leaves them as winter food for the birds."
Winter is severely cold, and there are no grains or insects on the ground. Many birds will not survive the spring because they have nowhere to find food. Some persimmons are left on the trees, and passing birds eat them to survive, helping farmers catch pests in the coming year.
This is a concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and it is also the romance of the ancients.
Chinese romance is actually everywhere and is integrated into daily life. It is not the Western kind of romance that only involves sending roses or having candlelight dinners.
Check out the 16-9 book bar and see the correct version!
This winter, there will be super heavy snow, which will be even more difficult for the birds, so Li Xiang kept a few more, probably thirty or forty high up.
In the cold winter, it is also a beautiful scenery when birds come to eat.
The picked persimmons were put into five baskets. The last one was weighed and totaled. Let me go, it was a full 283 kilograms! It can be said to be highly productive!
Generally, a small to medium-sized persimmon tree can weigh 40-120 kilograms, which is considered high-yielding. This tree in Li Xiang's family is a lush and large tree, and it is a single tree here. There is no tall vegetation around it to rob sunlight and nutrients, so it is enough. Collected 283 pounds.
In previous years, grandma was unable to pick them. After Li Xiang picked them this year, he planned to make them into persimmons. Some of them would be eaten by himself, some would be given to relatives, and some would be used as small gifts for fans when they buy high-value mountain delicacies.
How can the family eat all these persimmons? In particular, eating too many persimmons is not good for your health.
However, persimmons are really a delicious thing, and Li Xiang has been obsessed with them since he was a child.
Li Xiang and his grandmother worked together, cleaning the persimmons with mountain spring water, removing the sepals, leaving the roots, and then peeling them.
Because the persimmon skin is relatively hard and very unpalatable, and not peeling it is not conducive to water evaporation, the drying effect will be poor, and the frosting will not form.
The icing on the surface of persimmons is made from glucose, fructose and the like inside the fruit, and is definitely not as sweet as sucrose.
After peeling, scald it with boiling water to prevent mold, and then dry it with the peel.
After drying for a few days, tie the persimmon stem with a rope and hang it up to continue drying. Usually several can be "stringed" on a rope and hung on a tree or in a corridor, like a curtain made of persimmons.
Although there is no sugar precipitation after drying, you can eat it directly. It is soft and waxy, sweet, the flesh is golden, crystal clear, and fragrant.
The dried persimmons and persimmon skins can be placed in a breathable and washed flour bag, covered with a plastic bag or carton, and placed in a ventilated and cool place to cover the frost.
If you want more frost to come out quickly, it is best not to dry it too much in the sun.
Li Xiangzheng and his grandma were making persimmon cakes, and He Zhixiang drove over to visit again.
A dozen bags of coffee beans were moved out of the trunk, as well as a brand new coffee machine, which he wanted to give to Li Xiang.
"Brother He, are you too polite?" Li Xiang said.
He Zhixiang said with a smile: "You're welcome, you're welcome, this is for you to try. If you feel good after drinking it and approve of the coffee beans produced by my farm, we can cooperate on a live broadcast to sell coffee. How about it?"
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(End of chapter)