Chapter 276 Winter Hot Pot
The original two acres of farmyard manure was shortened by half because Zhang Ping joined in with the pack horse.
After carrying manure, the two joined the organization working in the fields.
Two acres is not too much, but not too much. Zhang An previously thought that his family would be able to finish the work in two days.
Now because extra people came to help, the two days were shortened to half a day, and all the base fertilizer in the field was covered.
"Xiao An, later you go to the field and bring back some grain and grass. After you turn the mud, we can use the grain and grass to cover it."
When the work in the field is almost finished. , Zhang Yi Xing said to Zhang An.
Why should it be covered with straw? Zhang Yixing had already told Zhang An about this before.
Because this winter, the base fertilizer covered with soil will continue to ferment.
At that time, the fertility will be distributed into the soft soil, which is why this layer of fertilizer needs to be retted.
The purpose is to make this soil more fertile so that medicinal materials can grow better when planted in the future.
But it is still the early twelfth lunar month, and it will definitely snow in the coming days. No one knows how heavy the snow will be this year.
In order to prevent the sheep dung and deer dung in the soil from generating heat due to fermentation when it is covered with heavy snow in the future, and irritating the soil when it is cold or hot.
So before it snows, the plowed area should be covered with a layer of something to keep it warm and prevent the fertilizer underneath from incomplete fermentation.
Normally, many people in rural areas will cover their houses with a layer of plastic oil paper.
But when two acres of land are covered, a lot of plastic sheets are needed.
So Zhang and his party thought about it and simply used local materials.
Not long after the rice was harvested this year, there was a lot of fresh straw piled in every field.
"Yeah, well, then I will go and carry some back now."
Seeing that there was not much work left in the fields, Zhang An simply put down the hoe and led the horse to prepare to go to the fields. inside.
Seeing this, Zhang Ping also led the grazing horse to follow Zhang An.
But the two of them did not go directly to the fields. Instead, they returned home first and replaced the horse baskets that had just been loaded with manure with horse racks.
Straw is different from sheep dung. It is easier to carry it on horse racks, and it can carry more.
When Zhang An arrived in the field, he added grass until it reached a high level. It looked like a small house.
After running back and forth several times, Zhang An discovered that there was not enough straw in his field this year.
The next step is to go directly to Zhou Yang’s field to carry their straw.
After all, their family does not raise livestock, so there is no use keeping this thing, and the fertile fields will be burned next year.
So Zhou Shuanglin asked Zhang An and Zhang Ping to carry as much as they needed.
Finally, the straw from Zhou Yang’s fields will be enough.
Straw is a good treasure for farmers.
In winter in the countryside, many people feed their livestock with straw.
When it gets cold and freezing, many people wrap their water pipes with straw in order to prevent them from freezing.
There are also many winter crops and trees. Straw is used to keep out the cold in winter, and it can be said that it is very useful.
In some places, the meat stalls on the street use straw cores to string up the meat.
And in this medicine field, all the places used for bedding this year can be fully exposed to the sun and burned in the spring when medicinal materials are planted, and finally the land can be fertilized.
Although there are many people, the work is not complicated, but two acres of land is not small after all.
As soon as I finished covering the straw, it started to get dark.
Although it is only six o'clock now, it is winter after all, and it is normal for it to get dark early.
Zhang An and his party returned home. Su Ying had returned from school and was washing vegetables by the kitchen sink.
The old mother Wang Fang was busy beside the stove.
As soon as I entered the backyard, a spicy and tangy aroma came from the kitchen.
Zhang An didn't even need to look in to know that his mother was preparing the hot pot base.
After all, it is winter and most people don’t like cooking.
Make the bottom of the pot and place it on the stove or on the firepit. It is very convenient to eat.
If you are cooking, it is not only time consuming, but also very oily.
And after the cooking is done, if you don’t put it on the stove and let the fire warm, the oil in the vegetables will begin to condense after a while.
So in Changqing Village, hot pot is basically eaten in winter.
Even without meat, simmering vegetables in bright red spicy soup is a pleasure.
"What kind of pot base did mom make today? Why is it so fragrant?"
Smelling the fragrance in the air, Zhang An twitched his nose, as if he wanted to smell more.
"You guys are back, we made the spicy red oil soup pot today."
Wang Fang said with a spoon in one hand, stirring the red oil soup in the iron pot.
"Dad, go catch a fish and kill it. Cut it into fillets and rinse them together later."
Wang Fang felt sorry for her son. He was used to Zhang An's advanced kitchen, but she When he opened his mouth, he gave instructions to Zhang Jianguo behind him.
Zhang Jianguo didn't say anything. After spending decades together, he had long been used to this.
Pick up the net and walk to the edge of the fish pond. After a while, I caught a big grass carp weighing five to six pounds.
“Dad, I won’t cook grass carp today. I’ll try another one.”
This grass carp has too many bones and is not suitable for cutting into fillets for hot pot.
When Zhang Jianguo heard this, he put the grass carp in the net bag into the pond.
Zhang An walked to the edge of the fish pond and used the old method. He reached into the water and soon caught a large mandarin fish.
In fact, the mandarin fish hot pot is not very delicious, but the only fish without spines in Zhang An are mandarin fish and snake fish.
It takes time to clean up the snake fish, and it is also a bit troublesome.
If you really want to talk about hot pot, the local Jiangtuan or seabass are the best.
Last time Zhang An wanted to get some Jiangtuan to keep for himself, so that it would be convenient when he wanted to eat.
But Zhang An forgot about it later, so he never did it.
It seems that the hunt for fish is about to be put on the agenda.
After all, there is a saying that if you don’t eat Jiangtuan, you don’t know the taste of fish.
Many people can’t refuse fish like Jiangtuan, which has only big thorns but no small thorns, and the meat quality is very good.
Lifting the fish to the edge of the pool, Zhang Jianguo held a kitchen knife and prepared to kill the fish.
Zhang An went upstairs and changed his clothes, then returned to the kitchen to help wash the vegetables.
After all, there are more people eating tonight, so a lot of these vegetables must be prepared.
"You just came back from the fields. Are you tired? Go and have a rest. I will finish washing these dishes in a while."
Seeing Zhang An crowded around him, he wanted to come over and help with the washing. Su Ying wanted to push Zhang An out.
“Why are you resting? Dad is busy with work, why am I embarrassed to sit here.”
“Besides, today’s little work can be called work, and I don’t feel at all, let alone I'm tired." Zhang An grabbed a handful of pea tips and put them into the water to wash them carefully.
Zhang An’s family grew a lot of vegetables this year, and Wang Fang basically ordered some of every kind.
In addition to cabbage, I also picked lettuce, spinach and chrysanthemum, each with a small pot.
And this pea tip has always been loved by everyone in the village, and Wang Fang also spread a lot of it.
At this moment, the pea tips, coriander and spinach are all in a bowl.
Not long after, after the dishes were washed, Wang Fang's pot bottom was also ready.
In the soup in the pot, there are fried chicken and stewed ribs.
At this time, everyone who had gone home to wash up and change clothes had come over by themselves, and there was no need for Zhang An to call them one by one.
After all, it’s been so long and no one is polite.
When you see something going on, take the initiative to help. When you want to eat, you come by yourself, saving you the trouble of asking everyone to come and go.
In the main room, everyone sat in a circle around the stove. There was a large iron pot full of pot on the fire.
This stove is still the one that was moved from Li Hongbin last time, but the stove plate that came to the door was replaced by a new one by Zhang An.
Because the stove was too small and there was no room for more people.
Afterwards, after everyone drank half a glass of wine, no one continued to drink, and they all ate it with vegetables.
Although the person sitting here is not a big drinker, he has a good drinker.
But because Zhang Yixing and Zhang Jianguo had only tasted it for a long time, the others did not continue to drink.
“You have to eat such delicious food at my uncle’s house. I ate two more bowls without realizing it.”
Zhou Yang was not polite at all at this moment. It's all true.
Because of his craftsmanship, their food is good not only in the village, but also in the village.
But when he ate the food at home, he could clearly feel that it was not as delicious as the food at Zhang An's house.
Zhou Yang was holding the bowl. He originally planned to eat more food, but he didn't expect that the bowl of rice would be finished in a short time.
This is really not his fault, because everyone else is the same.
The only thing to blame is that today’s hot pot was too delicious, even if it was just boiled vegetables.
The soup dipped in the vegetable leaves and mixed with rice was so appetizing that I unconsciously took two more bites.
By the end, I didn’t eat much of the food, but I had already eaten several bowls of rice.
"If you like to eat, just come here often. Across the road, you come here smelling the time. How can I not give you food?"
Zhang Jianguo joked with Zhou Yang while picking up A piece of fish fillet was put into the pot and rinsed, and it was taken out within three seconds.
Today's fish is sliced by Zhang An. All the fish fillets are cut crystal clear and can be eaten almost immediately after being put into the pot.
"That's not possible. It was possible to be a doll before, but it is not possible now."
Zhou Shuanglin shook his head and said, in the village, before you get married, everyone will treat you as a doll. treat.
But after you get married, it means that you have become an adult.
I didn’t expect that in the village, the difference between a person and someone who can be the head of a household lies in whether they are married or not, not whether they are over 18 years old.
This meal lasted for an hour and a half, because everyone stopped eating and listening to eat.
This is because there is no wine, otherwise it would have been longer.
Wang Fang prepared three pots of vegetables, but in the end there were not even any leaves. It was a very successful execution of Operation CD.
Wang Fang has long been accustomed to this, and it happens every time they have dinner at home.
After all, the vegetables at Zhang An’s house are more delicious than meat, so he doesn’t want to waste them.
When you are at home on weekdays, you can come and ask for some and cook them yourself.
But if everyone comes to pick it two or three times at most, they won’t come again.
"Xiao An, is there any work in the fields tomorrow? If so, let me know. It just so happens that we can't sit down at home anymore."
After dinner, everyone was cooking on the stove While Guazihuahua was chatting, Zhou Shuanglin asked Zhang An.
“I plan to turn over this land to plant medicinal materials. I have fertilized the cellar today, and I will definitely have to drain the ditch.”
“And I have to put up a fence. Although now I We haven’t started recruiting people to build the fence yet, but the stakes need to be planted first.”
After thinking about it, Zhang An said, everyone is fine anyway, everyone is here, and it’s just a day of help, so he might as well just do the work. Just finish it.
"Although there are two acres of land, because it is a sloping land, it does not take much time to drain the ditch. However, the fence is a big project and requires a lot of fences."
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Zhang and his party calculated that three sides of the two acres of land were open, so a lot of fences had to be prepared to enclose it.
Everyone knows that a fence should be built around the fields of Chinese medicinal materials. On the one hand, it is to stop people, but more importantly, it is to stop small animals in the mountains.
The destructive power of those guys cannot be underestimated. If they are not surrounded, no amount of medicinal materials will be enough to cause trouble.
"We do need a lot of fences. I plan to spend some money to find some elderly people in the village or people whose families are not easy to live in, and share it with them to make them."
Because the fences we need this time There are really a lot of them. Zhang An didn't think about attacking them slowly. He would have to wait until the end of the Year of the Monkey to complete them.
So Zhang An thought, just distribute it to the people in the village.
First of all, since the New Year is coming soon, I can help a group of people and the elderly who have difficulty at home.
Secondly, if divided like this, Zhang An himself would not have to prepare materials, and the construction period would be much faster.
Usually when Zhang An wants to spend money randomly, Wang Fang will definitely say something to him.
But today Wang Fang didn't say a word, letting Zhang An decide on his own.
Because she also knows that some families in the village are having a hard time, and if their own conditions are better, it is appropriate to help.
"Okay, let's dig out the drainage ditch tomorrow, and then plant the fence stakes first. Anyway, we haven't planted any medicinal herbs yet. We'll build the fence later when the fence is ready."
After finishing the matter, everyone sat and boasted for a while, and then they all went home.
Zhang An also went out, he was going to settle the fence issue.
The first person to arrive was Wu Qingzong’s house. It was past eight o’clock and the family of three had just finished eating.
"Baby, come and have something with me."
Grandma Wu saw Zhang An coming to the door, and immediately carried a stool, and then went into the kitchen to get Zhang An bowls and chopsticks.
"Wu Nai, I just finished eating at home and put down the bowl. You can eat quickly and don't worry about me."
After persuading the old lady, the old lady believed that Zhang An had eaten. , did not insist on bringing him bowls and chopsticks to eat with him.
A family of three also eats hot-pot dishes, but they use a firepit instead of a stove.
An iron pot ring is placed on the fire, and the iron pot for serving vegetables is placed on it, and then they eat around the fire.
Families with no roads in the village eat this way in winter. Firstly, it is convenient, and secondly, it is convenient to keep warm.
In the past, when there was no iron stove in Zhang An’s house, there was also a fire pit on the ground in the old house.
On weekdays, children will roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, or rice cakes in the fire pit.
Zhang An’s favorite is the volcanic potato. Even though it is dark, after peeling it off, it tastes delicious when dipped in chili noodles.
In later generations, a roasted potato like this on the street with some chili noodles would cost at least five yuan.
(End of this chapter)