Chapter 624: Smoked Bacon
Sending the old lady away, Zhang An found the large staircase at home and carried it to the eaves of the pen house to set it up.
A few days ago, he had been talking about checking the roof of the pen house, but he was too procrastinating and had put it off until now.
It’s the twelfth lunar month now. If we don’t do maintenance, if there are broken tiles, we will be in trouble in the snow.
“Hiss, why are there so many leaves this year.”
Climbing onto the roof, Zhang An immediately saw that many tile grooves were filled with fallen leaves.
These are the fallen leaves on the fruit trees in the back mountain. They fell a few days ago and were blown over by the wind.
Actually, there were some in previous years, but not so many. This year, the trenches were filled to the brim.
"Don't you see how the fruit trees in the back hill have grown a lot, and there are naturally more leaves. Wait for me to get the broom."
Zhang Jianguo took it out with his hand. , I found that it was a big handful at a time, which was really too much.
"It's better for me to go. Dad, please wait here."
After Zhang An finished speaking, he quickly went down the stairs to the ground.
"Dad, what are you and grandpa doing up there."
Ever since Zhang An and Zhang Jianguo climbed to the roof, little Siqi raised his head and stared above.
"We are going to work up there. Please go further and don't stand here."
Zhang An went down to the ground and took the little guy directly to find his grandma.
It is normal for tiles to loosen and fall when someone steps on the roof, so no one can stand under the eaves at this time.
"Then can I go up? I want to help grandpa work."
The little guy seems to understand. He doesn't know what working is, but he just wants to go up and play.
“Not now, it will be fine when you grow up.”
Just as Su Ying had already gotten up, Zhang An handed his son into her hands, found two brooms, and ran to the roof of the enclosure.
In this way, the father and son cleared the dead leaves from the trenches row by row on the roof.
You don’t know if you look at it, but you will be shocked when you see it. It is just a row of dead leaves in a groove, but when you sweep them down, there is a small pile.
If we clean the entire roof, I'm afraid there will be a huge pile.
If we don’t pay for this, it is estimated that as long as it rains, fungi will grow on the roof.
After spending a whole morning, I finally cleaned up the dead leaves on the roof. The originally bright green tiles had been covered and turned a little black, and the smell of rotten leaves could still be smelled.
If you want them to return to their previous color, I'm afraid you will have to wash them away with a few heavy rains and then put them in the sun to restore them.
Then the tiles were inspected. Zhang An directly carried a large basket of new tiles and placed them on the roof. As long as they were broken or cracked, they would be replaced with new ones.
"Let's do it, Dad, you go check over there, and I'll check this side, so as not to do it again later and waste time."
There are many roofs, Zhang An decided to separate them. After checking, this way the tiles could be stepped on less often, so Zhang Jianguo took half a basket of new tiles and went to the other side.
"Xiao An, why do you have so much left? Give me some, I can't replace any of them."
After half the morning, Zhang Jianguo found that the tiles he had been given had been replaced, and he wanted to go down and get some. When I came up, I found that Zhang An didn't use a few pieces.
“My side is not broken much, so I don’t really need to replace it.”
In fact, there are more broken ones on his side, but he put hundreds of them in the space. Save some trouble and just take it from the space when changing, so there is still a lot left over what he just brought up.
By noon, the two of them had replaced all the broken tiles on the north and south roofs.
At this moment, there are not only a lot of rotten leaves on the ground, but also a lot of bad tiles that have been replaced.
After lunch, we have to start dealing with the dead leaves and broken tiles in the yard.
Because the smell of these dead leaves that have begun to rot is really bad, even Xiao Siqi, who usually likes to be in the yard, doesn't come out now, and keeps saying it smells bad.
However, this thing is not difficult to handle. Although it cannot be burned directly on the fire, it can be picked and left in the orchard. After it is completely fermented in the coming year, it will be the same as applying fertilizer.
So the whole family went out, each with a pole and two large bamboo baskets, so they could pick up a lot at one time.
Wang Fang didn't let Su Ying come over to interfere. Although these leaves were not heavy, Su Ying couldn't use a pole, so it was really torture to put it on her shoulders.
Soon, all the dead leaves were picked into the orchard, and they just needed to be piled like this. Anyway, there were a lot of earthworms in Zhang An's orchard, and it wouldn't take long for them to ferment into humus.
But we can’t do this with the remaining broken blue tiles. We have to find a place to deal with them.
In the past, when the road outside the village was still a gravel road, you could have pulled it over and paved it on the road.
But now that there are cement roads everywhere in the village, we really can’t throw these things around.
"Dad, don't put it in the dung basket. I'm going to pull the carriage out and take it to the mountain road paved with stone slabs."
Since littering is not allowed in the village, Zhang An thought it would be better Throw it farther.
In the end, it was all installed, which was only about half a carriage, but Dahei was very excited because it could come out for fun again.
Back from Shibanpo, Zhang An met Zhang Xinmin at Shiyakou.
“Hey, what big equipment did Brother Xinmin come back with?”
Zhang Xinmin came back on a tractor. There was a machine in the cargo box, but he didn't know what it was used for.
“What a big piece of equipment, it’s just a small machine for making rice cakes. If you want to make rice cakes this year, remember to come to my house.”
Even on the road, Zhang Xinmin didn’t miss it for himself. When given the opportunity to advertise, he not only mentioned it to Zhang An, but also mentioned it to others when he met him.
“It’s easy to say, if you make more or less, you will definitely come and make some.”
The rice cakes made by the machine are different from the ones made by oneself during the Chinese New Year. It should be grouped into a big circle, so it is called reunion cake.
The rice cakes produced by the machine look white and fat, no different from newborn piglets, and are called pig cakes by the villagers.
Many families in the village like to make this kind of thing. They weigh dozens of kilograms every year and soak them in water in a tank. They can be stored for a long time. When they go to work in the mountains, they can fish out a cut. It's easy to take with you and use it as food.
Although this kind of machine is not big, it was not available in several nearby villages before, except for one in Hongyan Town.
Every year during the twelfth lunar month, families in nearby villages who like to make rice cakes will carry soaked glutinous rice to the town to make rice cakes, and then come back with the prepared rice cakes.
Zhang An has a small family and doesn’t eat much on a daily basis, so he basically doesn’t make these things. He only waits until the Chinese New Year and makes a glutinous rice dumpling at home to last for a long time.
"Mom, Zhang Xinmin's family brought over a rice cake machine today. Do you think our family should make some?"
When he got home, Zhang An told his mother about it. Even if he didn't say it, at most In two days, the news will spread throughout the village.
“Why are you talking about this all of a sudden? You and Yingying don’t like eating it very much.”
The family hasn’t played with this stuff for many years, and Wang Fang really hasn’t thought about it.
“It’s not that I don’t like to eat, I just don’t like to eat food that has been soaked in water. It’s still delicious when it’s hot and fresh.”
The rice cake is delicious on its own. If it cannot be stored for a long time, it can only be kept longer by soaking it in water.
But after soaking in water for a period of time, a peculiar smell will occur. That's why Zhang An doesn't like it.
But Zhang An likes the freshly baked rice cakes. After all, they are hot when freshly baked. They taste soft and waxy, chewy and chewy, and have a sweet aftertaste.
"Then let's give a little. Ten kilograms should be enough. After all, our family is small and we can't finish the food." In the past, we didn't give a shot at home because we had to go to Hongyan Town. It’s very troublesome to go, and there are a lot of people making rice cakes during the twelfth lunar month, so Wang Fang doesn’t want to crowd in.
Now that the village can make it, it is not impossible to eat a little. Although eating too much will indeed make you tired, it is still okay to eat less and eat occasionally.
"But our family only has red glutinous rice, which is not suitable. You can go to Zhang Ping's house to buy some white glutinous rice later."
"Then I'll go now. It just so happened that my uncle just made it yesterday. Rice.”
Zhang An found a bag with rice and prepared to go out.
"Then buy more, just enough to grind off the glutinous rice noodles."
Wang Fang thought for a while and added.
Arrived at Zhang Ping's house, Zhang An found his aunt and handed the bag over.
"Auntie, I'm here to buy the white glutinous rice. You can help me weigh twenty kilograms."
The old aunt took the bag and went to install the glutinous rice for Zhang.
"Anzi, your family should kill the pig first this year."
In the main room, Zhang Jianwen was holding a big smoking gun and talking to Zhang An.
“No, uncle, your family won’t kill pigs this year?”
In the past, Zhang Jianwen’s family was the representative of pig slaughtering in the village. Only their family killed pigs every year, and everyone would Take action.
As a result, their family suddenly said they would not kill him this year, and Zhang An thought something had happened.
"We won't kill him this year. Zhang Ping is getting married after the Chinese New Year, and my pig will be kept for his wedding."
Zhang Jianwen shook his head and explained.
“In previous years, everyone said that your pork is delicious. This year I won’t ask anyone else. After your family kills the pigs, just leave dozens of kilograms of smoked bacon for my family.”
< br>In the past, Zhang Jianwen’s family killed a pig himself. When Zhang An’s family killed a pig, he would only buy a few kilograms as a token price.
"So that's it. Don't worry, uncle, just come and cut as much as you want."
If it were someone else, Zhang An might not agree, but it was Zhang Jianwen who spoke. He won't be able to refuse, and the worst he can do is kill one more animal.
On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole village started a craze for killing New Year pigs.
Most families in the village have made money this year, and those who were reluctant to kill pigs in previous years will also prosper this year.
After knowing that the village chief’s family did not kill pigs, many people did not wait and decided to do so on the tenth day of the lunar month.
Because it’s the twelfth lunar month and it hasn’t snowed yet, and when the snow starts to fall later, it’s probably going to be heavy, so everyone thought it would be over as soon as possible.
After all, killing pigs in heavy snow is a lot of trouble.
Zhang An’s house is also scheduled to be on the tenth day of the lunar month. Early in the morning, Lin Youde came over with his ancestral meal guy.
In fact, several families in the village approached him, but he turned them away because of conflicts with Zhang An's family.
"Youde, we have to kill four heads today, how hard you have to work."
When Zhang Jianguo came over to disperse the cigarettes, he said to Lin Youde.
“Didn’t you say three heads? Why did you add one more head?”
Zhang An's pigs are relatively large, and it takes a lot of effort to kill them. Although there is only one more pig, the difficulty of living is not even slightly increased.
"Youde, what are you afraid of? After all, it's not all one knife."
Others looked at Lin Youde, laughing and joking.
But this is really true. Lin Youde always kills pigs with one knife.
"Go, go, go, the knife is here, you come."
Lin Youde rolled his eyes and handed the bag with the knife to them.
"We don't have the skills like you. I'm afraid that if you cut it dozens of times, the pig will still be able to run around."
Not long after, the water was boiling, and everyone was gearing up to get started.
Because there are a lot of people killing pigs in the village at the same time today, there are many fewer people coming to Zhang An's house than in previous years.
Although there are fewer people, the excitement remains the same.
Especially the tenants in Dongli Courtyard who had made reservations with Zhang An's family also came over early.
I am afraid that if I arrive too late, their meat will fly away.
After the pigs were killed and the meat divided, the tenants had other ideas.
"Zhang An, let's put this meat here. You can smoke it for us."
What the tenants mean is that they pay Zhang An to help with the work.
After all, they haven’t smoked meat much, so why not give them money to save them a lot of trouble.
"This may not work. My family has to smoke a lot of it myself. No matter how much it is, we won't be able to smoke it. But you can find other people in the village. They should be willing."
Zhang When An heard this, he quickly shook his head and refused. He couldn't turn his head away. After all, so many people were watching. If he agreed to one, it would be difficult to shirk the others.
He was already very busy during the period a year ago, and he didn’t want to cause any more trouble for himself.
And if he agreed, I’m afraid he would have to become more aggressive in the coming days. A specialized tool for smoking meat.
But there is money to be gained here, and Zhang An doesn't mind passing them on to other villagers.
As soon as the tenants heard this, they immediately went to find other people. With the power of money, the villagers were very willing to take over this job.
After all, if you only smoke your own house, you still have to cut firewood. It would be convenient to smoke one or two more houses.
When this happens, there will be a second family. The tenants saw that their neighbors had found people from the village to do the fumigation for them. They certainly didn’t want to go to the mountains to cut firewood, so they went to find the villagers one by one.
For this reason, Zhang Jianwen came over to praise Zhang An because he was worried that the tenants in Dongli Courtyard would set the house on fire when they smoked their own bacon.
After Zhang An said this, this hidden danger was solved.
However, the problem will not disappear, it will only be transferred from one person to another.
Although the villagers smoke bacon every year, it is not absolutely safe. Every year, several families will burn their bacon cleanly.
This year everyone is helping people smoke on their behalf again, and the number must have increased a lot.
So in the following days, Zhang Jianwen had to announce the situation three times a day through the loudspeaker.
On the one hand, everyone should pay attention to fire prevention and avoid falling asleep while smoking bacon and causing a fire.
The other thing is to close the doors and windows and pay attention to guarding against theft. Don’t let the smoked bacon be stolen quietly.
No matter which of the above happens, not only will you lose money, but you will also have to compensate others.
When it comes to losing money, the villagers don’t dare to be careless and are very careful.
(End of this chapter)