Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

After lunch, Jinghan and the others took a short rest, just as Zhixin and the others had finished pinching all the ginseng seeds in the morning. Everyone took their things and ran to the riverside. Zhixin led Guoan and the others to wash ginseng seeds there, while Jinghan and Wencheng led Jingxian and Mingyu to Xiawuzi.

At the end of the day, the sun is at its strongest. Jinghan found a lot of big leaves from the riverside and put them on her head to keep her cool. This large-leaf plant, called Big Bone Pole by the locals, has only a single stem growing from the bottom and a large round leaf growing above it. The stem is about the thickness of an adult's big finger. In spring, the stem is still very tender and edible. Take a bite, the sweet and sour taste is very delicious, and it is the favorite of children. This thing likes to grow under the rocks beside the river. Jinghan and the others come here every spring to pick some and eat them.

Everyone took off their shoes and turned over stones in the shallow water of the river with bare feet. There were crickets under almost every stone. When Mingyu saw this cricket for the first time, he thought it was very strange, so he started teasing it with his hands. Unexpectedly, he was caught by the cricket with its front claws. The pain made Mingyu scream, "Sister Jinghan, come quickly, this thing is pinching me."

Jinghan hurried over and flicked the cricket's shell hard, and then the cricket let go of Mingyu's hand. Mingyu's fat white fingers were pinched with bloody marks, and he grinned in pain. "Sister, this thing is so abominable, it's still trapping people."

"You, if you want to catch a cricket by grabbing its back, how can you also catch its front claws? The crickets here are all big, almost as big as a crab's claws. Isn't this a cruel enough attack? ?" Jinghan took a look and saw that Mingyu's hand was not bleeding, but it was still painful enough. "You should go aside and rest for a while. You will feel better after a while."

Mingyu shook his head, "It's okay, sister, I can bear this pain. The riverside is so fun, I like it here." Mingyu turned around and saw Zhixin and the others washing ginseng seeds there, and asked, " Sister, uncle, what are they doing?"

"That's washing the ginseng seeds. We produce ginseng here. The outer peel of the ginseng seeds needs to be washed off, and the inner ones should be dried and put away. When they are sown in the ground next year, ginseng will grow again." Jing Jing Han patiently explained to him.

Mingyu was like a child who had never seen anything before and was curious about everything. He hurried to Zhixin's side to watch others wash ginseng seeds. He saw Guoan stepping on a bag, and then a lot of yellow-brown water dripped out of the bag. He thought it was very interesting and wanted to go up and try it. Guoan had no choice but to give Mingyu a place and let him try.

Jinghan saw it here and couldn't help but shake her head. This Li Mingyu is just a child who hasn't grown up. I have been raised in a deep house since I was a child, and I probably haven't been out a few times, so everything I see feels novel and I want to give it a try. I don't know how long this child can live in the Xu family. It would be nice if he could stay a little longer and see more.

Everyone was laughing and playing by the river, and it didn't take long to catch a bucket of crickets. The ginseng seeds over there were almost washed. Zhixin and Zhiming took the ginseng seeds back first. Before leaving, they told everyone to pay attention to safety.

"Dad, don't worry. We all grew up by the water. We are very good at water. Even Jinghan and Jingxian can swim. It will be fine." Wen Cheng was not worried about this.

Zhixin was a little worried and deliberately left Guoan to accompany these people before leaving.

Wen Cheng led everyone to lift up the fish dock and poured it into the bucket. As expected, many large and small fish were poured into the bucket. Mingyu almost jumped up with joy when he saw it, "It's great, there are so many fish."

Everyone smiled and did not comment on Mingyu's fuss. Jingxian was younger after all, so she curled her lips and said. "What's the point? Just wait and see tomorrow morning. The fish we hang in the net are really big. Some of them can weigh more than three kilograms. If you saw it, wouldn't you be even happier?"

When Mingyu heard this, he shouted that he must take him with him when he fishes tomorrow morning.

Jinghan saw that it was getting late and the household items they brought were all filled with fish and crickets, so she said she wanted to go back. No one had any objections, so they carried the bucket and walked back.

A stone mill has been installed on the mountain for a long time, so Jinghan makes cricket tofu for dinner, which is a famous dish in Northeast China.

When Mingyu heard about cricket tofu, he asked strangely: "Sister, are you talking about stewing this cricket and tofu together? Will that be delicious?" In his opinion, cricket tofu , maybe that’s what it does.

Jingxian listened and couldn't help laughing, "Brother Mingyu, you'd better stop asking. I'll understand later when I help you make it. The cricket tofu is not stewed with crickets and tofu."

Li Mingyu knew he was making a joke again, so he could only rub his nose and said helplessly, "Okay, I'll help you later. I really don't believe it. Can a cricket be able to make tofu?"

Everyone first poured the fish into the big basin, picked out the palm-sized crucian carp and melon seeds, and squeezed the remaining small fish and brine them with salt before drying them in the sun. Mr. Xue cleaned up the crucian carp, then marinated it with ingredients, then wrapped it in noodles and fried it. Normally Mr.

After all the fish were put away, everyone started making cricket tofu. The first step is of course to remove the cover of the cricket, then pull out the yellow and leave it alone. Next, break off the tail sideways to pull out the intestines. The processed crickets were put into a basin. After all were processed, Jinghan took the processed crickets to the stone mill outside. The stone mill had been cleaned a long time ago, and the crickets were pushed out and placed in a basin. Filter the juice that is pushed out through two layers of gauze, and it will become a pot of yellow-brown juice.

Jingxian went to the field to cut a handful of leeks and came back. After picking them and washing them, she chopped them into fine pieces and kept them for later use.

Xue also boiled a pot of water, and the fire underneath was also burning brightly. Then Mrs. Xue took the basin of juice and slowly poured it into the pot. As the juice entered the pot, in an instant, the rolling pot was filled with pink flowers. Here, Mr. Xue poured the yellow rice in again, added a little less salt, and finally sprinkled with minced leeks, and then poured the cricket tofu soup into the basin that had been prepared.

Mingyu had been watching beside him, and this time he finally understood what cricket tofu was. "So this is the cricket tofu. What a beautiful soup, so fragrant." Mingyu happily looked at the soup in front of him, with white soup, golden yellow seeds, pink cricket tofu, and green vegetables. Ye, looks very appetizing.

Today everyone is eating together, and there are three tables outside. Everyone worked together to put the food and other things on the table. The cricket and tofu soup was also divided into three pots, one for each table. "Okay, let's all sit down and eat." Mr. Xue shouted.

Mingyu and the Xu family sat at the same table. In addition, the Wang family and the Fang family also sat at the same table. On the table were stewed beans, stewed eggplant, fried fish, and a plate of steamed potatoes, with egg sauce still on the side. Of course, there was a pot of soup in the middle of the table. Tonight's staple food is rice. Xue was afraid that Mingyu wouldn't be able to eat rice made with big lumps, so she made rice tonight. In fact, given the current conditions of the Xu family, they can afford to eat rice every day. However, farmers usually live by eating what is produced in their own fields, and they only cook good food during the New Year and festivals.

Mr. Xue served everyone a bowl of soup, "Come on, Mingyu, try this cricket tofu soup. Do you understand what cricket tofu is now?" Ms. Xue handed the soup bowl to Mingyu.

Mingyu quickly took the soup bowl with both hands, "Thank you, aunt, now I understand what happened? It turns out this is how it was made." Mingyu took a sip of the soup from the ground, "It's so fresh, so delicious." Then he took another sip.

Mr. Xue looked at Mingyu with a smile, "Drink more if you like. If you can live here for a long time, you can eat everything. In winter, your uncle and the others will go into the mountains to hunt. Then give me Get some game and try it." Mrs. Xue still likes this little fat guy Li Mingyu. It happens that her two sons are not around, so she is very good to Mingyu.

The little fat man nodded while eating, "Okay, okay, I want to go into the mountains with my uncle." The little guy seemed to have a good appetite, and he ate a bowl of rice and cricket tofu soup in a short time. Had two bowls.

When Jinghan saw that Mingyu's bowl was empty, she asked him, "How about giving you another bowl of rice?"

Mingyu nodded, "Okay, one more bowl, I'm not full yet."

Jingxian next to her had almost eaten. When she saw this, she shouted, "No wonder you are so fat. You can really eat."

Mrs. Zhu glared at her daughter, Jingxian smiled and stopped talking.

Mingyu quickly waved his hand, "Aunt, it's okay. Sister Jingxian is right. I eat a lot on weekdays. These meals today are very satisfying to my appetite, so I want to eat more. The two aunts cook The craftsmanship is really good, it would be a pity not to open a restaurant." This boy ate the second bowl of rice and drank another bowl of soup as he spoke.

"You have a sweet mouth. Okay, don't flatter me here. Take a rest after eating, and then go to bed with Wencheng. Get up early tomorrow morning and practice martial arts with the boys at home. Don't you still want to watch the Internet? Catch fish?" Zhiming looked at Mingyu. This little guy looked cute and spoke nicely. I really didn't know whether he was really innocent or just trying to please.

Upon hearing this, Mingyu nodded quickly, "Okay, I just finished eating. I'm so full." The little fat man patted his round belly.

Jinghan shook her head with a smile, helped Honglian and the others clear the table, then turned back to Mingyu and said, "Don't sit there, get up and walk if you eat too much. Come with us for a walk." It’s time to take a walk and come back to sleep.” Every day after dinner, Jinghan would take Jingxian and Honglian out for a walk.

The internet at home started not working well last night, so while I was at work, I uploaded the chapters first, haha