Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

The sticks have already been taken out, so of course they have to be steamed out and dried quickly. The autumn sun is good, and the color of the sticks is better after drying. Xue and Zhu took along Li and Zhou, plus Honglian and the others, and they all started brushing the ginseng. Of course, Jinghan and Jingwan also took action. The mallet cannot be left on for too long, otherwise it will rot.

Jinghan had the idea before. She went to the blacksmith down the mountain to build a large steamer. It had several layers inside so that it could hold a lot more mallets. It also had a lid on it. Once the lid was closed, it fit tightly. ,very good. Zhixin listened to Jinghan's words and set up a stove in the middle of the yard so that he could steam the sticks outside to prevent the kang in the house from burning too hot.

Such a cage can hold three or four times the size of a large pot at once, but it saves a lot of trouble than before. Zhixin stacked the painted mallets inside the cage layer by layer, then filled the pot with water, placed the cage on top, and closed the lid. Jinghan was afraid that the cover was not tight enough, so she asked Zhixin to cover it with cowhide to be safer.

This method requires a slightly longer steaming time, about two hours. Zhixin watched the water in the pot boil, and then handed over the task of watching the fire to Mingyu, who went to dig up soil in his ginseng field. This year we plan to use 90 feet of ginseng soil. It won’t be long before we plant the ginseng, so we need to hurry up there. In addition, Wencheng and Wenhan took Guoqiang and Ankang to stop Bang Chui. They picked it up for nothing, so why not stop them? Besides, after waiting for two years, there will be no stick to stop him. After all, they are not the ones to watch the other event.

Mingyu sat in front of the pot and stove. When he saw that there was not much firewood in the pit, he filled it in to keep the water in the pot boiling.

Mrs. Xue and the others were brushing ginseng in the shed outside the house. Jingxian suddenly turned around and saw Mingyu sweating profusely as he was being burned by the fire. "Brother Mingyu, you don't have to be so close. Come here, come to the shed, and fill it with two more pails later." Jingxian couldn't help but say.

After listening to Jingxian's words, Mingyu hesitated for a moment, then moved the bench to the shed. Jingxian took out a handkerchief and wiped Mingyu's sweat, "Brother Mingyu, you are so stupid, you can use that thing too." Don't stay too close? Just don't let the fire burn out. You don't have to stay close to me. It's a lot of trouble."

Mingyu smiled and said, "I don't know. Uncle Xu said that the fire can't be cut off inside, so I thought I had to just watch from there." He has never done these jobs, so how can he know these things?

Jingxian couldn't help but sigh, "I really don't know what kind of life your family is living, but they raised you to know nothing. That's not right. You are very good at studying, probably better than my eldest brother." Forget it, you don’t need to do any of this, so don’t take it seriously.” After saying that, he continued brushing the ginseng on the ground.

Mingyu learned his lesson now. When he saw that the firewood in the pit was about to be burned out, he found two large pieces of wood and threw it in. This continued for an hour and a half, when Mrs. Xue said there was no need to put any more firewood in. The ones in the pit were enough, and Mingyu had completed the task.

Mr. Xue waited for the bulging cowhide to gradually deflate, then stepped forward to untie the rope and lift the cowhide. Then after waiting for a while, he opened the lid of the cage, revealing the slightly red ginseng inside. Mrs. Zhu came over to help, unloading the cages one by one and placing them on the shelf set up next to them.

Jinghan and the others also brought the forks, and everyone started putting mallets on them. This mallet, which has just come out of the pot and is ripe, is similar to a freshly ripe sweet potato. It is soft and will break if you don't handle it properly. Especially the dings on the ginseng are easily knocked off. Everyone will be very careful when putting it up. If there are any dings that have fallen off, put them down on separate forks.

The mallets in this basket can hold about ten forks. Everyone worked together and the arrangement was quickly completed. Jinghan and Honglian carried all the forks to the specially set up shelf so that they could be dried easily under the sun.

The Xu family has made about 830 to 40 kilograms of sticks this year, and one basket can only steam 200 kilograms, which is pretty good. These mallets must be divided into at least four times before they can be steamed. In addition to the mallets that Wen Han and the others intercepted, they may have to be steamed one more time.

It took the Xu family a total of four days to steam all the sticks and dry them. Mingyu saw the whole process of ginseng processing with his own eyes this time. He couldn't help but admire the wisdom of this ginseng farmer. It turns out that there is really knowledge in every aspect of life. When his eldest brother sent him out, he told him that farmers have fun in farming, and it was true.

The sticks were all steamed and hung on the fork. The ones steamed on the first day were already half dry. Jinghan looked at the mallets and put a few dings into her small purse. Then he came to Jingxian and Mingyu and said softly, "Follow me and I'll give you something delicious."

Jingxian and Mingyu didn't know what was going on, so they quietly followed Jinghan to a corner behind the house. Jinghan took out the few dings and gave three to each of the two people, "Then, eat, this thing is delicious."

The semi-dried ginseng tastes very delicious, sweet with a little bitterness, and has a unique taste of ginseng. This was something that the children of the ginseng farmers in my previous life loved to eat. After arriving here, Jinghan has never eaten it. Let’s not talk about how much this thing can be sold for, but Jinghan is used to living a hard life and really can’t bear to eat it.

It stands to reason that life is better now, even if the children eat some, the adults won't say anything. However, children will all have this feeling that things they get in secret taste better. Although Jinghan has been born in two generations, she is still naughty at heart, so she secretly feeds Jingxian and Mingyu ginseng tips.

"Is it delicious?" Jinghan smiled as she watched Jingxian and Mingyu each eat a diced beard.

"Well, it's delicious. Sister, this thing is quite delicious." Mingyu nodded quickly. "I've had ginseng soup before, but it's not as delicious as this."

Jinghan almost choked on her saliva. Is the ginseng soup not as delicious as this? I'm dizzy. Judging from Mingyu's family, I'm afraid that ginseng soup must not be real Laoshan ginseng? This ignorant guy. Jinghan endured it and didn't shout out, "Don't eat too much of this. If you eat too much, you may get angry and get nosebleeds. And you can't eat the reed heads of ginseng. The one is more powerful and will cause nosebleeds directly. I'll give it to you two today. Just eat it, don't eat it again, understand?" Jinghan asked.

The two of them nodded, "Yes, sister, we know." Mingyu listened to Jinghan for everything, and Jingxian knew that this thing was very valuable and could not be sold after eating it, so the two of them agreed. happy.

"It's okay. Let's go hit pine cones later. Make a fire in the evening and burn some pine cones to eat." Jinghan is restless. Seeing that the sticks have been finished, she wants to go into the mountains. Went to get something.

"Okay, I haven't eaten burned pine nuts yet." Mingyu became excited when he heard this. Since coming here, he found that he had never seen or eaten many things.

Jinghan led Jingxian and Mingyu to find their two brothers and told them about going to fight the pine tower. Wenhan agreed without saying anything. Anyway, there was only a little bit of ginseng soil left on the mountain, so there was nothing left to do. "Hurry back and change clothes, and then we will go into the mountains. It's not the end of Chen time yet, and we can still get a lot of good things back today." After Wenhan finished speaking, everyone hurried back to change into old clothes.

Guoqiang and Ankang also came together. They were younger, so Zhixin didn't use them to dig up soil or anything like that, but asked them to follow Wenhan and others.

A group of about ten people entered the forest. Naturally, they had to find a place with many pine trees to open the pine tower. Wen Han and the others have been in the mountains for so many years, and they know exactly what is there. Arriving at a place with many red pine trees, Wenhan, Wencheng, Guoqiang and Ankang all climbed up the tree to pick up pine cones, while Jinghan led Jingxian, Mingyu Honglian and the others to pick up pine cones below. .

It takes two years for red pine to bloom and form pine cones, so there is a saying about these pine cones: a small harvest every three years and a large harvest every five years, which means that there are not many pine cones every year. This year coincided with the small harvest, and there were enough pine cones on the trees, so it didn’t take long for everyone’s baskets to be filled.

"Brother, come down quickly, we can't hold these anymore." Jingxian shouted from below.

Several boys slowly slid down from the tree, then everyone carried their baskets and walked home. Jingxian and Mingyu were young, and Jinghan was afraid that Mingyu would be tired, so she didn't let them carry baskets. Jinghan handed the crossbow she carried with her to Jingxian. She would always take the crossbow with her whenever she went up the mountain.

Wenhan walked in front, Wencheng walked in the end, and Jinghan walked in front of Wencheng. A few people were walking home, and Jinghan heard something not right behind them. Jinghan looked back and was shocked, "Brother, be careful, there is a blind man behind us."

It turned out that when Jinghan turned around, she happened to see a black bear following everyone, getting closer and closer, probably less than a hundred steps away from Wencheng. When Jinghan shouted, the black bear stopped for a moment and then continued to follow.

"Jingxian, give me the crossbow in your hand. Honglian, the four of you protect Jingxian and Mingyu and hurry home. This is not far from our home. Let my father and the others come quickly. This is You're a big guy, we're fine, you go back quickly." Jinghan and Jingxian were next to each other, and they directly took the crossbow from Jingxian's hand, loaded the crossbow, and aimed at the black bear while retreating.

Originally, when this kind of thing happened, Wen Han and his friends should have used crossbows to deal with the black bears. But all the members of the Xu family put together, no one is as good at archery as Jinghan, not even Zhixin. Wenhan and Wencheng are far behind Jinghan, and I don't know how Jinghan practices. So at this time, Wenhan and Wencheng could only hold daggers in their hands and be on guard at all times. If Jinghan missed a hit, they might have to face the injured and crazy black bear.