Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

After the Dragon Boat Festival, Zhide and Huixin also went home respectively, and Brother Wenhan was no exception, and they all returned to school. Of course Jingya would go along, otherwise Huixin would be too busy.

Calmness returned to the mountain again, everyone was still doing their own thing, and everyone was busy with something. Jinghan, Jingwan, and Jingxian still went to see the tussah silkworms in the morning, and didn't come back until almost noon. This tussah silkworm really changes every day. Now after a dormancy, it has turned into various colors, yellow, green, and some have patterns on its body, which is absolutely different from the mulberry silkworm.

Generally, tussah silkworms will form cocoons after four dormant periods, with an average interval of eight or nine days between dormancies. Therefore, it usually takes about fifty days from larvae hatching to cocooning, and sometimes it may be slightly delayed due to weather.

In addition to delivering fish to the town in the morning, Wencheng also learned from Zhiming to identify medicinal materials and medicinal properties. These children had a very fulfilling life every day.

It's already June in the blink of an eye, and the tussah silkworms that Jinghan cultivated have passed their third dormant age and are about to hibernate for the fourth time. After being busy in the morning, Jinghan and Wencheng went into the woods in the afternoon. The Gastrodia elata was coming out very well at this time, so naturally we had to hurry up. Zhiming led everyone to walk in the middle of the forest. Jinghan's sharp eyes found a bunch of white things on a big tree. "Third Uncle, do you think there is Hericium erinaceus on it?"

Zhiming raised his head and looked in the direction Jinghan pointed. Sure enough, it was a large Hericium mushroom. "Yes, Jinghan, look at the tree opposite that tree. There should be another one." This hericium has a habit of growing in pairs, on two opposite trees. .

Jinghan heard the third uncle's reminder and looked around in the forest. Sure enough, there was a white Hericium mushroom growing on a tree opposite that tree. Jinghan shouted happily, "Uncle Third, you are really right, there really are some here. Uncle Third, please find a way to get the mushrooms down for me. It's best to bring more wood. I want to take them back and cultivate them." If the strain is successful, we can grow Hericium erinaceus. "Last year's elmaceous mushroom was successful, which greatly increased Jinghan's confidence.

After hearing this, Zhiming quickly climbed up the tree, followed Jinghan's instructions, used a knife to cut off a large piece of wood from the trunk, and then carefully came down from the tree with the mushroom in hand. Then he went up to another tree and took out another mushroom in the same way. Zhiming sincerely admires this little niece's clever idea. Last winter, he made a lot of money just selling mushrooms. The family has already discussed that no matter what Jinghan wants to do, they must fully support it.

Jinghan carefully held the two mushrooms and put them in the basket on her back. The fruiting bodies of these two Hericium mushrooms have grown very large and should be used to cultivate strains. With these, Jinghan can cultivate Hericium erinaceus.

After unexpectedly finding Hericium erinaceus, Jinghan felt a little uneasy, so she told everyone and then returned to the venue. She had to cultivate the bacteria quickly. If it was too late and the mushrooms rotted or something, it would be a pity. Jinghan trotted all the way back to the venue and started to pick out her stuff.

As soon as Mrs. Chen saw Jinghan's look, she knew she must be doing something again. She smiled and said nothing, but told Mr. Xue and the others not to enter the house and disturb Jinghan.

With the experience of cultivating the mushroom, Jinghan just slightly adjusted the formula of the culture medium, and then the basic operations were the same. She just waited to see if mycelium could be generated in the culture medium. After finishing this, Jinghan came out of the house and happened to see Mrs. Chen and the others picking vegetables. "Grandma, I found another kind of mushroom. If we grow this one, we can raise it in the summer, and then we can harvest it, dry it and sell it. The price of Hericium mushrooms is not low." Jinghan happily told Chen Shi said.

Mrs. Chen looked at Jinghan's excited expression and stretched out her hand to pull the little girl over, "Jinghan, you are also eleven this year. Grandma knows that you want to earn more money so that your family's life will be easier. However, You also have to pay attention to protecting yourself. Look at your little face, it’s all tanned. You’ve been running up the mountain all day long, and you haven’t even bothered to eat well. You’ve made grandma and your mother look at you. Is it uncomfortable? Our family is living a good life now, but we raise you to be dark and thin. What's the big deal?" Ms. Chen looked at Jinghan's slightly dark face with her hands. , and it is not as soft and delicate as a child of this age.

"Grandma, it's okay, just wait until winter. Isn't this busy?" Jinghan didn't care too much. Being exposed to the sun all day long, it was already good to be like this. This is because she has good skin. If it were anyone else, she would have to look for it in the coal pile now.

Mrs. Chen made Jinghan a little dumbfounded by her words, "Okay, you're the only one who talks a lot. When your mother goes to town one day, ask her to help her buy some face cream and other things. You are a girl and you need to grow up. If you get married, your face will be sunburned, what will you do in the future?"

Jinghan made a face and ran away.

Four or five days later, Jinghan went to see the culture medium of Hericium erinaceus, and sure enough, there were a lot of white mycelia growing in it. Jinghan felt relieved now. If the mycelium grows, the bacteria should be able to be cultivated.

Everyone in the family knows that Jinghan can cultivate mushrooms, so when going up the mountain, they will pay special attention to them and find ways to get fresh mushrooms back for Jinghan to experiment with. After experimenting, Jinghan came up with a few things, including elm yellow mushrooms, Hericium erinaceus, oyster mushrooms, and fungus. It would be nice to have these, as many mushrooms cannot be cultivated under today's conditions.

Zhixin and Zhiming got a lot of wood and asked Jinghan to grow mushrooms. The wood was planted with fungus and Hericium, because these two can be grown and dried in the sun for sale, so there is no need to do it in winter. Just take the time to manage it. The fungus trees that planted elmgrass last year were all put outside after the new year. Jinghan didn't manage them specially. The price of selling them in summer was not high, and the manpower at home was not enough, so Jinghan originally I have no plans to go out for mushrooms next day. It’s just that you don’t need to take care of this thing. When the weather is hot, mushrooms will naturally appear on it. In the past few days, a lot of mushrooms have grown on those mushroom trees. It seems that they really need to be picked and sold. Otherwise, what a pity it would be to waste them?

So this morning, Jinghan saw that the elm yellow mushrooms were almost grown, so he led Jingwan and the others to pick all the mushrooms and put them into a big basket. Since Wen Cheng was going to town anyway, he could just let him sell it. No matter how much it was sold, it was still money, right?

After being busy with all this, Jinghan had to hurry up and take a look at those tussah silkworms. It's time to form cocoons, so you need to pay more attention at this time. When the cocoons are formed, you have to harvest them quickly.

When we came to the forest, we saw that some of the leaves on the oak trees were beginning to curl. This was because the silkworms were spinning cocoons. It seems that it will only take a day or two to collect silkworm cocoons. This job will require the whole family to be mobilized in order to complete it as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the work in the ginseng field is not too busy. It will take half a month to pinch the ginseng seeds, which is the ginseng soil. Zhixin and the others are digging there, and it seems that they are getting there soon.

"Second sister, is it time to pick silkworm cocoons soon? I remember it was like this last year." Jingwan asked.

Jinghan nodded, "Well, it should be soon. Some of the cocoons picked this year will be kept as seeds, and the rest will be reeled out. We will see if we can sell them. If no one wants them, we will just We can keep it ourselves." Jinghan is really not sure about this, and doesn't know if people here will recognize this thing.

"What's the point? If someone buys it, we'll sell it. If no one buys it, why can't we keep it for ourselves? I think since it's silkworm, silk can be produced after all, and it should be used for spinning thread or something, right? "Jingxian said on the side. She is also eight years old this year. She has learned a lot from Jinghan in the past two years. The girls in the Xu family also learned to read and write from their brothers. Nowadays, although the girls are rich in knowledge, they have no problem reading.

Jinghan put her arms around Jingxian's shoulders and said with a smile, "Isn't that right? If no one wants it, we will spin and weave the cloth at home and make a silk dress for Jingxian." Jinghan knew this. It's a bit difficult. After all, people in the north rarely engage in these textile jobs, so they are not very good at this.

Jingxian wrinkled her little nose and snorted, "What's so rare about silk clothes? They can't keep up with the cotton we wear. We can't wear them even for work. Is it possible that we can still be like those young ladies who are bored all day long? At home, I would rather not wear it if I don't leave the door."

Jinghan looked at the little sister in front of her. The girls in the Xu family were all very good-looking, but the little Jingxian in front of her was probably the best one. At such a young age, she is already a beautiful embryo. Her face was white and rosy, even though she was following Jinghan everywhere all day long, she was still fair and delicate. Such people are said to be angry with the sun, which means they will not get tan no matter how much they are exposed to the sun. With two curved crescent eyebrows, a pair of big watery eyes, a bright red mouth, and a delicate little nose, I really don’t know what kind of stunning appearance this little Jingxian will have when she grows up, and will be so stunning in the country.

Reaching out and touching Jingxian's little head, Jinghan knelt down and looked at Jingxian, "So Jingxian doesn't like silk and satin, she only likes cotton clothes, right?"

Jingxian looked at Jinghan with her big eyes, "Second sister, I like our life now. We are busy and make people happy. In the future, when our family's life is better, will we go down the mountain to buy a house? That way? Will our family be separated? I don’t want to separate. I want to join my second sister and raise silkworms, grow mushrooms, and plant sticks together. I like the feeling of being together as a family now, but I don’t like the feeling that we lived in our own home before. In the county town." Jingxian took Jinghan's hand and asked.