Zhou Xiaoyun’s Happy Life

Chapter 90 The corn harvest is good

Autumn is the harvest season, and farmers are so happy to see the heavy ears of rice in the fields. After the rice harvest is over, the grain hoard at home becomes full again, and rural people have the habit of hoarding grain. Unless you are really short of money, it is easy not to sell food. This is a family's ration for a year!

When it’s time to harvest the beans, the whole family has to work together again. There is a thick layer of bean stalks all over the yard, and the beans in the pods can pop out if you step on them.

At this time, Zhou Guoqiang and Zhao Yuzhen sat on small stools and beat the bean stalks with a long wooden stick all day long. The four brothers and sisters Zhou Xiaoyun, who were knowledgeable, found smaller sticks that could be moved to beat the bean grains. This is an interesting thing, everyone likes it.

 When the beans were beaten out, they fell all over the yard. Then use an iron fork to pick up the bean stalks and pile them into a pile. The dried bean stalks are best used to make a fire for cooking. When burning, the fire is very strong and crackling.

Sweep the beans on the ground into a pile with a large broom, use a dustpan to remove the dust and debris from the beans, and put them into your pocket for storage. In winter, you can exchange beans for some tofu or make some soy beans to eat, but even selling them is more expensive than grain. So every family planted a lot of beans.

Most of the Zhou family's several acres of land are planted with beans. This year's harvest was bumper, and the family saw that they had no room to store the beans, so they simply sold most of the beans, leaving only two pockets.

 Zhao Yuzhen specially selected a lot of soybeans to keep, preparing to soak more beans to make soybeans this winter.

Zhou Xiaoyun agreed with both hands. She loves soy beans the most. Zhao Yuzhen is very good at her craftsmanship, and the soy beans she makes are so delicious that Zhou Xiaoyun can eat two bowls of rice just with the soy beans without other dishes.

 Harvesting corn is not so pleasant. Breaking corn cobs is a strenuous task. Zhou Xiaoyun can barely do it, but he is most afraid of the squirming insects inside. He often hears a scream and sees Zhou Xiaoyun throw away the corn cobs in his hand.

It was rare for Dabao to see Zhou Xiaoyun laughing so hard that he had the conscience to remove the worms from the corn cobs for Zhou Xiaoyun.

The broken corn cobs filled a basket. Only Zhou Guoqiang and Zhao Yuzhen could carry this heavy work. Baskets of corn cobs were dumped onto a flatbed truck, and when they were finally delivered to their home, the yard was filled with corn cobs.

 Tear off the outer shell of the corn cob, and then there is the more painful peeling of the corn.

Zhou Guoqiang used a plane to slip out several gaps in the corn thorns, and Zhao Yuzhen was responsible for peeling the corn with the children. The corn kernels were piled up on the cement floor of the main room. You couldn't put them on the dirt. It would be embarrassing to eat cornmeal if they were stained with mud.

Let alone Dabao, even Zhou Xiaoyun wants to run away from this job.

But it’s impossible to think about it. Isn’t it natural for children to help with housework at this time?

Didn’t you see that Dabao was sitting by the side peeling corn kernels one by one, no matter how unwilling he was? I didn’t dare to slip away!

Xiaobao peeled it off very seriously, and his little hands turned red after a while. He pursed his lips and complained: "Mom, when can I finish peeling it off? My hands are hurting."

 Zhao Yuzhen felt sorry for Xiao Baolai and asked him and Erya to play aside for a while.

Upon seeing this, Dabao quickly followed: "Mom, my hand hurts too, can you..."

"How many corn cobs have you peeled so far?" Zhao Yuzhen scolded: "Just thinking about being lazy, just sit there for me. Look, your sister hasn't said a word yet!"

Zhou Xiaoyun was not proud of being praised, and secretly complained in his heart: My hand hurts too!

Dabao rolled his eyes and thought of a good idea. I took a corn cob in each hand and rubbed it so hard that the corn kernels fell off one after another. In a short time, I peeled the two corn cobs cleanly, and my hands didn't hurt at all.

Zhao Yuzhen noticed it, her eyes lit up, and she asked Zhou Xiaoyun to follow him.

 Don’t mention it, method one reform has completely different effects. Not only is it much faster, but it also doesn't hurt your hands. Zhou Xiaoyun thought, it is true that only lazy people can come up with good methods. How could a serious person like her come up with such a trick?

Dabao felt proud when he saw that he had made a contribution, and he became more energetic when peeling corn. After a while there was a pile of empty corn cobs piled around.

 There are advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that it is too strenuous, and Zhou Xiaoyun's hands will get sore after a while.

It happened that Xiaobao came over to take over after playing for a while, and Zhou Xiaoyun went to the toilet to be lazy for a while. This was a first for Zhou Xiaoyun. She had always been a good assistant who worked hard and never complained, but peeling corn was one of the things she hated most. I have to be lazy for a while.

After using the toilet, Zhou Xiaoyun enthusiastically said that he was going to cook. After Zhao Yuzhen nodded in agreement, Zhou Xiaoyun happily went to the kitchen to cook.

Dabao quickly raised his hand and reported: "I will light the fire for my sister."

Dabao also fled before Zhao Yuzhen could say anything.

Zhao Yuzhen thought that Dabao had been peeling corn for a long time, so she let him go.

It took four or five days to peel corn cobs in a room. Fortunately, most of the time was spent in school. After school, I had to do homework. With this addition and subtraction, I spent more than an hour each day at noon and evening. .

 Finally finished peeling all the corn cobs, Zhou Xiaoyun thanked God repeatedly.

Zhao Yuzhen mixed the newly harvested corn with some peanuts and beans and soaked them in water all afternoon. In the evening, she went to Zhou Guofu's house and borrowed his mill to make some porridge paste. In the evening, she cooked most of the pot of porridge. The fragrant porridge was very chewy, and everyone ate two big bowls.

Zhou Xiaoyun found a few tender corn cobs among a pile of small corn cobs that were not fully cooked. He used an iron fork to roast them on the bottom of the pot while the fire was burning. After a while, the slightly black corn cobs were cooked. .

That fragrance can eat up people's tongues.

Dabao ate three times before he stopped talking. He still drank the porridge cooked in the evening. He was teased by Xiaobao for being a waste of food. Xiaobao started to get scared when his brother rolled his eyes at him. Holding the roasted corn cob in his hand, he ran to Zhou Guoqiang to seek shelter.

The roasted corn was delicious, but it was too troublesome. Zhao Yuzhen put most of the rest in another pot and cooked it with water. The cooked corn cobs were also very sweet.

However, no matter how delicious the food was, it couldn’t be eaten every day. In the end, no one wanted to eat some of the food left over, so Zhao Yuzhen had to feed it to the pigs.

Zhou Xiaoyun himself doesn’t hate eating corn, nor can he say he likes it. He can just eat some corn porridge. But she couldn't stand Zhao Yuzhen making pot stickers with cornmeal. They were so hard and tasteless that it was difficult to swallow them in her mouth.

Of course, the exception is if there is braised fish cooked in the pot.

Eating corn pot stickers dipped in fish soup is a delicacy. Zhao Yuzhen cooked two large silver carps at noon one day and put a large circle of cornmeal pancakes on the side of the pot. She originally wanted to eat them both at noon and at night.

Unexpectedly, the whole family ate all the cornmeal pancakes with fish and fish soup. Among them, Dabao ate the most ferociously, and his stomach bulged out after eating.

Xiaobao and Erya also ate so much that their mouths were shiny. Zhou Xiaoyun liked to eat, but he couldn't eat too much. He prayed in his heart that Zhao Yuzhen wouldn't do this every day, as he would get tired of eating delicacies from both mountains and seas.

 (End of this chapter)