mtl008 Chapter 206 Dried Fruit and Fish
Chapter 206 Dried Fruit and Fish
This scene made Xia Qingyue deeply understand what the embodiment of happiness is.
She believes that no matter how many years pass, she will never forget this scene.
When she came to the valley before, she had eaten breakfast made by Han Zhibai, which was quite delicious. This time, he cooked so many dishes at once, and they all looked great and whetted her appetite.
Han Zhibai poured a bowl of soup and placed it next to her. There was a wooden spoon in the bowl. She picked up the spoon to scoop up the soup, blew on it, and took a sip. Her eyebrows raised at the delicious taste, "It's really delicious."
She found that in many things, Han Zhibai could do them well after watching her do them once or say them once.
For example, making fish balls. She had mentioned sweet potato stems to him before, so he made them himself when he came back.
The hot and sour sweet potato stems are pickled with chili peppers and garlic slices. The peppers are red and the stems are brown. She picked up a small piece with chopsticks and ate it, nodding uncontrollably.
It is delicious, sour, spicy and crispy, and especially appetizing when eaten with rice.
Seeing that she liked it, Han Zhibai was in a good mood and his heart felt as sweet as if he had eaten honey.
After dinner, Han Zhibai stood up to collect the dishes and wash them. Xia Qingyue took the chopsticks from his hand and said, "You worked hard cooking. I'll wash them."
He said, "The chickens, ducks and rabbits haven't been put into the pen yet. I'll go release them."
When Xia Qingyue came to the kitchen with the dirty dishes and chopsticks, she saw the bright and clean cupboards, neatly arranged spice jars, knives and cutting boards, and she couldn't help feeling ashamed.
Every time she cooked, the kitchen was like a war zone. People took things and put them aside casually. After the meal was ready, the place was a mess. She only cleaned up slowly when she washed the dishes after the meal.
But Han Zhibai was different. He cooked and cleaned up at the same time, and everything was in an orderly manner.
As for eating utensils, he kept raw and cooked food separate, and utensils that had been used to hold meat had to be washed with hot water after use and would never be left for the second meal.
In terms of personal living habits, she also observed that he was very clean. After finishing work, he would always wash his hands first, and the house was spotless. This showed that he was a person with some mysophobia.
There was no need to clean up the kitchen. She just had to wash the dishes and pots. It was very simple and was done in a moment.
The water for soaking snails needs to be changed frequently, so she went to change the water.
After she finished and washed her hands, she went to the poultry room through a small side door in the kitchen.
The original two poultry houses were like this: one was divided into two halves. The inner half was built with a wall to keep pigs, and the outer half was surrounded by a fence made of thick wood to separate the rabbits and sheep.
Now the plan has been to get the sheep out, take down the fence in the middle, and raise the rabbits she brought together with his own, which is equivalent to turning it into a big rabbit pen.
The other poultry room was separated for raising chickens and ducks. The room was slightly larger. She went in and took a look. There were obviously more chickens and ducks in the two pens, but nothing else had changed.
"Where are the sheep?" she muttered and went to the backyard.
After entering the thatched hut, the bleating of sheep attracted her attention to the corner to the right of the door.
Several sheep are separated in a fence circle. The area of the circle is not large, with a diameter of about two meters. If there are more sheep, it will seem cramped.
Right in front of the sheep pen is Xiao Hei's territory. It was originally free-range, but now there is a rope tied around its neck. She guessed that Han Zhibai was afraid that it would conflict with other poultry.
There was also a fence circle in the corner to the left of the door. It was slightly larger, with a diameter of about five meters. Han Zhibai squatted inside with his back to the fence and caught the chickens and ducks in the cages and released them.
She walked closer to take a look and touched the fence. The thick wooden sticks were firmly inserted into the ground. The horizontal surface was made of thick bamboo strips. Even if it was shaken hard, it was still very solid.
It was obvious that the fence was temporarily built by Han Zhibai yesterday.
After releasing the chickens and ducks, Han Zhibai was about to take the bamboo feeding trough over to add water and food to them when he saw Xia Qingyue coming over with them.
Han Zhibai took the trough she handed him and put it down, saying, "It's a bit crowded, we can build a poultry house next to it when we have some free time.
Next year I intend to buy a cow. In the past two years, there have been either droughts or floods. I am afraid that there will be no food. I have raised a lot more poultry than before. With more poultry, I have to plant more crops. It is more convenient and troublesome to plow the fields with cows."
"Buy a cow? There have been so many disasters in the past two years. I'm afraid it will be difficult to buy one."
"Yes, we'll see when the time comes. If we can't buy any, we can raise fewer poultry, or go to the forest outside the formation to look for bison. I saw traces of a herd of bison in the distance before, but I was in a hurry to get back and didn't go looking for them."
Her eyes lit up when she heard it, "If we can't buy it, then we'll go look for it."
"Okay." Han Zhibai walked out of the chicken and duck pen and closed the fence door with his backhand.
The two walked side by side and came to the front yard.
Dried persimmons were drying in the open space in the front yard, and Han Zhibai was turning them over with chopsticks.
Xia Qingyue sat under the eaves and peeled the wild apples she brought back, and soaked them in water. She tasted them while peeling them, and found that this year's apples were sweeter than last year's. There was no need to soak them in honey, so she just cut them and rinsed them with hot water and dried them directly in the sun.
There were not many wild apples, and they were almost ready to be dried. Han Zhibai pushed a cart to pick persimmons and brought them back to make dried persimmons.
At the hour of You, the sun was setting in the west, and there were still half of the persimmon trees with fruits left unpicked. More than four or five hundred kilograms of fruits were carried home. Xia Qingyue said that the unpicked ones could be left on the tree and eaten fresh, and the picked ones could be made into dried persimmons tomorrow.
The leftovers from lunch included braised chicken. In the evening, Xia Qingyue made hand-rolled noodles, added some vegetable leaves and cooked them together, and mixed them with some spicy and sour sweet potato stems. It was simple and delicious.
The two little ones ate tasteless vegetable leaf noodles.
After dinner, Han Zhibai washed the dishes while Xia Qingyue sat in front of the stove to boil water for her bath.
They both took a shower and went back to their room to sleep.
They went to bed early and got up early, and agreed to go out early tomorrow morning to carry back the tung oil and wild apples.
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The next day, around noon, Xia Qingyue and Han Zhibai carried back the tung oil apples in two trips.
Thinking that the Li family might go up the mountain, they each picked half of the tung oil apples and kept the other half.
Although the sunlight was not that hot in autumn, they still sweated from the heavy work, so they sat on low stools under the eaves to rest.
After sitting for a while, Han Zhibai washed his hands and went to make lunch.
Xia Qingyue held the last bit of dried pears left in the jar and fed them to Han Zhibai who was busy washing vegetables, and occasionally ate a couple of pieces herself.
The sweet dried fruits are sweet in your mouth and in your heart.
Lunch was ready, they ate and cleaned up, and for a few hours in the afternoon, Han Zhibai was busy making dried apples and persimmons.
The first dried persimmons were 80% dry, so Xia Qingyue steamed them. The dried fruits made by steaming and drying them three times are the most delicious, soft, sweet and chewy.
After two busy days, the dried persimmons and apples are almost done. After some drying, they can be canned and preserved. You can take them out when you want to eat them.
The fish that had been pickled a few days ago had been pickled. Early in the morning of that day, the two men took out the fish, inserted bamboo strips into the fish's body and stretched it out to allow sunlight to reach every corner.
A straw rope was put through the mouth of each fish, and they were hung on bamboo poles with tree branch hooks to dry in the sun. There were more than forty big fish hanging in several rows.
After hanging the last fish, Xia Qingyue said to Han Zhibai, "Today I want to buy some fish and shrimp and make more dried ones.
What do you think about harvesting the crops in the vegetable garden this afternoon? "