My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 212 Passing By While Tying Up a Broom

Today is market day in the county town, so there's no need for hawking. People from all around who want to buy meat before the New Year will spontaneously gather around the meat stall, asking about prices and checking the quality of the meat. Soon, it's bustling with activity.

In addition, wild boar meat is more than one yuan cheaper than domestic pork, especially the meat of large male boars, which has a strong flavor that is hard to fake, and is at least two yuan cheaper than domestic pork.

This guy made a lot of trouble over just two yuan; he was short twenty yuan when buying ten kilograms.

Many savvy shoppers know that wild boar meat is cheap, and after asking the price, they line up outside the stall.

As for the strong flavor and tough texture of wild boar meat, that's not a problem.

The Lunar New Year is almost here, there's plenty of time to deal with it.

Nowadays, seasonings are not as scarce as they were a few years ago, and the gamey smell of wild boar meat can be masked with a little more effort.

……

"You've never sold meat before, have you? Not only is your judgment of weight completely off, but you also keep cutting off the skinny pieces?"

An old woman from a village in the south of the city muttered discontentedly.

"Auntie, it's true that I'm a novice, but please don't always pick the fattest pieces to cut. If you do, I won't be able to sell any more meat."

Chen Ling said helplessly.

These wild boars, before they survive the winter, still have a lot of fat on their bodies, especially under their bellies, which is where they store the most fat.

The village women were picky and selective.

They keep wanting Chen Ling to cut these kinds of places, focusing on the fatty parts, but that won't do.

However, you can't turn away customers when you're doing business with your doors open.

At this moment, Wang Susu picked up a knife and cut off a piece of slightly fatty meat for the old lady, about two or three ounces, as a gift for her.

The old lady immediately beamed with joy, readily took out the money, wrapped up the meat, and happily left.

Those behind them saw this and, though they didn't say anything, they were also filled with anticipation.

After picking out their meat, they eagerly crowded forward, waiting for Wang Susu to add some more meat for them.

Wang Susu did not disappoint them, giving them a very high weight on the scale.

If they buy ten pounds of meat, Chen Ling will cut off a little more than usual, but he usually won't remove it.

Such an affordable scale is very popular.

So much so that when Chen Ling shouted that everyone should cut at least five jin, and that he wouldn't sell any less, no one said anything.

Since it's almost Chinese New Year, I might as well buy more.

Of course, if you have the means, you'd still prefer to buy fatty pork.

Fatty pork is juicy and flavorful.

Compared to wild boar meat, which is almost entirely lean, people tend to prefer fatty pork as the meat to eat during the Lunar New Year.

However, this year's floods and high meat prices have made it impossible for many people to afford fatty pork.

While head, trotters, and offal are cheaper, they can't be served at the New Year's feast, and you can't offer these things to relatives when they come to visit during the first month of the lunar year.

These things are not considered proper meat by most people.

Therefore, second-best wild boar meat became the choice.

Chen Ling's meat stall was always packed with people. After 11 a.m., only 30 jin of wild boar meat remained.

It's fair to say it sold out incredibly quickly.

By this time, wild boar meat inevitably consists entirely of lean meat, making it less marketable.

Often, people will come in, take a look, check the price, and then leave.

However, Chen Ling and his wife didn't mind; if wild boar meat didn't sell, they would sell rabbits instead.

Rabbits are cheap all year round, and many people eat them, so more than half of them are sold out quickly.

Chen Ling weighs and quotes prices for people, while Wang Susu keeps accounts and collects money.

In no time, the rabbits alone sold for fifty or sixty yuan.

Including wild boar meat, we sold over 500 yuan worth of goods in just half a morning.

……

Around noon, Qin Qiumei and Zhong Xiaoyun, knowing that they had come to the county town to sell things at the market, came over to invite them to their home for lunch.

Chen Ling and the other man didn't stand on ceremony and had lunch at Qin Qiumei's house.

After the meal, Chen Ling returned to his small courtyard in the south of the city to tend his stall, reading miscellaneous books while selling the remaining pork and rabbits. Wang Susu and Qin Qiumei, on the other hand, went to the market.

Wang Susu rarely comes to the county town for the market.

I'm having a great time shopping with two friends now.

However, since she was pregnant, she leisurely strolled around the market, soaking in the festive atmosphere of the market as the New Year approached, before returning home.

When they returned, the three women were each carrying two white plastic bulk liquor jugs, which surprised Chen Ling.

"What's going on? You said you'd drink yesterday, are you really going to go get some alcohol?"

"No, no, it's not about drinking. I just bought a clean wine jug. I'll get some soy sauce and vinegar to take home later."

Wang Susu grinned at him and pointed to the old street to the north: "We met an old man selling soy sauce at the market just now. We told him our location, and he said he could come here to help us later."

"Oh, right, it's almost Chinese New Year, it's time to get some fresh soy sauce and vinegar."

Chen Ling nodded, looked at the three of them, and asked, "So you each only bought these two teapots, and nothing else?"

"No, it's that I can't buy it all. There's so much stuff that I'd have to make you drive an oxcart to get there."

Wang Susu counted on her fingers: "Think about it, we need to buy paper money, incense, candles, and statues of gods, as well as couplets, the character '福' (good fortune), window decorations, and lanterns, and other miscellaneous things that we can't bring back."

"..."

“That makes sense. I’ll catch the oxcart later and take you to buy it.”

“Great idea! Perfect timing, you can show us around again.”

The four men were chatting and laughing when, before long, a series of aged shouts came from afar.

"Selling soy sauce~ and vinegar too~"

"..."

"Selling soy sauce~ and vinegar too~"

"..."

An old man with a dark face slowly drove a donkey cart over. On the cart were several large barrels. From a distance, one could almost see the black grease on the barrel walls and smell the faint salty aroma of soy sauce.

"Master, over here."

Wang Susu beckoned, and the old man immediately stopped shouting and drove the donkey cart over here.

"Oh, you sell wild boar meat. So you're a family. I was thinking of buying a few pounds when I came, but they were all lean."

The old man grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, and then jumped off the donkey cart: "How did sales go this afternoon?"

"It's alright, the price has been reduced, and it's almost sold out."

As Chen Ling spoke, he walked up to the donkey cart and looked at it. There were several buckets on the cart, containing two or three kinds of soy sauce and vinegar, each with a different color, flavor, and price.

"Looks like you've made some money. Come on, pick one and see which one you want."

The old man opened each lid, and a strong, savory aroma of soy sauce mixed with the smell of vinegar wafted out.

Chen Ling leaned closer, took a careful sniff, and then picked out the soy sauce and vinegar he wanted.

"This one will do. I think these two soy sauces and vinegars smell pretty good."

"Wow, you've got some skills, young man. You picked the best ones right away."

The old man gave him a thumbs up and showed him the small wooden sign hanging on the side of the bucket; the price marked on it was indeed the most expensive.

Chen Ling smiled, turned to Qin Qiumei and the other woman, and asked, "What about you two? Want to come and choose?"

"I won't be picky anymore, I'll just go with yours."

As they talked, the two men handed the jugs to the old man, saying, "Our three families each buy a jug of soy sauce and a jug of vinegar. We need that much, so you'd better give us a generous amount."

These days, soy sauce, vinegar, and cooking oil are all bought in bulk and sold in small quantities, without much packaging.

They can make enough soy sauce and vinegar to last them two or three months without any problem.

Other households generally only need a glass bottle the size of a beer bottle.

Compared to them, aren't they all major clients?

"Don't worry, it's absolutely genuine."

The old man responded and then put the funnel onto the spout of the pot in front of Chen Ling, before taking out a bamboo handle from the bucket.

This carrying container is quite old; a rope is still tied to the long bamboo handle.

The old man skillfully and deftly dipped a bucket into the large vat of soy sauce, and with a swift, deft lift, filled the bucket to the brim with soy sauce. He then poured the sauce into a funnel, where it flowed into a white wine jug.

One bucket after another...

As the soy sauce gurgled and poured into the pot, the white plastic flask slowly turned a dark reddish-black.

Add the soy sauce first, then the vinegar.

After the three of them finished their orders and paid, a large group of people with soy sauce jugs and vinegar bottles gathered around, chatting and laughing as they waited to buy soy sauce.

That's right. As the year draws to a close, how can you cook meat, rice, or dumplings without soy sauce?
……

"Buying soy sauce and vinegar!"

Around 3 PM, after Chen Ling finished selling his wild boar meat, he took Wang Susu and the other two to the market to buy New Year's goods. The old man selling soy sauce was still hawking his wares along the streets and alleys.

Listening to the fading, aged shouts of vendors, Chen Ling hummed a little tune as he led the three women through the market, stopping and starting, as the oxcart became loaded with one item after another.

As the saying goes, once the Laba Festival is over, the New Year is just around the corner.

But in reality, the festive atmosphere only starts to grow stronger day by day after the 20th of the twelfth lunar month.

On the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month.

The village was bustling with activity early in the morning, with people roasting melon seeds, roasting peanuts, and popping popcorn. The festive atmosphere was indeed growing stronger.

That day, Chen Ling didn't get up early; he didn't get up until nine o'clock to eat.

I didn't make a proper breakfast either.

Wang Susu simply crushed the walnut kernels at home with a rolling pin, mixed them with white sesame seeds, stir-fried them in a pan, and then made dough to make pancakes. She made a few walnut pancakes.

The young couple ate fragrant walnut cakes and drank hot goat milk, then sat down at the table with paper and pen to do some accounting.

It's almost the end of the year, and we've already bought all the New Year's goods. There's not much else we need to spend money on.

It's time to roughly calculate this year's income and expenses, so I can at least have a general idea of ​​what I'm doing.

This is very important to the young wife.

Chen Ling had no objections and just helped her with the calculations.

After settling the accounts, Wang Susu was quite satisfied.

Because the cost of building the farm was not as high as she had imagined.

However, the money she made from selling chicken and duck eggs over the past six months was somewhat unexpected.

"After the farm is built, if we raise more chickens and ducks, will the profits multiply several times over?"

The young woman, biting the barrel of a ballpoint pen, drifted into a daydream.

Chen Ling was also deep in thought.

He frowned slightly as he looked at the numbers on the bill.

I thought to myself, "I won't raise rabbits next year. They eat and poop a lot, and I have to clean them up every day. In the end, I won't make much money."

Rabbits and quails are the least profitable.

Quails are somewhat understandable, given their smaller numbers.

Besides, Chen Ling raises these things mainly for quail eggs.

So the quail can stay, but the rabbit is best avoided.

"By the way, I have to go to Han Chuang's wedding in a couple of days. Did you give me the wedding gift money?"

"It's gone, I remember."

Wang Susu smiled, closed the ledger, tidied it up, and put it in the drawer. Then she said, "I'll go and take the pig bristles and pig hair to Wenli. When I get back, we'll make brooms."

"Okay, I'll go pack my things."

Chen Ling nodded and went to the woodshed to retrieve the two bundles of sorghum ears that Yuqiang's wife had brought yesterday.

As the year draws to a close, it's time to replace the brooms used for cleaning with new ones.

I'll need it when I clean the house in a few days.

Here, they call this kind of broom a "bound broom".

When making brooms, sorghum stalks are mostly used. The sorghum stalks harvested in autumn are scraped off the top, soaked in water, and then used to make sturdy and durable brooms.

Of course, reeds can also be used, but they are not as durable as sorghum. Like mats woven from reeds, they will break easily if torn.

The sorghum ears and broomcorn millet that his family had received were brought by Yuqiang's wife, in exchange for some wild boar bristles and pig hair.

They gave us this much.

Wang Susu delivered the pig bristles and returned with two binding tools for making brooms.

The strapping device is called a "dengzi" in the local dialect.

To put it simply, it's a wide leather belt tied around the waist, with a horizontal bar attached to the front. A thin rope made of cowhide is wrapped around the horizontal bar, and the rope extends to the feet, with a "T" shaped bend at the feet.

After tying the sorghum stalks and broom shavings together with hemp rope, stepping on the crossbeams with both feet, the rope is wound into small sections on the broom stalks. After winding each section, a knot is tied, and finally, two iron wires are tied at the key points, making the binding very secure.

In my memory, broom handles rarely broke. Even when the bristles at the bottom were worn down, the handle was still good, and it could even be used to discipline disobedient kids. That's why.

Do you have enough hemp rope at home?

"Of course it's enough. Before our farm was built, I prepared all kinds of rope and wire, as long as we needed them. We definitely won't use them all to make a few brooms."

As Chen Ling spoke, he found two bundles of hemp rope.

Because you need more than just one or two brooms; you can't just use them to sweep the room.

There are also kitchen brooms, bed brooms, and large brooms for sweeping the yard.

Although the large broom is not made of sorghum ears, but rather by binding the tips or side branches of bamboo, hemp rope and wire are still indispensable.

“Alright, let’s begin. I remember you mentioned before, Ah Ling, that you learned a few tricks of tying brooms from Dad. Let’s have a competition.”

Wang Susu waved the two brooms in her hands and said with a grin.

In the countryside at that time, many people of their generation still knew how to make brooms.

I was taught by elders from a young age.

If you do it yourself, you will have enough food and clothing.

If they really don't know how to tie a broom, they'll just go outside the village and pull up two broom saplings instead of buying one.

"Let's compete, who's afraid of who?"

Chen Ling put the sickle on the ground, grabbed two handfuls of golden sorghum stalks, and started working.

Tying brooms is actually a dirty job.

In particular, to make broom porridge from sorghum ears, the husks need to be scraped clean, then pounded and soaked in water, often leaving the yard full of sorghum husks and dust, which is very choking.

However, Yuqiang's wife gave him a clean one that could be used directly as a broom.

This saves a lot of trouble.

Tying a broom isn't actually that complicated.

A wooden stool, a small curved sickle, and a ball of thin hemp rope.

After preparation, to make it easier to tie, it is often necessary to first use a hammer to flatten and split the stalks at the tip of the sorghum.

Then divide them into small bunches of three, and so on, until there are several small bunches in total.

Then place the thin hemp rope for binding beside you, put the end of the rope in your mouth, and tie the wooden stick around your waist.

Unable to tie it around her waist, Wang Susu found a tree stump and put it on. She then placed a thick cotton pad on the stump, sat down, and began binding the broom while stepping on the crossbar of the footrest.

"From the south to the north, a broom can be used for nine different purposes."

This "jing" naturally refers to the rope knot, meaning that a broom usually needs to be tied with nine knots to be sturdy.

All nine ropes were tied.

It reached the very top.

Then, use a sickle to cut off the excess stem, and usually make it into a cone shape, so that it looks good and sells well.

It looks nice hanging on the wall or leaning against the door.

"I've tied it all up."

Wang Susu picked up a sickle, cut off the top of the seedling stalk, and a beautiful, neat broom was ready.

"This is only your first round. Let's see who's faster in the end."

Chen Ling disagreed, as he was still inexperienced and had only tied half of the knot. However, he was a quick learner.

He couldn't believe that he couldn't even compare to his own wife.

Unfortunately, he discovered that he was still not as skillful as his wife.

It's for home use, not for selling as a broom.

Two brooms can be made by one person.

These four brooms will be enough for next year.

So Wang Susu quickly tied the two brooms together.

After tying them up, she also tied the remaining cooking broom and bed broom.

After binding them, Chen Ling tied up two large brooms used for sweeping the yard.

I spent most of the day fiddling around, so much so that I didn't get to eat lunch until after 2 p.m.

Before he could even rest after eating, Wang Lixian came to his door again, saying that he was going to slaughter a pig for the New Year at the stage tomorrow. He had been given a number early in the queue, so he should go early tomorrow to slaughter the pig and then he could relax.

"Okay, I'll drive the pigs over there early tomorrow."

Chen Ling readily agreed.

On the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, brooms are tied up, and on the 21st, the New Year's pig is slaughtered. After that, there is no rest for a single day.

This is what daily life is like in the last few days of the twelfth lunar month.

Busy, but busy with joy and fulfillment. The busier we are, the stronger the festive atmosphere becomes, and we are filled with happiness.

(End of this chapter)