My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 256 Growing Vegetables and Ginseng
"Zhenzhen, don't go out and run around today. School starts in a couple of days. Do your homework and pack your schoolbag."

After the meal, Wang Susu sat on a bamboo chair, holding her son and breastfeeding him, while giving her younger sister some instructions.

With all the rain lately, my son has been much more settled. The little guy loves rainy days, and he's at his best when it rains at night.

Perhaps it was because he was used to sleeping soundly, or perhaps it was because Chen Ling had led him to the cave several times in a row.

They haven't been causing much trouble lately, which has made things much easier for the young couple.

Now, Wang Susu is even taking the time to discipline her younger sister.

"Homework? I finished my homework a long time ago."

"I even finished the test papers the teacher set."

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhenzhen waved her hand, tossed her braid, and proudly raised her chin.

After saying that, he tried to run outside again.

It's been raining these past few days, so she's staying at the farm. There are lots of things to do and lots of delicious snacks here. Otherwise, if she couldn't go out because of the rain, and had nothing to eat or do, she'd be bored to death.

Unfortunately, just as she was about to run away, Wang Susu grabbed her, handed her son to Chen Ling, and without saying a word, dragged her sister toward the back of the farm.

Today, Wang Susu displayed her authority as the older sister, scolding as she walked: "Look at you, you're like a crazy girl all day long. Your hair is such a mess and you don't even bother to comb it. School is about to start and you're still like this. Aren't you afraid of being laughed at by your teachers and classmates?"

Wang Zhenzhen immediately protested, "Sister, my hair grows so fast! You never cut it for me, and it gets all messy when I sweat. How can you blame me?"

"Hmph, if you stayed home and stayed put, why would you be sweating? It's because you're always going out and running around."

Wang Susu scolded the little girl and pulled her to the back of the farm. There was hot water in the kitchen, so she fetched a small basin of cold water to neutralize it. Once the water temperature was right, she washed the girl's hair.

The girl looked reluctant and wanted to just wash herself quickly and get by.

Wang Susu wouldn't let her have her way. She scooped out a ball of shampoo, walked over to her, and after wetting her hair, she rubbed it in with her hands and started washing her hair.

The shampoo melted instantly.

Wang Susu took a light sniff; it smelled quite nice.

This was also given to us by Liang Hongyu and the others, but we don't use it often at home. It was brought over for the New Year and kept in a glass bottle. We've only used half of it so far.

"Sister, my eyes hurt, bubbles got in my eyes."

A moment later, Wang Zhenzhen started shouting.

Why are you making such a fuss?

Despite her playful scolding, Wang Susu quickly washed her eyes with clean water.

"Who's making a fuss? It's you who's become stupid after giving birth. You're even clumsy at washing your hair. Your brother-in-law says you're 'pregnancy makes you stupid for three years'."

Wang Zhenzhen's face was covered in water droplets, her eyes were tightly closed, and she refused to show any weakness in her words.

……

The two sisters were washing their hair behind the farm, bickering, which made Chen Ling laugh.

However, he didn't just sit idly by while he listened. After taking his son outside to let the chickens and ducks out, he brought out the scissors and apron for them, so they would be useful when they got their hair cut later.

Then my son peed, so I changed his diaper.

He recently had his son treat him, and he's been incredibly diligent with it.

He's practically a model worker.

In the past, I would have taken the dog for a walk in the mountains by now. I couldn't stay at home after dinner if I had nothing to do.

He had just finished tidying up in the yard when Wang Cunye and Gao Xiulan came over.

Wang Cunye was also carrying a half-sack of wheat bran, saying that since the weather had cleared up, he would plant cabbages in the vegetable garden today.

The earlier you plant, the better. If the cabbages sprout early, you won't have to worry about rain later.

"That's right, it's autumn now, time to plant the cabbages."

Chen Ling thought it made sense, so he left his son with his mother-in-law and went with his father-in-law to prepare the farm tools, planning to clear the vegetable garden and plant the cabbages later.

As the saying goes, "Plant radishes during the first ten days of summer, vegetables during the second ten days, and buckwheat after the third ten days."

This means that after the dog days of summer arrive, it is suitable to plant radishes in the first ten days, cabbage in the second, and buckwheat in the third.

Generally speaking, after the second period of the hottest days of summer, it is the beginning of autumn, or a few days after the beginning of autumn. The weather is neither too cold nor too hot, and this is the best time for cabbage to sprout.

The string beans and cowpeas in the garden are now old, and the cucumbers and loofahs have long since hardened and been seeded. Only some corn and pumpkins are still growing, and there is room to plant cabbage.

It had been a while since we'd tended to it, and the grass had grown up to waist height. The vegetable garden had become overgrown and we had to weed it all out before we could plant anything else.

This vegetable garden was set aside in the spring, covering more than half an acre, right next to the foot of the mountain to the west. This half an acre is a bit too much. Originally, I planned to plant some radishes, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, but then things got busy at home and I didn't even have time to plant radishes, let alone anything else.

Now it's time to plant cabbages, we can't miss this opportunity.

Radishes and cabbages are both winter vegetables, so they can't be taken lightly.

"What happened to this chicken? Why was it slaughtered out of the blue?"

After taking out the cabbage seeds, Wang Cunye pointed to the rooster that Chen Ling had already killed and asked.

"This is a newly grown rooster. It's been fighting a lot lately, which is really annoying. I'm too lazy to castrate it, so I'll just kill it and eat it."

Chen Ling, holding a wooden stake, said that the stake was about the thickness of a bowl and was used to select locations and mark holes for planting cabbages.

"You, you kill and eat chickens at the drop of a hat, what kind of chickens do you raise?"

Wang Cunye looked at him helplessly and shook his head.

“Such a big rooster, it would be easy to cause trouble if you castrated it. It’s about time they started fighting. I’ll feed them some herbal medicine to stop them from fighting, and that will be fine.”

That's right. Castration usually involves casting young male roosters. When the young male roosters grow to about half their full size and start trying to climb on the backs of the female roosters, that's the best time to castrate them.

At this time, they are growing, so their wounds heal quickly and are less likely to cause death.

Castration of roosters results in large wounds that heal slowly and can easily lead to their death.

Chen Ling didn't bother to think too much about it. Just like he had said before, if they fought again, he would eat them. The rest would be obedient. It was that simple.

However, now that his father-in-law says he can feed them herbs to stop them from fighting, he's quite curious.

"Actually, it's just using herbs to castrate the chicken, which is much safer than using knives," Wang Cunye explained.

"Oh, I see." He thought there was something new and interesting going on, but it turned out to be just changing from physical castration to medical castration. Actually, his father-in-law wasn't hiding many of the prescriptions from him; it's just that he didn't think about them when he didn't need them and didn't take them seriously.

So when something happens, he always seems to know a little bit about everything.

"Okay, I'll prepare some medicine for you in the next couple of days. Mix it with the chickens' food at night and feed them that for six or seven days."

"Okay, is it alright for the hen to eat it?"

"fine."

The father-in-law and son-in-law talked like this, then picked up their farm tools and walked out of the farm toward the vegetable garden.

The vegetable garden is to the west of the sunflowers.

You have to walk through a large field of sunflowers to get there.

The sunflowers have now grown to about 50 centimeters tall. After the rain, they are a lush green, a fresh sight to behold. And now, small flowers are growing at the top of their plants.

When the flowers grow large and gradually become large flower heads, that's when they're ready to bloom.

After passing through this lush sunflower field, you'll reach the vegetable garden.

At the foot of the mountain, in the ditch, the little white calf was leisurely grazing. When it saw the two of them carrying farm tools, it raised its head, stared with its big black eyes, and bleated softly, swishing its tail with an inquiring look in its eyes.

Chen Ling smiled and waved at it, indicating that it didn't need to help with chores today, and it continued to nibble on the grass.

"The weeds in the vegetable garden are too overgrown. Let's clear them away first." Wang Cunye didn't even notice the ox. He put down his farm tools and hurriedly went to work in the field.

The elderly tend to be in a hurry when it comes to work.

Not wanting to fall behind, Chen Ling quickly followed.

After a flurry of activity, the father-in-law and son-in-law cleared away the weeds and began turning over and leveling the land.

The land at the foot of the mountain is small and not very flat, so it still needs to be properly tidied up.

Chen Ling was naturally the main force in this kind of work.

He'd been cooped up at home for a few days because of the rain, so he was willing to do some physical work to work up a sweat.

After laboriously turning over the soil, they used an iron rake to rake the land twice, then scooped soil in the middle to create several boundaries, forming several even vegetable plots.

This is where cabbages are grown.

In the past, when planting grain, the tilled land would be left to rest quietly for a few days before sowing.

The main purpose is to allow the turned soil to settle naturally, preventing it from becoming overly hollow.

In such an environment, the germination and survival rate of seeds will be improved.

Growing vegetables is different; it's simpler and more basic than growing grains.

All you need to do is use that wooden stake, about the thickness of a bowl, to gently tamp the ground a few times, like tamping a foundation.

At this point, a circular pit will appear on the ground. Then, take out the cabbage seeds, bend over and scatter them into the pit. After scattering, water the pit thoroughly.

This process is quite fast.

After all, when it comes to growing cabbage, you can only grow five or six vegetable plots at most, or three or four, enough to eat in autumn and winter, enough to make pickles.

However, it's not over yet after watering.

Next, take some fine soil next to the vegetable pit and cover the cabbage seeds with it. It doesn't need to be very thick, just a thin layer.

Finally, the two mixed the wheat bran with the wood ash from the stove and sprinkled it back and forth in the vegetable patch two or three times.

The cabbages for this year have been planted.

As for why wheat bran is used to plant cabbage?

The wheat bran actually protects the cabbage. In late summer and early autumn, there are many insects. Crickets, grasshoppers, crawfish and other pests in the vegetable garden will die after eating the wheat bran, and then they will not be able to eat the newly grown cabbage seedlings.

Newly sprouted cabbage seedlings are very delicate. If they are bitten off, they will never grow big again and must be replanted, which is much more tiring than spreading wheat bran.

The father-in-law and son-in-law worked all day to plant the cabbage.

The next two days were sunny and the cabbage seeds sprouted quickly.

When I went to check on it on the morning of the third day, the buds had already sprouted from the ground, revealing a patch of lush green seedlings.

Several dead crickets lay in the vegetable garden, their bellies bulging.

At this time, Wang Zhenzhen would excitedly bring over the wheat bran and sprinkle it several more times. She would always be thrilled when she saw crickets and crayfish die after eating the wheat bran in the evening.

Chen Ling wasn't interested in the dead insects. After checking on the seedlings, he would always whistle and use his kite to catch mice and birds around the orchards and fields.

After Er Tuzi recovered from his injuries, he grew even larger and became even more ferocious when hunting.

As the sun sets, weary birds return to their nests.

Chen Ling had a leather shoulder pad draped over his shoulder, with a fierce hawk perched on it.

He pointed to a tree a hundred paces away and said, "Go."

Suddenly, the bald man on his shoulder flapped his wings and flew away with a whoosh. The birds in the trees, who had just returned to their nests, seemed to sense something and cried out in alarm, scattering in unison. In an instant, the sky was filled with birds.

Er Tuzi aimed at its target and sped past like lightning. Even Chen Ling was unaware of what was happening. After a loud cry, he saw two birds falling from the sky in the distance.

Only then did Er Tuzi reveal himself, circling in the sky before slowly descending.

That was truly the height of majesty.

After Er Tu Zi retrieved the two birds, Chen Ling had them carry some small stones around and fly to different places. They did this very well, carrying the stones to their designated locations.

"Yes, this way we'll definitely be able to find medicinal herbs and grow ginseng in the mountains."

Chen Ling gently stroked Er Tu Zi's feathers, feeling extremely satisfied. "Tomorrow we'll go up the mountain, scatter some ginseng seeds first, and then find some places to plant our own ginseng."

He thought about it again and decided to take advantage of this trip into the mountains to collect the herbs that he had marked before.

With Er Tu Zi around, Chen Ling no longer needs to handle the harvesting of certain herbs that don't require much effort and grow in dangerous locations. He can let Er Tu Zi do it for him, which saves him both time and energy.

Some rare medicinal herbs can also be harvested appropriately. Anyway, he has spiritual water, so it doesn't matter if the quality is damaged. He can just revive them.

In short, this hawk can help with gathering herbs, which is much better than simply using it for hunting.

(End of this chapter)