An orphan girl from a farming family: Everyday farming in the mountains during natural disasters

The smell is a mixture of fresh fragrance and pepper and numbing flavors.

Xia Qingyue guessed that there were pepper trees nearby. She had previously gone to the town to ask about the price of pepper, which was not cheap. Thinking that there must be pepper trees on the mountain, she did not buy any.

She temporarily put aside the task of digging chicken mushrooms, stood up and looked around, sniffed the scent, and followed the smell to find the Sichuan pepper tree.

The Sichuan pepper tree was covered with water droplets. It was estimated to be more than three meters tall, with lush branches and leaves, and green Sichuan peppercorns dotted the branches.

Strong peppery and spicy flavor.

The fruits of this prickly ash tree are not yet ripe and will not turn red until July or August.

Xia Qingyue broke off some branches, along with the pepper fruits on them, and took some back to cook, and then picked more when they were ripe.

She stuffed a few handfuls into her vegetable basket, enough to last for a while.

After finishing, she looked around the pepper tree to see if there were any small pepper trees. If there were, she could dig them up and plant them in the sinkhole.

Unexpectedly, she found two small pepper trees not far from the big pepper tree, one as high as her knees and the other as high as her thighs.

She used a shovel to dig out two small prickly ash trees, then turned back to continue digging chicken mushrooms.

There were still so many chicken mushrooms that she couldn't dig them all in the morning.

After filling up a backpack and the vegetable basket she brought with her, Xia Qingyue prepared to go back and have lunch before coming back.

The rain has stopped, the dark clouds have dispersed, the sun in the sky is shining brightly, and the mist between the mountains and forests is floating and vague, like a fairyland.

Xia Qingyue returned to the tiankeng. The rainwater on the ground at the bottom of the pit had evaporated. The sun was strong at this time, so she spread out the bamboo shoots, bamboo fungus, water celery that had not been dried yesterday, as well as the chicken mushrooms that she had dug today, to dry in the sun.

The chickens and ducks in the pen heard her come back and started clucking. She went to get the leftover fish and shrimp from yesterday to feed them.

So far, she owns two big pheasants, one male and one female, twelve chicks, four big wild ducks, two males and two females, and five ducklings.

While they were eating, she took a broom and swept the chicken and duck poop aside, and together with the previous ones, it piled up into a small hill.

The manure can be dried and used as fertilizer.

After finishing these tasks, she washed her hands, boiled a large pot of water, and used the boiling water to wash two jars that were covered with thick dust. After washing them, she put them in the sun to dry.

She planned to make some water celery sauerkraut and pickle a jar of pickled bamboo shoots. Both of these are appetizing and refreshing dishes that can be eaten alone or used as a side dish.

The water celery was wilted due to being exposed to the sun, so she took out the amount she was going to pickle, washed it, and put it in the sun to dry out the water.

After doing all this, she was so hungry that she quickly peeled cassava to cook rice and cut some marinated pork belly for lunch to taste it.

Slice the pork belly and stir-fry to release the oil, then add the chicken mushrooms and stir-fry. Because the meat is salty, she adds some soy sauce, stir-fryes quickly, and serves.

She washed the pot again, added a little lard, added water and boiled it. When it was almost boiling, she put in the shepherd's purse. She beat two duck eggs, stirred them and poured them into the soup.

One dish and one soup are ready.

Xia Qingyue gave half of the meal to Heihei. After being busy for the whole morning, she sat down to eat the meal, which tasted especially delicious.

The excess fat from the pork belly is fried out, making it not greasy at all and with just the right amount of saltiness.

The chicken mushroom is delicious and has a rich taste. The thick soup is very tasty when mixed with rice. She ate a bowl and a half of cassava rice, drank all the soup, and some vegetables were left.

After washing the dishes, I rinsed the iron pot several times with hot water to make sure there was no oil. I boiled a large pot of water with salt, and after boiling, I moved it aside to cool for later use.

The two small pepper trees had not been planted yet, so she picked up a hoe and took some ginger, preparing to clear some more sandy land where she had planted pumpkins and gourds a few days ago.

Turn the soil and remove weeds, make a hole and plant the pepper tree, break the ginger into pieces and throw it into the hole, and finally cover with soil.

Ginger is planted in fifteen rows and is mostly used in cooking.

It had rained and the soil was moist, so she didn't water the plants.

After that, the salt water was cooled down and the raw water from the water celery was dried.

Xia Qingyue stuffed the water celery into the jar, pressed it tightly, and unstuffed it until it was two fingers' length below the mouth of the jar. She then poured in an appropriate amount of white wine and salt water, added water to the edge of the jar, covered it tightly, and placed it in a cool place to ferment. It could be eaten after half a month.

The method of making pickled bamboo shoots is the same as that of making pickled cabbage. Put the bamboo shoots that have been dried to about 80% into a jar, pour white wine and salt water on it, and cover it with a lid.

Although the two large jars of sauerkraut and bamboo shoots consumed some salt, she thought it was worth it and looked forward to making sauerkraut fish, stir-fried sauerkraut meat, and snail noodles in the future.

The sour bamboo shoots in snail noodles are the soul and are indispensable. With the sour bamboo shoots ready, the noodles have to be made faster.

Currently, she is thinking of using tapioca flour to make the flour, but the production process is complicated and she will have to wait until she has time to make it.

Without taking a lunch break, Xia Qingyue packed her things and set out to dig chicken mushrooms.

After digging for more than two hours and making two trips back and forth to the tiankeng, we finally dug up all the chicken mushrooms.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Xia Qingyue continued to move upstream. When she was washing her hands by the stream, she saw pine needles flowing down from upstream.

At this season, there might be Matsutake mushrooms where there are pine trees, so she planned to try her luck.

As you go further upstream, the stream becomes wider and is dotted with large and small stones.

Seeing those stones, Xia Qingyue remembered that when she was a child in her previous life, there was also a stream like this in the countryside. There were many stones, and crabs lived and hid under those stones.

When I was a child, being able to catch crabs was a very cool and happy thing. My family was poor at that time and we had no money to buy snacks. We would make a bonfire in the wild and roast the caught crabs. They would taste very fragrant and delicious.

"I wonder if we can find crabs." She became interested, so she asked Heihei to change the route and go to the stream. Standing on the rocks, the water was clear and the bottom was visible. It was neither too deep nor too shallow, and she could see small fish swimming around.

Xia Qingyue rolled up her trouser legs and entered the water holding onto the stones. She picked out a stone, took out her vegetable basket, tilted it down, and propped it against the edge of the stone with her foot. At the same time, she lifted the stone with both hands.

As the stone was moved, the stream there rolled up the mud and sand at the bottom and became a little turbid, but she still saw some dark shadows moving quickly at the bottom of the water. She pushed the basket in with her feet, lifted the stone with one hand and picked up the basket with the other.

The water in the basket flowed down through the gaps. When the water was gone, there were three river shrimps in it, two of which had black shells and looked like crayfish.

"Oh, it's a cicada!"

What also surprised her was the size of the river shrimps. They were three or four times larger than the small shrimps in the fish cages before. One shrimp was as long as her middle finger. The shell on the shrimp's abdomen looked very thin, and the bulging shrimp meat could be clearly seen.

However, the female river shrimps are laying eggs in this season, and the ones without eggs are male shrimps.

It seems that the environment upstream is better for fish and shrimp.

River shrimps this big can be dried and made into jerky.

I think it would be a good idea to catch more crayfish and cook them using the same method as crayfish.

"Alas, it's a pity that I didn't bring a bucket."

Xia Qingyue wanted to see if there were any crabs, so she picked up a stone and moved it. She saw a dark shadow crawling horizontally in the water. She was quick-eyed and quick-handed, and reached into the water to grab it.