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

Xia Qingyue didn't pick the oyster mushrooms and black fungus she found yesterday, so she decided to go there first to pick them and then come back. Today she would go find some staple food, such as yam and cassava, which are easy to fill the stomach.

The sweet potatoes in the field won't last long.

The oyster mushrooms growing on the dead tree trunks are in large clusters. The caps are gray and the stems are snow-white. They can be easily removed by gently breaking them apart.

It was taken down from a dead tree, weighing at least three or four pounds.

She picked all the oyster mushrooms and black fungus she saw, and in the process discovered some large wild onions, which she picked up as well.

She picked all the edible mountain products in this area, and finally harvested more than a basket of oyster mushrooms, half a basket of black fungus, and a handful of wild onions.

She first brought these things back to the tiankeng, spread out the wood ear and oyster mushrooms, and dried them together with yesterday's bamboo shoots.

Fresh fungus cannot be eaten, as it will cause poisoning.

I planted some wild onions in the field and placed the rest in a dark place in the kitchen to prevent them from wilting.

She carried a hoe, a backpack and two vegetable baskets and went out to look for staple food.

When Xia Qingyue was a child, she went to the mountains with her grandmother to dig yam and cassava. She remembered the appearance and characteristics of yam and cassava. The trouble was that the mountains were all green in spring, and finding them among them was a test of eyesight and patience.

Heihei took her to the path leading to the bamboo forest. On the way, she opened her eyes wide and searched until her eyes were sore. She didn't find any yam, but she did find some fresh shepherd's purse, three plants of astragalus, and some bupleurum.

Astragalus replenishes Qi, raises Yang, promotes the production of body fluids and nourishes blood.

The rhizome of Bupleurum is used as medicine, often for colds and fevers.

Medicinal herbs can be dug up, plucked, dried and used for personal use or sold for money.

Fortunately, she found a plant that looked like yam.

After careful identification, she confirmed that it was yam. She grabbed the vine and followed it downwards. When she found the root, she picked up the hoe and dug down.

Digging yam is a physically demanding job because the tubers are of different shapes and you have to stop and dig them manually to avoid breaking them.

She was sweating as she dug out the whole yam, but the result was gratifying: it was longer than her arm and as thick as her wrist.

I weighed it and estimated it was at least 15 kilograms.

She kept the yam seedlings and took them home to plant in the field where they continued to grow.

Soon, she found another yam nearby, and this one was slightly smaller than the previous one.

No matter how big or small the gain is, she is happy and satisfied.

After packing the yams and putting them in the backpack, Xia Qingyue continued to look for them with a hoe. When she walked to the bamboo forest, she found nothing new. She decisively chose to look somewhere else. With Heihei by her side, she didn't have to worry about getting lost.

Heihei led her away from the bamboo forest and took a direction she had no impression of. There were weeds everywhere, and she used a hoe to clear the obstacles as she walked.

When she reached a hillside, she found a new yam. She looked forward and her eyes lit up with surprise.

Among the lush greenery, fruits as red as gems hung on the branches, weighing them down.

"Oh my god, isn't that a raspberry?"

Xia Qingyue was thirsty and ran over excitedly.

For some reason, Heihei suddenly rushed in front of her and dived into the grass beside the raspberry field. The next second, the grass and trees were shaking wildly.

She leaned in closer to take a look, her eyes fixed on it, her heart pounding.

Heihei walked out with his head held high and his chest puffed out, holding a long rat snake in his mouth.

There are not many things she is afraid of in her life, such as crawling snakes and wriggling maggots. If she encounters either of these two things, she will be scared half to death.

Heihei seemed to know that Xia Qingyue was afraid of snakes, so he carried the snake in his mouth and walked away, then threw it away.

"Huff, huff, huff..." Xia Qingyue patted her chest. Her expression looked better when she saw Heihei coming back.

She called Heihei over, stroked his soft head and said, "Good dog!"

This incident made her suddenly remember that the forest was full of dangers and she had to be more careful in the future.

With lingering fear, she picked a raspberry and wiped it with her hand. It was not dirty but she would not get sick if she ate it. When she put it in her mouth, it was juicy and sweet and sour.

“It’s delicious!”

She picked a few and threw them into Heihei's mouth, and he swallowed them in one gulp without even chewing them.

Heihei looked around, wagging his tail.

Knowing that it wanted to go out and play, Xia Qingyue, who was busy picking raspberries, said, "Go ahead, don't run too far."

Heihei ran out in a flash.

There are a lot of raspberries, covering the entire ground and also in the distance. Their bright red color is very eye-catching.

Xia Qingyue was thinking about the snake and only took a bite and stopped eating. She was afraid that the snake would crawl over the raspberries, so she grabbed the raspberry branch with her hand and pulled it gently, and a bunch of raspberries fell off easily.

After picking for a while, I had half a basket full.

Without a refrigerator to keep the fruits fresh, you won’t be able to eat all the fruits you pick at once.

"Oh, I have to think about how to keep them longer. It seems the only way is to make jam?"

But it’s better to add some sugar to jam, but where can she find sugar?

Thinking of being in the mountains, she immediately thought of honey.

"Yes, go find some honey. Honey can be eaten as sugar, and beeswax can be used to make candles!"

Xia Qingyue had already figured out how to deal with the bees. If she got stung, she would be in big trouble.

But the important thing is to find the bees' nest first.

After picking the raspberries, she returned to the hillside and dug up the yam. This one was unexpectedly large, weighing about twenty pounds.

Xia Qingyue was so happy that she held the heavy yams in her hands, and even the fatigue from the hard work of digging them disappeared for the most part.

Today they found three yam plants and harvested nearly fifty kilograms, enough for her and Heihei to eat for a few days.

Xia Qingyue saw some mugwort around and cut a lot of it with a sickle, until her backpack could no longer hold it.

Mugwort can be eaten and used as medicine.

After a while, Heihei came back.

"Let's go to the reed marsh."

She still wanted to catch pheasants and ducks, and find honey, but she had not made any preparations today, so she had to be well prepared before she could do anything.

Reeds.

Heihei ran away happily.

Xia Qingyue found a suitable place to set a trap. She used a stick to prop up a vegetable basket, sprinkled bait under the basket, tied a rope to the stick, and when the prey ran under the basket to eat the bait, she could pull the rope to cover it.

The bait she used was earthworm carcasses mixed with some sweet potato grains.

Earthworms are quite similar to snakes and maggots, and she did it while retching.

After setting the trap, she hid in the dark and waited for the chickens and ducks.

After a while, two pheasants came slowly over. They looked around and it was obvious that they were looking for food.

Perhaps they smelled the scent of earthworms and sweet potatoes under the basket, and they chirped over.

Xia Qingyue's heart was in her throat and she dared not breathe.

A pheasant couldn't resist the temptation of food, and got closer and closer to the basket, poked its head out and pecked at the bait.

The other one followed behind the pheasant and watched.

Eat, you can eat more if you walk over.

The pheasant in front seemed to have heard Xia Qingyue's thoughts and actually walked forward to under the basket.

The pheasants that were watching kept poking their heads out but refused to move over. She was so anxious that she frowned. If she delayed any longer, she might not be able to catch any.

She immediately pulled the rope.

"Cluck, cluck." The frightened pheasant spread its wings and flew away.

Xia Qingyue walked out from the darkness, grabbed the caught pheasant and lifted it up with a smile.

Very good, it's a hen.