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

A strong sense of uneasiness swept over Xia Qingyue.

It felt like a drowning person trapped in water, with oxygen running out, a lot of water pouring into the mouth and nose, trying to breathe but unable to breathe, feeling deeply suffocated and powerless, and feeling the vitality being rapidly consumed.

"Wait a moment."

A man's deep voice came from behind.

Xia Qingyue walked faster.

"The wild boar is half yours. You saved Xiaobai before, but I haven't thanked you formally yet."

"You're welcome. You can take the wild boar back and eat it."

She said this casually and looked ahead, trying to find a flat and smooth road so that she could run fast, but she didn't notice a protruding tree root in front of her feet.

She tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground with a cry.

There was a throbbing pain in my kneecap.

The more anxious you are, the easier it is to make mistakes.

Seeing Xia Qingyue fall, the man opened his mouth, his eyes showing deep thought, and he retracted his foot that was about to take a step forward.

He picked up the knife and continued to slaughter the wild boar. Wherever the knife passed, the pork skin and flesh were torn, and the bones broke with a little force from his wrist.

"I'll cut up the wild boar soon. I'll take my portion and you can deal with the rest."

Xia Qingyue stood up with the help of the tree. The fabric of her pants at the knees was a little torn, and you could vaguely see that the flesh on her knees was torn and bleeding.

She endured the pain and continued to walk quickly.

Heihei followed her while looking back at Xiaobai who was standing beside the man and looking back at him. There was a strong sense of reluctance in each other's eyes.

After walking a few hundred meters, Xia Qingyue didn't notice any movement behind her, and she looked back suspiciously.

I just happened to see the man carrying a heavy sack on his shoulders and leaving with Xiaobai, their backs getting farther and farther away.

On the ground, the cut-up, bloody wild boar lay there.

"Hiss, there's still so much wild boar meat, does he really not want it?"

It would be a lie to say that I wasn’t moved by seeing so much meat.

Nearly two-thirds of the lard at home has been eaten. If we take this pork back home, we can make a lot of lard.

Fresh meat can also be used to make dumplings, stir-fry, or make snacks such as pork jerky.

She felt greedy just thinking about it.

"No, no, what if it's a trap? Let's go!"

She shook her head and walked away resolutely.

After walking for five minutes, she looked back.

After dawdling for fifteen minutes, he looked back again.

She hid behind a tree, staring in the direction of the wild boar meat, with a gleam in her eyes, "Heihei, Baibai, are they really gone?"

Heihei had a depressed look on his face, and he hadn't yet gotten over the sadness of separation from Xiaobai.

"It seems like they've really left. Well, that wild boar smells so bloody, it's better to just leave it there than to let the beast eat it!"

Xia Qingyue took out the sack she carried with her, endured the pain in her knee, and ran over to the wild boar meat.

"Oh my goodness, there are so many!"

The front feet of a wild boar, along with the location of its head, are missing, and the hind half is cut into one large piece, but it still maintains the shape of a whole pig.

The man only took away the front part of the wild boar, which was one-third of the whole pig, and the remaining good parts with more meat were two-thirds.

"No, how did he cut it to be like this?"

Each piece of pork was cut in one go, smooth and neat, unlike when she cut the meat in a messy way, turning the good meat into minced meat.

Xia Qingyue exclaimed as she stuffed pieces of pork into a sack and then into the wooden barrel.

She could have put the meat directly into the wooden barrel, but she didn't want to dirty the barrel, so it was easier to put it into an old sack.

Unfortunately, we only brought two wooden barrels, and they could no longer hold more than 40 kilograms.

She originally wanted to let Heihei look after the meat while she went back and came back later, but then she thought that it would be very dangerous to separate from each other, so she gave up the idea.

She would rather risk losing her meat than stay with Heihei.

She found some wild grass and covered the wild boar with it, hoping it would help.

Then she quickened her pace towards the tiankeng, walked back for more than twenty minutes, put on the large backpack, picked up the wooden bucket and returned.

Fortunately the weeds hadn’t changed and the meat was still there.

She packed the meat with great effort. This time she brought more containers, so she filled about 130 kilograms, with half left.

Hurry up and take it back, then run back.

When they were almost reaching the wild boar, Heihei suddenly pricked up his ears, opened his mouth and bit Xia Qingyue's trouser leg to stop her from running away.

She immediately thought that it must be the smell of wild boar's blood that attracted the ferocious beast.

After taking a fearful look at the wild boar, she waved to Heihei.

The man and the dog tiptoed back.

Even if you are reluctant to give up the pork, you cannot risk your life to fight with the ferocious beast.

It was a big surprise to unexpectedly catch so many wild boars today, which made her very satisfied and happy.

Now that we have the meat, we have to process it quickly. In this weather it will become smelly and go bad if left for too long.

Not in the mood to fetch water, she returned to the tiankeng to process the pork.

She had already figured out what to do with the pork: make some of it into snacks, pickle some of it, and eat a small portion fresh.

Wild boars live in the mountains and forests. They have thick skin and tough black fur that is difficult to remove.

She found a large, whole piece of firewood and burned it. She put the hairy side of the pork on the red charcoal fire and burned it. It crackled and emitted black smoke, with a strong smell of wild boar in the smoke.

After roasting about 180 kilograms of pork, she was sweating all over. She didn't have time to wipe the sweat off her face. She immediately cleaned the meat with the roasted skin, the ribs, and two pig's trotters and put them in a large wooden basin, and evenly spread salt on each piece of meat.

Cover the marinated meat with a large round dustpan and place it in a cool place.

Next, process the pork jerky and pork jerky to make snacks.

The pork jerky is made from the hind leg meat, which is leaner and the fat is reserved for oil extraction.

Wash the hind leg meat, remove the fascia, and cut it into thick long strips along the grain of the meat.

Cut a full bowl of vegetables, half of which are left without any seasoning, and the other half are added with appropriate amount of salt, soy sauce, fresh matsutake mushrooms, chili powder, peppercorns, scallion roots, a few slices of ginger, and finally some white wine. Knead it with your hands for five minutes to make it easier for it to absorb the flavor, and set it aside to marinate for a few hours.

At this time, she prepared the pork jerky, which consisted of 20% fat and 80% lean pork, and chopped it into fine powder. She added salt, soy sauce, matsutake and fresh white wine to season it, beat the meat in a clockwise direction, and let it sit for half an hour for it to absorb the flavors.

It would be better if there was red yeast rice powder, the product would look better.

Unfortunately, no, the color of the meat is lighter, so it doesn’t affect the eating quality.

While waiting, she put the cut pork fat into the pot and finally poured the oil into a clean dry ceramic jar.

The pottery jar was found in the cave and came in handy.

There were three large jars filled with lard, enough to last her until the end of the year.

She was so busy that she smelled of cooking oil. She stopped to drink a cup of tea to reduce internal heat. Without taking a rest, she used a spatula to spread the marinated pork paste onto the plate, trying to make it as flat as possible.

After laying out, steam them in batches. After they are cooked, brush a layer of honey water on the meat with a wooden brush made of willow, then put it back into the pot and steam it for a few minutes. After taking them out of the pot, peel them off and put them in the sun to dry.

It will be drier if exposed to the sun for a while and can be preserved longer.

It was already noon and her stomach was growling with hunger, so she quickly took the minced meat that she had just chopped and kept aside and mixed it with cowpea paste to make filling, as well as another kind of filling with wild onion, egg and meat, and made dumplings.