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

She hadn’t eaten any cold dishes since the fresh cucumbers were gone. She missed them a little, so she found some dried bracken, soaked them, boiled them in hot water, and then rinsed them with cold water.

Put a little oil in a clay pot, add onion roots, onion leaves and chili powder, stir-fry until the red oil comes out, pour it on the bracken segments, add appropriate amount of matsutake mushrooms, fresh salt, brown sugar, and the sour water in the kimchi jar, and mix well.

Sugar can enhance the flavor, and she prefers to eat it this way.

The soy sauce has been eaten up, and there is only a little bit of white wine and yellow wine left.

She intends to grow sorghum to make wine next year.

We didn't plant many beans this year, and the weather was bad, so some of them died from the sun. I estimate the harvest won't be much. After we finish harvesting peanuts, we'll have to harvest the beans.

The sumptuous dinner was ready. Xia Qingyue smelled the aroma of the food, feeling happy, and ate the meal happily. As her stomach was filled, most of the fatigue from a hard day's work was gone.

After dinner, she cleaned up the kitchen and walked around the camellia trees by the pond to digest the food.

The branches and leaves of the camellia, which have been watered every day, are emerald green, and under the faint moonlight, a layer of light glow covers the surface.

She had previously brought back a lot of wild grasses and flowers from outside and transplanted them between the camellia trees, but they were sun-dried to death in the hot weather. Now that there is water for irrigation, a lot of green wild grasses have sprouted in the ground.

She was very happy to see the plants and trees by the pond gradually regaining vitality.

Unfortunately, all the grass and trees on the hillside below the sinkhole have died, making it desolate and bleak.

Feeling a little tired after the walk, she climbed up onto a large rock, lay down, used one hand as a pillow, and looked up at the top of the pit.

The stars in the night sky are dazzling and bright.

She looked at the night view and gently stroked the black-haired creature lying beside her.

“The night view is so beautiful.”

A good night's sleep.

After waking up, Xia Qingyue found a piece of bamboo and broke it open, leaving a part at the end unbroken, with the top still broken.

The bamboo was hammered into the ground with a machete and fixed in place. The peanuts that were pulled back yesterday were placed vertically into the bamboo, with the end with the peanuts facing the outside of the bamboo, and the end with branches and leaves was held inside by her hand. With a gentle pull, all the peanuts fell off.

The branches and leaves are left aside and dried for use as fire.

She sat on a low stool and picked peanuts for the whole morning. She didn't finish picking them, so she put the ones she had picked out to dry in the sun.

After waking up from a nap, she continued to talk for another hour and finally finished.

The peanuts were dried in the shell for three days until they were completely dry.

The dried peanuts need to be shelled and the oil extracted. But you know, your hands will hurt if you peel the shells manually for a long time, so she specially found a wooden stick and tied it with a thin rope to make a simple clip.

It is much more convenient and saves time to use a clip. The shell will open with a clip and the peanuts will fall out.

She sat at the dining table, on which was a large round winnowing basket filled with a lot of unshelled peanuts. She put her hands on the winnowing basket and picked out the peanuts and placed them on the other side.

The peanut shells were thrown into the old wooden barrel at my feet and kept as firewood.

Peeling peanuts is not an easy job. It took her a day and a half to finish peeling them, picking out the large and small peanuts.

The peanut harvest this year is pretty good. Together with what was harvested last time, after shelling, it is estimated that there are about 140 kilograms of large peanuts and more than 30 kilograms of small ones.

The peeled peanuts were put into a winnowing basket. She lifted the basket and shook it to shake out the dust and impurities inside.

I selected more than 40 kilograms of large peanuts for seeds and will plant more next year. The rest will be used to press oil.

The amount of peanuts is not small and the process is complicated, so she spends a whole day just to extract the oil.

Pour the peanuts into an iron pan and fry them until they are crispy. Then pour them into a large stone mortar and smash them with a thick wooden stick.

She brought back the large stone mortar from the cave, and also a wooden squeezer which would come in handy today.

While pounding the peanuts, she recalled the scene of making glutinous rice cakes when she was a child, and the process was similar to what she was doing now.

Put the crushed peanuts into a gauze bag, steam it, take it out while it’s still hot and put it into the squeezer.

The squeezer is slightly larger than her millstone and looks similar to a millstone. It has two thick layers of round wood, similar to a chopping board. The top layer can be moved up and down to open and close, and there is a long handle on the side.

In order to make it easier to collect the oil and take into account issues such as the balance of force, she got a clean, oil-free and water-free extra-large basin, placed the squeezer in it, squatted down, pressed the upper handle with both hands and squeezed downwards with force.

Slowly, a stream of clear oil flowed down the wooden plate at the bottom of the squeezer and gathered in the basin.

I pressed and pressed again, and it took me seven or eight minutes to press this bag of crushed peanuts. My hands were so tired that I couldn't squeeze out any oil in the end, so I had to give up.

When she opened the gauze bag, she felt that there was still oil in the peanut residue inside. However, with her strength and the tools she had, she was unable to squeeze out more oil.

The peanut residue can be kept for her and Heihei to eat, and can also be used to feed chickens and ducks.

Since the oil yield of peanuts can only be increased when pressed while hot, she had to wait until they were steamed before pressing them, which added a lot of steps.

After squatting and pressing for a few times, her hands were too sore to exert any strength, so she simply put the wooden basin on the table and pressed while standing.

It took her a whole day and a few hours at night to crush more than 100 kilograms of peanuts.

She was so tired that she sat down on the ground with a blank look in her eyes. Her hands, which were placed on her thighs, were shaking so much that she was almost unconscious.

"We should plant sesame seeds. It's easier to extract oil from sesame seeds. Yes, we'll plant sesame seeds next year!"

Sesame oil, also known as sesame oil, is no worse than peanut oil.

More than 100 kilograms of peanuts were pressed into 30 kilograms of oil, filling two jars.

The clear oil has a fragrant aroma.

After pressing the oil, she rested for a day and spent most of the time lying in bed.

The soybeans and mung beans in the field are ripe and can be harvested. Just like picking peanuts, pull them up with the roots and branches, all at once.

Soybeans and mung beans are spread directly on the ground to dry. After three days, the branches become crispy.

The pods were wiped off and the branches were left aside.

I planted more soybeans, and when I peeled them, there were more than 110 pounds.

There are more than 70 kilograms of mung beans.

The fresh beans looked very pleasing to the eye. She soaked two handfuls of mung beans in water, preparing to sprout some mung beans to eat.

She doesn't like the bean sprouts.

The mung beans that have been soaked overnight have sprouted little white sprouts. Find a piece of gauze and spread it on a colander, pour the mung beans on it, cover it with another piece of gauze, and sprinkle some water on it.

The most important thing for sprouting bean sprouts is to control the moisture level.

Put the basket containing bean sprouts in a cool place and they will take a few days to grow well.

She had decided what to eat for breakfast last night, and the staple food was peanut residue cake.

Add flour, water and an egg to the peanut residue and mix into a batter. Leave a thin layer of oil at the bottom of the pan and spread a spoonful of batter on it to make a pancake.

The fried pancakes are dark brown with a browned crust.

There was a shortage of fresh vegetables this season, so she soaked some dried water celery and cut two green peppers and stir-fried them together.

I also grabbed some pickles from the jar, cut the sour cowpeas and cucumbers, and the young ginger had to be broken by hand to make it taste good.

The peanut cakes had no seasoning and were edible even though they were dark brown. She put a few of them into his bowl.

The kimchi was sour, spicy and crisp, and the fried dishes were appetizing. With these simple dishes, she ate five pancakes.