Traveling through the mountains and farming

After lunch, Lin Wan immediately took the two siblings to quickly finish the remaining ficus carica fruits from the morning.

Afterwards, he hurriedly took them to the back mountain to look for sea buckthorn.

The three of them walked along the rugged mountain road.

Li Chongle led the way in front, Li Ke followed closely behind him, and Lin Wan walked at the end with a slightly anxious look on her face, searching the mountains with a focused gaze.

At this time, Li Chongle first found the sea buckthorn in a bush. He walked closer and took a look, then immediately shouted loudly behind him:

"Sister-in-law, there is a large area of ​​sea buckthorn trees behind this bush. There are so many of them."

When Lin Wan heard Li Chongle's call, a look of joy suddenly appeared on her face. She hurriedly quickened her pace to catch up, and Li Ke also followed happily.

When they came to the bushes, they saw a row of sea buckthorn trees with plump fruits hanging on them.

Li Chongle immediately reached out to pick the flowers. When Lin Wan saw him, she quickly shouted, "Be careful, there are thorns on them. Pick them slowly."

Now that she had found it, she was no longer so anxious and told the brother and sister to be careful.

Then, she patiently taught Li Chongle and Li Ke how to avoid the sharp thorns and pick sea buckthorn safely.

After the three men filled three backpacks with fruits, they sat down under the shade of a tree to rest. They were sweating profusely and panting from exhaustion, but at this moment their faces were filled with bright smiles.

Li Chongle looked at the full basket and said happily, "Sister-in-law, there are still many prickly pears here that have not been picked. There are also many prickly pears in the place I mentioned before. Let's send these back and come back to pick more later."

"No, it's getting late today, and we have to deal with these first when we get back." Lin Wan, who was sitting next to them, shook her head and said.

Li Ke asked hurriedly, "Is it the sea buckthorn sauce you mentioned before? Then we can have the new drink later?"

Lin Wan touched Li Ke's head and said with a smile: "Yes, but we call it sweet sauce to the outside world. I plan to sell it for money, and I can't let others know that it is made from sea buckthorn."

After hearing this, the two siblings said seriously that they would keep the secret.

After they had rested, Lin Wan called the two siblings to prepare to return home.

Upon hearing this, Li Chongle asked hurriedly, "Shall we come over to pick them tomorrow?"

He felt it was a pity to see so many sea buckthorns left to be picked. He firmly believed that with his sister-in-law's craftsmanship, these sea buckthorns could generate money.

Lin Wan nodded and replied, "Yes, we'll come back to pick them tomorrow." Then she stood up and helped them both organize the backpacks and carry them on their backs.

After hearing this, Li Chongle followed him home happily.

He can come to pick sea buckthorn to make money tomorrow. He feels that the weight of the sea buckthorn on his back is lighter.

Lin Wanze helped Li Ke hold the backpack behind her to reduce her weight. The two siblings never complained of being tired along the way.

~

A quarter of an hour later, they returned home.

Lin Wan didn't have time to rest and began to direct everyone to process the sea buckthorns and prepare to make sea buckthorn jam.

Since there are many thorns on sea buckthorn, it is easy to hurt your hands if you are not careful.

She patiently taught the two siblings how to use bamboo swords to remove thorns, and accompanied them throughout the process to complete the thorn removal work.

After all the thorns of the sea buckthorn were removed, they cleaned it together.

Afterwards, Lin Wan stood up to get a knife and a chopping board, ready to start removing the sea buckthorn seeds. She was responsible for cutting the sea buckthorns in half one by one, while the two siblings were responsible for removing the tiny seeds inside. Then she cut the seeded sea buckthorn pieces into slices.

As soon as the brother and sister finished removing the last sea buckthorn seed, Li Chongle immediately asked, "Sister-in-law, now that all the sea buckthorn seeds have been removed, what should we do next?"

Lin Wan was still concentrating on cutting the prickly pear slices. After hearing Li Chongle's question, she looked up and said, "Go into the house first and take out the stone mortar, then crush the sliced ​​prickly pear slices."

Li Ke next to him asked hurriedly: "What about me?"

"Go to the backyard and pick more stevia. Then put half a pot of water to boil sugar water. Wait until Xiaole's sea buckthorn is mashed and then put it in the pot to make the sweet sauce." Lin Wan said in an orderly manner.

Li Chongle hurried into the house to get the mortar, and Li Ke also ran to the backyard to pick stevia.

After a while, Li Chongle came out with a mortar, put it aside, and started to put the sea buckthorn slices that Lin Wan had cut into pieces into the mortar to crush them. When all of them were crushed, he poured them into a clean wooden basin next to him, and then changed to another batch of sea buckthorn slices to continue crushing them.

Li Ke picked a small basket of stevia, washed it, and went into the kitchen to make a fire and boil sugar water.

When the water in the pot gradually began to boil, she added an appropriate amount of stevia according to Lin Wan's request.

After a while, Li Ke shouted outside: "Sister-in-law, the sugar water has been cooked as you said."

At this time, Lin Wan had already cut all the sea buckthorn into thin slices. Hearing Li Ke's shout, she stood up and took the sea buckthorn mashed by Li Chongle to the kitchen.

Lin Wan first scooped up the stevia from the pot, then carefully poured the mashed sea buckthorn paste into the pot and mixed it with the sugar water.

Then, she kept stirring with a spoon to prevent the bottom from getting stuck. When she saw that all the soup was absorbed into the jam, she stopped stirring.

Then, she smiled and said to the two siblings who had been watching from the side: "When it cools down, you can put it into cans. Now you have to empty the pot and continue to cook the remaining sea buckthorn."

After hearing this, Li Ke turned around, picked up the wooden basin on the ground, and said with a silly smile:

"Come, put it in here. Let it cool down in a while, and I'll be responsible for putting it into the clay jars." She then went to the cupboard and took out all the clay jars they had bought earlier.

Lin Wan started to pour water into the pot, put in stevia, and prepared to start boiling the second pot.

At this time, Li Chongle in the yard was still working hard to pound the remaining sea buckthorn slices.

Just like that, before dark, the three of them had cooked all the sea buckthorn jam and put it into cans.

Then, everyone sat in the pavilion in the yard, holding a bowl of sea buckthorn juice and drinking it. The juice was made by Li Ke, who was smart enough to use a wooden basin used to hold jam.

Li Chongle drank the juice, frowned slightly, and said like a little adult, "Sister-in-law, if we make it again tomorrow, our pottery jars will not be enough."

"There will be a market in Taohua Village tomorrow. When Uncle Dashan came to deliver the wooden barrel of ice jelly just now, I asked him to help buy it tomorrow." Lin Wan replied with a smile.

At this time, Li Ke licked his lips and said, "Sister-in-law, our lard is almost gone!"

When Lin Wan heard what Li Ke said, she couldn't help but smile. She thought that Li Ke was indeed a foodie and could always remember the food at home clearly.

She went on to say, "I also talked to Uncle Dashan and asked him to help buy more so that we can stock up on lard. I also asked him to help buy soybeans, flour, and sugar."

Li Chongle asked in confusion: "Don't we have stevia? Why do we still need to buy white sugar?" White sugar is very expensive.

Lin Wan explained: "The new food I'm going to make can't be added directly to water, so I need to buy sugar. I don't plan to buy a lot, just one pound."

Li Ke clapped his hands happily and laughed, "Great! Last time, we said that we could use the bread oven in the backyard to make new food with the flour. Did you buy sugar to make this new food?"

Sure enough, foodies are very sensitive about what they eat!

Lin Wan couldn't help laughing and said, "Yes, use the bread oven to make new food."

Li Ke rubbed his hands excitedly and asked impatiently: "Sister-in-law, when will this new food be prepared? I can't wait to try it."

Lin Wan thought about it and said, "Let's continue picking sea buckthorns and making jam tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow at the earliest."

Li Ke's face instantly broke into a bright smile, "Great, I can eat new food the day after tomorrow!"

Li Chongle also laughed at the side, "Haha, look how greedy you are."

"Okay, we haven't cooked dinner tonight yet! Let's go and cook." Lin Wan said with a smile, then got up and walked towards the kitchen.

The two siblings obediently followed him to the kitchen to cook.