Daily life of farming and supporting a family on the ancient Loess Plateau

Snow has fallen on the Loess Plateau once again.

The first snowfall wasn't heavy, but rather faint yet intense. The white snowflakes were blown everywhere by the north wind, drifting and swaying.

Snow falls gently on earth, covering the simple, yellow land like a layer of white jade.

After the snow, the sun shone brightly, the sky was blue, the earth was yellow, and everything was pure without a trace of impurity.

The earthen walls were half-lit and half-shadowed by the sun. Walking through the village, you could always see children, oblivious to the cold, with rosy cheeks and snotty noses, climbing up and sliding down the shady slopes, having a great time.

This winter, Ji Yongling's family has been exceptionally busy. In addition to pressing oil at the oil mill, many women and girls have also gathered in her yard to help peel garlic.

Last year, Ji Yongling harvested all the garlic that could be harvested in the village, and the villagers exchanged it for money. This year, the villagers planted a lot more garlic and sold it to Ji Yongling.

Ji Yongling asked someone to peel the garlic he had collected and then made it into allicin powder for later use.

Every day is busy, and another winter is about to pass.

With the Lunar New Year fast approaching, preparations for the New Year's meals, such as slaughtering pigs, grinding tofu, exchanging tofu, sprouting bean sprouts, steaming buns, frying fried foods, and frying pastries, don't begin until after the 20th of the twelfth lunar month.

But we need to expedite the preparation of the glass noodles, because they need to be frozen after they're made.

In previous years, because there were few sweet potatoes in the village and they had little starch content, no one made vermicelli. But this year is different. Many families, like Yang's, are troubled by having too many sweet potatoes, so they all got together and decided to make vermicelli together.

Nowadays, the process of making vermicelli is called "vermicelli leakage".

Making rice flour is a "big project," a physically demanding task that requires multiple people to work together. So this year, the villagers spontaneously formed several "rice flour making teams," helping each other out and exchanging tasks for rice flour.

A few days ago, Grandpa Ji, along with Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing, built a simple earthen stove in the courtyard. Yang, along with Jia Ronghua and Hu Xirong, also took advantage of the sunny weather to wash and dry the sweet potatoes. They cut the washed sweet potatoes into shreds, mashed them, then removed the residue, dried them, ground them, and finally put the resulting white mixture into a vat to settle.

After draining off the water, you get a thick paste, which is then dried again and ground into powder. This forms the precursor to rice noodles – sweet potato starch.

With everything ready, when it was time to officially make the vermicelli, Ji Laoliu's family, along with Ji Mantun and his brothers Ji Yonghua and Ji Yongbai, all came to help.

The weather is freezing cold now, and the water in the ditch is frozen to a depth of three feet, so the paper mill has stopped production early.

Yang and Chen poured the prepared starch into a large basin. The three Ji brothers and Shuanzhu worked together, each holding the basin with one hand and clenching their fist with the other to knead the dough mixed with the starch paste. They kneaded the dough repeatedly, making it more elastic the longer they kneaded it.

This step is crucial and laborious; improper handling will affect the elasticity and texture of the noodles. The dough cannot be too hard or too soft. If it's too hard, the noodles won't leak through; if it's too soft, the leaked noodles will easily break, and you'll end up with a pot of mush.

When the group felt the starch dumplings were ready to be made into strands, Grandpa Ji and Old Man Ji, two experienced workers, started to strain the starch into the boiling water on the earthen stove.

Grandpa Ji held the strainer in his left hand and used the back of his right hand to continuously tap the dough in the strainer, slowly letting the strands sink to the bottom of the boiling water and then float to the surface again. Old Man Ji was responsible for adding dough to the strainer, his movements had to be quick and light, and he had to coordinate very well with Grandpa Ji.

Yang threw the cooked vermicelli from the boiling water pot into a prepared basin of cold water to cool it down. Then Chen put the vermicelli from the basin of cold water into another cold water vat and kept shaking it in the vat until the vermicelli became loose.

Finally, Ji Manchuan and the other men hung the vermicelli on a wooden frame in the yard to freeze, and that was basically the end of the job.

Nowadays, water freezes instantly, and the rice noodles made from them will freeze quickly when hung up. This prevents them from sticking together when they are soaked again in the pot. Therefore, wealthy families used to make rice noodles at this time of year.

Vermicelli is easy to store and does not spoil easily. Vermicelli made before the Lunar New Year can be eaten the following year.

Although Grandpa Ji and Ji Laoliu frequently took turns making the rice noodles, after a few days of making rice noodles, Grandpa Ji's wrists were so sore he could barely lift them.

Seeing this, Ji Manchuan said, "Dad, let us brothers make the vermicelli from now on. You're too old for that."

Grandpa Ji shook his head: "Your skills are too poor. The pieces are all uneven and broken into pieces. It's fine for us to eat, but we made a lot this year, and I was thinking of taking some to sell at your older brother's shop! Also, I'm planning to bring some to our relatives to try during the Lunar New Year. If they're all broken into pieces, it's not presentable!"

Ji Manqing said, "Dad, old masters all learn through practice. We need to practice too. How can we practice if you don't let go?"

Grandpa Ji stubbornly shook his head: "It's the first time this year, it's alright. Next year, you brothers can take over."

Ji Yongling thought for a moment and said, "Grandpa, can we use the same press we used to make the noodles to press these vermicelli? Vermicelli pressed with a press is more uniform in thickness and saves a lot of effort. The key is that we can also make vermicelli of different thicknesses."

Upon hearing this, Ji Manqing immediately agreed, saying, "That's great! Oh dear, why didn't I think of that! Using a press to press the vermicelli would save a lot of effort. It's a pity we've already finished making all the vermicelli this year."

"Anyway, vermicelli is easier to preserve than sweet potatoes, so we can make more and store them without worrying about them spoiling. And potatoes too, we can make vermicelli from our potatoes just like sweet potatoes and sell them!" Ji Yongling suggested.

After hearing this, Ji Manchuan muttered to himself, "I did the math this time. Six hundred catties of sweet potatoes can make one hundred catties of dried flour, and one hundred catties of dried flour can make nearly one hundred catties of vermicelli. It is indeed much more cost-effective than selling sweet potatoes directly."

Ji Manqing said happily, "Since we're free anyway, why don't we turn all this year's sweet potatoes into vermicelli and sell them during the New Year? If we can't sell them, we can keep them for next year. Eating sweet potato vermicelli is much better than eating sweet potatoes! Besides, we have plenty of potatoes in the house this year, so we can eat less sweet potatoes."

Old Master Ji frowned and thought for a moment, then said, "I think it can work!"

Several families in the village shared the same plan as Lao Ji's family; everyone made sweet potato noodles, keeping only a small amount to eat directly. As a result, Ji Mancang's shop at the market this year had more sweet potato noodles for sale, and the price was much cheaper than before. Even wealthy people from the city would come out of town specifically to buy them.