Rebirth: the fiery age of Mori Gong's children

Chapter 413: Collecting seeds to support sweetness
Put the simmered oil in a basin, put it on the pot stand to cool, and then pour it into the oil jar later.

The remaining oil was stained and put into a small basin. Zhang Shuzhen filled a small bowl and led the two children into the house to eat.

The oil-soaked food is crispy and crispy when it comes out of the pan. I added a little salt when simmering the oil, so the oil-soaked food still has a salty taste, which is particularly fragrant.

Sheng Xin Hua Sheng Xin Yu The two children were sitting on the kang. They stretched out their little hands to grab two oily pieces from the bowl and put them into their mouths. They chewed and chewed. The more they chewed, the more delicious they became.

After a while, the two children finished all the grease in the small bowl.

"Milk, I want more." Sheng Xinhua picked up the bowl and brought it to Zhang Shuzhen, looking at her grandma longingly.

"No, that's all I can eat today. These are all oily. If you eat too much, you'll panic. You won't be able to eat anymore in the future."

Zhang Shuzhen shook her head. She didn't dare to feed such a small child too much. If they were injured, they might not be able to eat in the future.

Sheng Xinhua was unwilling to give in, pursed his lips and wanted to cry, but no matter how much trouble they made, Zhang Shuzhen refused to give him any more.

When the two children saw that it was not interesting, they simply stopped crying and went back to the west room to play with the tiger cubs.

After the two children calmed down, Zhang Shuzhen went out and hid the oil-stained basin on top of the cabinet.

The temperature of the simmered oil dropped a bit, so I poured it into the jar.

After that, Zhang Shuzhen went to the vegetable garden and picked some beans and peppers.

The top layer of the simmering pot was full of oil. Naturally, Zhang Shuzhen was reluctant to clean the pot and planned to stew beans at night.

There were a lot of grease stains from the cooking oil today. Regardless of whether adults or children like to eat this stuff, Zhang Shuzhen planned to get some chili peppers and stir-fry some grease stains.

With these two dishes in the evening, some pancakes and something else will be enough.

The two children were playing with the tiger cub in the west room, and no one made trouble for Zhang Shuzhen, so dinner was cooked quickly.

By the time Sheng Xitai and the others came home from school, the beans were ready and the pancakes were about to be baked.

"Mom, what delicious food did you cook? Why does it smell so good to me?

Oops, it smells like cooking oil, is it stained by oil?Did you keep it?I want to eat. "

As soon as foodie Sheng Xitai entered the house, he smelled the residual aroma from the kitchen and asked happily.

"You are so beautiful, but you want to eat it? If you want to eat it, I have to give it to you? Can't you keep it for cooking?

I also plan to make some steamed buns soaked in oil tomorrow. I’ll eat them all for you. Can I use you to make the steamed buns? "

Bear meat is rich in fat and is best used for cooking oil.

As for the thin ones, they had to be left for Jiaojiao and Zhuangzhuang to eat, and General Hei had to replenish his body a little. There wasn't much left, so Zhang Shuzhen thought of using oil to make the buns.

Most Northeastern mothers are like this. No matter how much they care about their children, they never forgive them.

Zhang Shuzhen was no exception. She clearly left oil stains on her children, but she just refused to pass them on smoothly.

Sheng Xitai didn't pick up the oil stains to show his greed, and he was somewhat unwilling to do so. But when he heard that the buns would be made with oil stains tomorrow, Sheng Xitai thought about it and accepted it, so he said nothing more.

Sister Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei are in high school. School ends later than in junior high school, and after dinner, they have to go to school for evening classes.

In the meantime, there are only four and 10 minutes to eat and rest, so time is a bit tight.

Zhang Shuzhen was too lazy to talk nonsense to her son, so she took the time to pick out the pancakes from the pot and asked Sheng Xitai to do her homework.

Sheng Xitai went to the east room to do his homework, and Zhang Shuzhen cut a few chili peppers and fried them together with the oil.

As soon as the chili oil came out of the pan, father and son Sheng Liancheng and sisters Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei came back one after another, so everyone started serving the food together.

"Mom, didn't you say you should keep the buns if they are stained by oil?"

Sheng Xitai was doing homework and was attracted by the aroma. When he saw a plate on the table with oil stains, he immediately shouted happily.

"If you have something delicious to keep for the whole family, what's the point of satisfying your craving alone?

Hurry and wash your hands and eat. Your sisters will have to go to class soon. "Zhang Shuzhen patted away the paw that her youngest son wanted to steal and asked him to wash his hands.

Sheng Xitai quickly went to the outer room to wash his hands, and then the family sat at the table to eat.

Stewed beans, fried peppers soaked in oil, and pancakes are just ordinary home-cooked dishes, but the children are particularly happy.

When eating, everyone also worked hard on the oil-stained fried peppers.

It is already fragrant when soaked in oil, and when paired with the small peppers grown in my own vegetable garden, it tastes amazing.

Sheng Xinhua and Sheng Xinyu also wanted to eat it, but they were afraid of chili peppers. Zhang Shuzhen had no choice but to get a small plate of oil-soaked food for the two children.

"Just eat the pancakes, don't eat too much."

After dinner, sisters Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei hurried back to school.

Nowadays, homework is tight, and the school is also strict. I should be doing self-study and homework in the evening, but the teacher has taken up self-study and lectures.

Evening classes lasted until nine o'clock, and the forest farm had a power outage after returning home. The two girls could only use all their time at school to complete their homework, and they had to review with a flashlight after returning home.

"You have time to buy some noodles or something. The two girls are tired from studying, and they may be hungry again when they come back at that time in the evening. Make them a bowl of noodles or something. Don't study on an empty stomach."

When Sheng Liancheng saw his two daughters leaving in a hurry, he couldn't help but feel distressed, so he asked Zhang Shuzhen.

"I see how Yunfang and the others have a harder time studying than when they were the second and third children? This girl has entered high school, and it seems like she can't keep up with the boys."

“Dad, it’s not that girls have a hard time going to high school, it’s that the situation is different now.

Nowadays, everyone knows that the college entrance examination is the best way out, who doesn't pay attention to it?

Everything is valued from top to bottom, and the emphasis is added layer by layer. The students are at the bottom. If they want to get ahead, they will definitely be tired. "Sheng Xiping shook his head.

"If you have to work hard, just work hard for these three years. If you grit your teeth and work hard, you will be admitted to a good university and you will be guaranteed."

Zhang Shuzhen and the others didn't understand that. Anyway, they knew that if they were admitted to university, they would be assigned jobs and have a good future.

"Old man, you have to study hard. Let me tell you, if you dare to be naughty and don't study hard in school, I will beat you to death."

Sheng Liancheng turned to look at Sheng Xitai and warned him specifically.

"Oh, got it, Dad."

Sheng Xitai went to do his homework after dinner. Junior high school is not elementary school. There is a lot of homework, so he has to hurry up.

Many families in the forest farm have bought radios this year, and fewer people come to Sheng's house to listen to the radio.

Especially after Huahua returned with her cub, except for Wang Jianshe and a few others who occasionally came over to play, others generally stopped coming to Sheng's house to listen to the radio.

In this way, the house is much cleaner, and Sheng Xitai can study hard at night.

At seven or eight o'clock in the evening, Sheng Liancheng and Sheng Xiping took a walk around their property with flashlights.

The black blind man who harmed the corn was beaten to death, but there was no guarantee that some naughty boy would go into the field and break the corn sticks.

Especially here in the forest farm, not every household picks up small pieces of wasteland for farming.

Some people don't grow crops, but they are hungry for green corn at this time, so they have to go out and touch some.

The two of them wandered around until almost ten o'clock. After nothing happened, they went home to sleep.

Qianchuan Forest Farm is located in a mountainous area, close to Changbai Mountain. The temperature drops earlier in autumn than elsewhere. As soon as September enters, the temperature drops.

The soybeans in the field soon turned yellow, and after a few days, the leaves fell off.

As soon as the soybean leaves fall off, you have to cut them back quickly, otherwise the pods will dry out after being blown by the wind for a few days, and they will explode when touched. When the beans fall to the ground, it will be troublesome to pick them up.

This year's forest farm's logging area is next to last year's area, so basically we don't need to move too far, and we don't need to build much road.

So Sheng Xiping didn't go up the mountain, but stayed at home with his father. It was important to collect the land first.

The Sheng family only has two or three acres of land in total, and they plant some soybeans, corns, sweet potatoes, millets, sorghum, and the like. There isn't much of anything, but there's a little bit of everything.

Sheng Liancheng and his son collected them one by one from the fields, while Zhang Shuzhen slowly cleaned up at home.

Within a few days, poles were laid out on both sides of the entrance to the Sheng family. Bundles of bean straw were brought back from the fields and stacked on top.

After a while, the pods are completely dry, and they can be transported to the basketball court, run over by a cattle cart, or beaten manually with a flail.

Shelves were also put up in the garden. Zhang Shuzhen stripped off all the outside of the corn nest, leaving only the two innermost layers.

Then tie the two together and hang them on the shelf, so that the corn can be dried quickly and avoid rats.

The sorghum used for brooms has many uses. The thicker ones on the top can be used to nail pot curtains, and the thinner ones can be used to nail lid curtains.

After removing the ears of sorghum rice, you can also tie it with a broom or a broom. This kind of sorghum rice is relatively hard and is rarely eaten by people. Most of it is fed to chickens and pigs.

Purple sorghum, golden millet, and millet are all tied up one by one and hung on the garden stick.

There are also a dozen large round pumpkins piled in the corner, and a pile of sweet potatoes at the other end.

Although there was not much of anything, the sight of such a bumper harvest still made Sheng Liancheng and his wife, who were farmers, overjoyed.

"Next year we will pick up some small areas and plant more of everything. Look how good it will be."

When Sheng Liancheng came home from a busy day, he stood in the yard and looked around, not to mention how beautiful it was.

The two men worked hard for a few days and packed up everything in the field.

At this time, the forestry farm organization issued a call to carry out seed collection activities in response to the requirements of superiors.

That is to organize all the youth and league members to go up the mountain to collect tree seeds, provide free support for tree seedlings and tree planting in the desert areas of Gansu Province, and build the Three-North Shelter Forest.

Maekawa Forest Farm is a pure forest area, and the Northeast and Northwest regions are almost on the same dimension. I think many tree species are easier to cultivate and promote successfully.

For this event, the forest farm group organized a blackboard report on the blackboard in the field department, and all four blackboards were filled with relevant content.

At the same time, slogans and banners were posted in many conspicuous places in the forest farm.

"Gather more seeds, gather good seeds, and each seed conveys deep feelings."

"Let youth shine on the new Long March and contribute to supporting greening construction."

Whether it was blackboard newspapers or slogans and banners, most of them were created by Chen Weimin, which allowed people in the forest farm to see Chen Weimin's talent again.With the strong support of the forest farm leaders, all the young people in the field took active actions and went to the mountains to collect tree seeds.

In order to ensure safety, the forest farm also specifically stipulates that climbing tall trees, such as larch and red pine, is not allowed to collect seeds.

At best, you can climb a low-growing sub-arbor tree like the sugar plum tree.

Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei are both members of the league, so they naturally have to answer the call, but they both have classes, so how can they have time to go into the forest to collect tree seeds?

So Sheng Xiping could only do the work for these two people.

Including Sheng Xiping's own, he had to hand over thirty kilograms of tree seeds.

So while the harvest in his own land was finished and the winter transportation had not yet begun, Sheng Xiping, carrying a basket on his back, went into the forest with Wang Jianshe and others to collect tree seeds.

There are many trees in the mountains, and there are many tree species. Broad-leaved trees include locust, maple, maple, and sugar plum. Coniferous trees include spruce, fir, larch, etc.

Sheng Xiping and the others didn't care about that when they went into the mountains. They picked whatever they encountered and put everything into the baskets on their backs, waiting to be sorted when they got home.

I happened to encounter a sugar plum tree that day. The branches of the sugar plums are bright red and clustered in clusters after autumn, which is particularly rare.

Sheng Xiping put down the basket on his back and climbed directly onto the sugar plum tree.

There was a light frost two days ago, and the flesh of the sugar plums that had been beaten by the frost was mushy. When I picked one and put it in my mouth, there was a little sweetness in the sourness, not sour and astringent like before.

If this were left to later generations, there would be plenty of various fruit snacks, and no one would care about them.

For now, this little candy plum is definitely one of the children’s favorite snacks.

Sheng Xiping didn't care about that and used both hands to pick candied plums from the tree.

After picking them, they threw them on the ground. After picking a tree, they pulled the candied plums from the ground and put them all into the basket on their backs.

In one afternoon, Sheng Xiping picked a basket full of sugar plums and carried them home.

As soon as they entered the door, Sheng Xinhua and Sheng Xinyu greeted them, "Dad?"

Sheng Xiping goes to the mountains every day these days, and sometimes he brings some jujubes, mountain grapes, etc. back to the children. So when the two children saw their father coming back, they hurried forward to greet him.

"Well, these are sugar plums. You two can eat them first." Sheng Xiping grabbed a handful of sugar plums and gave them to the children.

"Mom, where is our basket? I need to use it."

The basket Sheng Xiping was talking about refers to a tool made of pieces of wood or bamboo that form a circle, with a thin barbed wire nailed to the bottom.

There are many types of this thing, and it is generally used to sift small particles, corn noodles, etc.

Nowadays, most people cannot afford finished grains, so they use corn to grind it in mills and roll it out into large grains, small grains, corn noodles, etc.

There are big and small corn grains. I just point at the dustpan and pick them by hand. There is nothing else to do that day.

Therefore, most families will find someone to customize a set of baskets with thick or thin holes that can sift various things.

Although the Sheng family has food supplies, the supply is not enough due to the large number of people in the family, and they need to add a lot of corn.

Therefore, the Sheng family also has a set of baskets for sifting grains, sifting noodles, etc.

"It's hanging on the wall in the east room. Take it yourself. What do you want to use it for?"

Zhang Shuzhen was busy cooking and had no time to care about this, so she asked Sheng Xiping to get it by herself and asked casually.

"Oh, didn't I pick some sugar plums today? They are all ripe. If you just rub out the seeds, the pulp will be wasted.

So I thought about it, rubbed out the pulp, made some food, and kept it for the two boys as snacks. "

Sheng Xiping entered the room, took off the basket from the wall, and picked out the suitable one.

Afterwards, Sheng Xiping found a basin, washed the candied plums with water, then grabbed a handful and rubbed them on the basket.

The skin of sugar plums is very thin and the inside is filled with powdery pulp.

After rubbing like this, the peel is broken, the pulp is squeezed out along the eye of the basket, and the seeds and stems are left on the top of the basket.

When there are enough seeds on top, put them in another basin. Until all the candied plums are rubbed, the basin will be filled with a lot of red pulp.

Add a little sugar or honey to the pulp, add a little flour, mix evenly, and steam it in a pot.

Then take it out and make it into small round cakes while hot. Place them on the panel or curtain. Take them out to dry during the day. After a few days, they can be eaten as snacks after they are dried, which is a bit like hawthorn slices. .

Anyway, in an era when supplies are scarce, any child would be happy for a long time if they got a handful of these.

Rinse the remaining seeds and fruit stems directly with water, fish out the fruit stems, and float the deflated seeds on top, while the good ones are at the bottom.

Wash it twice, take the solid seeds outside on a broken mat, spread them out to dry, and hand them over when they are dry.

Sheng Xiping was busy making those candied plums, while Sheng Xinhua and Sheng Xinyu finished eating and joined in the fun, watching their father work.

Sheng Xinyu was still young and had weak hands, so he always wanted to reach out and help with the work.

Sheng Xiping saw how good this was. The pulp was reserved for eating. How could he still get it after his son's little black hands mixed it up?
"Huahua, take out Jiaojiao and Zhuangzhuang and let us play with them for a while." Sheng Xiping pushed away his youngest son's hand, turned around and shouted into the room.

Huahua, who was sleeping in the room, jumped out of the flower basket and came out with a tiger cub in her mouth. She threw the tiger cub in front of Sheng Xinhua and turned around to pick up another one.

Jiaojiao and Zhuangzhuang are three months old. Compared with Huahua when she was a child, they are quite happy.

Huahua nursed them, and Sheng Xiping fed them some milk powder from time to time.

Now they don't drink much milk. Huahua goes out hunting every night. Sheng Xiping occasionally goes into the mountains and leaves a lot of meat for them.

So these two tiger cubs grew up very fast, and their fur was smooth and watery, making them very rare.

The two tiger cubs were sleeping in the nest, but because of Sheng Xiping's words, Huahua picked them up and threw them in the yard.

The two little guys were a little confused, shook their heads, shook their fur, and then started to wander around in the yard.

This is the time for such a big tiger cub to be naughty.

The Sheng family raised a few chickens, and they had already entered the chicken coop at this point.

Jiaojiao wandered to the chicken coop, took a look at the chickens inside, then opened her mouth wide and shouted at the chickens, which scared the chickens in the chicken coop to scream.

Fortunately, the chickens of the Sheng family were not kept free-range, but were placed in a spot in the yard, surrounded by sticks as tall as one person with nets attached to them.

Otherwise, these chickens would be in bad luck. They would be chased by two children or chased away by two tiger cubs. They would be jumping up and down in the sky all day long and be frightened. How could they lay eggs?

Jiaojiao scares the chickens, while Zhuangzhuang wanders in front of the dogs and wants to play with them.

General Hei nursed his injury for a while and finally recovered. It’s just that the dog is old and doesn’t like to move very much.

When Zhuang Zhuang came to him, General Hei just raised his eyelids, glanced at Zhuang Zhuang, and then continued to lie there and take a nap.

Erlang Shen glanced at Zhuang Zhuang, raised his paw, and then put it down again for some reason. He turned around and went back to his nest, lying on his stomach and not coming out.

The two old dogs didn't get along with Zhuangzhuang, but the puppies all played with the tiger cubs.

Especially Zhaocai and Wangfu. They grew up eating yellow milk with Huahua. They get along well with Huahua, and are also friendly to Jiaojiao and Zhuangzhuang.

When Jiaojiao saw Zhuangzhuang playing well with the dogs, she also came over. Sheng Xin Hua Sheng Xin Yu and her two children also ran over to join in the fun.

It's better now, the yard is pretty lively except for the chatter of chickens and dogs.

While the children were playing with the tiger cubs and dogs, Sheng Xiping quickly finished his work.

After the treatment is done, wash the basket several times with clean water and brush it clean with a brush.

The pulp of the sugar plums is acidic, and the net under the basket is barbed wire. If it is not cleaned, the barbed wire will rust easily.

After cleaning the wire mesh, hang it on the wall outside to ventilate and dry. Apply some oil at night and bake it on the fire to avoid rust on the wire mesh and increase its service life.

It took Sheng Xiping almost a week to finally collect thirty kilograms of seeds and put them into bags.

On each bag, I wrote my and my sister’s names, tree species, and weight, and then handed them over to the forest farm and sent them to the far northwest.

After collecting the tree seeds, there was still some time before the winter production. These young guys were not willing to sit idle at home, so they went to thresh pine seeds together.

Sheng Xiping didn't point out how much money he earned from pine nuts. He mainly ate them at home and gave them away to others. He had to give away a lot to relatives and friends in a year.

This thing doesn't cost anything, it just takes a little effort, and you can do it before you start working.

One day in mid-October, Sheng Xiping went home at noon carrying a sack of pine cones. As soon as he entered the yard, he heard a burst of laughter at home.

Hey, is this a guest at home?Who?Sheng Xiping threw the sack in the yard and stepped into the house.

"Xiping, come quickly. This is your eldest brother from our hometown. He is in Yantai. He came here specially this time."

Sheng Liancheng was at home, talking with a man who was a little older than him. When he saw his son coming back, Sheng Liancheng hurriedly introduced him.

"Oh, is Big Brother here? Look, we didn't receive the letter either. If we had known, we would have gone to Songjiang River to pick you up."

Sheng Xiping was stunned for a moment at first. After thinking about it for a while, he finally remembered that he had such an eldest brother.

When I went back to my hometown before, I heard it mentioned by my family.

Sheng Xiyun joined the army and fought in the army. He once followed the army to Siping and Changchun.

Later, Sheng Xiyun was injured. After recovering from the injury, one foot was crooked and he walked with a slight limp. He could no longer go to the battlefield, so he was demobilized and returned to his hometown. He worked in a unit in Yantai and enjoyed the treatment of disabled soldiers.

"Hey, what's the point of answering this? Back then, I followed the army and traveled all over the country. Where have I never been?
Last time when my uncle went back to his hometown, he happened to meet him and asked for your home address, so I followed the address to find it. "Sheng Xiyun laughed heartily.

"I'm also on a business trip this time. Over there at work, I heard that you have a Songshu Town Coal Mine here, and the coal here is said to be particularly good.

Let me come over to inspect it and discuss whether we can bring a trailer with a trailer to get the coal there so that our unit can use it ourselves.

When I saw that it wasn't too far away from my uncle's house, I stopped by to see my uncle, my aunt, and my younger brothers and sisters. "

"Oh, why do you have to go so far to buy coal? Brother, then you haven't gone to the Pine Town Coal Mine yet?"

When Sheng Xiping heard this, he somewhat understood.

(End of this chapter)