Chapter 88
On weekends, Huang Yifeng, his wife and Ji Mingcen went to Liang Xianyue's farm to help.
Liang Xianyue drove everyone around the farm. In fact, there is nothing to visit, except that the building area looks decent, and the rest of the place is just empty space as far as the eye can see.
However, the size of the farm still shocked Huang Yifeng deeply, "This land has more than 100 mu, Yueyue, you are now a big landlord!"
Liang Xianyue smiled and shook his head: "Our farm is relatively small. It's so big that even the few of us can't handle it. And the total area is more than 140 mu, and there is a forest, creek and buildings inside, and there is not so much land that can be cultivated, only more than 90 mu."
"What do you want to plant?" Yi Jun asked curiously.
"Plant 30 mu of wheat, 50 mu of corn, and 10 mu of pasture."
"Ten mu of pasture?" Huang Yifeng was very surprised. "There are only a few sheep, and you want to plant ten mu of pasture for them to eat?"
Yi Jun Seeing the corners of Liang Xianyue's mouth raised, Huang Yifeng knew that Huang
Yifeng had made a joke: "How is it possible? You think it through before you speak." other farms are probably not willing to use the arable land to grow pasture, and Yueyue's pasture might be able to sell for a good price." Ji Mingcen thought for a moment, then said.
"I have this idea, but it's also because the land where pasture is planted is too barren, so I want to plant grass and raise the land first."
Liang Xianyue's family has also carefully studied what crops to plant on the cultivated land. To be honest, the farm land has been abandoned for many years, coupled with the impact of natural disasters in the past few years, it is really not fertile.
So Liang Xianyue made a decision. She released the soil dug from the island, and spread the soft and fertile soil evenly over the field with a tractor equipped with a rake. After such an operation, a layer of more than ten centimeters of soil was covered on the barren soil layer.
Digging in the island is very simple, Liang Xianyue doesn't even have to bend his waist, just stare at the progress bar. It took her two days to dig the soil, but the leveling of the soil has not yet been completed, and it is already visible to the naked eye that there is no way to renovate all the land on the farm before spring plowing.
Liang Xianyue's plan is to transform the 30 mu of land that was originally intended to be planted with wheat into fertile land with deep soil before sowing the seeds this year. Other places either grow corn, which does not require much soil, or rely on grass to grow the land.
After Liang Xianyue led everyone around the farm, as soon as they returned to the house, they saw smoke rising from a corner of the yard.
It was a bread kiln built by Liang Kangshi with the red bricks, cement and stones left by the construction team. He repeatedly studied the video materials downloaded by Liang Xianyue, collected yellow mud, dry straw and beer bottles, adjusted several times, and finally succeeded in making a traditional firewood bread kiln.
The finished bread kiln is a big one. The base is a table one meter square and 80 centimeters high. It looks similar to an ordinary stove and has the same function. Burning wood for heating here provides heat. Above the base is a hemispherical "oven" made of mud and straw, with an arched hole in the middle, from which food is put in. There is a chimney on one side of this hemispherical "oven", from which the fireworks that Liang Xianyue and the others saw from a distance came out.
This bread kiln is Liang Kangshi's proud work, and now all his relatives and friends are visiting him, so it is not necessary to show it off.
As early as when the few of them were still galloping on the farm, the fermented dough had already been put into the bread kiln. This will be just baked, Zhen Min took out three large golden loaves with thick gloves on, the outer skin of the bread turned into a hard crust, which made a bang sound when knocked, but the inside was unexpectedly soft.
As soon as several people got out of the car and stood firm, each of them was given a large piece of toast that was still hot. While blowing, Liang Xianyue broke off a piece. Although the bread crust was hard, it was not too thick, and it had a bit of chewiness when biting. The inside was completely fragrant and soft. like.
"It's delicious!" Huang Yifeng was full of praise. He poked his head to look at the smoking kiln, and curiously wrapped his hands in his clothes to touch the semicircular upper part of the kiln. "Hot!"
"Of course it's hot, the stuff hasn't finished roasting yet." Zhen Min walked over with a smile, and wrapped two half-sized chickens that were marinated in sauce into a deep honey color in tin foil and sent them away. go in.
Bread kiln-roasted chicken cannot use adult chickens, which are not easy to cook, the outside is already burnt, and the belly of the chicken is often still raw. Use this kind of half-sized chicken instead, not only the meat is particularly tender, but also the whole chicken can be roasted evenly.
The skin of the grilled chicken is beautifully burnt yellow. During the roasting process, it was taken out several times to brush the skin with honey water and light soy sauce, making the whole yard smell of chicken.
Everyone didn't want to go into the house to eat, so they moved tables and chairs out next to the bread kiln, put on gloves and took apart the whole chicken. The skin of the chicken brushed with honey is crispy, but the meat inside is tender and juicy. It can be easily torn apart, and it is fragrant and delicious.
They ate the two grilled chickens like wind and clouds, and each of them was given half a big loaf of bread before, so they are full now. Everyone slumped on their chairs contentedly, listening to Zhen Min casually talking about the plan of the small garden where they are now.
"This area is a small vegetable field. The area doesn't need to be too big. We already have a small greenhouse. I'm afraid that the garden will be empty and ugly. We will plant grapes in the place where we sit now, and we will build a swing next to it." Said Here, Zhen Min frowned, "Looking at it this way, it's still a bit empty."
She sighed, "Vegetable seeds are easy to buy, but flowers and shrubs are not easy to get." "Take your time
, Rome is not a day. It's built." The hostess was not in a hurry.
"Auntie, if you are not in a hurry to make the small garden full of flowers, you can buy some herb seeds from the base, such as rosemary, sage, and perilla. These are commonly used spices, and they will definitely be kept in the base These vanilla plants are easy to grow and have ornamental value when they are planted in the garden." Ji Mingcen suggested aloud.
"Yes," Yi Jun echoed, "These seeds are not difficult to buy. I saw that many families living in the dormitory would make a small flower pot and plant some mint, basil, green onion and ginger in it. You guys If it's not convenient to go to the base, I'll buy it for you and bring it with you when you come next time."
"Don't worry, Aunt Jun, we have to go to the base almost once a week." When Liang Xianyue looked at Liang Kang, " In a few days, my dad will go to the base to buy it, and he will go to the lecture anyway." It turns out
that in order to allow farmers like them to better manage their own farms, the base will be explained to them by experts related to agriculture and animal husbandry every week The course, by the way, answers questions. The content of the course includes not only the treatment of crop diseases and insect pests, but also the response to various livestock diseases and production.
"That's good." Huang Yifeng stretched his waist, stood up and moved around a few times, "We've been here all morning, and we agreed to help, and now we've finished our walk around the farm and eaten our meals. It's time for an event. In case you think I'm just eating and not doing anything, don't let me come next time."
Liang Kangshi smiled and said, "I want to help with the work, right? Let's see which one you choose!"
After discussing, Huang Yifeng and his wife and Liang Xianyue's parents paved the stone pavement in the small garden, first dug two inches down the place where the stone pavement was to be paved, and then removed the stone slab and gravel. Spread it. The stone slabs and stones are ready-made, and it is not troublesome to make them, but the road to be paved is a bit long, so it would be great to finish it this afternoon.
Ji Mingcen and Liang Xianyue were going to mow the grass. There was a corner at the back of the house. The construction team's large lawnmower couldn't get there, so it had been left there without cleaning. Now it was covered with last year's withered grass and new grass, which looked messy. .
They go to the tool shed first to get the lawn mower. Not long after Liang Xianyue moved in, the tool room was full of all kinds of equipment, but most of them were like the lawn mower he picked up this time. They were small and belonged to the cheapest agricultural machinery. files.
Liang Xianyue has seen the large-scale weeder used by the base to weed for them. It is about the size of a tractor and is driven by crawlers. The harvested grass is packed into the square box at the back.
In contrast, the one in Ji Mingcen's hand is rather pitiful. There is only a pole more than one meter long, with a round pole attached to the top. cut it off. The budget is only so much, if you want to replace it with more advanced machinery, you still need to work hard.
"Have you ever used this kind of manual lawn mower before? It's a bit dangerous. Let me do it." The fast-rotating mower can easily hurt people, and there are no protective measures on the outer edge. It depends on the people who use it to be careful.
"This thing is easy to use." Ji Mingcen lifted the lawn mower immediately, "I'll switch to you when I get tired."
Ji Mingcen was right. The manual lawn mower has a simple structure and is easy to use. Just get to the roots of the weeds. In addition to the laborious lifting, you also need to pay attention to the angle and height of the gun. Although it is the first time for Ji Mingcen to use it, after a few minutes of use, he has a hand feeling and can cut off the grass stems smoothly.
Liang Xianyue put the cut grass on the cart that was pushed over. The two people used the manual lawn mower relay, and quickly cleared up the weeds, and threw them aside when they encountered large stones on the road.
The next thing to do is to strengthen the fence of the sheep pen. The sheep in the sheep pen don't know what's going on, they always want to run into the chicken coop, and they often bump and rub against the fence, and several fences are crumbling. It has to be re-fortified.
Passing by the chicken coop, Ji Mingcen saw Xiao Hei who was mingling with a group of chickens. "When the size of the flock increases, Xiao Hei can help out as
a shepherd dog." Liang Xianyue rolled his eyes: "Come on. Xiao Hei is good at chasing ducks and chickens, and the sheep are not afraid of him at all. Another A dog, you haven't seen it, it's about the same age as Xiao Hei, and it's humiliated by being chased away by sheep every day." With a
hammer and a chisel, they dug a deep hole in the ground and pressed the fence into it. After it was done, Liang Xianyue pushed hard and stopped when she felt firm.
"Are there any wild beasts around here?" Ji Mingcen asked, "There is a forest over there, and there are so many chickens and ducks raised here, be careful that the wild beasts are attracted." Liang Xianyue hasn't seen any wild beasts in the farm
yet . "When the engineering team cleared the dead wood in the orchard, they found some foxes and badgers. They didn't see any big beasts. Sheep are not afraid of foxes and badgers. There is Xiao Hei guarding the chickens and ducks, which is far away from us. The place is also close, so you can arrive immediately if there is any movement."
Ji Mingcen nodded: "These small wild animals are fine, if you find traces of large wild animals, it is best to report to the base to deal with them, so as not to get hurt." After he finished
speaking Glancing into the sheepfold, the ewe, who was staring at the two of them curiously just now, has run to the corner of the sheepfold, lying on the straw strangely.
After seeing it clearly, Ji Mingcen swallowed nervously, pointed to the ewe and said, "It seems to be about to give birth!" "
Ah?" Liang Xianyue quickly stood up and looked over in a panic. What should ewe pay attention to when giving birth?
The two climbed over the fence and slowly approached the ewes in labor.
Fortunately, ewes are much more reliable than them. Soon, a lamb covered in mucus landed in the hay.
Ji Mingcen turned over the gloves he was wearing, with the clean side facing out, carefully lifted the lamb and placed it next to the ewe. Seeing that the ewe was already licking the lamb, the two finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Is this the end of the birth?"
"It should be... the end of the birth." Ji Mingcen's face was exactly the same blank as Liang Xianyue's.
"No, there's another one!"
——The
pregnant ewe gave birth to two lambs. The lamb can stand up in less than half an hour after being born, and crawls under the mother's body to drink milk.
Everything went smoothly and unbelievably, there were no accidents during the production process, and the ewes also produced milk smoothly.
Liang Xianyue's family has goat's milk in their diet.
The visiting guests followed suit and had egg pancakes with goat's milk for breakfast. Throwing a few almonds into goat milk can greatly remove the smell of mutton inside. When she is free, Liang Xianyue also wants to try making cheese and fermented yogurt with goat milk. The ewe on the farm has plenty of milk, and two lambs can't consume it, and the extra milk is not worth traveling dozens of miles to the base for sale. The milk that can't be drunk can be made into cheese.
After breakfast, everyone will start today's work.
Yesterday was just a warm-up, but today's workload is actually heavy. Liang Xianyue dug out more than 20 fruit tree seedlings from the orchard of the island space, and planned to plant them in the orchard of the farm.
After so many years of growth, the orchard on the island has begun to take shape. In addition, Liang Xianyue planted new fruit trees whenever he had the opportunity, and the area of the orchard expanded three or four times compared to the original one.
Since a few years ago, the orchard in the space has been able to produce dates, cherries, apples and peaches every year.
Fresh jujubes that cannot be eaten can be dried into jujubes and stored for several years. Originally, there was only one cherry tree. After cuttings, there were many small saplings, but they still failed to bear fruit. The family worked hard and ate the fruit from one tree. Cherry is not difficult yet. It's just that there are a little more apples and peaches, and they live in the base, and it's inconvenient to take them out to trade with others, for fear of attracting attention.
So Liang Xianyue's family could only try their best to make apples and peaches into other shelf-stable foods. Canned food, jam, dried dried fruit, sliced thinner and baked into crisp slices...
Even though Liang Xianyue tried all kinds of tricks, some of the fruit still rotted and had to be thrown to feed the chickens.
The orchard in the space did not know how to plan at first, and some saplings were planted too closely. Liang Xianyue dug out fruit trees that were old enough to bear fruit, and prepared to plant them in the orchard on the farm. This autumn, she will have a logical reason to sell the excess fruit to the base.
Today, the six of them will dig a hole and plant fruit trees.
After changing into working clothes and shoes, and bringing tools, several people got into two cars and drove towards the orchard on the west side of the farm.
This orchard occupies a very large area. Half of the hillside was once filled with various fruit trees, but now it is overgrown with weeds and the land is barren. When the engineering team came to help clean up, some slope machines could not be driven up, and only the trees at the bottom of the hillside were cut down, and all the weeds were not cleared.
Liang Xianyue planned to start from the bottom and slowly restore the vitality of the entire orchard.
First of all, more than two dozen large pits for transplanting saplings must be dug. The pits for planting saplings should be dug large and flat to prevent nesting. There are a lot of broken stones in the soil, and when I often dig, I can hear the "ding" sound of the shovel and the stone colliding together.
They dug the hole in pairs, and by the time the hole was up to par, everyone was sweating in the early spring weather.
After the tree pit is dug, base fertilizer is applied. Finally, the root system of the sapling is carefully separated layer by layer, allowing the root system to spread out and then covered with finely divided topsoil.
After all the saplings are planted, we have to fetch water from the small river on the side.
The small river looks very close to the orchard, but in fact there is a long distance between them. Liang Xianyue has gradually gotten used to driving on the farm as the most convenient mode of transportation. She also has a few motorcycles and electric cars that she collected before, and they are all parked outside the tool room. However, the weather has not completely warmed up yet, and riding a motorcycle is easy to catch a cold, or else it is very convenient to go to some nearby places by riding a motorcycle.
As the saying goes, looking at the mountains runs away to death, and the same is true on the farm. Because the crops have not been planted yet, it looks empty everywhere, and it takes more than half an hour to walk to a place not far away.
Liang Kangshi took Huang Yifeng to the small river. What he drove was a small van that Liang Xianyue replaced with the original car. The rear compartment door was completely pulled down, and a lot of things could be placed inside the compartment.
After Huang Yifeng came back, he said excitedly: "There are mussels and clams in the river! When we finish watering the trees and go to catch some freshwater fish, we will count the time of spring when the taste is the best." "Okay," Liang Xianyue said
. I also agree, "Clams and garlic sprouts are the freshest when fried together. I happen to have garlic sprouts at home."
After watering all the saplings, everyone set off toward the small river.
This is the first time for Liang Xianyue to observe this small river carefully. The river is gurgling, so clear that one can see the cobblestones underneath at a glance, and you can also see the light gray and somewhat transparent shrimps shuttling between the crevices of the stones.
The river they came to was very shallow, so they could easily find the fish in the mud. After squatting down, the first thing I saw was the water glistening in the afternoon sun, like a large piece of flowing crystal.
Yi Jun boasted: "The water is really clear. I only ate mussels when I was a child. Later, the pollution of the river became more and more serious, and the mussels were all dead. Even if you find one or two occasionally, they grow in that kind I dare not eat in dirty water."
Liang Kangshi thought that planting trees would require watering, so he put on water boots in advance. Others wore ordinary shoes, so they couldn't get into the water.
The river water in April was icy cold. Liang Kangshi walked to the middle of the river with a basket, and didn't carefully distinguish between the sand and clams. For sand, carry the stones mixed with small river clams to the shore, and hand them over to the people on the shore to choose.
River clams are small in size and range in color from dark gray to yellowish brown. This small river clam does not grow very large. Unlike river mussels, which can grow bigger than a human head, but the meat at that time is too hard to bite, and it is okay to make molar sticks for Xiao Hei and Da Qing.
There are not such big mussels in this small river. Some people who can't go into the water sometimes see mussels in the water, and either direct Liang Kang to catch them in the water, or see that the mussels are located very close to the shore, so they simply pick up a branch to catch them. The clam hooked over.
On the way back, there was half a basket of clams and mussels in the bottom of the basket. Ji Mingcen also caught two fish in the basket. They were golden in color, with flat heads and slender bodies. Liang Kangshi knew this kind of fish and said it was called oxtail fish. This sound is another name from the folks, not a scientific name.
After returning home, Liang Xianyue checked the information to confirm that this fish was edible. It turns out that this kind of fish is called sea bream. It is a carnivorous fish that has high requirements on water quality.
Everyone didn't have time to eat lunch at noon, so dinner was eaten early at three o'clock in the afternoon. Mussels and clams must be left in the water for a day to spit out the silt before they can be eaten. So I only used two scallops to make soup, stir-fried a few side dishes, and served it with a pot of white rice.
The soup made from the clam is really delicious. Two fish are not enough to eat, even the soup is mixed into the rice and eaten clean.
Before going to bed at night, Huang Yifeng was still thinking about the seafood he picked up today, and said that he must eat it before returning to the base tomorrow.
Of course, Liang Xianyue wanted to fulfill his wish. The next morning, he ate salty porridge with river clams as ingredients. This is the recipe that Liang Xianyue found in the database, and it is the first time to make it, but the result is not bad.
Boil the small river clams with their shells cleaned, and add sliced ginger and rice wine to the water. After the river clam has opened its shell, the shell can be thrown away, but the meat and water must be kept.
The color of the boiled clam soup is milky white. After cooking the porridge, mix the separated clam meat with tempeh and shredded ginger and fry until fragrant. Finally, put it back into the slightly thick porridge, season with salt and pepper Refreshing, the taste is really amazing.
Huang Yifeng bluntly said that he was so underwhelmed that he couldn't find his way, and regretted that he couldn't live in Liang Xianyue's farm every day.
"Uncle Huang, I'm here to help with the work. The work is too much for three days and three nights. You forgot that you said that your waist was sore and your legs were hurting last night. So you want to come?" Liang Xianyue joked.
"Come on, why don't you come? When the river water gets warmer, I'll take you to touch the snails, stir fry them with chili peppers, and have some wine. Don't say anything, your saliva will remain!"