The happy little days of the Ye family

Today is the last big market before the summer harvest. Father Ye and Mr. Ye came to the market with a cart full of things to set up stalls.

Ye Donglin goes to the pier to set up a stall every day, and Ye's father is busy with honeysuckle in Xiaohoushan. The Ye family has not come to the market to set up a stall for a long time.

The two arrived early and chose a spacious location.

In addition to the usual groceries, the father and son brought a lot of dried fish and a large number of farm tools for the summer harvest.

The sky is getting brighter and brighter, and there are more and more stalls in the market. There are also stalls that imitate Ye's father and sell braised pork. In addition to the original pig offal and vegetarian dishes, the stalls also add lotus root slices and edamame.

The business people in the town are very smart. Seeing that braised meat is selling well, there are a few more food stalls in the market.

There is a store that sells braised chicken and duck. You can buy them whole or in parts. Chicken feet, duck feet and chicken and duck offal are the best sellers.

This braised chicken and braised duck is spicy, and you can smell the aroma from a distance. Father Ye couldn't help but buy half a catty of chicken feet and duck feet. Seeing that the chicken and duck were not bad, he also ordered half a catty. .

In addition to these two stalls selling braised meat, there is also a stall selling cold dishes. Although it is just an ordinary side dish, it is affordable and looks good.

To be honest, these three food stalls each have their own characteristics, but there are only so many people in the town, and there are too many food stalls, so business is not very good.

It's not that easy to make money, stalls are unstable, and without a fixed location, it's difficult to retain old customers.

That's why Ye's father would rather pay more to rent Ye Donglin a fixed stall on the dock.

Summer harvest is coming soon, and there are so many people at the market.

In addition to harvesting spring grain, the summer harvest also involves plowing the ground to plant autumn grain, which can take up to half a month at the earliest. It is normal for families with a lot of fields to be busy for a month.

Farmers came to the market to buy meat and farm tools before the summer harvest started.

As soon as the father and son put the dried fish and farm tools on the stall, two women came.

The older aunt was looking through farm tools, and another young woman asked, "How much does this dried fish cost per pound?"

Father Ye enthusiastically said to the woman: "13 yuan per pound, it is dried fish from big fish. The meat is thick and has few thorns, and it is cheaper. It is much more cost-effective than buying meat."

The woman frowned, "Fresh fish only costs 13 cents per catty, and your dried fish costs [-] cents per catty. This is too expensive."

Father Ye was not angry, and said with a cheerful smile: "The dried fish has shrunk a lot. One pound of dried fish requires more than two pounds of fresh fish, and there is salt in it. 13 yuan per pound is already very affordable. "

The woman thought that the dried fish was really good. It was made from big fish, and the summer harvest was about to begin. It was too hot to hold fresh meat.

The woman finally asked for two pounds of dried fish, two sickles and a hoe.

The other aunt spent a long time picking and choosing, and finally she only wanted a sickle.

In addition to the Ye family, there was another family selling dried fish at the market, but the only one selling farm tools was the Ye family.

A lot of people came to the stall to buy sickles and hoes, and they were impressed by the farm tools. The dried fish and groceries sold at the stall were also good.

When the market was over, there were still a lot of dried fish and farm tools on the stall. When packing, Father Ye and Mr. Ye calculated that they could probably earn more than 200 yuan today.

The summer harvest will not start until three or four days, and Ye's father plans to borrow the donkey cart from his in-laws' family for two more days to work as a peddler and sell all the dried fish and farm tools.

After packing their things, the two went to the drug store to buy some herbal tea to relieve the heat, and then went to the grain store to buy two kilograms of mung beans.

It’s muggy and hot during the summer harvest, so herbal tea and mung bean soup are indispensable to relieve the heat.

In the next two days, Father Ye drove his donkey cart through various villages and quickly sold out all the dried fish and farm tools.

The rice is getting fuller day by day, and the heavy rice bends the rice stalks, and the summer harvest is about to begin.

Rapeseed was planted on the slopes of Xiaohou Mountain last year, which delayed spring plowing. Corn was only planted in the first two months, and the corn cannot be harvested until autumn.

Therefore, the Ye family's summer harvest this year only has three acres of paddy fields, two acres of corn, and five acres of sweet potatoes.

Before planting rice, you need to raise seedlings. Before the summer harvest, Mr. Ye and Mr. Ye organized a small piece of land to raise seedlings.

The first thing to harvest is the rice. After the rice is harvested, the fields are soaked in water. After a few days, when the soil becomes soft, plowing begins.

After harvesting the rice, the Ye family started harvesting the corn non-stop.

Grain is the lifeblood of farmers. Every household in the village is working hard to collect grain, just because God is not happy and it rains and the grain is ruined.

The Ye family didn't have much land, so it took them six days to get all the food back.

After harvesting the grain, it’s time to plow the ground to plant autumn grain. Plowing the soil is the most time-consuming and tiring. Fortunately, people with oxen or donkeys can plow the land directly with oxen or donkeys.

If not, you can only dig with a hoe yourself, or use people to pull the plow instead of oxen, but this is not only slow, but also easy to tire your body.

The Ye family had donkeys, and they quickly plowed the paddy fields and dry land. Then the family's donkey was lent to an acquaintance in the village.

The rice seedlings in the paddy fields have been cultivated in advance. When planting, the rice seedlings must be pulled up first and three or four small rice seedlings inserted into the field. The rice seedlings should neither be inserted too deep nor too shallow.

The spacing between the seedlings is also particular. If they are too far apart, less rice will be planted, and the grain yield will decrease. If it is too close, nutrition will not be provided.

It took the Ye family three days to plant rice, and another two days to replant the corn field with corn.

The autumn grains have been planted, and the rice and corn have been dried. This summer, a total of 1460 kilograms of rice and 1100 kilograms of corn kernels were harvested.

There is still a lot of old food from last year at home, which is estimated to be enough for three or four months.

Father Ye and Mr. Ye moved the old grain to the outermost part of the cellar and put the new grain in the innermost part of the cellar.

Although it is last year's old rice, the taste is not much different. Mr. Ye has no intention of selling it.

The combined new and old grains are enough to feed the Ye family for a year. Even if the autumn harvest is not good, it can ensure that the family will not be hungry.

Farming depends on the weather. Too much or too little rain will affect the harvest. Life-saving grain storage at home is indispensable.

After collecting the grain into the cellar, the Ye family breathed a sigh of relief.

In the more than ten days of summer harvest, everyone in the Ye family has become much darker, and Ye's green and tender face has become quite rough.

After two days of rest, I started harvesting sweet potatoes again. The sweet potatoes from the five acres of land filled half of the yard.

Mother Ye and Mrs. Ye picked out some broken sweet potatoes and used them to feed the pigs first. Intact sweet potatoes need to be dried for several days before being put into the cellar.

The Ye family has two cellars, one is used to store grain and dry goods, and the other is used to store sweet potatoes and winter fruits and vegetables.

The entire cellar of the 5 acres of land is full of sweet potatoes. When the sweet potatoes are put into the cellar, the Ye family's summer harvest is truly over.

Everyone in the Ye family has become a lot darker, and the chins of several children have become pointed, which makes Mrs. Ye and Mother Ye feel very distressed.

Today she makes chicken soup, tomorrow she stews old duck, and Ye Mu changes her ways every day to feed her family.

The smell of meat coming out of the Ye family every day made the Tangshan father and son behind the house ravenous.