The happy little days of the Ye family

The jujube tree in the backyard harvested 800 kilograms of jujubes. After being exposed to the sun for a few days, the jujubes turned into bright red jujubes.

800 kilograms of fresh dates are only 360 kilograms when dried into red dates.

Mrs. Ye left 60 kilograms of red dates for her family, and Father Ye took the remaining 300 kilograms to the dock and sold them.

A catty of red dates cost 20 cents, and a total of 300 taels of silver was earned from 6 catties. Half of the money from the sale of red dates goes to the public, and the other half counts as Ye Mu's private money.

Mrs. Ye and Mother Ye were very happy to get the silver. They didn't need to take care of the red date tree, and the silver was just as good as free money.

In the evening, Mrs. Ye and Mr. Ye discussed planting jujube trees on the remaining area on the mountain next year.

Mr. Ye looked at his wife and said in agreement: "Most of the jujube trees planted this year are alive. Next year, I will buy a batch of jujube trees and plant them in the empty areas on the mountain."

Mrs. Ye reminded: "We need a lot of jujube trees this time. We need to order jujube seedlings in advance with the fruit seller, otherwise I'm afraid I won't be able to buy so many fruit seedlings."

"Okay, I'll tell Fengshou tomorrow and ask him to order 300 jujube trees from the fruit seedling seller the next time he goes to the county."

The same conversation also occurred in Ye's father and Ye's mother's room. These red dates are good things. Whether they are sold at a big market or set up a stall on the dock, there is no need to worry about not being able to sell them.

When Mr. Ye and Father Ye decided to order jujube trees, Father Ye agreed very much and wanted to order more jujube saplings.

Two jujube trees were sold for 6 taels of silver. If 300 were planted, wouldn't it cost 900 taels of silver?

Of course, this is just a thought. The jujube tree in the backyard did not have so many dates in previous years.

The soil in the barren mountains is not fertile enough, and with so many crops on the mountain, it is impossible to fertilize it regularly. The yield is half that of the backyard.

Fruit farmers are dependent on the weather. If the harvest is not good, they will have no money. If there is a bumper harvest, the price will be low, so the risk is still relatively high.

There are so many fruit trees planted, and it costs a lot to hire people to do the planting, weeding and fertilizing. After the jujube trees bear fruit, they also need to hire people to pick the fruits and make jujubes. This costs a lot of money.

Moreover, if the quantity of red dates is large, we must find merchants to come over to collect the red dates. If others come to collect the dates, the price will definitely be lower.

When Father Ye came to the county, he first went to a stall selling fruit seedlings and ordered 300 jujube trees and 50 persimmon trees.

Of the 300 jujube trees, 100 are two-year-old jujube trees, and the remaining 2 are one-year-old jujube trees. There are not many people buying fruit seedlings, and there are not many fruit seedlings.

Although Mrs. Ye's food is mediocre, her persimmons are very good.

Every time Ye Qingqing makes persimmons, they all rush to eat them. Father Ye thinks it would be good to plant some persimmon trees to make persimmons.

Father Ye ordered the fruit trees and went to West Street to purchase them.

It will be the Mid-Autumn Festival in a few days. Father Ye bought a batch of lanterns when he was shopping on West Street.

The workmanship of these lanterns is very average, but the advantage is that they are cheap. In rural areas, there are not so many details, so they can be played with.

These days, Father Ye has been setting up a stall in the town in the morning and selling goods in various villages in the afternoon. The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon, and Father Ye's business has been very prosperous these days.

It's time to fertilize the rice and corn in the fields. Mr. Ye goes out early every day and returns home late every day to fertilize the rice and corn.

The 10 acres of rapeseed in Xiaohoushan are growing lush and green, and there are already some small flower buds on the branches. It is estimated that the rapeseed flowers will be in full bloom in another half month.

Father Ye has prepared 6 beehives so that he can attract bees when the rapeseed flowers bloom. Father Ye plans to place all 6 beehives in the rapeseed field.

Mr. Ye and Father Ye were busy outside, and Mrs. Ye and Mother Ye were also busy making mooncakes at home.

Moon cakes, also known as reunion cakes, are made by Ye Mu every Mid-Autumn Festival.

This year Ye Mu made three flavors of mooncakes, namely five-nut mooncake, date paste and red bean mooncake, and egg yolk mooncake.

The five kernels of the five-nut mooncake refer to olive kernels, walnuts, black melon seeds, white sesame seeds and almonds, and are made by adding sugared winter melon.

Wuren mooncakes are not freshly baked and can be eaten immediately. They need to be cooled for 2 to 3 days, and then eaten when the cake becomes soft and oily. This is the best time to eat.

The prepared five-nut mooncakes exude the aroma of nuts. You can feel the fragrant and soft filling in the mouth. When you chew it slowly, you will find the rich texture of the nuts. The overall taste is crisp and soft, fragrant but not oily.

After making five-nut mooncakes and Ye Mu, start making date paste, red date mooncakes and egg yolk mooncakes.

Ye Mu poured the washed red beans into the pot, added water to cover the red beans, and then asked Ye Qingqing to light the fire.

Cook until the red beans become soft and bloom, then add the cored and chopped red dates and sugar and continue to cook until the red beans turn into red bean paste.

Ye Qingqing kneaded the boiled date paste and red bean filling into dark red balls that were slightly smaller than eggs.

Ye Mu pressed the prepared dough into a thin crust and then wrapped the date paste and red bean filling inside. At this time, the mooncake was still round.

Place the large round dumplings into the carved mold and shape them until the mooncake is ready.

Mother and daughter Ye Qingqing had just made date paste and red bean mooncakes, and Mrs. Ye beside them had already prepared the salted egg yolks.

In order to make egg yolk mooncakes, Mrs. Ye took out all the salted duck eggs at home.

In previous years, I only made five-nut mooncakes and jujube and red bean mooncakes. This is the first time Ye Mu has made this egg yolk mooncake.

As soon as the egg yolk mooncakes came out of the oven, Mother Ye couldn't wait to take one out. Mother Ye cut the mooncake into four parts, and each of the three of them took a small piece.

Egg yolk mooncakes have a special taste. The sweet crust and salty salted egg yolk give it a rich texture and are not greasy at all.

Ye Mu made 60 moon cakes, twenty of each flavor.

Mrs. Ye took out some pieces of oil paper and wrapped 7 mooncakes, each with 6 mooncakes, 2 of each flavor.

This packaged moon cake is used as a Mid-Autumn Festival gift.

Mrs. Ye took out a basket and put two packets of moon cakes and a dried fish in it, and then took a bag of chestnuts and put them in. This was a Mid-Autumn Festival gift for Ye's mother to take back to her parents' home.

Because Grandma Ye’s family also grows red dates, Mrs. Ye specially replaced the red dates with moon cakes, so the festival gift that Ye’s mother took back to her parents’ home was different from others.

Then Mrs. Ye took out three more baskets, each containing a pack of moon cakes, a piece of dried fish, half a catty of red dates and a bag of chestnuts.

These three copies are for Mrs. Ye's natal family, Mr. Ye's sister and the village chief.

Old Mrs. Ye prepared two more moon cakes and chestnuts, which were for neighbors, and asked Ye Qingqing to deliver them to the Tang family and Qingmei family.

There are two wild chestnut trees in Xiaohoushan. Autumn is the season when chestnuts mature.

Yesterday, Mr. Ye and his father picked hundreds of kilograms of chestnuts from the back mountain. These chestnuts were just used as Mid-Autumn Festival gifts.

In addition to the chestnut tree, there is also a persimmon tree in Xiaohoushan. The branches are covered with bright yellow persimmons, which can be picked to make persimmon cakes in a few days.

Ye's mother returned to her parents' home with the festive gift, and when she came back, Grandma Ye also came to Ye's house.

Grandma Ye came here to give Mid-Autumn Festival gifts.

Old Mrs. Ye took the settled basket, which contained two packets of moon cakes, a large bunch of grapes and a wax duck.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival gifts were sent out, several kinds of moon cakes and various fruits were returned. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, the table was filled with all kinds of food.

After eating the mooncakes, the three brothers and sisters of the Ye family happily went to the village to play with other children, carrying the red lanterns that their father brought back from the county.

Several adults were enjoying the moon in the yard and chatting, eating moon cakes while talking about the embarrassing things that happened to Ye Qingqing and others when they were young.