Joe's Farming

As promised, Lin Da delivered Qiao Yuding's pork and sausage casings the next day.

Butcher Zhu was very considerate and had already roughly divided the meat for Qiao Yu, so that it would be easier for Qiao Yu and Gu Feng to cut it into long strips later.

Qiao Yu and Gu Feng each took a kitchen knife, prepared two chairs and a chopping board, and started dividing the meat directly in the yard.

Gu Feng was responsible for dividing each part and cutting it into strips to make it easier for his husband to dry them.

Although it was cold during this period, it did not rain and it was sunny every day, which was perfect for making bacon and sausages.

After Qiao Yu taught Bai Lan how to clean the internal organs, she sat next to Gu Feng and picked out the pork to make sausages and cut it into pieces.

The meat for making sausages needs to be peeled. Qiao Yu does it very carefully and his movements are relatively slow.

The pig skin can be kept together with the pig's feet to make frozen meat. Qiao Yu swallowed her saliva when she thought of the taste.

Making frozen meat is very, very simple. Cut the pig's feet into pieces and stew them until the meat and bones are separated. Pick out the bones, add your favorite seasonings and leave them overnight.

When you go to see it the next day, you will find that the meat is solidified together like jelly. Take a bite with a spoon, and it is full of meat and gelatin, which is very satisfying.

Qiao Yu usually adds some chili powder, Sichuan pepper powder, onion, ginger and salt.

And what's strange is that frozen meat only has that festive flavor when it's made around the Chinese New Year. It doesn't taste that way at all when it's made at other times.

Hongxiu asked if there was anything she could help with.

Qiao Yu asked her to help Bai Lan sort and pack the internal organs, and then go and pound some chili peppers for later use.

The children, the old man and Gu Gang went to the village to play, leaving only Gu Feng and Qiao Yu in the yard.

The two men looked at each other, smiled at each other and continued working.

After Gu Feng divided the meat, Qiao Yu also cut the meat for the sausages.

Then it was time to prepare the ingredients for the sausages. Qiao Yu made two different flavors, one spicy and one non-spicy.

The spicy ones are made with chili peppers, peppercorns, five-spice powder, ginger and a little old wine. The non-spicy ones are made with less chili peppers and a little more sugar.

The next step was to stuff the sausages. Now that the four of them were free, they sat in the yard together to stuff them.

There are no special filling machines like those in the world now.

Qiao Yu asked Gu Feng to cut a few shorter bamboo strips, twist them into a "又" shape, tie ropes at the intersection, put the casings over the bamboo holes and start stuffing.

At the beginning, no one knew the key points and the casings kept falling off. Later, they became more and more skilled, and when the children came back, all the sausages had been stuffed.

Qiao Yu tied the stuffed sausages piece by piece with thin cotton ropes and hung them in the yard to dry.

The next step is to make the bacon.

Qiao Yu wants to try three flavors: smoked, air-dried, and soy sauce.

The marinade for both smoked and air-dried is the same, both have a little salt fried with Sichuan peppercorns.

Qiao Yu was particularly willing to rub it on her flesh.

Bai Lan was distressed, and Qiao Yu saw it and said, "We made so much this time because we want to save it for next year. If we don't put more on, it might go bad. Anyway, we don't lack salt at home."

Bai Lan nodded embarrassedly.

After Qiao Yu and Gu Feng finished applying the paste, they put everything in a large basin and marinated them until tomorrow morning before smoking and air-drying them separately.

The last part is the braised bacon.

The seasoning is a bit more complicated. In addition to pepper and salt, you also need to add some star anise and bay leaves, as well as soy sauce and old wine.

It takes a longer time to marinate, at least three days, and the bottom layer of meat needs to be turned up every day to allow the ingredients to be evenly marinated into the meat.

After finishing all these, the children came back. Qiao Xing was a little unhappy because he wanted to help his father with the work.

"Little Daddy, why didn't you call me when you wanted to make sausages?"

Qiao Yu chuckled and said, "I forgot. This is the first time I made it this year. If you think it tastes good, we can make some next month."

Qiao Yu thought that since they had a cellar at home, they could set aside a place to store ice and then put a sealed jar next door to store bacon and sausages.

Only then did Qiao Xing smile and say "Okay".

Gu Xiaoyan looked at the strings of sausages and swallowed unconsciously.

"Little Daddy, do you want to eat sausages today?"

Qiao Yu laughed: "You can't eat it today. You have to wait a few days. Just bear with it."

Gu Xiaoxue rubbed her brother's head amusedly.

Gu Gang heard Qiao Yu laughing and started laughing too.

It was the first time that the old man saw a family making so many sausages. He stroked his beard and said, "Brother Qiao is really capable. He made so many sausages that I'm afraid we can eat them until next summer."

Qiao Yu glanced at Gu Feng and the children, and said with a smile: "That's not certain. Maybe by then everyone will pester me every day to eat fried bacon with garlic sprouts, fried bacon with green peppers, fried sausage with tofu, and the simplest steamed bacon and sausage."

When everyone heard this, they all thought that maybe they wouldn't be able to eat it until next summer.

Qiao Yu was tired after a busy morning, so she taught Bai Lan how to cook. She stir-fried pork intestines, liver and kidneys, and cooked hot and sour cabbage, and made a heart and lung soup.

Bai Lan, worthy of being someone who had been tortured by her ex-mother-in-law for more than ten years, learned very quickly. Qiao Yu said it was delicious after eating it.

When Su Qing and Da Zhuang ate it in the evening, they also thought Bai Lan was amazing.

-

Two days later, Xu Yuan came with her husband and Doctor Jiang Suo.

During the two days of waiting for news from the famous doctor, Tiantian asked Gu Feng to be his personal driver and bought a lot of things for the family. He had to spend the New Year comfortably.

Truckloads of cabbage, green cabbage and white cabbage were stored in the cellar, and large quantities of chili peppers were collected from various villages to ensure that the first wave of chili peppers would mature before the next year.

Gu Feng also turned over the vacant vegetable plot in the backyard and planted crops such as radishes, peppers, leeks, cucumbers, peas, and broad beans that are not afraid of wintering.

The most amazing thing was that when Qiao Yu was directing the children to help him smoke bacon, the auntie who had promised to buy ducks on the ox cart brought over two hundred ducks.

Fortunately, there are many people at home now, otherwise he would probably just cry.

Qiao Yu first gave two to each household, including Aunt Shi, Wen Ge'er's parents, and the village chief's family.

Five ducks were left, ready to be slaughtered and eaten at any time.

The rest was all made into pressed duck.

The whole family was busy until very late, and even Su Qing and Da Zhuang came back to help.

In the end, Qiao Yu was very satisfied and had collected enough duck down to make a duck down quilt!

In the past two days, Bai Lan has become familiar with the living habits of the Gu family. Hong Xiu also felt embarrassed to eat and drink for free at the Gu family, so she shared some of Bai Lan's work. Qiao Yu planned to give her an additional one or two taels of silver as a monthly allowance.

Gu Gang is no longer as timid and uneasy as before. He has infiltrated the children's group and studies and plays with them every day. Even Gu Feng did not expect that his elder brother loves to play so much. When he was a child, his elder brother was always silent and worked hard.

Su Qing and Da Zhuang went to the snack bar to help out. Except for the first day when they were in a hurry and made a lot of jokes, they gradually got the hang of it from the second day.