Joe's Farming

Qiao Yu and Qiao Xing arrived home at the hour of You. He wanted to calculate how much money he had made today, but there was still a lot of work to do at home.

The pig offal delivered in the morning needs to be washed, the vegetables dried in the sun two days ago need to be collected, the peppercorns can be shelled slowly, and the chestnuts can be stored in a well-ventilated place. But the first two things must be done, oh, now there is another one, making soap, this trip today, all the stocks made earlier are cleared.

And today I got the mold for the hawthorn cake back, so I have to put making hawthorn cake on the agenda, otherwise so many hawthorns will not be fresh. Wen Ge'er is not here, so he has to do all these jobs by himself.

Qiao Yu first boiled water as quickly as possible and added wood ash, then left it aside. Then, when the alkali water settled, he went to the backyard to wash the pig offal. Qiao Xing watched his mother working, and without thinking about looking for his grandfather and his brothers and sisters, he followed to wash.

How could Qiao Yu bear to let her child do this? So she asked Qiao Xing to go to Aunt Shi's house to buy vegetables, buy whatever they had, and then just wash the vegetables.

After washing the pig offal, Qiao Yu began to cook the marinade. After all the meat was marinated, he began to filter the alkali water. Because he had bought several pieces of gauze before, he did not wait for the alkali water to sit for too long, but directly poured the clearer upper water into the gauze for filtering.

Then melt the lard and mix it with lye water. After stirring it almost done, divide it into three portions. Add a little madder to one portion, and the color will be light pink; add a little bit of indigo fruit to the other portion, and the color will be light blue; don't add anything to the rest, and use it to make ordinary soap.

Qiao Xing had returned by now, and he helped Qiao Yu run around to get tools. Finally, Qiao Yu finished pouring the soap liquid, and counted about 60, twenty each, enough to sell tomorrow. Finally, after mixing the remaining little soap liquid of each color, he poured it into the mold of the hawthorn cake, and got 3 little panda heads, the colors were quite bright.

After doing all this, the old man came back with the two children. Qiao Yu asked Qiao Xing to go play with his younger brother and sister, but Qiao Xing refused.

Qiao Xing looked at Qiao Yu with sparkling eyes and said, "Mom, I'm not tired at all."

Qiao Yu was helpless: "Okay, I'll make some sauerkraut and we'll take a break."

When Gu Xiaoxue and Gu Xiaoyan heard that their mother was going to make sauerkraut, they immediately wanted to help, because they had never eaten it before.

Qiao Yu had no choice but to ask them to wash their hands and help her peel some garlic and wash some ginger.

As a result, when Qiao Yu was harvesting the vegetables, he was dumbfounded. The vegetables were too dried out by the sun, and it was difficult to make moist sauerkraut.

Fortunately, Qiao Yu still knows how to make pickles. Although he can't eat pickled fish, he can have salty braised pork. Wait a few days for the pickled cabbage to be made, and then go to the village to buy vegetables to make it.

The greens were 80% dried, and like the radishes, they shrunk a lot. I guess they can only fit in a medium-sized earthenware pot. Qiao Yu cut the greens into shreds, and then used a small earthenware pot to stir-fry salt, peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, and bay leaves. When Qiao Yu was frying, he was always afraid that the earthenware pot would explode, but his small iron pot would take a few days to be made. When the time comes, he will ask Lin Da to pick it up and send it over, so he doesn't have to make another trip.

Fry the salt until golden brown, let it cool, then add it to the chopped vegetables.

The vegetables still have a little moisture at this time, and some of it will precipitate out after adding salt, and this water needs to be poured away.

Then clean a medium-sized jar with a lid, dry it, pour all the vegetables in, and seal it with straw. Because pickles need to be turned upside down when pickling, the bottom lid needs to be sealed with water, and the excess brine during the pickling process needs to flow out, so there needs to be a barrier between the pickles and the water at the bottom, so a medium is needed to separate the pickles from the water.

Qiao Yu turned the clay pot upside down and waited for twenty days to eat the delicious salty braised pork.

When Gu Feng came back, he saw three children surrounding an upside-down jar.

"What are you doing?" Gu Feng asked the three children.

Gu Xiaoxue said loudly: "Dad, Mom said that the things in here are called pickles, and we have to wait 20 days before we can eat them."

Gu Feng knew about pickles, but he had never seen how to make them. He thought they were the same as the pickles he had eaten in the north before, so he didn't take it seriously. Seeing the soap hanging in the living room and the meat almost done in the kitchen, he knew that his husband was very tired today.

Gu Feng arranged for the three children to feed the horses, chickens and ducks, and he went to the kitchen to help his husband.

Qiao Yu was really tired today and hadn't had much rest. He took the braised meat out of the pot and prepared to cook dinner.

Gu Feng hurried over to help him: "Qiao'er, take a break. I'll cook."

When Qiao Yu thought of Gu Feng's cooking skills, she shook her head and said, "No, let me do it. I'll just make a simple dumpling soup."

Gu Feng was not discouraged and asked, "What is that? How to do it? You teach me and I will do it."

Qiao Yu chuckled and said happily, "Thank you, husband. It's very simple. Just cut some green onions and tomatoes first."

Gu Feng found a scallion and seven or eight tomatoes in the vegetable basket, washed them and started cutting them.

Qiao Yu: "Hey, cut the green onion vertically twice and then cut it into smaller pieces."

Gu Feng did as he was told, and then checked his husband again: "Is this okay?"

Qiao Yu nodded: "Chop the tomatoes into smaller pieces and remove the bottom middle piece, it doesn't taste good."

Gu Feng said: "Okay."

After the preparations were done, Qiao Yu asked Gu Feng to clean the pot and then knead the dough. The noodles for the dumpling soup should not be too thin or too dry, just stir them quickly with chopsticks until they become cottony.

Then Qiao Yu took over the job and asked Gu Feng to help her light the fire. Scallions and tomatoes need a high fire to taste good.

Qiao Yu first scooped a large spoonful of lard into the pot, and then waited until the pot was hot enough before pouring in the onions and tomatoes. The aroma immediately came out, and after a few stir-fries, she added water, and when the water boiled, she added the noodles and stirred them quickly. Finally, she added a few washed cabbages, some salt and a little sesame oil. The delicious dumpling soup was ready.

"Uncle, Xiaoxing, Xuebao, Yanbao. It's time to eat. Come over and help yourself." Qiao Yu shouted towards the yard. He cooked a big pot and they could have as much as they wanted.

Qiao Yu prepared a large bowl and a spoon for each person, and of course Gu Feng's bowl was the biggest.

The children came over first. Qiao Yu scooped a bowl for each of them, but did not fill it full. He was afraid that they would be scalded, so he told them to hold the bottom and edge of the bowl as the bottom of the bowl was thick and would not be hot.

The old man came over with a smile on his face: "What did Qiao Ge make today? It smells delicious."

Qiao Yu: "Uncle, this is called Dumpling Soup, it's simple and delicious. I'm a little tired today and don't want to cook rice."

The old man took the full bowl and said anxiously: "If you are tired, just ask me to do it. You are busy enough doing business outside. Besides, eating white flour is not easy. Brother Qiao is capable. How can you eat rice every day?"

Qiao Yu smiled embarrassedly: "Yes, yes, you are right, sir. Go and eat it quickly, and come back to scoop more after you finish."

After Qiao Yu scooped some for herself and Gu Feng, she picked up a small bowl of dried radish before going to the main room to have dinner with her family.

Qiao Yu happily shared today's achievements and praised Qiao Xing in particular.

Gu Xiaoxue and Gu Xiaoyan also praised their elder brother for being so great and awesome.

Qiao Xing took out twenty copper coins, which was the first and most money he had ever earned. He divided the copper coins into four equal parts.