Springtime Farming: A Happy Wife At Home

Qiao Xuan pointed in the direction where they could find winter bamboo.

She claimed that she was very experienced.

That made Qi and Taotao glad.

Half a day passed, and they found what four people could carry around.

Without Yang Xiaoni and Shao Sanlang, they would not be able to carry the things.

As for Qiao Xuan, what she could do most was to carry a few winter bamboos. Taotao could carry almost 10 kgs.

The four of them went down, and returned, with more than 70 kgs winter

bamboo by the end of the day.

Qiao Xuan did not let them dig all the winter bamboo. She had a few left behind, so that they could grow out the next year.

Startled, Ms. Fang did not expect that they could get this much. She smiled. “Winter bamboo is a good thing, better than fresh bamboo. This entire pile should be dried.”

So Ms. Xu and a few others started to get busy.

There was a cellar in the yard. After the winter bamboo shoots were taken home, some were selected and stored in the cellar and buried in the sand. In this season, it would not go bad after being stored for even twenty or thirty days. They could just pull out some whenever they needed.

They were going to have a good meal of fresh bamboo. After peeling off the bamboo shoots, the slightly yellow winter bamboo shoots were firm and small, and the faint fragrance of bamboo shoots was very delicious.

Such fresh winter bamboo shoots were delicious whether they were fried or sauteed with various kinds of meat.

No wonder the saying went that winter bamboos were more expensive than meat.

Shao Sanlang and Yang Xiaoni went into town to buy meat. They were going to make stir-fried sliced pork with winter bamboo shoots, stewed pork ribs with winter bamboo shoots, fried sliced bamboo shoots with shiitake mushrooms, and shredded fish along with bamboo shoot soup.

They intended to get up early the next day, and were going to cut the winter bamboo shoots into cubes, add meat fillings, dried plums, and soaked peas so as to make wrapped buns with fillings. These buns would be steamed. Such delicious buns would surely make everyone greedy for them.

In addition to the ones kept in the cellar, Ms. Fang cut the winter bamboo shoots into slices that were neither thick nor thin. She blanched them in boiling water, added enough salt, picked them up and put them in a dustpan to dry, so that they could be made into dried bamboo shoots.

They were all very busy.

When Shao Sanlang and Yang Xiaoni returned home, it was already evening.

Ms. Fang understood that the couple must have eaten and bought a lot in the town before they decided to return home. The reason why they arrived home before the evening was because they were drooling over Qiao Xuan’s cooking skills. Thank goodness for that!

The two of them bought half a piece of pork, and asked the butcher to cut it into pieces suitable for making smoked meat. They bought another 20 kgs of meat for making sausages, as well as casings.

They also bought what Qiao Xuan asked them to, which included three pig heads, six pork knuckles, two pig livers, and three pig stomachs.

They even had rib bones and pork belly with them.

They managed to buy 20 ducks who quacked all the way home.

They could not deal with the ducks this evening, so they were kept in the shed in the yard. Pork needed to be processed first.

They were all engaged in different tasks.

Qiao Xuan was cooking, whilst Taotao and Qi helped her.

Ms. Fang, together with two of her daughters-in-law, started to wash the meat, pork knuckles, pig heads, etc.

They spread a layer of coarse salt evenly, and then put them layer by layer in a clay tank. This would be marinated for about four or five days. After being taken out, it would be washed with warm water, stringed it with a straw rope, and hung above the stove.

They could smoke them when they cooked food later. When time was enough, it would be turned into delicious smoked meat..