Gateway to Happiness

Chapter 49: Pick grapes

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Miao Cuilan unconsciously frowned slightly, and reprimanded: "It's pretty biased to say that it's not partial, what are you doing there alone?"

"I'm familiar with my own mountains and forests!" Lu Xiaoshu smiled vaguely, then went over to him courteously and said, "Mother, let me help you, is there any kohlrabi in the vegetable garden?"

"Well, Xiaoxue is also in the field, you go!" Miao Cuilan nodded.

"Oh!" Lu Xiaoshu walked over with a smile.

These kohlrabi have the leaves of green vegetables, but the one-inch-high stems that grow in the ground and on the ground are particularly fat, and they are best used for pickling vegetables.

Every year in April and May, Miao Cuilan will set aside a plot of land to plant this plant.

In autumn, choose a fine day with fine weather, pull out all the grown kohlrabi, use a knife to cut off the roots with soil slightly, and cut the head of kohlrabi into four cohesive pieces with two knives horizontally and vertically. Put it in the sun in the vegetable field.

After two days in the sun, the leaf vegetables were half wilted, so they took them home, washed them, dried them in water, rubbed them with coarse salt, twisted them into bunches half a foot long, and sealed them in jars.

After one or two months, it can be opened, and you can take it with you. Cut into pieces, put sesame oil and sesame seeds, and then drizzle with chili oil. It can be fried with spicy kohlrabi, or it can be fried with fresh pork or bacon. vegetable.

Miao Cuilan is especially good at doing this. Once when there was a gathering in winter to buy dried tofu and bean curd sticks, she tried to bring half a basket to sell, but unexpectedly it was sold out. In the next episode, someone came to ask about it. So this year, Miao Cuilan plans to do more.

"Sister!" When Lu Xiaoshu came to the vegetable garden, he saw Xiaoxue wearing a light-colored shirt bending over to collect the kohlrabi scattered in the vegetable field, so he yelled and stepped forward. help.

"You're back! I thought you were coming back with brother? Didn't brother come back?" Xiaoxue looked behind her as she spoke.

Lu Xiaoshu was puzzled: "Why do you say I came back with my brother?"

Xiaoxue blinked in confusion: "Isn't it? I clearly saw the cricket—"

"Sister!" Lu Xiaoshu was startled and covered Xiaoxue's mouth, begging: "Good sister, brother didn't know I was out to play! Don't tell brother what you saw today!"

"This is—" Xiaoxue was startled. She doesn't like to go out to play on weekdays, and prefers to stay at home with her little aunt and cousin, talking, embroidering, reading, writing and so on. She doesn't know about Lu Xiaoshu and Lu Qi.

Lu Xiaoshu knew that his sister always loved him, so he didn't care about anything else, he just pulled her and said coquettishly: "My dear sister, just promise me, okay! I'll ask you for a better flower book next time." Looks or collection of poems and essays come back to repay you well!"

Xiaoxue couldn't help laughing "chi" and sighed helplessly: "You, tell me what to say! You two, what the hell are you doing!"

"I knew my sister was the best! Hee hee!" Lu Xiaoshu knew that his sister was soft-hearted, so he immediately smiled and touched her shoulder affectionately. The two sisters looked at each other and laughed.

"You two, what the hell are you doing!" Miao Cuilan pushed open the vegetable garden door and came in from the outside.

"No, no! It's just a few words with my sister!" Lu Xiaoshu giggled, and the mother and daughter got busy, moving all the sun-dried kohlrabi into the yard.

The next day Miao Cuilan asked Lu Xiaoshu: "Didn't you say that the mountain grapes are ready? Go tell Mr. Wu to see if it's time to pick. It just so happens that we are free for these two days! There is nothing else, waiting for you Dad is back, he's going to be busy again!"

Lu Zhong went to a neighboring county to buy soybeans, and has not been at home for the past few days.

Lu Xiaoshu agreed, and the next day he happened to be going to Mr. Wu to teach a painting for homework, so he talked about it by the way.

Mr. Wu laughed and said, "If you don't tell me, I almost forgot about it! Well, the weather is pretty good these days, so let's go and have a look tomorrow!"

Lu Xiaoshu smiled and said, "Then please come over to our house for breakfast tomorrow morning!"

Mr. Wu smiled and nodded.

Mr. Wu arranged the homework in the school for the next day, and let the older, mature and prudent students help to watch, and then leisurely thought about this year's wine.

It is said that the weather is good this year, the weather has been good, and those mountain grapes must grow well. Mr. Wu can almost see the red wine with attractive color and luster in a few months, and he can't feel the wine in his mouth.

After breakfast the next day, the family went to the forest with their baskets on their backs, leaving only Tong Yu'er and Jin'er at home. Xiaoxue was also dragged along by Lu Xiaoshu.

This piece of log forest in the Lu family is a wild green mountain forest. There are many big trees that cannot be embraced, such as red maple, camphor, oak, pine, etc. There are all kinds of small trees, shrubs, and mountain vines. There are countless wild flowers and weeds.

The ecological environment of this era is well protected. Daqing Mountains with lush forests are everywhere. Those deep mountains and old forests are haunted by wild animals. There are many uncertain dangerous factors. Generally, very few people dare to go in. However, this small piece of forest is preserved after logging. Every family in Maple Leaf Village gets a lot.

Some families continue to cut down the trees to sell for money, while others, like the Lu family, keep them for future generations. They can often find many medicinal materials and delicious mountain mushrooms and fungus in them, or hunt some small birds and animals. Wild fruits, and the firewood burned at home every year, and the dead branches picked up from the forest are also enough.

There were already a lot of wild grapes climbing in the forest. Later, because Mr. Wu wanted to make wine, Lu Zhong deliberately dug up a lot of wild grape roots from other places and planted them. There is no need to build any scaffolding, just let them climb The big trees in the forest grow, and when they are strong, they hang heavily.

Miao Cuilan was very familiar with her family's forest, so she took a sickle and led the way, followed by nurse Xu Niangzi, sister Lu Xiaoshu, Mr. Wu, and Miao Chuhe.

Soon a few people came to a mountain depression, and saw that the fallen leaves were thick and the branches and leaves covered the sky.

"Here it is! Hehe, there are quite a lot of wild grapes this year!" Miao Cuilan looked up.

Everyone looked and saw that the tall and dense branches were covered with grape vines, and clusters of fist-sized mountain grapes were chasing and hanging everywhere, each one was only the size of a little finger, black and translucent, tightly knotted together. Together, grow very solid.

"Hehe, yes, next year's wine will definitely be good!" Mr. Wu said with a smile.

Miao Chuhe also said with a smile: "Mr. is really amazing. I don't know where I read the ancient formula! We people who have read rotten books are not as many as Mr.!"

"Hey, I'm not good at juren! Look at what you said, you're not complimenting me on purpose to hurt me!" Mr. Wu joked, looking at Miao Chuhe and laughing.

Miao Cuilan said with a casual smile, "I don't believe what Mr. Wu said. How could you fail the exam with such a good knowledge? It's just that you don't like to take the exam!"

Mr. Wu smiled and shook his head.

Miao Cuilan didn't continue talking, and turned her head to tell Lu Xiaoshu and her sisters: "You two sisters, go to the side, be careful not to hit the dry branches or grapes on your heads!"

"Come on, sister, come with me!" Lady Xu hastily pulled them aside.

Miao Cuilan was wearing short brown, so she climbed up the tree with a basket on her shoulder, and Mr. Wu also climbed up the trunk. He is not as smart and bold as Miao Cuilan, he only picks up the thick and low trees.

Xu Niangzi and Miao Chuhe are below to help.

The two people on the tree picked a full basket and hung it down with a hemp rope. The two people below carefully freed up all the grapes in the basket and poured them into the basket carefully, and they continued to pick the empty basket up.

"Come on, two sisters, come and taste it. These grapes grow really well! It's delightful to look at!" Lady Xu greeted Lu Xiaoshu and Xiaoxue with a smile.

I saw Xiaoxue took out a clean white handkerchief, wiped the grapes carefully, wiped off the thin layer of white frost on the face, stretched out her hand without thinking, and put the girl in her mouth Li Sai clapped his hand and handed it to her, saying, "Second sister eat this."

Lu Xiaoshu stuck out his tongue, so he had no choice but to drop the bunch in his hand, took the string from his sister and said with a smile: "My sister loves me the most!" He picked one and stuffed it into her mouth and asked with a smile: "Sweet Isn't it sweet?"

Xiaoxue smiled and nodded: "Well, it's really sweet!"

Miss Xu looked at it from the side and said with a smile: "The eldest sister really loves the second sister, the two sisters are really close!"

Lu Xiaoshu smiled and said: "Of course, my sister loves me since she was a child!"

Xiaoxue pursed her lips and smiled: "Who told you to be so noisy, you are always worrying!"

"Eldest sister is really sensible!" Miss Xu praised with a smile.

Lu Xiaoshu made a grimace, looked up at Miao Cuilan, pulled Xiaoxue and said with a smile: "Sister, sister, let's go play there for a while? I saw a lot of fungus growing on the dead tree over there. Let's pick it up, shall we?"

Xiaoxue hesitated, and was afraid that she would go wandering alone, so she nodded and said: "Okay, then you have to slow down, don't fall!"

"Sister, don't worry!" Xiaoshu smiled, pulled her sister and carried a basket and walked away.

The forest is dark and humid, and as long as it is not the winter of cold wind, ice and snow, there are countless kinds of fungi.

The two sisters didn't walk for a while before they found a section of half-rotten wood on the ground that was as tall as a person, and indeed a lot of black fungus grew densely and crowded together from head to tail.

"Ah! There are so many!" Xiaoxue was both surprised and delighted.

Lu Xiaoshu smiled triumphantly, "I didn't lie, did I?"

It was fine if she didn't say this, but when she said this, Xiaoxue looked at her and pursed her lips and smiled, her beautiful long and narrow phoenix eyes sparkled, the meaning couldn't be more obvious: Xiao Nizi lied again!

Lu Xiaoshu couldn't help feeling annoyed, her elder sister was actually very smart, at least she could sometimes fool a shrewd mother when she rolled her eyes, but she rarely fooled a beautiful elder sister. It's just that my elder sister has always loved her, even though she was messing around, she never sued her.

"Sister, let's pick these back, shall we! It's the best for making dumplings or frying pheasant game in winter!" Lu Xiaoshu salivated and smiled.