It had been raining heavily for a whole day, and Wu Lei had just pulled the cleaned sofa cover out of the washing machine.
Don't ask why we wash clothes on rainy days. It's because we are too tired from work. When it finally rained, Qiao Qiao, Xin Jun and Zhang Yanping had already arranged the work crazily - brushing, washing, mopping and changing four-piece suits...
In short, I was busy all morning.
Wu Lei felt very sad.
"We live in a villa, but we still have to do all the housework ourselves. What kind of villa is this..."
Xin Jun happened to pass by with a brand new bed sheet in his arms, and couldn't help wondering, "But this villa isn't ours, so aren't we staying here for free?"
"Oh," he realized, "I have a full board and lodging package."
Wu Lei: …
He, he is also related to Tan Tan by blood!
Downstairs, Uncle Seven stood in the corridor and watched the falling rain. He found a spot in the yard and said, "It's a good place. It will save some time on rainy days. It will be easier to clean this spot later."
"What are you scrubbing?" Song Tan looked at it curiously.
On a rainy day, except for grandpa who insisted on going to grandpa's place to study weaving straw mats early in the morning, everyone else was idle. It turned out to be a rare and good time to relax.
Song Tan wanted to try whether he could transform spiritual energy into water, so he came out and fiddled with it for a long time. When he turned around, he saw his seventh cousin saying this.
The seventh cousin glanced at her and said, "Have you forgotten that there are sorghum plants in the two fields next to the peach orchard?"
"It's already July. I went over last night and saw that they were ripe, but it rained so I didn't have time to harvest them."
"ah!"
Song Tan really forgot - after all, sorghum, like corn, was not planted in large quantities, and it was Qiao Qiao who planted it with all her heart.
"If we don't harvest them quickly, they will rot if it rains!"
For example, if it rains when harvesting rice, not only can it not be dried, but it will even sprout again directly on the stems...
Uncle Qi shook his head and said, "Have you ever heard that sorghum is not afraid of water when it carries a gun? This thing is not afraid of water or drought, so don't worry."
"I was thinking that since no one eats sorghum now, we can use the harvested sorghum to make wine."
Oh, after working in Song Tan's house for a few months, I could only drink a little wine when there were guests. Life has lost its fun.
"Ah?" Song Tan was a little hesitant: "Coarse grains, don't you want to try it?" It is said that it has high nutritional value and tastes sweet, but she has never eaten it yet.
Song Sancheng happened to come out to smoke a cigarette, and was shocked when he heard this:
"What?! Eating sorghum? No, no, no!"
He hated it: "It's bitter, astringent, hard to swallow, and it irritates my throat... Isn't our rice good? Do we have to eat that?"
Song Tan: ??? So unpalatable
"Forget it!" She shook her head decisively: "Let's all brew wine!"
Speaking of wine, although Song Sancheng is not fond of drinking, he drinks occasionally.
At this moment, I was so excited that I got together with my seventh cousin and asked, "What kind of wine is this? Is it a sauce-flavored one or a strong-flavored one? I can't get used to the sauce-flavored one."
The seventh cousin was also happy: "Since there is a lot of sorghum, we can brew it all!"
It's just a little troublesome.
Then he asked, "Are there still the husks from threshing the rice?"
"Yes, I have!"
Song Sancheng pointed to the warehouse and said, "There are a lot of them."
The straw was piled up in a haystack on the back hill, and the rice husks were intended to be fed to chickens and ducks, so they were packed in sacks.
"That's fine." Uncle Seven thought about it for a while:
"Tan Tan, then you have to buy a big steamer, a distiller, and jars and bottles to store the wine."
Otherwise, it would be too troublesome to steam it in a big iron pot at home.
Song Tan quickly took out his cell phone: "How big do you want it to be?"
Ah this.
My seventh cousin hasn't brewed wine for many years.
Now, when he first mentioned it, although he was confident that his skills were not lost, it was hard to say—
Therefore, he said conservatively: "The steamer doesn't need to be too big, a 50-jin steamer will do. I estimate that your two mu of land can produce 200 to 300 jin of sorghum, which can produce about 100 jin of wine - you can prepare it accordingly."
One hundred kilograms of wine
Song Tan couldn't help but ponder: "How much would this bottle cost if sold?"
She doesn't know much about the liquor market yet.
My seventh cousin was speechless—the sorghum hasn’t been harvested yet!
He could only snort: "It will take at least a month to know the taste. It's too early for you to worry about the price now. You might as well think about what you will use the soybeans from the chestnut orchard for when the time comes."
After the sorghum is harvested, the next crop will probably be soybeans.
Speaking of soybeans, Song Tan is really looking forward to it:
"I'll buy a big bean sprout machine first!"
Stir-fried bean sprouts, braised bean sprouts with vinegar, and bean sprouts stewed with crispy pork!
Bean curd dregs, soy milk, tofu pudding, water tofu, thousand sheets of tofu!
Fried soybeans, bean noodles, braised pig's trotters with soybeans -
She stared at her phone, her eyes gradually becoming frantic:
"Do I need to buy another grinding wheel..."
Seventh cousin: …
The three greatest hardships in life are rowing a boat, forging iron and selling tofu. You really can't get over it.
but…
"Show me a small grinding wheel, the size of a palm. I'll grind some spice granules when the time comes. The ones you buy are either too fine or too coarse, and the ones I grind with the grinder at home aren't good enough."
Song Tan nodded, and now she finally felt that her six months of hard work had not been in vain - not to mention anything else, there were more and more things for her to eat at home!
When the big stone mill comes back, tie Wu Lei to the mill and let him turn it twice when he has time...
Cough cough cough.
No, they are relatives after all. Brother Wu Lei has too little strength, and grinding the soybeans would simply waste her soybeans.
In short, we have to find a mill!
She thought about it and gradually turned her attention to the back mountain.
At this moment, Song Sancheng, who had quietly finished smoking a cigarette, looked at the vast rain curtain and suddenly asked:
"After this rain, there's no need to add water to the rice fields anymore - Tantan, how are the rice seedlings growing now? Can they be planted? This month we have to harvest sorghum and soybeans, and I estimate your peaches are almost done, and we also have to plant rice here - I don't think we have enough people in our village."
Song Tan was stunned: "There are so many people helping to plant peach trees on the mountain in the spring?"
Song Sancheng waved his hand: "In previous years, many of them went out to work in July, August and September, so we have to prepare for it."
If you go to the electronics factories, toy factories, shoe factories, etc. in the south at this time of year and happen to work overtime a lot, you can earn five or six thousand a month.
But if you are older, you will work harder and earn less, but in the end you can still earn three to four thousand yuan.
If I work until the Chinese New Year, apart from other things, the rice, flour, grain, oil, gifts and favors for the whole next year... should be enough, right
Although it's good to stay in my hometown and work, the work here in Song Tan is not guaranteed as it's not guaranteed every day.
Song Tan: …
What about the hundreds of acres of hilltop she just leased
We must keep some people this time!
Of course, we not only have to keep this group of middle-aged and elderly people, but this year during the Spring Festival, we really have to do as Secretary Xiaozhu said and try our best to bring some young people to our hometown!