I couldn't help but exclaimed to my daughter, "Master Duan Er is so awesome! He can feed so many chickens!"
Mo Ruhua took a look and felt a little doubtful in her heart, "Dad, didn't you say that the ancestor of the Duan family was a scholar who was an official?"
Mo Qiming: "You don't understand this! I come from a scholarly family!"
Mo Ruhua didn't understand the connection. She had also studied and had never heard of any book on raising chickens!
Mo Qiming said plausibly: "People who can read and write must be better at raising chickens than those who can't read!"
After hearing this, Mo Ruhua felt that her father's words made sense to a certain extent and were also a bit strange.
The extracurricular life of the children and grandchildren of the Duan family is becoming more and more fulfilling day by day. From morning to night, in addition to practicing basic skills, they also have to read and memorize. They are so tired every day that they can't spare any time to go pick up eggs in the mountains behind.
Mo Qiming volunteered to take over the job of collecting eggs.
First, I don’t want to be idle, and second, I want to secretly learn some of the Duan family’s chicken-raising skills! Hopefully, I will be able to eat eggs freely when I retire in the future.
Even if he was killing time by collecting eggs, there were twelve hours in a day after all, so Mo Qiming spent the rest of his time free. So he rented two acres of land from the Duan family to work, and asked Qiao Lan every day for advice on farming methods.
Every afternoon I went to the fields with my hoe.
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The weather is getting hotter day by day, and there is gradually more work in the Duan family's fields.
These days, there are no pesticides for weeding or convenient equipment for spraying water. If the weeds are not removed, they will compete with the crops in the field for nutrients, so we can only rely on manual treatment.
There was a lot of work in the Duan family's fields, and the villagers quickly completed two months of work and learned the recipe for making dried tofu.
After everyone learns the art of making dried tofu, they will naturally also make tofu.
One craft, two dishes.
Some people think that tofu is good because it is big and can fill you up. Some people think that dried tofu is good because it tastes like meat! No matter what it is, it tastes better than boiled beans!
The master will lead you in, and your practice will depend on the individual.
After learning this craft, everyone discovered something more important!
The dried tofu they make is not as delicious as the Duan family's.
The finished product looks good, but the taste is very different. After I heard that the Duan family uses broth and spices to cook dried tofu, I understood it immediately.
Anything cooked in broth is delicious, let alone this dried tofu?
In addition to people from Duanjia Village who come to learn this craft, there is an endless stream of people from other villages who want to learn it.
The rules are still the same as before, you can only learn this craft after two months of work.
Suddenly, more people came to work in Duan's field.
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Summer has arrived in a blink of an eye, and the sound of frogs and mosquitoes are heard at the same time.
Qiao Lan wore a straw hat and stood in front of her half-acre melon field, pushing aside the green vines and melon leaves to inspect the cantaloupe underneath.
It takes at least three or four years for fruit trees to grow and bear fruit, and it only takes one season to grow melons.
Qiao Lan bought these melon seeds at a huge price. Secondly, the price was high, but mainly because the quantity was small. Qiao Lan bought all the seeds that were available, and they could only plant half an acre of land.
Summer is very hot and the temperature is slightly lower at night, which is when the melons in the fields accumulate sugar.
The seed seller tried his best to say that his melons were as sweet as honey, but Qiao Lan didn't believe it. In my mind, Qiao had eaten a lot of melons, which were averagely sweet, neither crispy nor noodle-y, and were worth a lot of money.
No matter how sweet they are, Qiao Lan doesn't believe that fruits that haven't been specially cultivated in this era can be as sweet as the fruits she has eaten before.
There is not much to eat in the countryside, so growing some melons to eat is better than nothing.
After the children at home learned that half an acre of melons were planted in the field, they kept thinking about it and asked when the melons in the field would ripen.
When the system prompted that the melons were about to mature, Qiao Lan stayed in the melon field for several days.
Record the weight, shape, and smell of the melons when they are ripe, and then carefully write them down on paper as a way to accumulate experience and pass them on to future generations for growing melons.
It was Qiao Lan's serious attitude that gave rise to deep obsessions in the hearts of several children of the Duan family.
The melons grown by grandma must be delicious!
Their chickens and vegetables are also delicious! They are all grown under the watch of grandma!
Qiao Lan picked out four sizable green melons from the field after a long while. She cut them with her specially made scissors and put them in a basket to take home.
On the way home, many people from Duanjia Village I met greeted Qiao Lan warmly!
The folks are already accustomed to the fact that Mrs. Duan's wife likes to go to the fields!
But no one dares to say that the old lady of the Duan family doesn't know how to farm and waste food like before.
The crops grown in the field where the Duan family used to grow peas were tall and strong, growing better than any other field in the village!
No banker can resist this temptation!
Many people have even begun to think about following the Duan family’s example when they plant peas in the future.
Qiao Lan pressed down her straw hat, hiding her merit and fame.
After returning to her yard, Qiao Lan handed the melon to her daughter-in-law, "Wash the melon and put it in the bottom of the well. It will keep it cold."
"Mom, the sun is so bright, I will go to the fields next time." Mrs. Wang said with concern.
Qiao Lan shook her head: "No, you don't even know which melon is ripe and which is sweet!"
Qiao Lan had a good reason for refusing.
Mrs. Wang smiled and said, "Next time you go to the field, take me with you and teach me, and I will be good at it."
This is indeed the truth, but this is Qiao Lan's first time growing cantaloupe. She hasn't figured it out yet, and is still taking notes to compare the appearance, mainly relying on the system.
Qiao Lan, who has many years of experience in photographing watermelons, doesn’t think cantaloupes can stump her!
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In the evening, after the family had finished their meal, Wang took out the cantaloupe that was cooling at the bottom of the well, put it on the cutting board, and cut it neatly into small pieces with a knife.
The Duan family's cantaloupes are growing very well. These melons weigh more than a kilogram, and some are even as heavy as two kilograms. The cantaloupes are mostly filled with water and do not weigh on the stomach.
The green melon was split into two, and a sweet smell unique to the melon spread from the chopping board.
Mrs. Wang couldn't help but praise: "This melon smells sweet."
Wang cut the melon into small pieces evenly, took out the pulp inside, and removed the seeds from the top.
This was specially ordered by my mother-in-law, saying to keep it for planting next year.
Wang probably rinsed it with water to remove all the seeds from the melon pulp, and then twisted a little to taste it.
So sweet!
Wang's eyebrows widened under the impact of this sweet taste.
The melon pulp will definitely be sweeter if it is not washed with water!
Mrs. Wang thought about it, spent some time, and without using less water, she picked out several pieces of seedless melon pulp, put them in a small bowl and brought them to the yard together with the cut cantaloupe.
In the courtyard, a family was sitting on the porch, fanning themselves against the sunset to enjoy the coolness.
"Come and eat melon!" Wang shouted.
The children stood up one by one, excited.
One person picked up a piece of melon and ate it with the skin, and the adults were no exception.
Mrs. Wang handed the bowl with melon pulp to Shang, "This is melon pulp. It's not hard. You can give Siyu a taste."
Mrs. Shang took the bowl and said with a smile, "Thank you, sister-in-law!" He patted his daughter on the back again and asked her to learn to speak, "Thank you, auntie!"
Duan Siyu can already speak a few simple words, but the little girl's attention at the moment is completely attracted by the melon in front of her. Seeing that everyone in the family is eating melon, she is even more anxious, raising her white arms like lotus joints and waving her paws, "
Eat...want...want..."
Shang had no choice but to take a small strip of melon pulp and feed it to her daughter.
The little girl immediately smiled when she tasted the sweetness!