Time Travel Article: Tool Man Rejects Plot

Chapter 112 Stocking up on autumn vegetables

Bai Fenglai had been ridiculed the whole morning, but she didn't expect Xiao Shitou to help her vent her anger.

I couldn't help but tease Gu Mingyue, "Haha, finally there's someone who can make you lose face."

"Sister Bai, if you continue to gloat over other people's misfortunes, the rice in the pot will get burnt."

Gu Mingyue came with her and Xiao Shitou's food.

While eating the thin porridge with a slightly burnt aroma with a few others, she also discussed today's plans at the table.

"Stocking up on autumn vegetables?" Bai Fenglai asked puzzledly.

Gu Xinsheng and the other two knew that the welfare home had to stockpile goods every year.

However, most of the time, after all the hard work, not much actually gets to eat.

What is usually left for them is only steamed corn bread with pickled cabbage.

It was not Bai Feng's turn to do these things when she came home, so she really didn't understand.

Gu Mingyue explained to her, "The vegetables in the private plots have grown. If they are not picked, they will become old and unpalatable. Even though the private plots are not big, if you pick all of them, you will get a lot. Each family tries every possible way to store these vegetables. As long as they are stored properly, you can avoid waste and eat summer vegetables during the winter. This is called stockpiling autumn vegetables."

Bai Fenglai was obviously very interested. He finished his meal quickly and urged Gu Mingyue to go out.

There were still some cowpeas in the original owner's private plot that had not been picked, and Second Brother Gu went to pick them this morning.

Together with the crops from my uncle's field, the pots and baskets in the yard were full...

The most common ones are beans, eggplants and cucumbers.

My uncle's house has a big yard and many stoves, so Gu Mingyue brought all the vegetables from home to cook together.

He did not treat them as outsiders and ordered Guangsheng to take the children to the backyard to fetch water and wash vegetables.

She and Bai Feng came here and first pickled the cucumbers with salt. After pickling, they pressed them down with a clean big stone.

Make sure to squeeze out all the moisture from the cucumbers.

The eldest and second sisters-in-law were responsible for blanching the vegetables, the eldest uncle helped pass things, and the second brother did not go to work today and stayed at home to help dry them.

Except for the eldest brother who is on the farm, it can be said that the whole family is mobilized.

There are no refrigerators now, so the fastest way to stock up on autumn vegetables in Northeast China is to pickle them.

However, the dish is not very tasty except for being salty, so it is rarely made.

The best way to keep food fresh and for the longest time is to blanch all the vegetables and then dry them.

Then hang it on the beam and it will last for the whole winter.

Gu Mingyue particularly likes to eat dried beans, especially when stewed with pork belly. The shriveled beans are full of fat, which is so delicious.

Slurp, work, work, for the sake of dried vegetables, rush, rush, rush.

After working for most of the day, the cucumbers are almost pickled.

Just put it in the sauce jar and soak it, and take it out whenever you want to eat it. Because it is high in salt, it is not afraid of spoiling.

Blanch the beans and hang them on the clothesline.

After the eggplant is fully boiled, tear it into strips below the root and spread it directly on a winnowing basket to dry.

Bai Fenglai looked at the beans and eggplants drying in the sun and spread out all over the yard and exclaimed, "Oh my God, we made so much. We won't be able to eat them all until spring comes."

Liu Caixia couldn't help laughing, "Sister, wait until they are dried and you'll see, these things can shrink by more than half, not much."

"Ah? Haha, I really don't know that." Bai Fenglai said a little embarrassedly.

Liu Caixia said casually, "Well, no one is born knowing everything. If you stay here for a long time, I guarantee you will know everything."

Gu Mingyue noticed that there were a few more baskets in the corner, large, medium and small, and guessed that it was the work of Second Brother Gu.

She went over and asked, "Second brother, is this for the freshmen?"

"Yeah, what's the matter, you want it? I just made up several for you."

"That's enough for me. I just wanted to compliment you on your good craftsmanship."

Gu Mingzhong immediately became alert, "What are you going to do?"

"You are such a person that you don't even like to be praised." Gu Mingyue said speechlessly, "How about the suggestion I gave you last time? Do carpentry work at home in the future, so that you can have more time to accompany your second sister-in-law?"

Brother Gu was indeed tempted, but he was a little unconfident. "With my skills, I can only make some for my family. If everyone in the village comes to me, I'm afraid I won't be able to do it well."

Gu Mingyue encouraged him, "I went to the city to see that your skills are not much worse than theirs. At most, you lack the patterns, which are not as detailed. But in our village, few people care about those complicated patterns. Next time, I will go to the town to see if there are any books on this subject. I will find a few for you. You can refer to them. Maybe you can really learn it without a teacher."

Gu Mingzhong was a little skeptical. “Will it work?”

"You have to do it no matter how hard it is. I'm counting on you to bring work to the village after you become a skilled trader."

"Who would come all the way to our village to make furniture?"

Second Brother Gu didn't believe it, but Gu Mingyue was confident.

She has so many modern furniture patterns in her head that combine storage and beautiful appearance, and they will definitely be more popular than old-fashioned wardrobes.

As for the distance issue, we can just deliver the goods to your door. Sometimes the service is much more important than the value of the item itself.

She just said, "Don't worry about it. You can practice in the village first and make a name for yourself. I have discussed with my eldest brother that if people from other villages come to you to do work, it will not be counted as work points. Let them exchange things. But, second brother, if you exchange things, you have to hand them over to the village. The main purpose is to avoid people getting jealous and reporting us for speculation and causing trouble."

Gu Mingzhong said indifferently, "I have no problem. I don't have to go to the fields, I can accompany your second sister-in-law, and I can also do carpentry work, which is a good thing."

Gu Mingyue was relieved, and then pointed to the backyard and said, "I think we can turn that side into a separate place for you to work, and open a side door. This will prevent too many people from gathering at home and causing chaos in the future."

Brother Gu nodded in agreement, "Indeed, let me talk to Dad about it."

In an instant, he realized, "So you just came here to inform me. Whether I agree or not, you have already made the decision."

"How could that be? You're just overly suspicious." Gu Mingyue pretended to be innocent.

She would not tell her second brother. In fact, she had already discussed it with her uncle and eldest brother.

My uncle was worried that the villagers would think they were finding jobs for their own people, so he originally did not agree.

Gu Mingyue didn't think so. Whoever has the ability can do it. Second brother has this skill, so why should he hide it?

It would be so frustrating if you had to suffer losses just to shut someone up.

Besides, apart from money, no one can satisfy everyone, so there is no need to make yourself suffer for others.

At this moment, Gu Mingyue's eyes glanced at the water radish in Guangsheng's hand, and she suddenly wanted to eat the radish buns.

He put down the work in his hands, took a few children back to the vegetable garden, and picked some radish tops, which are the leaves of water radish.

While my sister-in-law and the others are busy, let the children wash the vegetables.

Gu Mingyue ran to the backyard and started kneading the dough

I'm going to make black noodles today.

It is not the black glutinous rice noodles of later generations.

In this era, the equipment and technology for grinding flour were relatively backward.

Wheat has to be ground several times in machines to produce fine flour.

The flour ground for the first time is often black. This kind of black flour with bran is collectively called black flour.

Because of this, it was particularly irritating to the throat, so Gu Mingyue took the opportunity to add some white flour into it so that it would not be noticeable.

Otherwise it would be too uncomfortable to swallow.

Blanch the radish tops, rinse with cold water, and chop.

Since there was no meat, I just fried some chopped eggs and soaked some vermicelli and chopped them up, then mixed them together into the filling.

Vegetarian buns can also have a meaty taste, for example by adding two spoons of lard.

The buns were quickly put into the pot. While they were steaming, she also made carrot soup.

Call a few children over to serve the buns and start eating.

Everyone enjoyed the meal.

The eldest sister-in-law saw that Xinsheng and Xintu were not full, so she put two more buns in their bowls and said, "Eat quickly. You still have to work in the afternoon."

Only when they heard that they could help with the work did they feel comfortable picking up their chopsticks.

After the meal, Liu Caixia secretly asked Gu Mingyue, "Did you put white flour and lard in the buns?"

Gu Mingyue chuckled and said, "I can't hide anything from you, sister-in-law."