An orphan girl from a farming family: Everyday farming in the mountains during natural disasters

Chapter 88 Make delicious food

Standing by the pond, her gaze gradually shifted from the vegetable plot to the fields.

The soil had just been watered, so it was moist and dark in color, and all the crops looked half dead.

"If you water it for a few more days, it should regain some vitality."

She stared at the field with an urgent look in her eyes, "Millet, oh millet, you must be strong. From today on, I will water you every day."

Other crops are fine as we can find substitutes for them, or we can just not eat them. But rice is different; as a staple food, it is indispensable.

There is not much brown rice and white flour left. If we eat frugally, it can probably last us about half a month. After that, we can only eat potatoes.

Thinking of the yam, she remembered the konjac in the cellar. Due to water problems, she had never been able to get it to eat.

She smacked her lips and said, "I'll make some konjac tofu and stir-fry duck meat with kimchi."

The next day.

Xia Qingyue got up early, went to the well in the pond to fetch water, and carried the water to water the crops and the camellia trees.

It took more than twenty trips back and forth and more than two hours to complete the task.

After picking the water, she lay down beside the well to observe the water level. Although a lot of water was pumped, the water level did not move down significantly. It was obvious that after the water was pumped up, groundwater immediately surged up.

"Wuhu!"

She was so happy that she bent down, hugged the black head with both hands, and kissed it a few times.

“Mmmm.” His black eyes sparkled and he made a soft sound, not understanding what was happening to his master.

"Come on, Heihei, let's go and talk to him today. We don't need him to bring us water anymore!"

She had already made up her mind that since there was water in the sinkhole, she would not go out in the short term. She would stay at home, take good care of the crops, and have a good rest.

I worked a lot looking for water some time ago.

On the mountain, under a tree on the outskirts of the forest, the man sat cross-legged on the grass, fanning Xiaobai with a palm-leaf fan in one hand and gently stroking its snow-white fur with the other.

Xiaobai was lying there, with his tongue sticking out, which was bright red, and his chest was shaking up and down.

"Xiaobai, are you feeling better?" The man was worried that it was overheated, so he moved his eyes to a bucket of water nearby.

He reached into the wooden barrel, scooped up a handful of water and fed it into Xiaobai's mouth.

While feeding, Xia Qingyue arrived.

"What's wrong with Xiaobai?" She saw that Xiaobai looked a little depressed.

"It's hot." The man finished drinking the water in his hand and stood up.

"Feed it more. This damn hot weather is unbearable."

Seeing that the man was looking at her without moving, she simply took action herself and scooped up the water to feed Xiaobai. After drinking the water, it smiled brightly.

Heihei saw this, and raised his front paws to pull Xia Qingyue, making some mumbling sounds.

"Heihei, you drink too. Don't be in a hurry. Everyone has a share." She fed Xiaobai and then Heihei. If she fed slowly or gave one of them more, the two little ones would become jealous of each other.

She couldn't help laughing, her eyes curved, "No, don't you usually have a very good relationship, like family? Why are you so unhappy now because of water?"

"Alright, alright, stop playing around, you're really childish, you'll get a heat stroke and be in a lot of pain later."

She stood up and noticed something was wrong beside her. She looked over and met the man's deep, dark eyes.

Realizing that she had said too much nonsense, she laughed dryly and said, "I'm sorry to have wasted your time. I've been bothering you recently. From tomorrow on, you don't have to bring water over anymore."

The man looked at her with a puzzled look, "We agreed at the beginning, I will do it no matter what, you don't have to feel burdened."

She blinked her eyes and said, "No, you really don't need to send it. I'll take these buckets of water back with me today."

The man stared at her face, his lips slightly pursed, and after a pause, he nodded, "Okay."

There were four buckets of water. One was used for Xiaobai and Heihei to cool down. As for the remaining three buckets, one was put into the backpack and the other two were carried by her.

"You don't have to wait here for me to come back for water today."

The man nodded in understanding, "Xiaobai, let's go."

Xiaobai and Heihei were lying together and playing happily. When their owner called them, Xiaobai was reluctant but still got up obediently and followed his pace.

Seeing the man Xiaobai leave, Xia Qingyue sighed: "In this world, it's rare to find someone who can keep his promise and do it well."

She was lucky enough to meet someone who kept his promises.

The transaction was completed successfully and she was in a very good mood.

In the past, she felt extremely tired when carrying water on her back, but today, her feet felt like the wind and she walked fast and steadily.

The water was rather dirty, so she saved it for watering the vegetables the next morning.

The water from the well is slightly cleaner, but it still needs to be filtered.

When she came to the well, she saw the water inside and felt relieved.

The pond receives sunlight for two hours in the morning, but the well is relatively remote and only receives sunlight for about half an hour around seven or eight in the morning.

She was afraid that if the sunshine lasted too long, the water would dry up.

She also fetched two buckets of water and carried them back. The well water was very cool. If it wasn't a little dirty, she would have wanted to wash her face with it.

There are six filter buckets hanging on the bamboo poles. She made a few more two days ago so that the water can be filtered faster.

When the two buckets were almost full of water, she took it away and poured it into the water tank, then went to the cellar and got up three large konjacs.

It’s better to do it today than to wait for another day. Treat yourself to the delicious konjac, tofu and fried duck for lunch today.

First, rub the konjac with large leaves to wash off most of the mud and sand, then grab the konjac through a leaf and peel it with a knife.

She didn't dare to grab the konjac directly with her hands because the itching would be unpleasant.

Peel the skin cleanly, chop off the konjac head, sprinkle some wood ash on it and throw it into the soil before planting.

Three white konjacs were placed in a wooden basin filled with water and rubbed into mud with a stone slab.

Stir the scraped konjac evenly, pour it into an iron pot, add the filtered wood ash water, light a fire underneath and stir on top until it is difficult to stir, which means it is about to solidify.

Set the pot aside to cool naturally.

The water in the pot boiled. She soaked the killed duck in the hot water for a while, then picked it up and plucked its feathers. She grabbed a handful of feathers, which was very relaxing.

This duck is quite heavy, weighing more than four kilograms without the feathers.

The duck feathers were dried and stored as usual, and one third of the duck meat was taken out and boiled for Heihei to eat.

Chop the remaining two-thirds into pieces and soak them in water for later use.

The warm konjac has taken shape and is gray in color. Bring the pot to the stove, use a knife to cut it into pieces, and pour in clean water.

As the water rises, pieces of konjac tofu float up.

Continue to keep the fire on and cook the konjac tofu.

Put the cooked konjac tofu in a basin of cold water and soak it. Take out two pieces and cut them into square slices. Then take out some sour peppers, ginger, sour cowpeas and eggplants from the jar as side dishes.

Soak the duck meat to remove the blood, then stir-fry until the oil comes out, add the sour chili pepper and ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, pour a circle of rice wine on the edge of the pot, add salt, soy sauce and matsutake mushrooms and stir-fry.

The aroma was tempting. She swallowed and scooped a few scoops of water into the pot to stew the duck meat.