Chapter 436 - 434: Busy Drying the Grain
During this process, if the ground of the drying yard became damp, you would first use the wooden teeth of a grain rake to push the grain aside, creating furrows. This exposed the damp ground, allowing it to dry in the sun for a bit.
Once it dried, you would then push the grain into ridges to expose more of the damp ground. After that ground was dry, you would rake the grain flat again, spreading it thin.
The sun was strong, and the ground dried quickly. Lin Lan remembered drying grain as a child. ’This isn’t even the hardest part of the day,’ she thought. ’The worst is when the sun is directly overhead.’
The air was scorching, and even the breeze was hot, like a wave of fire washing over you. It felt like the sun would bake off two layers of any exposed skin.
People were so tired they felt like they could fall asleep standing up, but they still had to go turn the grain.
Just as she pushed the grain aside, Li Xiangyang and Lin Guodong returned, their carrying poles laden with grain.
Li Xiangyang glanced at her sun-reddened face and chuckled. "Getting baked out here, huh?"
Lin Lan nodded. "Yep. If we don’t, the grain won’t dry." She pushed more grain aside, motioning for the two of them to pour their loads onto the empty space.
Lin Guodong emptied the grain from his basket and coiled the hemp rope. "Little Lan, I don’t think the yard is big enough to dry all the grain we’ve brought back today."
Lin Lan looked around. "If we spread the morning harvest a little thicker, we can still fit it all. For what we harvest this afternoon, we’ll take out the drying mats and use the tractor path by the gate."
"Sounds good."
After they emptied the grain, Li Xiangyang helped spread it with a grain rake. Then he and Lin Guodong shouldered their poles and empty baskets and left.
Lin Lan spread the grain out evenly, then used a rake to remove the stray rice stalks mixed in, before returning to the shelter of the eaves.
She checked the time—it was ten-thirty. She said to Lin Hong, "Keep an eye on things. I’m going to wash the vegetables. Don’t let Wangcai run around in the grain."
Lin Hong nodded. "Grandma said she’d be back at ten-thirty."
Before the words were even out of her mouth, Wu Shufen walked in, pushing a bicycle with a carrying basket on her back. "Little Lan, I cooked a chicken and bought two carp. What ingredients did you get?"
Lin Lan smiled. "I brought a sweet-skinned duck, plus some pork stomach, pork kidneys, hindquarter, and pork belly."
Lin Hong chimed in, "Auntie said she’s making me winter melon pot!"
Wu Shufen smiled and nodded. "Alright, we’ll have winter melon pot then." She looked at Lin Lan. "Have the mushrooms rehydrated?"
"They’re soaking. I put in a handful of shiitake mushrooms and a few matsutake as well." Lin Lan carried the back-basket towards the kitchen.
Wu Shufen said to Lin Hong, "Take the grain rake and turn the grain. Rake it over a few times."
"Okay!"
Wu Shufen went into the kitchen, took the fish to the stone slab in the backyard to gut them, and said, "Little Lan, after we turn in the public grain quota, while the price is cheap, we should find someone and buy more grain to stockpile."
The sight suddenly made Lin Lan feel a bit nauseous. She turned her head away and said, "Okay. Later, I’ll talk to Sister Li and Meihua and ask them to help find out which family in the production team is looking to sell grain."
Wu Shufen was relieved to hear that. She pointed at the eggplant, cowpeas, and green peppers in the vegetable basket. "How do you want to cook those?"
"We’ll have the eggplant as a cold salad. Little Hong mentioned stir-fried ground pork with green beans, and we can dry-fry the green peppers and cowpeas together."
Wu Shufen nodded. "Let’s save the pork stomach, kidneys, and hindquarter for dinner tonight."
"Okay, I’ll go get a handful of straw to scrub the winter melon."
"Mhm!" Wu Shufen scraped the black membrane from inside the fish clean, then washed the picked cilantro, green onions, garlic cloves, and ginger, placing them in a sieve before carrying it back to the kitchen.
Lin Lan went to the woodshed, grabbed a handful of rice straw, and scrubbed the winter melon clean in a large wooden basin before carrying it back to the kitchen.
Wu Shufen said, "I’ll mince the meat for the meatballs. You go light the outer stove first and put the winter melon in to steam. Oh! There’s chicken broth in the aluminum pot from the back-basket."
"Okay!"
Lin Lan cut the winter melon open, making the shorter section with the stem the lid. From the longer section, she scooped out the seeds, rinsed it, and then used a steel spoon to scrape out some of the flesh, dicing it into small pieces to set aside.
She took the aluminum pot from the back-basket and poured half of the chicken broth into the winter melon. Then, she placed a steaming rack inside the large wok and ladled in two scoops of water. To keep the winter melon steady, she set it in an earthenware bowl before placing the whole thing on the rack to steam.
Lin Lan tore the matsutake into small strips, sliced the shiitake mushrooms, diced the ham, and chopped the white part of a scallion to set aside.
Wu Shufen cracked an egg and poured the white into the minced meat. She added cornstarch, minced ginger, salt, and pepper, then stirred it all clockwise, slapping and kneading the mixture until it became firm and springy.
After bringing a ladle of clear water to a boil in a pot, she used the space between her thumb and index finger to squeeze out the meatballs one by one, scooping them with a spoon and dropping them into the pot. Once the meatballs were cooked, she removed them and placed them in cool water to stop the cooking.
"Little Lan, put the meatballs into the winter melon pot."
"Okay." Lin Lan added the meatballs and the other prepared ingredients to the winter melon, put the winter melon lid on top, and then covered the wok. She added a handful of firewood to the stove’s firebox before going back out to turn the grain.
Li Xiangyang and Lin Guodong returned two more times with loads of grain. Little Hong was struggling to push the drying grain toward the east wing.
The moisture from the first batch of grain was almost completely gone. This new batch had to be dried separately from the earlier one.
Lin Lan picked up a grain rake. "Little Hong, go help Grandma tend the fire. I’ll take care of the grain."
"Okay!" Lin Hong eagerly put down the grain rake and hurried off.
Lin Lan pushed some of the drier grain toward the east wing, then spread the newly arrived batch out evenly and used a rake to remove the stray rice stalks mixed within it.
A little after eleven o’clock, Little Douzi and Old Li also arrived in Lexing.
Old Li stopped the car and waited for Little Douzi to get out. He said to him, "You go on inside. Grandpa is going to check on the rice paddies."
Little Douzi nodded. "Okay!"
Wangcai, who was lying by the door, wagged his tail nonstop at the two of them. Old Li gave him a pat before heading toward the rice paddies.
Little Douzi wrapped his arms around the dog’s neck. "Wangcai, did you miss me?"
Wangcai panted, wagging his tail furiously at him.
"Haha, Douzi, you’re hilarious. As if a dog would miss you." Lin Jun and a few other boys walked in, carrying a bucket and a woven basket.
Little Douzi saw the bucket Lin Jun was carrying and peeked inside. "Cousin Jun, did you guys go netting fish?"
Lin Jun nodded smugly. "Yep! We caught a few crucian carp, a grass carp, some shrimp, and a few loaches. We’ll cook them for Wangcai later."
Hearing his voice, Lin Hong came out of the house. She put her hands on her hips and pointed at the group. "You guys are so going to get a beating today!"
Lin Jun remembered what his grandmother had told him before she left and shrank back.
"Nyah nyah nyah, tattletale!" Lin Qing made a face at her and walked inside carrying the woven basket.
Lin Hong looked at Lin Jun. "Go ahead and don’t believe me, Brother. Dad said when he gets back, he’s going to treat you to ’bamboo shoots stir-fried with pork.’"
Little Douzi looked at Lin Hong, asking in confusion, "Why is Cousin Jun going to eat bamboo shoots stir-fried with pork?"
"Grandma told him to stay home and help dry the grain, but he ran off to the ditch to net fish." Lin Hong pointed at Lin Gang. "And you! And Lin Qing, too! Grandma told you guys to go to the rice paddies and glean the fallen grains, but you both ran off."