My 1995 Small Farm

  Chapter 212

   Today is a fair in the county town, so there is no need to shout. As long as people from ten miles and eight townships want to buy meat a year ago, they will spontaneously come up to see the meat stall, ask the price, and see the quality of the meat, and soon there will be a lot of noise.

  The other thing is: wild boar is more than one yuan cheaper than domestic fat pork, especially the meat of big boars.

   This guy is short of two dollars for a lot of things, and he is only twenty dollars short of buying ten pounds.

  Many budget-conscious people know that wild boar is cheap, and after asking about the price, they lined up outside the stall.

   As for wild boar, it has a big taste and a woody texture, so I’m not afraid.

   The Chinese New Year is approaching, and there is time to deal with it.

  The seasonings on the market are not as scarce as they were in previous years. The smell of wild boar can still be suppressed by taking more time to deal with it.

  …

   "You haven't sold meat before, so I won't say anything about it, so why do you keep picking up thin ones and cutting them?"

   An old lady from the village in the south of the city muttered in dissatisfaction.

   "Auntie, it's true that I'm a novice, but don't always pick the fat ones, you won't be able to sell my meat after you pick it up."

  Chen Ling said helplessly.

   These wild boars before the winter still have a lot of fat on their bodies, such as under the belly, which is where they store the most fat.

  The village wives are picky.

  I always wanted Chen Ling to cut this kind of place for them, and cut the knife close to the place with a lot of fat, so what is it?

   However, you can't drive customers away if you open your door to do business.

   At this moment, Wang Susu picked up the knife and cut a little bit of fat for the old lady. There were probably two or three taels, which were given to her separately.

  The old lady smiled brightly, took out the money happily, wrapped the meat and left happily.

  The people behind saw it, although they didn't say anything, but they also had expectations in their hearts.

   After picking the meat, he leaned forward eagerly, waiting for Wang Susu to add some meat to them.

  Wang Susu didn't let them down either, so he didn't say anything.

   Buying 10 catties of meat, Chen Ling cuts off a little more, and often doesn't remove it for them.

  There are quite a lot of people buying such an affordable scale.

   So much so that Chen Ling shouted that each person would cut at least five pounds, and no one would say anything.

   It was going to be New Year's Eve, so if you buy more, buy more.

   Of course, if you have the conditions, you still prefer to buy fatty pork.

  The fat pork is full of oil and water, and it tastes delicious.

   Compared with wild boar, which is almost all lean meat, big guys are more inclined to regard fatty pork as meat for Chinese New Year.

   But this year's floods and meat prices have made it impossible for many people to afford fatty pork.

  It is cheaper to go into the water with the head and hooves, but it can't be put on the table during the New Year, and relatives who come to the first month can't carry these things for people to eat.

  These things are not considered serious meat in the eyes of most people.

   So inferior boar meat became the choice.

  Chen Ling's meat stall never stopped anyone, and after eleven o'clock in the morning, only 30 catties of wild boar were left.

   It can be said that it sold out quite fast.

  It's just that at this time, all the wild boar is inevitably left with lean meat, and it's a bit unsaleable.

   People often come over to take a look, then look at the price, and then leave.

   But Chen Ling and his wife didn't care, they sold rabbits if they couldn't sell wild boar.

  The price of rabbits is very cheap all year round, and there are many people who eat them, and most of them are sold out quickly.

  Chen Ling made a price for the scale, and Wang Susu kept the account and received the money.

   After a while, the rabbit alone sold for fifty or sixty dollars.

   With wild boar, it was sold for more than 500 yuan in half a morning.

  …

   When it was noon, Qin Qiumei and Zhong Xiaoyun knew that they were going to the county town to sell things today, so they came over and told them to go home for dinner.

  Chen Ling and the two were not polite, they had lunch at Qin Qiumei's house.

  After dinner, Chen Ling continued to go back to the small courtyard in the south of the city to guard the stall, selling the remaining pork and rabbits while reading miscellaneous books, while Wang Susu and Qin Qiumei went to the market for a stroll.

  Wang Susu seldom came to the county town to go to the market.

   Now I have two friends to accompany me, but I am very happy.

   But she was pregnant after all, so she walked around the set slowly, feeling the cheerful atmosphere of the big set when the Chinese New Year was about to come back, and came back.

When    came back, the three women were still holding two white plastic bulk wine jugs in their hands, and they stared at Chen Ling for a moment.

   "What are you doing? Yesterday I said drinking, but you really want to drink?"

   "No, no, what to drink, just buy a clean jug, and go back with some soy sauce and vinegar later."

  Wang Susu smiled at him and pointed to the old street to the north: "I met a soy sauce master at the fair just now, we told him the location, and he said he could transfer to us later."

   "Oh, yes, it's New Year's Eve, it's time to make some fresh soy sauce vinegar."

  Chen Ling nodded and looked at the three of them, "So each of you bought these two pots and nothing else?"

   "No, it's because you can't buy it because you want to buy it. There are so many things, you have to drive the bullock cart to go there."

  Wang Susu counted with his fingers: "Think about it, you should buy fire paper, incense candles, and idols, as well as couplets, blessing characters, window grilles, lanterns, and other miscellaneous items that we can't get back."

  “…”

   "It makes sense, I'll catch up with the ox cart and take you to buy it later."

   "Okay, okay, just in time for you to take us around again."

   The four of them were talking and laughing, and before long, there were bursts of old shouts from far to near.

   "Sell ~ soy sauce ~ make vinegar ~"

  “…”

   "Sell ~ soy sauce ~ make vinegar ~"

  “…”

I saw a black-faced old man driving a donkey cart slowly over. There were several large buckets on the cart. From a distance, it seemed that the black oil stains on the walls of the buckets could be clearly seen. The savory taste of soy sauce.

   "Master, here."

  Wang Susu beckoned, the old man immediately stopped shouting and drove the donkey cart here.

   "Oh, they sell wild boar meat. So you are a family. When I came, I wanted to buy a few pounds, but I was all thin."

   The old man smiled with yellow teeth and jumped out of the donkey cart: "How was the sale this afternoon?"

   "It's okay, the price has dropped, and it's almost sold out."

  Chen Ling walked over to the donkey cart and looked at it. There were several buckets on the cart. There were two or three kinds of soy sauce and vinegar, with different colors and tastes, and different prices.

   "Looks like I've made some money, come on, pick and see what you want."

  The old man opened the lids one by one, and a strong soy sauce salty and umami taste mixed with the acetic acid smell came to the nostrils.

  Chen Ling leaned over, sniffed carefully, and picked out the soy sauce vinegar he wanted.

   "That's it, I smell these two kinds of soy sauce and vinegar not bad."

   "Yo, you have two strokes in this later life, and you picked the best one."

   The old man gave a thumbs up and showed him the small wooden sign hanging on the side of the barrel. The price of the sign was indeed the most expensive.

  Chen Ling smiled, turned and asked Qin Qiumei, "How about you guys, come and pick?"

   "If you don't choose, I'll do what you want."

   The two of them said, and then handed the pot in their hands to the old man, "Our three families all make a pot of soy sauce and a pot of vinegar. If you want so much, you have to give it to you."

   These days, soy sauce, vinegar, and grains and oils all come in bulk, go in pieces, buy naked and sell naked, and there is no packaging.

   They make this pot of soy sauce and vinegar, and it is not a problem to eat it for two or three months.

   And other people, generally a glass bottle the size of a beer bottle will do.

   In this comparison, aren't they all big customers?

   "Relax, it's absolutely real."

   The old man responded, and put the funnel into the spout in front of Chen Ling, and then took out a bucket made of bamboo from the bucket.

  This bucket is a few years old and still has a rope end attached to the long bamboo handle.

I saw the old man put the bucket into the big bucket containing the soy sauce, and with a skillful and quick swipe, the bucket was filled with a bucket of soy sauce, and then poured into the funnel, and the soy sauce flowed down the funnel into the white saucepan. in the jug.

   One bucket after another bucket…

   With the sound of "gududu" soy sauce flowing into the pot, the white plastic wine pot was slowly dyed black and red.

   After beating the soy sauce, add the vinegar.

   After the three of them finished playing, and after paying the money, many people with soy sauce pots and vinegar bottles gathered around, chatting, laughing and talking, waiting to make soy sauce.

  Isn’t it? It’s the end of the year. How can we cook meat, cook rice and make dumplings without soy sauce?

  …

   "Play ~ soy sauce ~ sell good vinegar~"

   It was after three o'clock in the afternoon, when Chen Ling sold out the wild boar and took three Wang Susu to the market to buy New Year's goods.

  The old man selling soy sauce was still shouting along the street.

   Hearing the voice of the old man walking away, Chen Ling hummed a little tune and took the three women to stop and go in the market. There were more and more things on the bullock cart.

   As the saying goes: after Laba is the New Year.

   But in fact, after the twentieth of the twelfth lunar month, the flavor of the New Year will become stronger day by day.

   It was the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month.

  In the morning, the village is full of hustle and bustle, fried melon seeds, fried peanuts, popped popcorn, and it really is more and more delicious.

   On this day, Chen Ling's house didn't get up early, and only got up at nine o'clock to eat.

   didn't make any serious breakfast.

  Wang Susu just smashed the walnut kernels at home mixed with white sesame seeds with a rolling pin, fried them in a pot, and then baked a few walnut pancakes.

   The young couple ate fragrant walnut cakes and drank hot goat milk, and they settled at the table with pen and paper.

   It's the end of the year, the New Year's goods are ready, and there is nothing else to spend.

   This year's income and expenses should also be roughly calculated, and you have to be roughly aware of it.

   This is very important to the little daughter-in-law.

  Chen Ling doesn't have any opinion, just stay with her.

   After the account was settled, Wang Susu was quite satisfied.

  Because the cost of building a farm was not as much as she imagined.

   But the money from the chicken and duck eggs sold at home in the past six months was a bit unexpected.

   "After the farm is built, if you raise more chickens and ducks, will you be able to increase it several times?"

   The little daughter-in-law bit the ballpoint pen and fell into a fantasy.

  Chen Ling was also meditating.

   looked at the numbers on the bill and frowned slightly.

   I thought to myself, "Next year, I won't raise rabbits anymore, I eat a lot, and I spend my nose cleaning every day, and I won't be able to sell much money in the end."

   Rabbit and quail are the ones that sell the least money.

  quail is excusable, after all, the number is small.

   In addition, Chen Ling raised this thing, in fact, for quail eggs.

   So the quail can stay, but the rabbit is fine.

   "By the way, I have to go to Han Chuang's wedding in two days. Have you removed the money?"

   "Remove it, I remember it."

  Wang Susu smiled, closed the ledger and packed it up, put it in the drawer, and said, "I'll send the pig hair and bristles to Wen Li, and we'll tie the broom when we get back."

   "Okay, I'll go and pack up."

  Chen Ling nodded and went to the firewood room to take out the two bundles of sorghum ears that Yuqiang's wife sent yesterday.

  The New Year is approaching, and the broom as a cleaning tool should also be replaced with a new one.

  I will be cleaning the house in a few days.

   They are here, they call this tie broom a tie broom.

  When tying the broom, most of the sorghum ears are used. The sorghum ears that are cut in autumn have the upper shell scraped off and soaked in water to make the bound broom strong and durable.

   Of course, reeds can also be made, but they are not as durable as sorghum, and are the same as the mats woven from reeds.

   His family's sorghum ears and broom millet were sent by Yuqiang's wife, and they had to be replaced by wild boar bristles and pig hair.

   gave such a bunch.

  Wang Susu sent the bristle to the past, and when he came back, he also took two bundlers for binding brooms.

  The local dialect of the bundler is called "pedg".

   To put it bluntly, it is a wide belt tied around the waist, with a crossbar tied at the front, and a string of beef tendon is wrapped around the crossbar.

After tying the sorghum pole and the broom with the hemp rope, step on the crossbar with both feet, and wrap it around the broom pole into small pieces. , so tied very firmly.

   In my impression, the broom handle is rarely broken, and even the bottom hair is polished, the handle is still good, and it can even be used to teach the disobedient bear baby a lesson, which is the reason.

   "Is there enough hemp rope at home?"

   "Of course it's enough. Before the construction of our farmhouse, as long as the hemp ropes and iron wires are used, I have prepared everything, and a few brooms will definitely not be used up."

  Chen Ling said, and found the two **** of hemp rope.

  Because there are not one or two binding brooms, just cleaning the room is not enough.

   There are also cooking brooms for the kitchen, bed brooms for sweeping the bed, and large brooms for sweeping the yard.

  Although the big broom is not made of sorghum ears, but tied with the tips or side branches of bamboo, hemp rope and iron wire are indispensable.

   "Okay, then let's start. I remember you, A Ling, said before that the broom-binding broom has learned both hands from my father, so let's compare it."

  Wang Susu waved the two brooms in his hand and said with a smile.

  In the countryside at this time, like their generation, many people still know how to tie a broom.

   has also been taught by the elderly since childhood.

   Do yourself a favor.

  I really don’t know how to tie a broom, so I went outside the village to pick up two broom seedlings, and I wouldn’t buy one.

   "Compare, compare, who is afraid of who."

  Chen Ling put the sickle on the ground, grabbed two yellow sorghum stems, and started to work.

   The broom-binding guy is actually a dirty job.

   In particular, the sorghum stalks need to be scraped clean to make a broom, and they also need to be beaten and soaked in water, which often fills the yard with sorghum husks and dust, which is very choking.

   But what Yuqiang's wife gave was to clean up, and she could use it directly to tie the broom.

   This saves a lot of things.

   Binding a broom is actually not too complicated.

   A "wooden pedal", a small curved sickle, and a ball of fine hemp rope.

After    is ready, in order to facilitate the bundling, it is often necessary to use a hammer to smash the straw part of the tip of the sorghum.

   Then divide each three into a small handful, and divide into several small hands in total.

   Then put the fine hemp rope for tying beside him, hold the head of the hemp rope in his mouth, and tie a wooden stirrup around his waist.

  Wang Susu couldn't tie it around her waist, so she found a tree stump to put it on. She then spread a thick cotton pad on the tree stump and sat down, stepping on the crossbar of the pedal and started to tie the broom.

   "Nanqi to Beiqi, a broom of the Nine Paths."

   This sutra is naturally a rope sutra, which is a rope knot, which means that most of the brooms need to be tied with nine rope knots to be strong.

  The nine ropes are ligated.

   also hit the top.

   At this time, use a sickle to cut off the excess rods, and generally make a cone-like shape, which looks good and looks good.

  Hang it on the wall and leaned behind the door, it looks good too.

   "I'm tied up."

  Wang Susu picked up the sickle, cut off the top of the seedling stalk, and tied a beautiful and regular broom.

   "You are the first, let's see who is faster in the end."

  Chen Ling expressed dissatisfaction. He was born by hand, and he was only half-bound at this time, but he learned things very quickly.

   He doesn't believe that even his own wife can't compare.

  Unfortunately, he found that he was still not as skillful as his daughter-in-law.

  It is for home use, and it is not sold as a broom.

  It is enough to make two brooms per person.

   These four brooms are enough for next year.

   So the two brooms, Wang Susu, were quickly tied up.

After the    was tied, she also tied the remaining cooking brooms and bed brooms.

  Chen Ling tied the big broom sweeping the yard twice after he was done tying it up.

   I worked hard for a long time, so that I didn't eat lunch until after two o'clock in the afternoon.

   Before he could rest after eating, Wang Lixian came to the door again, saying that he would kill the New Year pig on the stage tomorrow, and gave him a number in front of him. He would go to kill the pig early tomorrow, and then he would save his worries later.

   "Okay, I'll drive the pig over early tomorrow."

  Chen Ling responded with a full mouth.

   On the twentieth of the twelfth lunar month, the broom is tied, and on the twenty-first, the New Year's pig will be slaughtered, and after that, it will not stop for a day.

   This is the daily routine of the last days of the twelfth lunar month.

   Busy, but happy and fulfilling.

   (end of this chapter)