Farmhouse Pastoral Notes

Chapter 170 The Crusty Chestnut

A few days ago, when Chunqiu went up the mountain, she had eaten all the white pears she brought, but she still wanted to eat fruit, so she had to go to the mountain to the east to pick wild fruits to eat. A good thing I haven't seen before, chestnut!

It's just that chestnuts are not called chestnuts here, but because of the tender green burr shell on the outside of the chestnut, they are called burr balls by the villagers.

Chestnut is famous in later generations because of the famous sugar-fried chestnut, but here, it is still a kind of wild fruit that is not popular.

It’s not good to say that it’s a wild fruit, but in fact it’s not the fruit you want. I remember her mother Yuan Shiha once said about chestnuts. She said that when there was a famine, someone had the idea of ​​​​playing burr balls (chestnuts here). It's just that after the man worked hard to remove all the thorns of the burr ball, he found that there was still a hard shell inside, and it took a lot of effort to open the hard shell. In the end, the burr ball was included in the list of unusable.

The weather is rare today, Chunqiu is going to go up the mountain to pick chestnuts, because the chestnut tree she found is not a single one, but a whole piece, think about it, how much can so many chestnuts be sold for!

This is much better than the crab fights. These days, they have caught almost all the crabs by the river in Yangjiacun. No matter how good her uncle is, she still doesn't have anything to sell.

The chestnut trees are very tall, usually 4-6 meters, and of course there are taller ones, but the chestnut trees on the mountain behind Yangjia Village are basically about four or five meters in size, and they can beat chestnuts with a long pole. down.

Because chestnuts have hard shells, before going, Chunqiu specially sewed a few pairs of thick gloves, the purpose is to make it easier for several people to pick.

Yang Weibai and Huzi went up the mountain with her today, but her mother didn't go up the mountain because of the tea.

Because Chunqiu had already recorded the location before, so when he came, Chunqiu took the two of them straight to the destination.

Several people went around the north, passed the spring, and walked for a long time before they came to the chestnut tree. There was a large chestnut tree in front of them. As the chestnuts matured, a lot of leaves fell from the chestnut trees. Touching the fallen chestnut, Chunqiu looked at the hard-skinned chestnut under his feet, bent down and threw it into the basket.

Before coming here, Chunqiu had already explained to her father and Huzi, so when he came, Yang Weibai also thoughtfully didn't ask why his daughter likes this kind of hair cones.

Yang Weibo took two quick steps, put the basket on his back aside, turned his head and told the two not to come over first, then picked up the wooden stick that had been prepared earlier and hit the tree.

Chunqiu pulled Huzi and watched her father vigorously knock on the chestnut tree in front of him. The chestnut tree was shaken from side to side by the huge impact, and the leaves and fruits fell down like they didn't want money.

After Yang Weibo knocked down one tree, he went on to hit the next one, and after cleaning up the neighboring ones, he put down the wooden stick in his hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Chunqiu obediently handed a handkerchief to her father, glanced at the scattered chestnuts hanging on the chestnut tree, and called the tiger beside him with satisfaction, "Put on the gloves, let's pick all these burr balls back" Chunqiu also I didn't ask the tiger to remove the shells now, but let him pack the shells together, because the chestnut shells are still a little damp and not easy to peel, and after going home to dry for a day, they will be almost ready.

Huzi let out an obedient "Hey", Chunqiu smiled at him, and the two got up in a hurry, because Yang Weibai hit too hard.Some chestnuts fell and were attached to the branches and leaves. Chunqiu laboriously pulled the chestnuts off the branches and put them into the basket. During this period, Chunqiu kept thanking herself for her foresight. It was punctured by a burr.

Yang Weibo had noticed the beads of sweat on the faces of the two of them a long time ago, looked up at the sky, turned around and said to the two, "Qiu'er, let's rest first." Yang Weibo is sometimes a little silly, but he doesn't Silly, he understands many things, and he is also a good father who spoils his children.

Let’s take today’s incident of going up the mountain to pick burr balls as an example. If it’s placed on someone else’s adult, knowing that the child wants such a useless thing, at most they just agree to go there by themselves, and they will definitely not help. Parents who are more independent, there is nothing to say, a scolding is good, and a spanking is not an exaggeration, unlike Yang Weibo, who heard that his daughter was going to pick a burr ball, and said nothing. He followed and helped his daughter pick it.

Purely after hearing her father's words, she and Hu Zi bowed down at the same time, turned their heads and smiled at her father, and said the words very naturally, "Okay, dad, I'm so tired."

"That's right, Dad, what shall we eat later?" Hu Zi followed along and echoed, his eyes were even more astonishingly bright when he talked about eating.

Yang Weibo pointed to the spring not far away, which was the one that Chunqiu and Yuan Shi had seen before, "There are some fish in there, Dad will grill them for you." After Yang Weibo finished speaking, he directly carried the two of them down the mountain. Sitting on a rock beside her, she looked down at her father fishing in the spring with a simple harpoon.

This harpoon was specially brought by Yang Weibo before he came here. Two sharp iron pieces were tied to the wooden stick. Yang Weibo is very skilled, and the spearfish is accurate. Apart from a few reminders at the beginning, Chunqiu watched the whole process. In a short time, her father had speared several fish and came back up.

The white scales reflected light in the sun. After Yang Weibo finished spearing the fish, he took off the iron plate from the spear, picked up the dead fish beside him, and squatted beside the spring to wash it.

The firewood did not worry Yang Weibo, Chunqiu and Huzi had already picked up the firewood, this is on the mountain.A lot of branches.

Several people piled the fire by the spring, and Yang Weibo cleared out a circle of vacuum around it. Yang Weibo was afraid of fire.

Using the sickle they brought earlier, they cut a few wooden sticks, speared all the fish and put them beside the fire. Chunqiu and his wife first went to the spring to wash their faces, and then drank two sips of water to quench their thirst.

The fish was grilled very quickly, and after a while, the aroma of the grilled fish came out. Chunqiu smelled the smell, and took the fish handed over by her father with a smile. The surface of the fish was golden, and there was fish oil dripping, which seemed to be a problem with the spring water. This grilled fish tasted much less fishy than the fish by the river, Chunqiu quickly ate one fish in his hand, and then took another one to eat, her father forked a lot of fish today, so he didn't worry about not being full.

"Hi... so supportive"

Don't doubt, this is a tiger, Chunqiu is just rubbing his belly and moaning, yes, she is also very supportive.

"Hehe, you guys rest for a while, and then pick the burr balls." Yang Weibo extinguished the fire with a smile, and then stomped on it with his feet worriedly. It's a dry day, and it's not good to start a fire.

Several people rested for a while, and Chunqiu felt that the pain in his stomach was relieved, so he stood up and continued to work.

In the afternoon, I don’t have as much energy as in the morning, especially when I’m full and want to go to bed. But I picked a lot in the morning, and in the afternoon, a few people filled Yang Weibo’s basket, and they went home.

There was no one in the house, so Chunqiu directly put the chestnuts in the backyard, which is the place between the front house and the back house. This place is sunny and much more useful than the yard.

Chunqiu threw all the chestnuts to the place very boldly, Chunqiu kicked back those who got out, finished today's task, hummed happily, and ran back to the house...

(End of this chapter)