Chapter 1140 Stepfather 51
In the deep mountains and forests and lush jungles, they also planted a lot of crops such as pumpkins, winter melons, sweet potatoes, corn, millet, potatoes, etc.
The land in the deep mountains is fertile, so you basically don't have to worry about what you plant. It will grow whatever it wants. In the fall, you can just harvest the fruits.
The Shen family had no vegetable garden, so Yuanchun gave Shen Yi a lot of vegetable seeds and asked him to plant them next to the dry rice in the mountains. Now the vegetables in the three ridges of vegetable garden next to the dry rice are growing better than those in her backyard.
The Shen family actually has no shortage of food.
But whatever Yuanchun’s family couldn’t finish, she would still send to the Shen family.
Yuanchun told him, "If you can't finish the vegetables, ask your mother to dry them and save them for the winter. In the Northeast, it's freezing and snowy in the winter, and you can't grow vegetables. The common people can only stew some dried vegetables and eat some pickled sauerkraut. When the dried vegetables and sauerkraut are gone, they eat soybean paste. When the soybean paste is gone, they can only eat hard black steamed buns. In addition, the winter in the Northeast is very long. For more than half a year, the ground is frozen hard and you can't hoe it."
Therefore, in the Northeast, people cannot grow vegetables for more than half a year and have to rely on stored vegetables.
When the stored vegetables were eaten up, people started to eat white rice. This rice was not rice, but millet rice, sorghum rice, or black flour steamed buns, and corn cakes.
The common people in Northeast China eat coarse grains and rarely eat fine grains throughout the year.
The Shen family came from the south and were used to eating fine grains. They ate rice and white flour buns every day and could not get used to coarse grains at all. That was why Shen Yi tried every means to find ways to exchange for dry rice seeds from the black market and secretly planted them in the deep mountains and forests.
Because he felt sorry for his grandparents and mother eating coarse grains, and felt sad when he saw them unable to eat but having to force themselves to swallow them.
"Help me dry the vegetables. My place is not suitable." Shen Yi said, "I will make you a fox fur scarf as a reward."
"Can you tan leather?"
"Ah."
"That's great. I have a lot of rabbit skins at home. You can help me tan the skins and I'll help you dry the vegetables."
"Okay, I'll go to your house to get the rabbit skin in the evening."
"Okay, it's a deal."
Yuanchun and Shen Yi went to see the dry rice. Yuanchun picked all the ripe cucumbers, beans, peppers, and eggplants, then pointed at the edible Chinese cabbage and lettuce and said, "Pick some leafy vegetables to eat, and I'll help you dry the rest."
"Ah-Chun, thank you."
"We are friends, you're welcome."
"But I still want to thank you."
While all the villagers were trying to avoid them, only this silly girl would secretly approach them and help them a lot.
Now, Shen Yi suspected that the person who sent them the quilt on the first night they arrived was most likely Yuanchun.
Quilts are in short supply in every household and there are no extra ones to give away.
He also found out that her stepfather and mother had passed away not long before they arrived in Hongqi Village, so there must be some unused quilts in the house. However, he had been to her house several times and had not seen any other quilts except the one she was covering herself with.
A quilt is such a valuable item that it is impossible to throw it away just because my step-parents passed away. In this era, quilts are big items in the home and no one would be willing to throw them away.
If it wasn't thrown away, it means she gave it away.
Yuanchun grinned, "Okay, I received your thanks."
"Ayi, this rice has a shorter growth period than corn and is about to be harvested. We have to harvest the rice before the autumn harvest. However, this rice is a rare commodity in Hongqi Village. After the harvest, we can only rub the grains in the cave and cannot take them back."