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Chapter 29 Picking Watermelons
The rooster crows, accompanied by the barking of the dog, and it is another morning full of hope. The sun is still sleeping soundly, and there is a faint ray of light in the sky, vaguely looking at the clouds. The people in Lijiagang have already gotten up and started doing farm work early. Li Shan and Zhang Lan took the
Li Feng, a family of three, drove the car straight to the river beach, with wooden boards on both sides of the car.
The morning in April was slightly cool, with a hint of water vapor in the air. Li Feng went to bed late yesterday and said goodbye to Mr. Lin, feeling a little reluctant. The old man had fulfilled his wish after seeing the dam, so he couldn't always live here.
In fact, life is about farewell and unity. Li Shan and his wife are more open-minded. Besides, now that they have contact, they are closer than in previous years. There are green grass and wild flowers on the roadside, and the sika deer happily runs out of the yard, with the fat boy behind him.
Immediately afterwards, Furball rubbed his eyes, looking dazed, so cute.
Li Feng holds a bamboo basket in his hand and picks watermelons in the morning while the sun is not out. Picking watermelons at this time will not damage the seedlings. Li Feng's watermelons are produced earlier than others, mainly because Li Feng secretly irrigated some spring water and are now ready for the market.
Sell it for more money. When picking watermelons, you must pay attention to your steps and don't step on the melon vines, especially the melon roots.
To distinguish between raw and ripe, pay attention to whether the fibrous roots have withered recently. Withering means that the melons are ripe and can be picked. Of course, this is a little skill. This technique may be useful in the early stage, but it cannot be seen in this way in the later stage. The main reason is that the melon vines have withered and the fibrous roots have withered.
It cannot be used to judge whether the melon is raw or ripe. At this time, other techniques must be used, such as looking, weighing, and touching. Look, melons with flower skin should have clear lines and distinct shades, and there should be a melon pedicle, the melon navel is concave inward, and the vine handle is downward.
Close to the melon rind and thick green near the pedicle, it is a sign of maturity. The more mature the watermelon is, the lighter it will be. This is difficult to grasp, only experienced people can do it. Touch and use your thumb to scratch the melon rind.
, based on feeling, this is even more difficult
Nowadays, the first batch of melons are grown in a large area. It is easy to judge based on only the fibrous roots. Li Feng can handle it alone, but in order not to hurt the melon seedlings, Li Feng took a pair of scissors, mainly because he was not sure about the strength of his hands.
OK.
Hetan melons are not that big, weighing more than ten pounds. Li Feng carries three at a time, which is quite easy. Li Shan and Zhang Lan hold two at a time. The flower-skinned watermelons have stripes of light green and dark green. They look pretty together.
, the furball seemed to smell the fragrance of the melon, and lay on the melon skin to grind its teeth. Li Feng looked funny, this little thing, with only a few teeth, wanted to open a watermelon, not just daydreaming. Who knows, what will happen next time he goes there?
When the child came back, the furball got his head into the watermelon and ate it all.
"Go." Drive away the squirrel. Li Feng held the watermelon and looked at the big hole dug. He was depressed. He never thought that this guy could even chew something as hard as a walnut. The rind of this melon is much crispier than that of a walnut.
Ah. Li Feng was very depressed. He couldn't eat this melon anymore. He looked at the squirrels chirping at his feet and thought, forget it, it's an advantage for you. He didn't expect the sika deer to grab the food next to him.
In one morning, Li Feng's family picked two cartloads of more than 200 watermelons, which was truly a bumper harvest. Because their watermelons were on the market early, they were already booked before they even left home. At around eight o'clock in the morning, cars beeped outside the yard.
Li Shan stood up quickly and greeted him. He was in his forties and looked very smart. He was followed by a young man in his twenties who was quite strong.
Zhang Lan quickly poured tea, took cigarettes, and invited him to sit in the room. Li Shan greeted him with a smile and held the visitor's hand.
"Boss Wan, sit down quickly, Xiaobao, kill a watermelon and bring it to quench the thirst of the two bosses." Li Shan winked at Li Feng and said, "Look at the taste of the melon."
"No, little brother, don't be busy, let's take a look first." Wan Jun laughed and thought about the winks from the young man next to him. As the saying goes, Mrs. Wang sells her own melons and boasts. If she doesn't take a look, she won't feel at ease.
"Haha, okay, here." The watermelon performed well and was bright in color. Li Shan looked at Wan Jun, looked left and right, weighed it, and had a faint smile on his face. He seemed quite satisfied.
"The performance is pretty good, but the taste is hard to say." Wan Jun stood up and nodded to Li Shan, with a faint expression on his face, as if he was not at ease. Li Feng looked a little funny. This person can go to hell, you say he will do it.
In the fruit business, one can't tell the difference between a good melon and a bad melon. Without saying a word, Li Feng picked up the watermelon and chopped it open with a knife. The flesh was bright red, and you could smell the faint fragrance of the melon even before it was eaten. The appearance was absolutely first-rate.
"Boss Wan, have a try." Li Shan looked at Wan Jun with a rather proud face. The watermelons he grew were of good quality, and his face was radiant. Farmers were comparing themselves to the craftsmanship of farming. He took Li Feng and handed it over.
Two large pieces of watermelon were handed to Wan Jun and the young man behind him.
Li Feng didn't care and started eating. His mouth was full of bright red melon juice. It was sweet and had a hint of coolness. The taste was unspeakable, authentic and full of sugar.
"Yeah, it's okay..." Wan Jun wiped the melon juice from the corner of his mouth. He wanted to find faults, but the taste was really good and the appearance was good. He was left to his own devices and couldn't find any problems. He could only deal with it casually.
"Look at the price. How about we pay 55 cents according to the market?" Nowadays, watermelons are not on the market on a large scale. Li Feng's family is the first one in Lizuizi Town. Wan Jun originally wanted to lower the price, but he saw the melons and tasted them.
Taste, the price is not deliberately low, the market price is quite reasonable.
"Okay." It's absolutely fine if I buy it for 60 cents by myself, but I have scattered it, so it doesn't cost much. It's hard to travel, so I thought it would be better to sell it to Wan Jun together to save time and effort.
Someone brought a scale, and Li Shan tried it, but there was no problem. There were many bamboo baskets on the left and right, and they were equipped with scales. There were more than 200 watermelons. Except for some injuries, the total was more than 2,400 kilograms, not counting fractions, 2,000 kilograms.
Four hundred kilograms, one thousand three hundred and twenty yuan, is quite a lot. In previous years, when the watermelon was on the market, it cost three or four kilograms for one dollar, which cost six or seven yuan.
Zhang Lan watched the transaction end and invited the two of them to dinner. Wan Jun originally thought to rush back early, but seeing the host's enthusiasm, he made enough time, and maybe he would come over next time.
Breakfast was quite simple, just a few vegetables, braised fish, red bean porridge, and pot stickers. Unexpectedly, Wan Jun tasted the delicious food after the whole meal. He repeatedly praised Zhang Lan for his good cooking skills. This dish looked simple, but it tasted really good.
Even Xiao Liu beside him nodded. Before leaving, Li Shan gave a lot of vegetables to Wan Jun. After all, with a business worth more than a thousand yuan, giving some vegetables was nothing.
After dinner, Li Feng told Zhang Lan that he would go to Taolin and take a look at the house. It would take a few days to get some fresh air. It would be no problem to move in. However, Li Feng felt that it was quite comfortable to live alone.
Lonely child, this matter has been put aside and has not been moved here.
The peach blossoms have fallen, and now there are green peaches under the green nectarine leaves. Li Feng has been watering the spring water a lot these days. The function of the spring water is roughly understood. As long as it is not watered all the time, it can only increase the yield a little and will not attract anyone's attention.
It's a pity that the promotion of flowers and medicinal materials in these springs is not obvious. It seems that they are only suitable for vegetables, fruits and aquatic products. These days, the crucian carp fry and carp fry in the pond are growing well, and a little feed is added every day. As for the eel fry, Li Feng has been looking for them for a long time.
Seeing the shadow, a hole may have been drilled. There is such a long ditch on the left and right. As usual, I add some spring water every day and don't worry about it anymore. As for the swordfish, I haven't paid much attention to it. I threw in some dry water plants or small fish, but this guy
Live quite comfortably.
I looked around and saw that there was nothing outside. I entered the yard, turned around and walked into the building. I opened the window to let some air in. I moved a bamboo chair, lay down to bask in the sun, took the book with me, read it, and fell asleep in a daze. I woke up.
It was already past ten o'clock when we arrived. With nothing to do, Li Feng entered the space with a shovel.
Now the space is many times better than it was at the beginning. The ground is full of fruits and melons, the lotus leaves in the pond are out of water, a few carps are swimming under the lotus leaves, and the ground is covered with morning glories beside the pond.
Li Feng looked happy. The peach tree flowers in the yard were already pink. Although they had fallen a little, they were much better than outside.
Looking around and seeing nothing to do, Li Feng thought that he had become even more lazy after being back for so long and eating, drinking and sleeping every day. Now he didn't even want to do his odd jobs at night. As Mr. Lu Xun said, life is too
When you are at ease, work is easily burdened by life. When people relax, they don’t want to think about or do anything.
No, Li Feng was trying hard to think of what else he could do. By the way, he finally thought of using his own pond as a dock. In the future, it would be convenient to hang lotus pods or pierce chicken heads.
Thinking about this, Li Feng stood up and ran home. He hugged a lot of moso bamboo slices and used jujube wood from the thatched hut to drive piles. It was a hard work to drive the piles. Li Feng is getting better these days and his strength has increased greatly. He used to weigh more than 100 kilograms.
I had to chew the food for a long time. Now I can carry it easily without any trouble at all.
It took half an hour to drive six piles, set up cross beams, lay bamboo sheets, and fix them with iron. Although it was simple, it was quite simple. After working for an hour, I looked at the time, threw the tools in my hands into the yard, and opened the gate.
Lock it up and go home for dinner.
In the afternoon, I accompanied Li Shan to build a hut in the meadow on the river beach. The huts of the sixth and third uncles on both sides had been built long ago, but only his own hut had not yet been taken care of. At first, Li Feng built a new house, but later Mr. Lin was too busy to forget about it.
I bought a bunch of watermelons and saw that the huts had not been built. I was not afraid that someone would steal the melons. They were all villagers. It was no big deal to pick them to quench my thirst. The most important thing was that I was afraid that animals would destroy these things. Not to mention eating melons.
There is a lot of waste along with the melon vines, which is most annoying.
Li Feng saw two things while picking melons today. Not only were the watermelons bitten all over the ground, but several watermelon seedlings beside the watermelons were also torn off, and there were several melon eggs as big as duck eggs on them, which looked quite distressing.
……………
Today I saw a lot of people saying that an author passed away, which made me feel very sad. I won’t say it anymore, everyone, check if you have any votes in your hands, cast your votes, and sit in front of the computer for three or four hours to write this. It’s really,
No status. I’ll update more tomorrow.
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