A few days after Wang Hua called me, Zhang Changming from the post office in the town came to the village to deliver the letter.
Zhang Changming is from Wangjiachong next door and now works as a postman in the town.
Every day he rides a 28-inch big bar and delivers mail to several nearby villages.
"What are you sending? It's a big package and quite heavy."
Zhang Changming entered the yard and handed Zhang An a large envelope from the mail bag in the back seat of Erba Dagong.
Zhang An took a look and saw that yes, it was sent by Wang Hua.
"Hey, it's a photo sent by a friend."
After hearing that it was a photo, Zhang Changming felt that these people were really rich.
How many photos must be in such a big envelope?
Nowadays, it is very expensive to find someone to take a photo. Their family only takes their children to take a photo once a year.
Time flies by like a flash, and April is soon here.
"Xiao An, why don't you go to the town to buy some rice seeds? It's time to plant rice."
When he got up in the morning, Wang Fang arranged work for Zhang An.
"Mom, we didn't get any seeds from the blood rice we planted a few years ago."
Blood rice is one of the local rice varieties passed down from Zhang An’s place a long time ago.
In blood rice, not only the rice is blood red, but the unhulled grains are also blood red.
Even its plants, from stems to leaves, have some blood color, which is why it is called blood rice.
The rice cooked with blood rice is much more fragrant than that cooked with ordinary rice.
It just looks as red as bleeding.
In the years when Grandpa Zhang An was still here, many families in the village grew it.
It's just that not many people have grown it in recent years, and they have all switched to hybrid rice sold by the state.
Because in the past years, everyone suffered from hunger, let alone eating, they even ate the roots of trees and grass.
So now, in order to have enough to eat, we choose hybrid rice with a relatively high yield.
Not only can we have enough to eat every year, but we can also sell the excess millet for money.
Of course, in terms of taste and nutrition, rice made with blood rice is much better, but the yield of blood rice is not high.
"We haven't planted any seeds in our family for several years. Where are the seeds left? It seems that there are some at Grandpa You's house."
Wang Fang thought for a while, the last season of blood rice grown in her family was seven or eight years ago, so where does her family grow it now?
"Mom, cooking with blood rice is still delicious. How about our family just grows blood rice this year? We won't sell it anyway, so we just eat it at home."
Anyway, my family is different now, and I don’t have to worry about food and clothing.
Now the family is much more prosperous than before. Even though they grow so much millet in a year, they can't sell it for much money.
"Okay, if you want to eat, just plant it. You can go to Grandpa Er's house and ask for some rice seeds."
Before Wang Fang could think about it, Zhang Jianguo next to him spoke.
He has considered it very clearly now. Anyway, as long as the family is not hungry, it will be fine.
Last year, my family grew so much millet and buds that they sold it all, only getting about 2,000 yuan.
As for the fish pond built by my son, I don’t need to take care of it at all. I just cut some grass and throw it in to feed the fish.
Last time, I only sold half of it, which was enough for my family to sell food for several years.
Seeing that her man had already spoken, Wang Fang didn't speak.
Major matters in the family are decided by these two men.
She just needs to run the house well and take good care of her men and children.
Zhang An quickly finished washing up and headed towards Mr. Zhang's house.
"Second Grandma, you are planting rice."
As Zhang An walked along, many people were planting grains and preparing to raise young seedlings.
"Xiao An is here. Everyone is soaking millet. I will take it out and soak it too."
"Milk, did you leave any blood rice seeds here?"
Zhang An helped the second mistress to bring water and soak the millet in the bucket.
"Yes, your father keeps some. He plants some every year. He's afraid that he won't be able to find them when he tries to find them later. Why don't you take them and plant them?"
"Yeah, yeah, I told my dad that we are going to plant blood rice this year. It's okay to have a smaller harvest. Anyway, we eat it at home and we don't plan to sell it to outsiders."
When she heard her grandson saying that he wanted to plant blood rice and that he was here to look for grain seeds, Grandma Zhang called Master Zhang over from the backyard.
When Mr. Zhang heard that Zhang An was looking for grain seeds, he climbed up to the wooden floor and rummaged around for a while.
Finally, he brought down a bag of blood-red rice.
"Hey, there are so many, I thought there weren't many."
This bag weighs forty or fifty kilograms anyway.
"It grew well last year, so I kept a few more in case people came looking for them."
Mr. Zhang heard from Zhang An that his family would plant all blood rice this year, so he kept a few kilograms for himself and let Zhang's security department pick up the rest.
Zhang An was not polite to his second grandfather. Anyway, he would keep more of this rice seed in the space.
Moreover, after harvesting at home, the grain was also packed for the two elderly people.
"Master, chicken blood glutinous rice, if you have any, give me some. Anyway, the blood rice has been planted, so I'll add some chicken blood glutinous rice."
Chicken blood glutinous rice is similar to blood rice, but the color of chicken blood glutinous rice is darker red and more glutinous.
"You are here to take advantage of me today. You know very well what kind of things I have at home."
Mr. Zhang laughed and cursed a few words, then brought out another small bag of rice seeds from upstairs.
"Oh, you are my master. If I don't take away your favor, then you will take it."
Both Mr. Zhang and Mistress Zhang were very happy after a lot of behaving and playing tricks.
Mr. Zhang left a lot of chicken blood glutinous rice seeds, but Zhang An packed a few kilograms back.
This chicken blood glutinous rice is similar in length to blood rice, but is slightly shorter and waxier.
I don’t usually eat much, and I don’t even use this when making rice wine and making rice cakes.
So you don’t need to plant too much, as long as you have enough to eat.
After returning home, Wang Fang soaked the rice seeds Zhang An brought back.
Of course, Zhang An kept some of them in the space, and will use the seeds cultivated in the space next season.
"Brother Anzi, are you going to pick up screws in the field?"
Zhang An had just soaked the rice seeds when he heard Huang Ming shouting.
"Wherever you have been lately, I haven't seen you much."
Zhang An felt like he hadn't seen Huang Ming for more than a week. Usually when this guy was in the village, there would always be some movement.
"I sent my milk to my aunt's house for a few days, and I just came back last night."
Huang Ming's eldest aunt married in the next province. It's not far, but it's not close either.
A few days ago, Second Grandma Huang heard that Huang Ming's eldest aunt was sick and unwell, so she wanted to go and see for herself.
Grandma Huang is an old lady on this road, and she can't find the road even by car.
None of his sons and daughters-in-law wanted to go, so Huang Ming accompanied the old lady.
"Let's go and pick up screws. I see a lot of screws in the ditch."
"Okay, let's go. You go call Zhou Yang. I'll find a bucket and we'll go together."
Qingming snails are more delicious than goose.
Unknowingly, a year has passed and the season for eating snails has come again.
In the Changqing area, a large number of field snails can be found in ditches and riversides every spring.
Moreover, the environment is now good and there has been no invasion of apple snails.
Every Spring Festival, this is a delicacy that is loved by locals, old and children.
Zhang An found a small bucket to carry. After a while, Huang Ming and Zhou Yang came over. They both brought a bucket and fire tongs.
"Brother, don't you bring a poker?"
"Whatever tongs you bring, you don't have to bend down to pick them up. It's better to use your hands."
After hearing what Zhang An said, Zhou Yang simply put the fire tongs in Zhang An's yard and didn't take them with him.
Huang Ming saw that Zhou Yang didn't bring it with him, so he didn't bring it with him either.
These days, the fields are still full of rapeseeds, but the water in the river has begun to rise.
In Tianba, there are already people from several villages driving their cattle to plow the rice fields.
When we got to the ditch, we stepped into it one by one and started to feel for the screws.
"Oh, the screws are so big this year."
As soon as Huang Ming went down into the ditch, he saw several snails adsorbed on the stone wall.
I reached down and touched it, and found it all.
"Yes, this year's screws are much bigger than last year."
Zhou Yang also fished out a few from the water, and each one was bigger than his thumb.
Seeing that Huang Ming and Zhou Yang were both open, Zhang An picked up his trousers and stood in the ditch.
He began to bend down and search in the ditch.
There are actually a lot of screws in the ditch, but most of them are very small.
So when everyone comes out to pick up screws, they all touch the big ones.
It’s not like no one eats those tiny screws. In later generations, the street stalls sold screws.
There are also many food factories that like to package screws like this for retail sale.
Zhang An and the others didn't touch the little ones because the snacks were not satisfying to eat.
Moreover, everyone took advantage of the small ones, and within a few years, there would be no trace of snails in the ditches.
"Haha, look, I touched another big one."
Huang Ming held up a large snail to show off to Zhou Yang and Zhang An.
"Throw it over and let me take a look."
Zhang An looked at it from a distance and saw that the boss was no more than a native egg.
However, it was far away and he couldn't see it. Zhang An thought he had touched a lucky snail.
When Huang Ming heard this, he threw the big snail in his hand to Zhang An.
Zhang An took a second look and felt relieved when he realized that it was indeed a field snail and not a snail.
After several people followed this small ditch, they found that the bucket had already contained several kilograms.
This year, the three of them should be the first people in the village to come out to touch snails.
Now the big ones in the ditch are still there, but if those kids in school stop going to class.
After they touched it once, they found that only a few snails were left.
"Okay, okay, this is almost enough."
After touching a few ditches, Zhang An's bucket was already half full, and Zhou Yang and Huang Ming's harvest was not bad either.
So as soon as Zhang An shouted, everyone was ready to carry the bucket and go home.
Eat what you touch first, and touch it again if you want to eat another day.
The snails I just brought home are filled with mud and sand, so I can't cook them directly.
First put it in a bucket, soak it in water, and pour some salt and rapeseed oil into it.
Just leave it like this for a while, and they will vomit all the mud in their stomachs.
Generally, people are not in a hurry to eat what they picked up the day before. They leave it overnight and almost all the sediment will be vomited out the next day.
Finally, knock off their butts and put them in a pot to cook.
If it were before, you would have to wait until the next day to eat.
Now Zhang An doesn't want to wait any longer and wants to cook them in the evening.
So after returning home and putting some rapeseed oil, Zhang An put the bucket into the space.
In this case, after an hour or so, you can take it out and tap the tip of the screw.
Screws are not only slow to eat, but also slow to process.
You need to knock off their butts one by one before they can be put into the pot for cooking.
Zhang An and his colleagues eat screws here, and they usually cook them directly if they are this size.
Unless it is a very big one, like the big ones from Huang Ming today, the snail meat inside will be picked out and fried.
"Hey, go and feel the screws and come back. There are quite a few."
After lunch, Zhang Jianguo drove the sheep out and has not returned until now.
In fact, Zhang An's sheep are allowed to graze without being driven out, and the grass in the woods behind them grows very well.
It's just that Zhang Jianguo likes to go out and let loose. He has nothing to do now, so I just let him.
"Nothing happened today. They came over and shouted, so I followed them and touched them."
From the beginning, Zhang An did the knocking alone, and the speed was relatively slow.
But after Zhang Jianguo came back, the two of them knocked together and the speed became faster.
Zhang An handed the processed screws to his old mother who was cooking in the kitchen.
Zhang An can also cook it himself, but the taste is a little worse.
When it was time to eat, Wang Fang brought out a bowl full of spicy snails and placed it on the table.
At this moment, the spicy snails in the pot have just come out of the pot and are still smoking hot.
Zhang An started to choke just by smelling this smell.
"You two eat first, and I'll send some to the second and third family from the basin next to it."
Wang Fang said, picked up the half basin that was separated next to it and went out.
Zhang An didn't eat much at night, he just smoked snails, which were so delicious.
The family ate this dinner for more than an hour before getting rid of the snails.
This thing actually doesn't have much meat, it just eats slowly and lasts a long time.
In later generations, someone ordered two plates of boiled snails at a street food stall and drank dozens of bottles of beer.
...
Farmers have less leisure in the month, but people are even busier in May.
In fact, it’s not just May, April has already started to be busy.
A few days before the Qingming Festival, Zhang An took the time to hit the rice fields at home.
After the ancestor worship at Qingming Festival, the rice seeds sown before have grown into small seedlings that can be transplanted.
During this time, many people came to the village.
Most of them came to the cherry blossom forest in the mountains behind Zhang An's house to enjoy the flowers.
After Zhang An asked, he found out that most of them had read Wu Ming's reports.
I just learned that there is such a place in Changqing, so I took advantage of the weekend to come over and enjoy the cherry blossoms.
In fact, a few people had already come over on Friday, and Zhang An thought they were drop-ins.
Unexpectedly, on Saturday, the village seemed to be as lively as the New Year.
Fortunately, Zhang An's small seedlings had been transplanted two days ago, and the rapeseed has not yet been harvested.
So during this time, Wang Fang received many tourists at home.
The maids in the village who set up stalls selling snacks last year are out again these days.
From Qiaotou to the village, you can see many people setting up stalls.
In the past two days, Zhou Yang also spent money to collect snails from everyone.
When they are ready during the day, they are sold as snacks to people visiting the village. There are quite a few people buying them, and the business is very good.