344 Details
Xue Yan said, “We can’t finish all of them at once. Every year, we have to let them grow and ripen well. When they are ripe, we hang them on the walls and under the eaves. When we are free, we will break them and grind them into powder. Cornbread is made of cornmeal.”
“I still think fresh ones are the best.”
“Fresh ones can’t be stored for that long.”
Jiang Yue was naturally aware of this. Before she knew it, she had arrived at the vegetable garden.
This vegetable garden was much bigger than the small vegetable garden in their yard. There were many vegetables, such as chili, eggplant, beans, cucumbers, winter melons, and so on. Corn was planted on the side of the garden in a long row, and its leaves were swaying in the wind.
The cucumbers were tied with vines. Rows of bamboo racks were set up, and the vines of the cucumbers were all on the racks. Many cucumbers could be seen hanging on the racks.
Jiang Yue was so young, and she was almost covered as she stood between the cucumber and bean racks. She could only pick the cucumber hanging at the bottom.
Xue Yan was taller than Jiang Yue, but not as tall as the cucumber rack, so he could only pick the ones hanging in the middle, but not the ones on the top.
However, they didn’t need so many cucumbers to mix with the liangpi. Xue Yan and Jiang Yue only picked two each, which probably would be more than enough. However, cucumbers could be eaten raw or cooked, so they wouldn’t go to waste.
The corn plants were even taller. Jiang Yue stood on her tiptoes and only managed to pick one. Xue Yan picked the corn plants according to the number of people in the family, so they would each get one corn.
After breaking them, he put them all into the basket.
Then, Xue Yan took Jiang Yue to the shade by the river with the basket. He peeled all the corn in the basket and removed the tassels. The corn was yellow.
After that, Xue Yan walked to the big stone where he washed clothes and washed the peeled corn and the four cucumbers before going home with Jiang Yue.
After returning home, Jiang Yue wanted to cut the steamed white flour paste into small pieces and put them in a small bowl for later use.
She picked up the kitchen knife and looked around. Although she could hold the handle of the vegetable knife with one hand, it was much bigger than her face. Naturally, it was also much bigger than her small hand.
When Liu Guixia and the others saw it, they were shocked and quickly said, “Xue Yan, you do it. Don’t let Jiang Yue do this. Jiang Yue is too young. What if she accidentally hurt herself?”
Jiang Yue sighed and handed the kitchen knife to Xue Yan. She said helplessly, “You just cut it into small pieces.”
“Okay.” Xue Yan agreed and started to cut it. These small pieces were still very easy to cut, even though the size of each small piece was not very uniform.
However, there was a problem when he was asked to cut the cucumber into thin strips.
After all, he had never used a vegetable knife in his previous life. How was he going to skillfully cut it?
Jiang Yue looked at Xue Yan’s cucumber slices and went silent for a moment before she said, “It needs to be thinner.”
Xue Yan was also silent for a while, but he still answered, “Alright.”
A few more cuts. It was still not thin enough, and the big strip slowly became a small strip.
He didn’t know if it was his mistake or what, but one of them was cut into bigger strips.
Jiang Yue chimed in and asked him to make it thinner.
Xue Yan could only do as she said.
Liu Guixia and the others were making and drying the rice noodles while keeping an eye on the two children. When they saw the situation here, they were simply overjoyed. “Haha, let’s look at how Xue Yan is doing.”