Rushing to the sea: I can see the prompts

Chapter 40 Brother’s hands are tenderer than mine

After a while, my mother finished cutting all the potato vines in this area and came over to help clean up.

Now that we don’t raise pigs, the sweet potato vines are of little use.In the past, sweet potato vines had to be taken home and chopped into pieces to feed the pigs.

Zhang Yaohua's job is not as simple as picking up sweet potatoes and throwing them into snakeskin bags.You need to shake off the soil on the surface of the sweet potatoes, remove some roots, and pack them into different sizes.

Some bad ones must also be picked out.

"Are they all yellow meat?" Zhang Yaohua asked.

He took the knife that his mother used to cut potato vines and peeled a sweet potato.

The yellow-fleshed sweet potatoes are a bit like yacon and can be eaten raw. Zhang Yaohua used to eat them often.But my family usually doesn’t allow me to eat too much because my stomach is prone to bugs.

"This one is, and the top one is purple." Mom said.

If it is sun-dried, the yellow-fleshed one is the best; but if it is cooked and eaten, the purple-fleshed one is more delicious.There is also a kind of white-fleshed sweet potato, the so-called white potato, which tastes very pink and is the kind of sweet potato that Zhang Yaohua dislikes the most.

"This is spicy." Zhang Yaohua threw away the peeled sweet potato.

Spicy is what they call here. It is actually some kind of diseased sweet potato. It tastes strange and spicy, and you will feel nauseated and nauseated after eating it.

Pigs won't eat spicy sweet potatoes.

If you look carefully, you will find that there are insect bites inside, so it is also called stem nematode, which is a dangerous and devastating disease.

Nematodes pierce the outer skin with their mouth needles and enter the inside of the roots to cause harm. The initial symptoms are not easily visible to the naked eye. The outer skin begins to fade and soon turns green. Some are slightly sunken, some have small cracks, and the subcutaneous tissue turns brown and soft.

This thing is also contagious. As long as one sweet potato gets this disease, almost everyone around it will be infected.

"Don't eat it raw, are you still a child?" Mom said angrily.

Just after saying Zhang Yaohua, my mother looked at Zhang Yaowei and couldn't help but continue: "Ah Wei, why don't you dig up the three-forged grass and keep it for seeding?"

This is one of the reasons why Zhang Yaowei dislikes working with his mother.

No matter how well you do, she will always find fault with you and always find fault with you.

Zhang Yaowei had no choice but to work hard in silence.

"Let me dig for a while!" Zhang Yaohua said.

"you?"

Mom looked Zhang Yaohua up and down with doubts on her face.

I’m not looking down on you!Someone who used to blister his palms when I asked you to help cut grass, are you sure he can do this kind of work?Digging sweet potatoes is like hoeing. The wooden handle will rub against the palm of the hand. People who don't work often can easily get blisters.

Even Zhang Yaowei waved his hand quickly: "Hi! Brother, no need."

After speaking, he spat into the palm of his hand, wiped it, and continued to swing the rake.

"Brother's hands are tenderer than mine." Azhen made up for it.

Zhang Yaohua was speechless.

Although he grew up in the countryside, he really didn't do much heavy work because he was good at reading.It's not that he has no strength, it's true that he has thin skin and tender flesh, and his palms have barely developed calluses.

Unlike my parents, my palms are rough because of layers of calluses.

"This kind of grass is really disgusting. Even herbicides can't kill it." Zhang Yaowei dug up one of the grasses.

It is also one of the most hated weeds by farmers.

Paraquat, licorice, etc. cannot kill it.

Not only that, the reproductive ability is also very strong.In addition to blooming and producing seeds, there is also a series of taro-like things below, about the size of peanuts, which will also grow into a plant.

Therefore, if you want to kill it completely, you have to dig it out completely without leaving any roots, then dry it and burn it.

Otherwise, even if it is dried in the sun, it will relapse once it encounters water and soil. "Why do you think it has become one of the top ten evil weeds in the world? Because it is difficult to kill. However, I heard that it is also a traditional Chinese medicine." Zhang Yaohua said.

The real scientific name of this grass should be sedge.

Sedge is a real vicious weed, mainly due to its very strong adaptability and fecundity. As long as there is a little chance, it can multiply into large patches.

At present, sedge is distributed in 92 countries around the world. Because it has no natural enemies to curb it, it has multiplied and caused disasters in many areas, so it is listed as the first of the world's top ten most harmful weeds.

"It's Chinese medicine? Can you sell it for money?" Azhen's first reaction was to sell it for money.

As long as this thing is worth money, it is guaranteed to be mined cleanly soon.

In China, you'd better be worthless, otherwise even invasive species will face extinction and must rely on artificial breeding and planting to survive.

Crayfish are a good example.

If it weren't for artificial breeding, those little crayfish in the wild would have been caught before they graduated from kindergarten.

"Its roots can be used as traditional Chinese medicine. It seems to be called Cyperus rotundus. It can definitely be sold for money, but I don't know how much it is worth. I'm afraid it won't be very expensive, otherwise someone would have been eyeing it."

They dug for a whole morning and dug out two pieces of land, weighing more than [-] kilograms.

The output of this thing is indeed very large. As a grain, even though it has many shortcomings, people are still willing to grow some to be careful in disaster years.

After the sweet potatoes are dug, they must be stored carefully and cannot be piled up anywhere.

Sweet potatoes are afraid of cold. When the temperature is too low, they will freeze, become hard core, and will not be cooked properly.Therefore, in the north, they are generally placed in well cellars.

Northerners will choose a place with high terrain, solid soil, and low groundwater level, and dig a well shaft downward, usually about 1 meter in diameter and 5 to 6 meters deep.

And here they have several degrees, or even more than ten degrees, in winter, so they don't have to worry too much about hardness.

But when the temperature is too high, buds will sprout again; when exposed to moisture, it is easy for bacteria to invade and cause rot.So when they store sweet potatoes here, they usually find a dry and ventilated corner of the house to stack them.

Before hiding it, it's best to dry it out for a while.Sweet potatoes with broken skins will heal easily after being exposed to the sun.

This is the same as for people, wounds should not be exposed to water, etc.

Mom plans to cook half a pot of sweet potatoes for everyone while they are still fresh.

Zhang Yaowei was very depressed.

"Mom! How about making some sweet potato syrup!" Zhang Yaohua suggested.

"That's okay." Zhang Yaowei quickly agreed.

The most unpalatable thing about sweet potatoes is boiled ones. Boiling them in sugar water is pretty good. Roasted sweet potatoes and pan-fried sweet potato slices are also very fragrant. Anyway, they don’t need to be boiled.

"You brothers are the only ones with a lot of things to do."

My mother cursed, but she didn't object. She started washing the sweet potatoes and then asked Zhang Yaohua to peel them.

I will cut it into small pieces later.

"How many sweet potatoes do we have yet to dig?" Zhang Yaohua asked again.

"There are a lot of them! There are several thousand kilograms. I told you not to plant so much, but I just didn't listen." said the second brother, spreading his hands.

"In addition to drying, you can also make sweet potato flour." Zhang Yaohua suggested again.

Potato starch content is higher than that of rice, so sweet potato flour is more pliable and elastic than rice flour. It is not easy to become mushy when boiled and not easy to break when fried.

There are many noodle shops outside that sell sweet potato noodles, and many people like to eat it.

"How can we do it?"

"It shouldn't be difficult, right? Let me check."

(End of this chapter)