novelaction Chapter 220 Pickled Fish
Chapter 220 Pickled Fish
Everyone cheered and was extremely excited. In the past, they thought that this thing definitely did not exist in their place, and if there was any, it must be somewhere else. After all, they had never seen it before.
But now that they have really found it in the mountains and dug up so much in one go, they suddenly feel that this ginseng is not that rare. They go into the mountains not just to dig up six roots, nor even to dig up century-old ginseng. As long as they can dig up one that is more than ten years old, it is worth it, and can be sold for a lot of money. In addition to handing it over to the public, they can also save a lot.
Thinking of this, everyone could neither sit still nor stand. They felt as if there were fleas on their bodies. They wished they could just blow a breath and day would come, or grow a pair of wings and fly to the mountains immediately.
Zhou Mi looked at these ginsengs and wanted to know how much they could be sold for. "I wonder what price these ginsengs can be sold for?"
Zhou Gu said, "Yes, sir, Guoguo, how much do you think this century-old ginseng can be sold for? Can it be sold for a hundred taels?"
Zhou Xing said: "One hundred taels may not be enough, two hundred taels may be enough to sell."
Zhou Mai said nothing. He looked at everyone in the room and said, "I think it's best for us to keep this century-old ginseng. If anyone in the family is seriously ill or injured, this can save their life..."
He opened his mouth and swallowed the rest of the words.
But everyone knew what he didn't say.
Zhou Guo said, "Master and I originally discussed that we should keep the big ginseng for ourselves, just in case. As for the remaining small ones, Master knows how to process them, and processed herbs are much more valuable than raw herbs. So we won't sell them for now. We'll keep them and sell them when our family is short of money. If we're not short of money, it's worth keeping them. They can be used for both major and minor illnesses."
"What is concoction?" Zhou Gu couldn't help but ask.
Everyone was curious and looked up to ask seriously, as they had no idea what concoction was.
Zhou Guo explained, "It's about how to turn freshly harvested raw herbs into the kind of cooked herbs that can be sold in medicine shops."
When everyone heard this, they thought, isn’t this the job of a barefoot doctor?
"Sir, you can do this, so can you treat illnesses?" Zhou Mi became excited and wanted to learn.
Zhou Gu sincerely admired, "Sir, you are really amazing. You have all these skills and you can do this."
The old man was a little drowsy. After hearing these words, he forced his eyes open, waved his hands, and didn't want to say a word. He was really old and didn't have as much energy as a child. Look at that girl, she also ran in the mountains for so long, how come she is still so lively now.
When everyone saw him sitting with his eyes closed, they couldn't help but stop talking. Zhou Dacang and Zhou Gu hurried to clean up the kangs. The first two kangs had been aired for so many days and heated for two days. They were ready to use and could be slept on tonight.
Zhou Guo and his companions rewrapped the ginseng, put it in a basket, covered it with cloth, and tied it with a rope so that small insects could not get in.
After doing this, she remembered that the ten or so fish she brought back had not been processed yet. If they were left overnight, they would become smelly and dead, so she held up a lantern to look for fish.
Li saw her holding a bowl of lanterns, crouching and looking around in the corner, frowning, "What are you still looking for? You've been running around in the mountains all day, it's time to take a shower and go to bed."
Zhou Guo stood up and asked, "Mom, where are the fish I brought back? Did you see that they are all dead? If they are left like this, they will go bad. We need to take them out and rub salt on them, otherwise they will go bad and it will be a waste."
Thinking about the fish that tasted the best, I felt a little sad. This kind of fish should be eaten fresh. If you wait until tomorrow, I'm afraid the taste will not be so good. It is also very difficult to catch. It took so long to soak in the water to catch this one.
Li waved her hands, "I thought it was something else, but it turned out to be this. It's okay, leave it to me. It's not like I haven't cooked fish before. In the past, my family would buy fish around the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month. We would fillet the fish, rub salt on them, and hang them above the stove. We would take them down and eat them during the New Year. Leave it to me. Go wash them. You've been tired all day. I've already boiled water for you."
Zhou Xing came to help after she finished her work. More than a dozen fish were a lot.
Zhou Dacang and his friends came after settling the old man down.
Zhou Guo pointed at the different fish and said, "Mom, uncle, sister, you see this fish is different from the others. It looks different and tastes very different. Let me tell you, this fish is very delicious. I originally wanted to bring it back and grill it, but everyone is tired now and Master has fallen asleep, so let's save it for tomorrow morning."
After hearing what she said, several people came closer to take a closer look suspiciously. It was pitch dark and the light in the bowl was smaller than a soybean. To be honest, it was difficult to see clearly.
Zhou Dacang's eyes were almost cross-eyed, and he finally said, "It seems a little different, but I've never seen this fish before. Can I eat it? Is it poisonous?"
Zhou Guo: “…”
Zhou Xing was angry, "Uncle! What are you talking about? How can it be poisonous? This is what Mr. and Guoguo had for lunch."
Zhou Dacang slapped his forehead and said, "Yes, I can't even speak clearly. Let's cut the fish into pieces and hang it in the well. It shouldn't go bad overnight."
Li nodded and said to Zhou Guo, "Okay, we are here, you can go take a shower and go to bed."
"Oh." Zhou Guo stood up and yawned. He was really sleepy.
The Zhou family’s breakfast is usually porridge with some wild vegetables and meat added in. It is cooked into a thick paste and lasts the whole morning.
I don't know about other people's situations, but Zhou Guo was always hungry before noon. He wanted to change the porridge to dry food many times, but Li said that the Zhou family used to eat two meals a day, no breakfast at all, lunch early and dinner on time, so it was good enough to have a liquid meal in the morning.
If all three meals were dry food, there wouldn't be enough food at home. All the boys would be like hungry dogs. Even if the family had mountains of gold and silver, they would still go bankrupt.
If you want to change it, then move the dry meal in the evening to the morning. Anyway, there are only two dry meals and one liquid meal a day.
Zhou Guo thought that if he ate something porridge at night, he would be starving after working for the whole afternoon. It was finally time to eat, and if he drank a bellyful of soup, he would not be able to sleep at night if he was not full. It would be better to eat something porridge in the morning, so he could get something to eat during the day and eat more at noon to make up for it.
This morning was still the same, Zhou Xing was busy at the stove as usual,
The weather was not cold and the light outside was good. Even though the stove was set up in the house, she still liked to cook outside.
Zhou Guo washed his hands, cleaned the slate grill that had been unused for many days, put it back on the grill, lifted the fish out of the well, smelled it, turned it over, and found no strange smell. He was relieved. This fish is really hard to catch. He still couldn't help but sigh.
Once the well is dug, why don't we catch a few and raise them in it?