Chapter 70 Natural Fertilizer is Healthier

Although the sweet potatoes had been harvested and there was hardly anyone working in the fields anymore, Grandma still took her along, sometimes with her two older sisters. Together they would go to the fields to turn over the soil and look for the sweet potatoes that had been forgotten. First they went to sort peanuts, now they were sorting sweet potatoes?

Because not everyone harvests sweet potatoes early like their family and plants rapeseed. Some harvest sweet potatoes late and don't plant any more, waiting until spring to plant sweet potatoes. So you can easily tell who plants rapeseed and who is waiting to plant sweet potatoes next year just by going to the fields.

Xiao Jiu didn't really want to go. She didn't want her grandma to work so hard. People in this era aren't lazy like people in later generations. Nowadays, people have more than ten members. They must have been working in the fields countless times. But the old lady felt that she was just idling around anyway, so she treated it as exercise. She didn't mind the cold weather and just led Xiao Jiu to play in the soil.

Grandma took a small stool and dug one hole after another. The girl took a small shovel and tried to dig the soil like Grandma. The two of them were busy for an entire afternoon.

Xiao Jiu didn't dare to use the sweet potatoes from her space to fill the gap. If she took them out, Grandma would think there were really some in the ground and would want to come every day. Who could stand that?

Moreover, every time they go out, many people stare at their baskets of finds, afraid that they might actually find something while they themselves missed out, which would be such a pity!

So you really can't let them get addicted to this. You might be able to get peanuts, but the chances of getting sweet potatoes and potatoes are really slim. Sometimes in an afternoon, you might only dig up three or four small sweet potato seedlings, and that's considered a success. You also go home empty-handed quite a few times.

"Wow, this year's sweet potatoes were so cleaned! Look, you can't find any. And there weren't many ground maggots either. Last year, the sweet potatoes were eaten by ground maggots so much that it caused a huge reduction in yield. You know, the land is all the same, so why do we have to eat them every other year? This year's sweet potatoes are really good."

Last year, the area with the most ground maggots was probably the area behind their yard. They didn't encounter many ground maggots on an entire acre of land. It all depends on the region. Some areas grow well, while others are beyond saving. It's good if you can find one that survives within two or three meters.

It's no wonder that these days people are competing with nature for food; there are so many insects that without pesticides and fertilizers, they really can't be killed off.

While Grandma took her to the fields, Zhaodi and Pandi stayed home washing clothes, mending clothes, and tidying up the house. These were things they did often, since their brothers' clothes wore out quickly and needed frequent repairs. When it got cold, they also had to make cotton shoes.

This year, we used up a lot of scraps of cloth from our household and pasted them on the wall to make pieces of clothing. We would coat the scraps with a layer of grain paste, then stick them on the wall to dry. Layer after layer, they became the soles of multi-layered shoes. In winter, we need to make cotton shoes, so the soles should be even thicker.

Women are never idle at home. These three sisters did a lot of work after coming to the Tao family, but compared to their days at the Tang family, it was still a world of difference. At least here, no matter how much or how little they did, they were doing it for themselves. They could eat their fill, and the food was pretty good. No one would care how much you ate or count the amount you ate.

Working for the Tang family, you'd go hungry from start to finish, not to mention you might end up doing all the work for someone else. Those days were as unbearable as having no hope in sight.

Furthermore, Tang Youtian and his wife's lives aren't much better these days. People are used to being lazy, and even if they force themselves to be diligent in order to find another job, with Cao Amei holding them back, Tang Youtian can't be diligent even if he wants to.

Tang Youtian even went to Cao Amei's family home to complain about her laziness, but what good did it do? Not only did it not work, but she even had a whole bunch of excuses to brush him off.

Tang Youtian simply couldn't believe Cao Amei's nonsense about becoming weaker and weaker, so he thought that this woman and her family were deceiving him.

In fact, people with severe qi and blood deficiency will indeed become increasingly powerless. In addition, with her urinary incontinence and severe uterine prolapse, which made walking painful, she naturally tried to slack off whenever possible. So what if Tang Youtian hit her? She just couldn't work anymore. Anyway, he couldn't let himself starve to death, otherwise things would be even more complicated.

To be honest, Cao Amei is foolish. She should have used the million yuan Tang Cuihua brought home to pay for her own medical treatment. Everyone was scrambling for it, and what happened? She lost the money and her daughter. Now she wants to get medical treatment, but can she even get it? She only realizes how painful the illness is when she's in pain. She's not clean and has many gynecological problems that she doesn't seek treatment for. And yet, these problems aren't life-threatening. It's tough for her to just hang on like this.

Tang Youtian is indeed working now. Although he's not as meticulous as others, at least he's taking care of the work in the fields. The family has five mu of land, and even if the harvest isn't good, it's barely enough for the two of them to make a living.

The problem is that he can't mention his daughter to him now. He's wanted to go find his eldest daughter more than once, but he has a lot of work to do in the fields, and that wretched woman is always causing him trouble. Now his parents avoid them like the plague, afraid that the two of them will cause trouble for them again. Not only do they stop taking advantage of them, but they also find it incredibly annoying to even see them.

Of course, the most important reason is that he doesn't know where his daughter is.

Ever since Tang Cuihua was recognized last time, she has been working in the kitchen wearing a hat and mask, while Zhao Lingli greets customers in the front. The two of them can manage the business now, but working in the kitchen is very hard. However, Cuihua is willing to do it. She really doesn't want to go back to that home. She would rather cook and wash dishes in the hot kitchen than go back to that dark and dreary life.

So even if someone goes to the store, they won't recognize her, which is why Tang Youtian and his family still can't find their daughter to this day.

Of all the girls who were sent away back then, only Tang Cuihua remembered their addresses. Even her maternal grandmother only had a rough recollection of them. They were sent away right after birth, so how close could she be to them? As long as she could get money, she was eager to send them away, not caring at all which families they were sent to.

Cuihua is currently unable to help them, as she is struggling to support herself. How could she possibly help her other sisters? Therefore, she is willing but unable to do so and has not even dared to mention it.

Although she only foresaw the fate of each of them in her dream, in the current situation, she could only take care of herself first, and then she could take care of others.

This was the same thing Xiao Jiu was thinking. Knowing that she had eight older sisters, five of whom had been sent away, she felt a little sorry for them, especially after hearing from Tang Cuihua that they were not doing well. She couldn't help them now, so she thought she would wait until the year of famine to see if she could help them.

It's pitiful, just because she's a girl, she has to be treated like this. If a famine were to come, would four liters of millet be enough to get her a wife?

How many people who fled famine sold their wives and daughters in this way?

As December 1951 arrived, snowflakes finally began to fall from the dry, cold sky. The snowflakes were huge, and Xiao Jiu excitedly spun around in the snow.

Grandma shook her head as soon as she saw the snowflakes: "I'm afraid it won't snow much."

Sure enough, it only lasted for about ten minutes, before the ground even turned white, before it stopped, much to Xiao Jiu's disappointment.

But since it snowed, Grandma rummaged through the drawers and found Xiaojiu's little scarf and tiger-head hat, which her brothers had worn when they were little, and put them on her.

"It's cold, don't get cold. Protect your hands too, or you'll get frostbite. Come on, let's go to the kitchen to warm up."

My father bought a big carp weighing four or five pounds this morning, and my grandmother stewed it for lunch. She also made flatbread. We ate the fish head and the front half for lunch, and the rest for tomorrow. Although the fish head made up most of today's stew, it was a big head, and my grandmother put in a lot of seasonings, such as scallions, ginger, garlic, cooking wine, chili sauce, etc. She was willing to spend money, so the taste was really delicious.

Because it was cold and the kitchen wasn't big enough, they lit a fire in the yard, moved the big iron pot there, and let it simmer over the fire. Everyone had a bowl and ate the flatbreads they had made, eating the food while munching on the flatbreads. The food stayed warm, and the temperature was just right when it went down.

In the kitchen, Grandma cooked a pot of mixed grain porridge in a large iron pot, with dried sweet potatoes, sorghum, wheat kernels, and corn grits. It had been cooking for quite a while. She also steamed some potatoes and sweet potatoes on top, so that anyone who wasn't full could have some to fill their stomach.

Look, this is the Tao family's lunch. They occasionally have the opportunity to improve their meals, and they eat whole grains every day. This standard of food is definitely considered good on this street.

This fish was bought by my father for 50,000 yuan from the fishpond owner when he went out to buy ingredients today. We might not be able to eat it for two or three months, so we have to be willing to spend the money.

"This fish looks good. Let's order fish from them this Chinese New Year. I noticed their carp are quite big. At 10,000 yuan per catty, it's not bad."

Due to inflation, the prices of daily necessities for ordinary people are changing every day. If he hadn't been going to the surrounding villages to buy ingredients every day, he wouldn't have found such a conscientious shopkeeper. This price is already considered cheap. If it weren't for the distance from the county town, the price in the town would be the same. Since he came to the shop, the shopkeeper was too embarrassed to sell it to him at a higher price, so he simply offered him 10,000 yuan per kilogram. Under normal circumstances, if it were transported to the county town, people would want it for 30,000 yuan per kilogram, let alone 10,000 yuan.

Fish is not a common ingredient on their tables. Perhaps chicken, duck and goose are eaten more often than fish, but it can be used to improve the diet occasionally. After all, you can't taste the fish in chicken, duck and goose. Carp has a lot of bones, so Grandma made sure she could spit out the fish bones before giving her a small piece to try.

After all, it wouldn't be very clean to have them remove the fish bones, so when they offered to help, Xiao Jiu was the first to object.

"I want to eat it myself. I can spit out the bones. Grandma, please let me try."

As it turned out, Xiao Jiu not only vomited very well, but also ate very well, so he was given a second chance to have more meat.

The fish head was divided among Grandma, Grandpa, and Dad, while the fish meat was divided among the siblings. From this, it's easy to see that the adults had long regarded Zhao Di and the others as their own family.

After dinner, the older sisters went to clean up, while Grandpa and Dad started reinforcing the windows and covering them with translucent cloth to keep them warm.

The fabric, the same size as the window, allows light and air to pass through, while the surrounding fabric blocks the wind. This was specially sewn by them, since a bedroom can't be completely airtight. The windows are closed at night, but they still need to be opened for ventilation during the day. So, they carefully selected the fabric. When nailing the fabric, they reinforce it with a wooden strip to make it more secure.

Grandma made a thick curtain for the door, which was woven from straw and wheat stalks on the inside and sewn with cloth on the outside. This made the curtain quite thick and blocked out the cold wind.

The house was repaired during the summer rainy season, so there was no leak. After the snow, the leaky areas were reinforced and improved. At night, although it was pitch black inside, the temperature was noticeably maintained.

It suddenly got cold that day. After dinner, the snow started falling lightly but heavily. Grandma said as soon as she saw it that the snow might turn white tomorrow.

Before going to bed, I went to check on the sheepfold, rabbit hutch, and chicken, duck, and goose pens. When I made the curtains, I also made them inside their pens, but I didn't reinforce them with strips of cloth. In those days, cloth was a scarce commodity, and you couldn't just buy it whenever you wanted. So, while I could take care of people, I couldn't take care of these small animals.

However, the rear buildings are relatively low, which helps maintain the indoor temperature, and the windows are small enough for ventilation.

They clean their livestock and poultry diligently. The house smells, but not much, so they use water to wash the floor. The sewage flows down the drain to the composting pit in the backyard. The water in the composting pit is their main source of fertilizer, which they usually load onto trucks and transport to the fields. Moreover, after being diluted, they don't have to worry about burning the crops, which is a win-win situation.

Human and animal excrement, along with wood ash from daily life, chopped corn stalks (when fresh), and daily wet waste, are the main sources of compost. It must be said that the Tao family's composting method is quite scientifically based.

No wonder my father has to wear rubber boots and carry water to the chicken coop every day to wash it. If it's not cleaned for a day, it will smell terrible.

Comparatively speaking, sheep droppings and rabbit droppings are much easier to clean because they are round and don't stick when they dry on the ground. It's okay to clean them every two or three days. But try accumulating chicken, duck, and goose droppings for three days; the stench will suffocate you.

This method of composting has been passed down from generation to generation. Many city dwellers think that natural fertilizers are dirty and contain bacteria and viruses. But the smooth and beautiful vegetables in your hands are not necessarily much cleaner than those with wormholes. You can't see the pesticide residues. Just soak wilted vegetables in a basin of pesticides and they will instantly perk up, looking fresh and appealing. But what happens after you eat them? In the long run, won't they become a cancer?

Perhaps because she studied medicine and often traveled to the countryside with her parents, she felt that the current way of farming was cleaner and the food was safer to eat.