Her Cultivation Diary-Chapter 119 - : 119. Canola Flowers and Bamboo Forest_1

Chapter 119: 119. Canola Flowers and Bamboo Forest_1

This bamboo forest isn’t particularly large or small; in total, it occupies roughly one or two acres.

Upon entering the bamboo forest, the air suddenly became humid, and there was a smell of fermenting bamboo leaves. The ground felt soft and squishy underfoot.

Now that it was early April, many of the bamboo shoots had already grown more than a meter tall. The aunt expertly navigated around these, choosing only the smaller, tender ones.

Once she spotted one, a hoe would come down and a plump shoot would be pried out straightaway.

For Qiaoqiao, this seemed like a treasure hunt; he too wielded a hoe, digging wherever the shoots looked plump.

Seeing this, the aunt couldn’t help but laugh, “Our Qiaoqiao is becoming more and more capable by the day!”

“That’s right,” Song Tan said proudly, “It’s all thanks to my teaching.”

Indeed, she had taught him most of it.

At home, because Wu Lan and Song Sancheng already had Qiaoqiao doing little chores like washing up, he was inevitably somewhat pampered.

Besides, they had so many tasks to do every day that they seldom had the leisure to teach their son step by step.

Both would be at the brink of exasperation after just a few lessons.

But it was different with Song Tan. Without saying anything else, her patience now was exceptionally good. If he didn’t understand it once, she’d explain it twice; if twice wasn’t enough, then four times… And with farmwork, you actually need to do more.

Whatever she did, she would take him along. Over time, Qiaoqiao naturally became much more agile.

While digging for bamboo shoots, the aunt reflected, “I used to hate this bamboo forest when I was a child.”

“Why?” Song Tan was puzzled.

Her memories of this bamboo forest were mostly from when she was small: Song Sancheng would tie a couple of hemp ropes around the bamboo, add a wooden board in the middle, and make a simple swing for her to play on here.

When she got a little older, in the summertime, they could even hang up a hammock, which she bought for two yuan and that kept her company through many a summer’s day.

If it hadn’t been for one time when she was swaying on it, and a chubby caterpillar shook down from the bamboo leaves onto her face… those fond memories might have continued for a few more years.

The aunt continued with a sigh, “Life was better when you were little; there were more ways to make money. But before you were born, people still wanted our kind of bamboo, eight cents a piece.”

“Your grandfather was in charge of chopping down the bamboo while your grandmother would strip off all the little branches from the top of the bamboo stems.”

“As for me, I didn’t have to do any heavy labor, but I had to drag these long bamboos all the way to where they were collected.”

“Our bamboos here might not be as thick as those in the south, but they were still heavy. I could drag at most two or three at a time… by the end of the day, my legs would be so swollen I couldn’t lift them.”

That’s the reality of rural life.

After a moment of silence, Song Tan asked, “What about my dad and the others?”

Song Hongmei laughed, “Could your dad and the others escape work? They were responsible for loading the bamboos onto trucks, and that was truly a strenuous task. By the end of a day’s work, they couldn’t straighten their backs.”

“Tantan, you may find your eldest auntie quite annoying, but she too has been through hardships with your uncle in the early days.”

Song Tan “hmm’ed” in response.

She had seen a lot; each person played a different role in someone else’s eyes. There was no need to insist on anything else; contentment was what mattered.

She initially thought the aunt would share more sentimental words, but then her tone shifted suddenly:

“It’s just that your eldest auntie is getting on in years now and her mind seems to be getting worse!”

“Your grandma planted three rows of lettuce, which must be fifty or sixty heads in all. And the way she’s acting, she looks like she wants to pull them all out—how does she plan on eating them?”

“I always say, getting on in years doesn’t mean you have to stay home all day looking after kids and doing housework. Hit the square for a dance, or set up a stall if you can’t dance. Anything’s better than moping at home with not a bit of luster…”

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The eldest aunt obviously harbored deep grievances, muttering, “Is it easy for your grandma to grow vegetables?”

Song Tan couldn’t help but laugh:

“That’s right, the eldest aunt sure knows how to live. We can blanch the bamboo shoots, dry them, and they’ll last a long time!”

“Yes.” The eldest aunt looked nostalgically at the bamboo grove, “For the past twenty years, no one’s bought bamboo anymore. Just look at how thickly they’re growing in the grove—it’s too much. Whenever we see bamboo shoots, we dig up a bit more to clear some space for them.”

She pondered on the side, “When we get back, we’ll cut the tender hearts diagonally, blanch them, and then stir-fry with pickled peppers and a bit of beef—oh my, that’s so good with rice!”

And then she thought: There’s also the leaves of the Chinese lettuce!

“We’ll have pickled pepper bamboo shoots tonight, plus a simple stir-fry of Chinese lettuce leaves. For locust flowers, we’ll just steam some eggs, make locust flower pancakes tomorrow…”

Mulling over this, she figured they’d have food for half a month and even save a few hundred yuan on food expenses!

With the calculations clear in her mind, the eldest aunt swung her hoe with even more enthusiasm!

Song Tan hadn’t really craved for bamboo shoots. Cultivation was tough, and this year, she hadn’t wanted to bestow much Spiritual Energy here. But hearing the eldest aunt talk, she couldn’t help but feel a bit tempted.

Just as she thought of asking Qiaoqiao to dig a couple more to take home, she saw the foolish child already emerging from the other end of the bamboo grove, bringing over a bunch of rapeseed flowers:

“Sister, have some.”

On the side, she casually broke off a piece of the rapeseed stem and munched on it.

Song Tan also laughed, “When I was little, my mom often cooked these rapeseed blossoms and stems, and I didn’t like them.”

The eldest aunt laughed, “When you were young, we had to think twice before eating meat at home, we were still farming. Who had the time to make anything fancy? Of course, it wouldn’t taste good.”

“Now it’s different when you eat it, how does that saying go? Health preservation!”

The eldest aunt had been running a stall in the city for decades. Her skill at making egg pancakes may have been enchantingly good, but her cooking skill, obviously honed by her frugal spirit, was excellent.

Now looking at those rapeseed flowers, she came up with a few dishes:

“Let me tell you, tear off a bunch of those rapeseed flowers, then go to the mountains to see if there are any wild chives, dig one up. Blanch the flowers, chop up the chives, mince the ginger and garlic, take some chili powder, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, MSG, and such, toss it all with the cooked flowers, then add the chives and pour sesame oil over… delicious!”

This description…

Song Tan just had to think about it and she was already drooling. But…

“Eldest aunt, with your way of seasoning, even a shoe sole would taste delicious.”

The eldest aunt laughed heartily, “Then use it to season fried eggs, too. Chop the rapeseed flowers finely, mix them with eggs…”

“If that doesn’t work out, just add the rapeseed flowers to the rice water when it boils, sprinkle in some chopped green onions, pepper powder, and so on…”

When it comes to being thrifty, the eldest aunt was a real expert. The ingredients she used weren’t expensive at all, but she had a knack for making food taste great.

Song Tan sighed with emotion, “Eldest aunt, you really know a lot…”

The eldest aunt smiled, “What do I know? You haven’t seen the master chefs in our village back in the day preparing big feasts. They were absolutely brilliant!”

“Whatever they had on hand, they could turn it into a delicious dish. One year, at a springtime feast, there was this dish made with rapeseed flowers stewed with fish tails. Oh, it was praised to high heaven!”

“I’ve remembered it for dozens of years.”