Traveling through the mountains and farming

Chapter 116 Sweet Potato Seedlings and Wild Grapes

Lin Wan took a look and saw that the leaves of the sweet potatoes they planted had grown to be edible.

This batch of sweet potatoes was planted a little late, otherwise the newly grown sweet potato seedlings could be used for cuttings at this time, so that more sweet potatoes could be harvested.

But she still decided to give it a try. There were still two or three ridges of vacant land, so she would plant them all tomorrow.

Lin Wan walked over and said with a smile, "Okay, let's go pick some sweet potato leaves and stir-fry them tonight."

Li Ke immediately put the jar of pickled duck eggs into the cupboard, then followed Lin Wan and Li Chongle to the vegetable garden outside.

When she arrived at the vegetable garden, Lin Wan saw that the sweet potatoes were growing well under the care of the two siblings, and the sweet potato seedlings were growing lushly. But after all, there were only six sweet potatoes at the time, and the number of sweet potato seedlings for grafting was not enough.

She tried her best to pick the sweet potato leaves that would be removed for tomorrow's cuttings, so that she could make the best use of them.

After picking a certain amount, they went home and prepared to cook dinner.

After returning home, Li Ke was responsible for cooking, Li Chongle helped to light the fire, and Lin Wan made preparations before cooking.

In addition to sweet potato leaves, she also plans to make bacon.

Seeing Lin Wan washing bacon, the two siblings gathered around. They had eaten the bacon once before when it was just smoked.

That taste is really delicious!

Although after living with Lin Wan, they could eat meat often.

But the bacon smoked by Songbai is fragrant and delicious, and they like it very much.

Li Ke looked at the bacon in Lin Wan's hand and said with a smile:

"Sister-in-law, I think Dr. Zhong will complain about not cooking enough rice when we have dinner later."

When Lin Wan heard this, she didn't understand what it meant for a moment.

Li Chongle, who was standing next to him, quickly explained, "Sister-in-law, don't you remember eating bacon before? Doctor Zhong ate half a plate of bacon by himself and blamed the rice for not cooking enough. It will probably be the same today."

Every time he saw Doctor Zhong eating, he worried that his family would not have enough food, but fortunately he later dug up a lot of kudzu.

He suggested: "Let's cook some more kudzu. If Doctor Zhong feels that the rice is not enough, he can eat kudzu."

Hearing this, Lin Wan couldn't help but laugh out loud: "You guys are really thoughtful. Let's cook some more kudzu root."

After that, the three of them started to get busy.

In less than half an hour, the fragrant bacon, fresh sweet potato leaves, fried duck eggs and cooked kudzu were all served on the table.

Just as the two siblings expected, Dr. Zhong ate the bacon first, praising it as he ate:

“This bacon is really delicious.”

He had only taken a few bites when he noticed that other people were eating from the plate of vegetables. He took a closer look and realized that he didn't recognize them.

He then asked, "What kind of vegetable is this? Is it a new kind of vegetable?"

Li Ke smiled and pushed the dish in front of Doctor Zhong: "This is sweet potato leaves, please try it."

Doctor Zhong picked up a piece of food with chopsticks and put it into his mouth. After chewing it carefully, he said:

"Well, it tastes good, refreshing and delicious. But I still prefer bacon."

Then he continued to eat the bacon, and as everyone expected, there was not enough rice.

At this time, Li Chongle hurriedly said, "Doctor Zhong, there is also kudzu root."

Li Ke immediately took the steamed kudzu vine and handed it to Doctor Zhong.

Seeing the two siblings working in perfect harmony, Doctor Zhong couldn't help but laugh, "You two little brats are really smart."

After dinner, when Dr. Zhong was about to go home, Lin Wan asked him to take the newly made quilt with him, which would be useful in about a month.

It's deep in the mountains here and it gets colder earlier than outside, so it will probably be colder in winter.

~

On the second morning, after their routine morning exercises, morning reading and breakfast, Lin Wan took Li Ke and Li Chongle to the field and began to plant sweet potato seedlings.

She also brought a pair of scissors to cut the sweet potato seedlings for grafting.

As soon as the two siblings arrived at the vegetable garden, they became curious about how to plant sweet potato seedlings.

Lin Wan demonstrated and explained: "First, cut the sweet potato seedlings for cuttings to about this length, and then remove the extra sweet potato leaves on them, leaving only two or three leaves."

Li Chongle found that many of the cut sweet potato seedlings did not need to have their leaves removed because their sister-in-law had picked them and fried them into dishes yesterday.

Then Lin Wan continued, "The next step is to plant the cuttings in the soil. It's very simple. You should be able to do it after watching it once."

As she spoke, she dug a shallow trench on the vacant land and inserted the freshly processed sweet potato seedlings diagonally into the soil.

Then cover it with soil, leaving only two or three leaf tips exposed.

"The distance between the two plants should be about 20 centimeters. Finally, water them thoroughly to establish their roots. Then water them every evening. That's it. Isn't it simple?"

The two siblings also thought it was quite simple. They had already learned it and were urging everyone to get started quickly.

Lin Wan was responsible for cutting the sweet potato seedlings, and the two of them worked together to carefully transplant them according to the method they had just learned.

Aunt Li was weeding in the field nearby. When she saw the situation here, she asked curiously:

"Wan'er, what is this? You don't even recognize several of the vegetables in your field."

"Grandma, these are the new seeds I bought in the county town. I am also trying to plant them."

When Aunt Li heard that it was just a trial planting, she wondered if it would work. It would be better to plant some home-cooked vegetables so that she could have more food.

She then asked, "Is this new vegetable easy to grow?"

"It seems to be okay at the moment. Xiaole and Xiaoke come here every day to take care of these vegetables."

Aunt Li looked at Lin Wan's vegetable garden doubtfully, and indeed the vegetables looked to be growing well.

"Okay, if it really grows well, I'll try it next year."

"Okay, when we grow them, we'll send them to you for you to try." Lin Wan replied with a smile.

Then he continued to bend down and cut the sweet potato seedlings. Before he knew it, a row of sweet potato seedlings had been planted.

They worked for a whole morning and finally finished transplanting all the sweet potato seedlings.

After packing up her tools and returning home, Lin Wan collapsed on the recliner, ready to rest for a while before making lunch.

"Sister-in-law, come and have some wild grapes."

Li Chongle came out of the kitchen carrying a pot of wild grapes.

Lin Wan looked at the grapes in the pot in front of her. They were more than half the size of planted grapes and looked dark purple.

I took one and put it in my mouth to chew. It was good and quite sweet.

"Xiao Le, where did you pick those wild grapes?"

"When I was mowing the grass yesterday, I saw a bunch of wild grape vines nearby with lots of grapes hanging on them, so I picked some. But I saw you guys were concentrating on sewing the quilt, and then I forgot about them in my backpack when I was cooking."

"Have you picked them all?" Lin Wan asked immediately.

She didn’t expect wild grapes to be so sweet. She loves grapes the most and wants to pick some.

"The ones from that place have been picked. Brother Chongwu has picked quite a lot. You can go ask him if he has seen them in other places.

Li Ke had just come back from washing his hands outside. He saw them eating wild grapes and walked over quickly.

"Wow, little brother, you actually forgot to take out such delicious food."

Li Chongle smiled embarrassedly: "I forgot because I was busy. Little sister, try it quickly, it's very sweet."

Li Ke picked up one and put it in his mouth, nodding repeatedly:

"Yeah, it's really sweet. Sister-in-law, how about asking Brother Chongwu to take us to find another place?"

"Sure, if we can pick more, we can make wine."

"Sister-in-law, grapes can also be used to make wine."

"Of course, just like kiwi fruit before, it can be made into fruit wine."

"Then let's go make lunch early and ask Brother Chongwu after lunch," Li Chongle suggested.

Now, if they are not particularly busy, they try to take a lunch break every day.