Chapter 167 Tiancang Festival
After the twelfth lunar month comes the New Year. After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, on the nineteenth day, the family begins to steam cakes and prepare food for the Tiancang Festival.
Tiancang means adding to the storehouse, which means that the family's granary is full and the family has plenty of food and clothing.
Chun Niang and her two sisters-in-law used rice flour, wheat flour, bean flour, etc. to shape them into ingots, pots, baggage, sheep, cows, chickens, and dog-shaped lamps, and steamed them in cages.
Then take it out, put cotton threads into the lamp-shaped steamed cake, and pour a little castor oil.
At night, the Jiang family lights face lanterns and rice lanterns and places them in every corner of the house, which means that people are prosperous, grains are plentiful, and the garden is full of livestock.
Early the next morning, all the men of the Jiang family went out to carry water, and those carried soil. The water was poured into the water tank, and the soil was cultivated in a circle outside the circle of reed mats and grain.
Then pour all the grain from the grain bag at home into the grain pile until the grain pile is filled. The grain is piled high into a spire, which symbolizes abundance and contentment.
Chun Niang and her two sisters-in-law got up early and were busy cooking. They made a pot of crucian carp soup, made dumplings and eggs, and fried the rice noodles and lanterns from last night in lard for the family to eat.
Dumplings mean filling a warehouse, hezi means building a warehouse, and drinking fish soup means having more than enough every year. These are all festival foods.
When Chun Niang was making dumplings, she also used dough to shape a few little hedgehogs and a few little mice, and placed them in the corner of the yard.
Starting from the 20th day of the first lunar month, the rice vat at home cannot be empty, the water vat must not be short of water, and there must always be food in the pot, even if it is just a few steamed buns.
On the twenty-fifth day of the first lunar month, Mrs. Jiang Liu filled the ash pit with plant ash.
I saw her holding a sieve in one hand and a small wooden stick in the other hand as she walked and knocked. The green ash she shook drew circles of grain store shapes in the yard, and then the three-ring and five-ring sets of grain stores painted on these green ash Inside, sprinkle rice, wheat and other grains, press a few stones on the corners, and then drive your own chickens in to eat.
This means that the warehouse is full of grain and the grain is abundant.
At noon, the Jiang family brought out the incense table and hung up the painted statue of Cangguan. The whole family lit lamps, burned incense and knelt down to pay homage to Cangguan.
After the Dajicang Festival, the entire Spring Festival in January is completely over.
Soon it was early March, and the weather gradually warmed up, making it a good time to transplant seedlings.
Yingbao took out dozens of grape vines and a bunch of pepper seedlings from the cave and secretly placed them in the bamboo shed in his yard.
This bamboo shed has been managed by Yingbao. Dad and the others built a new row of bamboo sheds in the vegetable garden outside the yard to serve as mushroom sheds.
"Dad, I have cultivated many seedlings. Where do you think they should be planted?"
Yingbao pulled her father into the bamboo shed and pointed to a pile of seedlings on the ground, "This is the grape from the Western Regions, and this is the pepper seedling."
Jiang Sanlang squatted down and picked up a pepper seedling to examine. "Really pepper?"
Pepper is a precious thing. Although many noble families are growing it now, its price is still extremely high and the supply exceeds the demand.
But there are no small mountain villages like Chuanhe Town.
Yingbao nodded: "It's pepper. The pepper seeds I bought at Jiukang Medicine Hall in the county are unmistakable."
Jiang Sanlang didn't mean not to believe his daughter, but he just found it incredible.
Is my daughter a human or a fairy?
Nothing she took out was ordinary. Including the constant water treasure gourd that everyone has been rumored about.
Jiang Sanlang felt that it should all have something to do with his daughter, and his second nephew Jiang Quan was just taking the blame for Yingbao.
But no matter what, he only needs to know about his daughter's magical methods. He will fight back whatever others say or suspect.
"What should we pay attention to when growing pepper?" Jiang Sanlang asked.
Since my daughter cultivated these vine seedlings, she must also know some planting methods.
Yingbao: "Pepper is drought-tolerant and should not be planted in humid places. It is best to plant it in sandy soil fields with good drainage. The same goes for grapes."
This was what a clerk at the pharmacy told her. The clerk also heard what a pepper farmer said.
As for grapes, she has grown them once before and has some experience.
Jiang Sanlang thought for a while and said, "Our family might as well build a vineyard and a pepper garden."
Yingbao really meant this, otherwise she would have grown it herself.
But planting seedlings requires a lot of land, so she must get her father's permission first.
After the father and daughter completed the calculation, Jiang Sanlang immediately went out to inspect the land.
Finally, it was decided to plant pepper and grapes in a low-grade field outside the village.
But this place is remote and the seedlings are easily damaged by wild animals.
So Jiang Sanlang invited several villagers to help cut some bamboo and put a bamboo fence around the two fields.
It was a bit outrageous to put a bamboo fence between two low-grade fields, which attracted villagers to come and watch.
"Third brother, what are you doing?" Chen Yin asked while standing on the bamboo fence.
Jiang Sanlang and Chun Niang were digging a hole to plant seedlings. He said without raising his head: "Plant some grapes."
"Grapes?" Chen Yin knew this. He had secretly picked grapes from Brother Jiang's orchard and ate them.
"If we plant grapes in this area, wouldn't it be too much?"
After all, fruit trees are fruit trees and cannot be used for food. It doesn’t matter if you plant one or two at home. Planting too many will not only take up land, but may also increase taxes.
Jiang Sanlang cultivated a seedling and said, "It's not much. If you can't finish it later, you can make wine."
If not, sell it directly to the wine shop in the county town, that's what the little girl said.
Chen Yin scratched his head and pointed to the fence next door, "Grapes are grown there too?"
"Plant pepper on that patch." Jiang Sanlang dug up the soil with his hands, placed the grape seedlings inside, and then compacted the soil.
"What? Pepper!" Chen Yin jumped up, his eyes shining with excitement, "Third brother, do you still grow pepper at home?"
Pepper is a good thing, and if it is valuable, you don’t have to worry about selling it. Pharmacies in the county are rushing to buy it.
Jiang Sanlang glanced at him and said nothing.
Chen Yin ran in through the fence gate, blinked and asked, "Third brother, do you have pepper seedlings at home?"
"Yes." Jiang Sanlang planted another grapevine without stopping.
Chen Yin chuckled: "Can you give it to your brother evenly?"
"Let's wait until the pepper seedlings grow up."
The little girl said that the pepper vine can be cut and transplanted, and then there will be no need for pepper seeds to grow seedlings.
"Brother, let me make an appointment first." Chen Yin knelt down to help Jiang Sanlang plant seedlings.
Several villagers who were watching outside saw each other, looked at each other, and quickly ran in to help plant seedlings.
With help, grapes were quickly planted on a piece of land, followed by pepper seedlings.
Peppers are climbing plants. Jiang Sanlang first planted them in a circle beside the bamboo fence, so that he would not need to install a climbing frame for them in the future.
After that, the distance was estimated and the pepper garden was planted to cover the whole area.
Wait until these seedlings grow bigger and then add climbing frames to them.
Jiang Sanlang and his wife planted seedlings with several villagers, while Ying Bao watered the plants behind with a small bucket.
She used water from the cave, mixed with a little river water, and watered each seedling thoroughly.
The two gardens were soon filled with seedlings, dots of green and neatly arranged, which was very gratifying.
I fell asleep and delayed the update.