Farming for Three Meals a Day [Farming Life] 73

Chapter 73

The honey from the honeycomb Lin Jiangshan brought back yesterday hadn’t been extracted yet, so early in the morning, the two sat in the courtyard, cutting the honeycomb into small pieces, wrapping them in cheesecloth, and squeezing out the honey.

The golden, thick honey filtered into a jar, filling it completely, leaving behind a pile of beeswax.

Ye Xi filled a small jar with honey and smiled. “This is good for health, we have so much, I’ll send some to my sister-in-law, she’s pregnant.”

Lin Jiangshan agreed. “Your brother-in-law’s fishpond is being filled with water, it will take two days, and I’ll help him release the fish fry the day after tomorrow.”

Ye Xi was also happy for his brother, whose life was improving. If the fishpond was successful, they would have a good income in autumn. “It’s hard work, feeding the fish and guarding the pond every day, but once the pond is drained and the fish are harvested, they’ll earn a good amount, his hard work will pay off.”

After collecting the honey, Ye Xi was reluctant to discard the beeswax, so he carefully removed the impurities, went back to the kitchen, and simmered it in a pot with water, stirring it into a paste.

When a layer of yellow wax floated to the surface, he scooped it out with a metal spoon. After cooling, it became pure beeswax.

Lin Jiangshan came over and asked what he was going to do with it.

“It would be a waste to throw it away, I’ll make some face cream,” Ye Xi said with a smile.

Young men and women in their village couldn’t afford face powder or cream. Those delicate skincare products sold in town cost hundreds of wen per box, more expensive than silver, made with rosewater, rice powder with pearl powder, or almond powder with precious herbs, all expensive ingredients.

Ye Xi knew that beeswax could also moisturize the skin, good for chapped lips and hands in dry weather, so he cleaned the beeswax, added some angelica and angelica dahurica root from their medicine cabinet, ground them into powder, and mixed them with the beeswax.

The natural wax melted when applied to the back of his hand, very moisturizing, and Ye Xi carefully stored it in a box. Although he was a farmer’s wife, he still cared about his appearance.

Lin Jiangshan, seeing this, secretly made a mental note to go foraging in the mountains when he had time. If he could find something valuable, he would buy his husband some rouge and face powder in town next time.

Lin Jiangshan was going to help two families plow their fields today. After the Spring Equinox, the farm work became even busier, and everyone was plowing their land for spring planting. He and Lin Jiangshan had less than five acres of land in total, while larger families in the village had seven or eight acres. They couldn’t finish plowing all the land themselves, and having heard that Lin Jiangshan was skilled at plowing, creating even and fine furrows, more meticulous than hired laborers, many families in Shanxiu Village hired him this year. The price was the same as others, slightly higher during the busy spring plowing season, six wen per acre.

Ye Xi carefully packed a water pouch, a handkerchief, and a few pancakes made with eggs in a cloth bag for him.

Lin Jiangshan said, “The host families will provide lunch.”

Ye Xi refused to take them out, worried. “The food at home is more nutritious, I don’t know what they’ll make. It’s good to have these to fill your stomach if you get tired.”

When villagers hired help for plowing, harvesting, or planting, they would provide lunch. Generous families would serve wheat flour dishes or even some meat, while stingy families would just give coarse grain steamed buns and pickled vegetables, and the workers couldn’t complain.

Ye Xi didn’t want his husband to work on an empty stomach, so he insisted on packing the pancakes.

Lin Jiangshan prepared the plow and led the cow out. The fawn and goat followed them to the gate, and Ye Xi called them back, chopped some grass, and added some vegetable leaves to their feed.

The goat had been producing more milk since Beginning of Spring, and Ye Xi would milk it every day when it had a lot of milk and ask Lin Jiangshan to sell it in the village, two wen per ladle or three wen per bowl, earning about the price of one or two catties of meat a day. Knowing it wasn’t easy for the goat to produce milk, Ye Xi took good care of it, feeding it fresh grass and sometimes even soybeans every day.

He had heard that feeding it soybean meal was even better, but they didn’t have any at home, it was the residue from extracting soybean oil. He heard it made the goat’s fur shiny, increased milk production, and also made it healthier.

They didn’t grow soybeans, and the half bag they had was from the market. They were also running low on vegetable oil, so he would ask around the village later and buy some soybeans to extract oil.

Ye Xi then opened the chicken coop, let the chickens and ducks out into the fenced area to graze, then went to cut a basket of grass to feed the rabbits. He lit some mugwort and smoked out the chicken coop, rabbit hutch, and pigsty, to repel insects, which would become more numerous in summer. He was thinking of planting more mint, lemongrass, and mosquito repellent plants in the courtyard.

If Lin Jiangshan went to the forest, he would ask him to look for camphor trees. If he found any small ones, they could transplant them to their courtyard or by the door, they also repelled mosquitoes.

After taking care of the poultry, Ye Xi took the quilts outside to air and beat them, then removed the straw padding from the bed.

Farming families usually put a thick layer of straw under their quilts, for comfort and insulation, but it could easily attract insects and become damp, so they had to be aired out frequently.

Ye Xi spread the straw in the courtyard to dry in the sun, thinking about collecting some straw for weaving mats after Beginning of Summer, which would be more convenient.

After working all morning, and since Lin Jiangshan wouldn’t be back for lunch, Ye Xi steamed some rice for himself, ate it with pickled vegetables, and stir-fried some pigweed he picked from the open space in front of the courtyard.

After washing the dishes, he saw the fawn butting its antlers against the door frame, and he stroked its furry antlers. “Are you shedding your antlers? I’ll ask your father to check when he comes back tonight.”

He treated the fawn like his own child, and it always stayed close to him.

After finishing the chores at home, Ye Xi locked the door and went to the village to buy soybeans. He remembered a few families who grew them.

After searching for a while, an elderly couple from the Zhao family called out to him, “Xi-ge’er, are you looking to buy soybeans?”

Ye Xi, carrying his basket, smiled. “Yes, Grandma Zhao, we’ve run out of oil at home, I want to extract some soybean oil.”

Grandma Zhao invited him in. “I have two bags left, I can sell you some.”

“That’s great, thank you, Grandma Zhao.”

He entered the courtyard, and seeing the two dogs the Zhao family kept, Ye Xi was a bit scared, so Grandma Zhao called the dogs inside, not wanting to frighten their guest.

The dogs, understanding, went inside with their tails between their legs, and Ye Xi followed her to the woodshed.

“Is twenty catties enough? The lame man who makes tofu asked me to save some for him. I’m only selling these to you because I like you, soybeans are hard to come by these days.” Her family’s soybeans were large, plump, and rarely infested with insects, so tofu makers all liked to buy from them.

Ye Xi nodded. “That’s enough, we also use lard, not just soybean oil.”

Grandma Zhao smiled. “Your family is doing well, eating lard, many families in the village can’t afford it.”

Ye Xi replied, “My husband does hard labor, he needs oily and meaty food, I can’t let him go hungry.”

“You’re right, it doesn’t matter if we don’t eat well, but the men in the family need to be well-fed. If everyone were as sensible as you, Xi-ge’er, it would be great.” Grandma Zhao seemed upset.

Ye Xi knew why. Grandma Zhao’s parents-in-law were almost seventy years old, among the oldest in the village, but they were also notoriously difficult to get along with, not only picky and bad-tempered, but also extremely stingy, even scolding her for burning too much firewood.

Grandma Zhao had endured it for over thirty years and was about to become a grandmother herself, but she was still being scolded by her parents-in-law every day, her life filled with frustration.

Ye Xi offered a few words of comfort but couldn’t say much. Every family had their own problems, and outsiders couldn’t interfere.

Grandma Zhao sighed. “We ran out of lard, and I rendered a pot two days ago, and you wouldn’t believe it, those damn parents-in-law of mine scolded me for half a day, saying I’m wasting money and being greedy. Good heavens, I’m so wronged! I always save the lard for the men in the family, and she also ate quite a bit, even sneaking some from the jar when no one was looking! And I’ve never said anything to her, she’s acting like I ate it all myself!”

Ye Xi knew Grandma Zhao was soft-spoken and easygoing, her good temper the reason she was always bullied by her parents-in-law. If she had a stronger personality, she would have fought back long ago.

She just wanted to vent her frustrations, and she talked to Ye Xi for a long time, pouring out her troubles, before finally letting him go.

Ye Xi paid her for the soybeans, two hundred wen, two strings of cash tied with hemp rope. Grandma Zhao carefully counted the money and put it in her sleeve. “It’s correct. I have to give this to my mother-in-law when she comes back, otherwise, she’ll accuse me of stealing and selling the soybeans.”

At her age, still living such a constrained life, even the household finances controlled by her parents-in-law, Ye Xi felt sorry for her.

After leaving the Zhao family’s house, Ye Xi took the soybeans to the oil mill. He could smell the fragrant soybean oil from afar, many women were there, extracting oil.

He asked about the price, three wen per catty of soybeans for the labor. Extracting oil was a labor-intensive and tedious process: soaking, roasting, grinding, steaming, pressing, and finally, filtering the oil.

This was why families were reluctant to use oil for cooking, soybean oil was precious, and the price would only decrease after the rapeseed harvest.

Ye Xi had the soybeans weighed.

“Young Master’s soybeans are good quality, plump and large, they’ll yield more oil than others’, about one catty of oil for every six or seven catties of soybeans, you should get about three catties of oil,” the oil mill worker said.

Ye Xi was grateful to Grandma Zhao for choosing good soybeans for him, the oil yield was even half a catty more than he expected. “Alright, thank you for your trouble.”

After paying the fee, Ye Xi went outside to wait. The oil mill was full of bare-chested, strong men, and women weren’t allowed inside, they could only wait outside.