Chapter 42: starting ginseng
The Xu family can gain a foothold in the big house, all relying on Zhao Dahai, so they have to give Zhao Dahai face.
"Chen Deyong, you heard clearly, today is for Uncle Zhao\'s face, I will forgive you this time, hurry up, don\'t be an eyesore here."
Hearing this, those young men hurriedly carried Chen Deyong into the car, and the Chen family also left in despair.
Chen Deyong was sent to the commune hospital, where he received injections for three consecutive days, the swelling subsided and the wound began to heal.
I don’t know if there are any sequelae, but I dare to walk on the ground anyway.
The Chen family had two fights in a row, and they didn\'t get any money. Instead, they annoyed everyone, and they became more and more unpopular in the village.
The Chen family and the Xu family also became rivals because of these two incidents.
In the blink of an eye, it\'s the eighth month of the lunar calendar, and it\'s time for the crops in the field to be recycled.
The Dongjiangyan Brigade has a total of 700 mu of land, and it is very easy to recycle. The whole village, old and young, worked together, and within a few days they collected all the food.
Taking advantage of the crisp autumn weather, the sun should be dried, and then the beans and corn should be dried.
Spring planting and autumn harvest are always the busiest seasons in the crop yard.
For those who participate in rural areas, there is another more important task in autumn, which is to start making products.
The growth of garden ginseng is regular, from seed to ginseng production, divided into two stages, a total of six years.
In the autumn of the first year, sow the opened ginseng seeds in the ginseng ground.
After three years of growth, it can basically grow into a cigarette to the thickness of a finger, which is called ginseng.
Ginseng seeds are raised from the soil in autumn, and those with good size, good body, and no water rust scars are selected, and they are replanted in good soil, and they will grow for another three years before they can be used as ginseng.
After six years of growth, a ginseng tree can weigh one tael or more, and the largest one can weigh three or four taels.
It is mainly related to the size of the plant, soil fertility, and later management.
Ginseng has very high medicinal value, but there are very few wild ginseng resources. As early as the Ming and Qing Dynasties, garden ginseng had been planted.
The place names of many places in Fusong are related to ginseng, and most of them are large ginseng gardens in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.
Nowadays, ginseng gardens are owned by the public, and almost all communes and brigades have their own ginseng gardens.
The ginseng land of the Dongjiangyan Brigade is not too much. Even the ginseng seeds are added together, and the ginseng seeds are only more than 2,000 feet in six years.
The so-called zhang is a special term for ginseng. It generally refers to the area of one zhang long and five chi wide. After conversion, it is about five points a few square meters.
Don\'t underestimate the five square meters of ginseng land. If it is done well, it can produce 16 to 7 catties of water ginseng.
Steamed and sun-dried to make red ginseng, about four catties, based on the current price, it can be sold for three to four hundred yuan.
Three or four hundred in this year, that\'s a big deal. Otherwise, why are all the communes trying their best to grow ginseng? So worth the money.
Of course, in later generations, with the use of various fertilizers, the output of garden ginseng can reach 20 to 30 catties per foot.
It\'s just that the price of ginseng is affected by international influences and fluctuates greatly. When the price is low, ginseng farmers will also lose a lot.
As forest resources become more and more scarce, the market for ginseng is rising all the way.
"Starting tomorrow, I will go up the mountain to participate. Next, I will take a roll call. Anyone whose name is called will gather at six o\'clock tomorrow morning and go to Qianchuan to participate."
On the afternoon of September 20th, just as everyone was busy harvesting soybeans and putting them in the warehouse, the team leader Yu Shanhai shouted loudly.
Starting ginseng also has solar terms. If it is too early, the pulp of ginseng will not be enough, so the product will not be weighed, and the pulp will not work if it is too late.
Generally speaking, in the days before the autumnal equinox, people go up the mountain to participate.
"Xu Shiyan, Xu Shixiang, Yang Chunming, Zhao Jianguo, Zhao Jianshe..." The captain read a long list.
Picking up ginseng means digging out ginseng from the ground. This job requires not only strength but also patience.
Hands should be steady, frizzy work can easily scratch the ginseng rhizome underneath, destroying its value.
Xu Shiyan is famous for his carefulness and stability. He is the first to be named in the work of planting and planting ginseng every year.
At 6 o\'clock in the morning on September 21st, the forty young men who had been named gathered in front of the team department. They took all kinds of starting tools and sacks, drove the carriage, and went straight to Qianchuan Shendi.
Qianchuan Shendi is about ten miles away from the village, and it is near the place where Xu Shiyan led people to release the mountain.
The mountain path was bumpy, and the carriage was not moving fast. After half an hour, I finally arrived at Qianchuan Candi.
At this time, there is no special plastic sheet for ginseng. Most of them are made of broken wood into boards to make ginseng sheds, and then covered with hay or linoleum paper for waterproofing.
So looking from a distance, you can see long black and gray dragons spreading along the mountain.
As soon as everyone arrived outside the garden, they heard the dog barking inside.
Old Li, who guards the garden, walks out of the house in the garden with a gun on his shoulder.
Seeing that it was a member of the team, he stepped forward and opened the door made of branches to let everyone in.
"Uncle Li, this is what my aunt asked me to bring to you. Cotton clothes and trousers, a change of clothes, as well as pancakes, sauce, pickles, and small fried fish."
When Xu Shiyan saw Old Li, he quickly handed over the rucksack on his back, which was the things that Mrs. Li specially packed last night.
"Yo, it\'s so heavy, my old lady, I don\'t know how much food she packed for me.
Xiao Xu, thank you, you see that I am on the mountain, and I don’t care about my home. You are the one who takes care of me. "
Old Li took the rucksack and said very politely.
Guan ginseng people go down the mountain only when the land is completely frozen in the twelfth lunar month.
After the new year, not until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is out, I have to go up the mountain again, and I am away from home all year round.
It is not an easy job to look at ginseng on this mountain. It is necessary to prevent people from stealing it, and also to prevent wild animals from harming it.
Old Litou was a well-known gunner when he was young.
Later, when I got older, my physical strength became weak, so I couldn\'t go hunting in the mountains.
It happened that the team got ginseng land, so they sent him to see ginseng. He earned a lot of work points, but he couldn\'t go home and couldn\'t take care of his family.
Old Litou knew that Xu Shiyan had a good heart and took care of old Mrs. Li, so he was extra polite when meeting Xu Shiyan.
"Look at what the uncle said, I\'m living in your house now.
My aunt doesn’t want my rent, and I can eat whatever I want from the vegetable garden. I should be the one thanking you. "Xu Shiyan smiled when he heard this.
"That\'s right, then we don\'t need to be polite to each other."
Old Li Tou is a very hearty person, and immediately patted Xu Shiyan on the shoulder and laughed.
"Would you like to go into the house to drink water? I just boiled a pot of water, and I happen to have the Baomazi picked in spring. Let me make a pot for you."
The Baomazi mentioned by Old Li, the scientific name should be Baodingxiang, which is a kind of plant in the mountains.
There are no tea trees in the Northeast, and poor people can’t afford tea, so in spring, they pick up some leaves and flowers that are fragrant with martin, and dry them for tea.
This stuff nourishes the stomach, and the flowers of the martin are very fragrant, making tea very delicious.
"No, no, I\'m starting to participate today. There\'s a lot of work in the field. Let\'s get busy first."
Xu Shiyan waved his hand, followed the crowd, and walked towards the ginseng land where the goods were shipped this year.
(end of this chapter)