Chapter 134: Chapter 134: Refusal to Teach Her_1 Chapter 134: Chapter 134: Refusal to Teach Her_1 After bidding farewell to Madam Liu, Lin Yue returned to the fields to continue digging and planting vegetables. Cucumbers, pumpkins, and winter melons—vine plants like these Lin Yue grew alongside the fence, planning to erect a trellis once the seedlings grew larger. Their yard was spacious, but even after going around the perimeter there was still not enough space. Lin Yue had used the whole bag of sweet potato seeds that her third great-uncle sent last time. This was the perfect time to plant them. In the two acres of good farmland, she planted half an acre of leafy greens, half an acre of peanuts, and reserved the remaining acre for potatoes and sweet potatoes. Not wasting space on the ridges, she also planted string beans.
Of course, in Lin Yue’s opinion, potatoes and sweet potatoes were absolutely good things, with high yields that could serve as food staples. Plus, when prepared in various ways and sold at the market, they fetched a good price, so one acre was definitely not enough. She first planted what she had and planned to clear more wasteland later to plant even more. Besides, the five acres they’d already started cultivating couldn’t possibly all be planted with corn and beans; there was room for other crops as well.
At this time, potatoes and sweet potatoes were quite common, and their prices were not expensive, even cheaper than other seeds Lin Yue had bought. However, despite having seeds, few people knew the correct planting techniques. Most would simply plant the potatoes and sweet potatoes directly in the ground, which resulted in lower yields and not many growers.
Potatoes were grown by cutting tubers into pieces for sprouting and planting them directly in the ground, whereas sweet potatoes required propagation from the root. One needed to grow seedlings in the ground first and only when the sweet potato sprouts reached twenty centimeters in length would they be planted on ridges made in the earth. Weed removal and seedling turning would be necessary subsequently.
Having purchased fewer seeds this time, Lin Yue’s yard and the two acres of good farmland were still not fully planted. She would have to wait until she sold her embroidery before she could buy more seeds. Thinking about visiting her cousin’s wife tomorrow, Lin Yue took her hoe to the mountains to check on the several traps she had set earlier and to see if any game had been caught, and to dig up some bamboo shoots on the way back.
Lin Yue didn’t know how to hunt, nor did she dare venture deep into the mountains. She went only as far as the bamboo forest Erhu had taken her to last time, going a bit further in and setting more than twenty traps all at once. Erhu never agreed to teach her such things, believing they were not suitable for women. What Lin Yue knew was based on her grandfather’s teachings from memory. Her grandfather often went to the mountains to set traps for pheasants, muntjacs, and other wildlife. Having watched him frequently, Lin Yue had learned as well, although she was not confident in her skills. Nevertheless, she had set so many traps that she hoped sheer luck would yield something.
The traps had been set the day before yesterday while digging for bamboo shoots. Lin Yue checked and was surprised to find that they had snared a wild hare and several wild pheasants. The wild pheasants would be perfect to give to a pregnant woman to nourish her health. As for the wild hare, consuming it was not good for pregnant women, but making a spicy rabbit dish would be a great treat for Zhao Xinglin to accompany his drinks. Being rather gluttonous, he would definitely be delighted.
Returning home with her spoils, the wild hare and mountain chickens were still alive, though the hare and two of the chickens were barely breathing. Lin Yue decided to process the hare and the two chickens right away. Last time, during the market day, she had bought more than half a pound of dried tea tree mushrooms from an old lady. These would make an absolutely delicious wild chicken stew. Besides, Lin Yue had wrapped shepherd’s purse dumplings and prepared several types of meat buns with different fillings. She had also bought a basket of chicken eggs from the village.
Zhao Xinglin had made a decent living in the city, and his wife was the daughter of an official with the rank of regular eighth-grade domestic history, ensuring their means were quite affluent. Lin Yue’s family, being simple farming folk, didn’t have much to offer, especially now when they were short on money. Thus, what she brought was a gesture of goodwill. Now, Lin Yue’s only presentable skill was her impressive culinary ability, which proved to be particularly useful.