While Lu Jiang was busy in the kitchen, Feng Qingxue didn’t really go to rest. Instead, she went to the west room to sort the wild vegetables and herbs the children had picked that day. She categorized them one by one, cleaning off the dirt and impurities.
Lu Tianzhi, Guan Yu, and Feng Qingyun were helping her, trailing before and after her.
Although they were young, they could recognize the dandelions, Artemisia argyi, and Chenopodium album. They picked them out one by one and separated them.
Feng Qingyun sat on the Domino stool, her tender little hands solemnly removing the yellowed leaves from the root of the dandelion, then placing them into the bamboo basket beside her. "Sister, when can we have a meal of taraxacum porridge, just like you used to make?"
"Auntie, isn’t taraxacum bitter? I don’t like to eat it! It’s really bitter." Guan Yu’s little face was all scrunched up.
He had enough of eating bitter wild vegetables when he was young!
"It’s not bitter!" Feng Qingyun answered, "The porridge my sister makes is delicious. I can drink two big bowls all at once!"
As she spoke, she held up two fingers to Guan Yu.
"Is it really delicious?"
"Really!" Feng Qingyun nodded enthusiastically, "My sister puts peanuts in the porridge and even adds egg drop."
Upon hearing this, Guan Yu bit his lower lip with his white teeth, struggling. After a while, the desire from deep within him took over, and he turned to Feng Qingxue, stammering, "Auntie, tomorrow I will dig a lot, a lot of taraxacum, I also want to drink porridge with peanuts and egg drop. It’s so delicious!"
"Count me in!" Lu Tianzhi added quickly, "Auntie, I also want to have a taste!"
Having experienced hunger, the children had an intense craving for food.
Because of their close relationship with Feng Qingxue, compared to the older siblings Lu Tianjun and Lu Tianzhi, who rarely made requests to Feng Qingxue, the younger ones were much less inhibited in expressing their real thoughts.
Listening to their childish chattering, Feng Qingxue couldn’t help but laugh. In fact, taraxacum boiled in plain water was quite bitter and unpalatable, but a good antidote for clearing heat and detoxification. Her porridge, on the other hand, was made with a number of ingredients - oil, salt, peanuts, eggs, flour - hence the "delicious" porridge of her sister’s description was a product of abundant resources in the 21st century.
"Okay, if you bring back the taraxacum tomorrow, I’ll make the porridge for you."
"Okay!" The three little heads nodded energetically like chicks pecking at rice, "We’ll definitely go dig taraxacum!"
Feng Qingxue secretly felt relieved that she had brought back twenty-odd eggs that day.
The Lu Family did not have hens. She planned to raise a flock, which would have to wait until next spring when the hens in the neighboring homes were broody.
Only when hens were broody could the fertilized eggs hatch, then the baby chicks would born.
Due to the bumpy road from the city to the Wanglou Brigade, six of the twenty-odd eggs she brought back broke. Lu Jiang picked them out separately and prepared to make a scrambled egg dish. The remaining eighteen intact ones were put away in a bamboo basket specially for storing eggs.
Lu Jiang knew Feng Qingxue’s situation. After his nephew brought the bamboo basket into the kitchen, he made an excuse to get them out of there.
Seeing the contents of the bamboo basket, Lu Jiang silently congratulated himself on his foresight.
The so-called "large chunk of lamb" was actually half a rack of lamb with bones. The considerable amount of pork fatback could produce two big jars of lard. Besides these, there were two air-dried wild chickens, two pieces of air-dried meat, two pieces of smoked meat, over twenty sausages, a ham, a large bag of five-spice peanuts, a jar of peanut oil, a large bag of dried fruit, and apart from the twenty-odd eggs, there were thirty more mud-coated salted duck eggs!