Er Dan looked at their carrying baskets, "Are you guys gathering firewood?"
Da Bao nodded and said, "Yeah, mom is taking us to gather firewood, to pick up bamboo shells."
"I’ll help you gather firewood."
Gather firewood together?
Let’s do it together then!
"Da Bao, Xiao Bao, you gather firewood here, mom will look around, okay?"
"Mom, come back soon."
Er Dan was curious about what sister-in-law was going to look for around the area?
But seeing that Da Bao and Xiao Bao were still young, he helped them pick up bamboo shells and bamboo leaves, which catch fire quickly.
Yun Xiaoxiao had already begun her little tricks over here.
Physalis, this thing looked just like a wild fruit.
There were also blueberries, which also resembled wild fruit.
Ginsengfruit also looked like wild fruit.
Yellow fruit as well, and that soft-centred apple, two pounds of each.
She carried these back.
"Mom, you’re finally back."
The two little ones were very excited to see their mom return.
Er Dan just saw Yun Xiaoxiao come back with a basket in hand.
"Look what I’ve brought back?"
"Mom, are these all wild fruits?"
Even Er Dan was curious, were there so many wild fruits in the mountains?
How come he didn’t know about them?
"Er Dan, this one looks like an apple, have one."
Yun Xiaoxiao had intentionally chosen those high-altitude soft-centred apples with skins that looked like they had cracks.
She had also intentionally bought the small kind, just a tad bigger than an orange.
Er Dan didn’t even wipe it, he just bit into it, and a surge of sour sweetness hit him.
"I’ll pack some for you, I was lucky to pick quite a bit of wild fruit, you probably haven’t noticed these usually."
Especially the Physalis, covered with a layer of yellow something on the outside, you peel that off to find the berry inside.
Er Dan seemed to have seen this fruit before but never knew it was edible.
He suddenly felt like he had missed out on a lot of food.
She gathered some for Er Dan and then took Da Bao and Xiao Bao back home.
Er Dan looked at the food he had and hurried home to hide it away.
He wanted to find more food in the mountains as it was starting to get cold already, but it wasn’t winter yet, so he could still find some food.
"Mom, Brother Er Dan said he wants to look for food in the mountains, but there isn’t much food left in the mountains."
There’s no food in the mountains?
"There’s kudzu, and some yams, as well as cassava roots, they’re all edible."
The little ones heard their mom mention some edible things, but they were all roots.
"Mom, you can’t eat tree roots."
Yun Xiaoxiao began to explain, "Some roots are edible, the kudzu I mentioned earlier, its root can be dug out, pounded, filtered, and you get kudzu powder. This powder makes even tastier food than what is made with flour."
Kudzu flower is a remedy for alcohol poisoning.
Kudzu powder can beautify and nourish the skin.
And making dumplings with kudzu powder results in transparent dumplings when steamed.
She had eaten them before.
As for yams, they are even better for children.
Cassava root contains some toxins, but once cooked, they are gone, and you can make a lot of food from it.
These foods, if you’re not a doctor, you’d hardly know you could eat them.
"I’ll draw them for Er Dan, then you give him the drawing, so he can look for them in the mountains, and dig up their roots."
"Mom, can you really eat them?"
Da Bao truly didn’t know that you could eat tree roots, he had never considered eating them even when hungry.