Everyone had just been through this a few days ago, they each found a stool and started peeling the fava bean skins off.
It was indeed difficult to peel these beans, they weren’t very big, but there were so many in a large basin. It took a number of people peeling from early morning to late evening just to finish.
Looking at the time, they realized they couldn’t start marinating the sauce today, so they used a piece of cloth to cover the basin again.
While they could ask others to help peel the fava beans, they couldn’t do the same for making fava bean sauce. Only she and Ms. Wang could do it.
So the next day, she and Ms. Wang woke up early as usual, had breakfast early, and then began boiling the fava beans pot by pot until they were half-cooked. Once the beans were nearly cooked, they had to let them sit, or in simpler terms, let the beans grow fuzz, then mix in the various condiments for marination.
In order to speed up the mold growth, Yang Chuxia deliberately put the beans in a room without ventilation. Whether it was due to the weather or the different climate conditions in this world, the mold which would normally take more than a week or even longer to grow was ready in just two to three days.
Looking at the long fuzz on the beans, she knew it was time to put them in jars.
So, Yang Chuxia mixed the red peppers, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, salt, and other spices with the beans before sealing them in an earthen jar. She then took the jar to the place where she had made a batch of bean paste earlier.
Considering the time, it would take twenty or thirty days for the sauce to be ready to eat, so Yang Chuxia temporarily set it aside.
"Dad, the bean paste is done, is it too early to plant the fava beans at this time?"
Hearing this, Yang Dachuan shook his head, "It’s already going to be November, it isn’t early; it’s just the right time. After we have lunch, I will go find some people. We will sow the seeds in the fields tomorrow."
"Okay, Dad, when we plant the fava beans tomorrow, remember to put two to three seeds in each hole. Grandpa Tang said that in case there are bugs eating the seeds, we could still have some left."
Hearing this, Yang Dachuan laughed, "You little girl, you worry too much, don’t I know all this? Rest assured, Dad knows what he is doing."
The next day, as expected, Yang Dachuan got up early to call for helpers to sow the fava beans. It took several days to plant all twenty acres of fava beans.
Initially, she had wanted to buy some good land for planting fava beans, but no one in the village was selling land, and there were no sellers in the nearby villages either. Yang Chuxia could only discuss it with Yang Dachuan, she decided to plant on the good field where she harvested rice at her own home. She had calculated that the time would be just right to plant rice after the fava beans were harvested next year.
In this case, Ms. Wang, who hated to waste the good land at home, also had no objections.
Once the fava bean matter was settled, Yang Chuxia busily looked for people to come and dig a cellar at home. It took a few days to dig a new cellar. She also applied some lime to the inside of the cellar, and only then did she considered it finished.
When the cellar was ready, she took out the shrimps and crabs that were kept in another cellar with ice to marinate them. Due to being quite busy recently, they could only deal with some of the shrimps and crabs that people had sent every day, and the unprocessed ones had to be frozen with ice.
Now their cellar was filled with a lot of shrimp and crabs.
So the family spent a few more days to get all the marinated drunk crabs and drunk shrimp needed for the restaurant ready. Only then they could take a rest from the continuous busy days for a while.
By the time they finished, it was already late November. In Wangquan Town, which sits on the southern part, November wasn’t particularly cold, but it was time to wear thick clothes.