"Hehe, the picking time of the gourd is very important, not too early, otherwise it will be easy to mold and rot, so in the case of ensuring the normal growth of the gourd, the gourd picking is rather late than early. ”

Picking gourds is to pick between the cold dew and the frost, just like the song in the solar term song 'autumn dew and autumn frost fall', about between October 8 and 23 every year, the best time to pick is this time.

"What about the Xiaofeng family's gourd? Isn't it time now?" Yang Lao asked curiously.

Zhang Feng also turned his ears curiously, ready to listen carefully, and learn the knowledge of gourd harvesting and preservation from Wang Lao.

"Old Yang, you are old and confused, right? Of course, Xiaofeng's gourd can't be harvested according to the time mentioned above, but how can we determine its harvest time?"

In the end, Wang Lao gave a super simple method, that is, to observe carefully, as long as the gourd vine or leaves dry up naturally, you can pick the fruit at this time.

The gourd vine is very strong, to use scissors to cut, to bring more vines, so as to ensure that the dragon head is repaired in the future, then the gourd is blue and white at this time, it is the best time to pick.

Hearing Wang Lao's explanation, Zhang Feng suddenly realized that he really didn't expect that the picking of gourds would be so particular and there were so many places that needed attention.

"There are still many things to pay attention to after the gourd is picked, if it is to be made into a craft gourd, then it has to be peeled, dried in the shade, and finally created. Wang Lao told these precautions for the craft gourd.

Peeling is to scrape off the green skin on the surface of the gourd.

Because the freshly picked ripe gourd has a layer of skin, which is not as hard as the inner shell, it is almost fleshy and has a lot of moisture. In order to dry the gourd faster, and for the convenience of subsequent processing and beautiful appearance, the outer skin of the gourd needs to be scraped off before drying. After scraping, in order to avoid the dander sticking to the surface and forming spots when drying, it is best to wash it with water to get rid of the dandruff.

"Hehe, if you are not in a hurry to use it, you also need to keep the seeds, hang the peeled gourd with a rope, hang it in a cool, dry and ventilated place at home, avoid direct sunlight and exposure, and dry it for more than half a year, and it will be completely dry. Old Man Wang smiled and continued.

The gourd material dried in this way is the best. It must be dry and cannot be dried in a damp place, otherwise it is easy to grow mildew.

If you don't have seeds, you can saw the mouth of the gourd and pull out the gourd and seeds, which can dry faster. If the follow-up is to make a wide-mouth device, you can split the gourd as needed, hollow out the gourd and seeds, and dry it quickly.

If you are not in a hurry to use, it is not recommended to open the mouth to dry, which will have a negative impact on the gourd material, especially the wide-mouth gourd that needs to have a lid.

"Grandpa Wang, why can't you put the gourd under the sun to dry??" Zhang Feng asked curiously, everyone in the village did this.

"Hehe, of course not, not only sunlight, but also temperature, humidity, etc., have an impact on the quality of the gourd............" Then Mr. Wang began to explain the problems that need to be paid attention to in the preservation of the gourd.

Sunlight exposure has a negative impact on the material of the gourd, affecting the quality of artworks and other utensils, which may change the color of the gourd, and even crack the gourd by long-term exposure, but after all, the sun can quickly dry the gourd, therefore, in the case of not pursuing extreme quality and the large number of gourds, some people also use the method of sun drying. When the sun is drying, if you need to keep the color of the gourd consistent, you must turn the gourd regularly so that each side of the gourd can be evenly exposed.

In addition, some special artistic processing needs are specially used to directly expose the gourd, and only one side of the gourd is dried to form different colors or gradients. For example, the yin and yang gourd, which is only exposed to one side of the sun, can not only get different colors, but also can be dried quickly.

If you need to process a large number of gourds in a hurry, you can use the baking method. The gourd mouth is sawed open, the gourd and seeds are emptied, and then the mouth is placed in the constant temperature baking chamber with the mouth facing up, and at the same time, the gourd can be dried very quickly from one side to the room and the other side to the room, which is suitable for the gourd processing plant. For personal processing, you can use the method of roasting fire, or you can use the oven. Baking is very particular about temperature and heat, it is not recommended for ordinary people to use, once it is not well mastered, it is easy to scorch the gourd.

"I see!!"

After listening to the old man's explanation, Zhang Feng finally understood, no wonder his previous gourds were full of mildew, and some shriveled, looking ugly, not at all like the craft gourds sold outside, it turned out that they were all because of improper picking and preservation.

"Xiaofeng, these gourds in your house look so strange, look at the big ones are the size of babies, and the small ones are so big with fists, why are they so polarized!"

At first, Wang Lao thought that the gourd had not grown, but after careful observation, he found that although the size of these gourds was different, the color and hardness of their appearance were about the same, so it can be judged that the growth time of these gourds is actually the same, which is very puzzling.

"I don't know......" Zhang Feng shook his head, and he didn't know how his gourd could grow so strange, like two different varieties.

"Isn't that good? There are big and small ones, you can have all kinds of things you want!" said the old man with a smile.

"Hehe, Lao Liu is right, there are not many gourds so big on the market, if they are processed into craft gourds, it is also a good choice to place them at home!" Wang Lao looked at the fat gourds hanging on the gourd vines, smiled and nodded.

"If you want me to say such a big gourd, it would be better to use it to hold wine!" said Old Man Yang with a smile.

"You are a big old man, you really don't have any artistic cells at all??, such a good gourd is used to hold wine, it is really a terrible thing......" Wang Lao shook his head and said disdainfully.

"Why are you ruining the heavens again? What's wrong with Lao Tzu using a gourd to fill wine? It's like you, you pretend to be a day, you seem to be very educated, but in fact, you haven't graduated from junior high school!" Yang Lao snorted coldly and immediately went back.

"Hmph, you don't pretend??, if you don't pretend, don't come to me to ask me for a craft gourd!"

"If you don't want to, don't sleep rarely!"

…………

Zhang Feng smiled bitterly and shook his head, but he didn't expect the two old men to fight again.

"Hehe, don't care, they have always been like this, they have been arguing since they were seventeen or eighteen years old, and they have been arguing until now......" Old Man Liu looked at the two old friends arguing, but felt very warm, as if returning to the years of burning passion, back to the time when everyone was young.