After picking the peaches, everyone sat at the mouth of the shady cave to drink water and cool off.

The temperature in the cave is only twenty-four or five degrees, and it is still a little cold after sitting for a long time, but the entrance of the cave is comfortable, cool but not cold.

He Qingdong had people carry a few boxes of mineral water and fruit juice drinks in the cave in advance, as well as a few bamboo back chairs, and if they were not enough to sit, they would rest on the ground at the entrance of the cave.

The staff drank water and continued to work.

In one corner of the cave are stacked cardboard boxes, gift boxes, tapes, ribbons, scissors, and other miscellaneous items for packing.

Take a dozen cardboard gift boxes, pick out the peaches that everyone picked in the bamboo basket and dry them on one side, the size is not very big, or the appearance is not very beautiful put on the other side, and so from beginning to end after all the screening, the temperature of the peaches has also dropped, and then wrap the big peaches in a thin layer of translucent paper, one by one put them in the flat gift box, the lid of the gift box is not immediately closed, but spread out, and all the big peaches are wrapped in a layer of thin paper and packed into the gift box, before closing the lid one by one.

"Why wait until the peaches are cold before packing?" He Songbei curiously played with a peach and asked the staff.

He Wei also pricked up her ears to listen, because she was also curious.

The staff patiently explained in a broken Kyoto dialect with a southern accent: "The freshly picked peaches are hot, and they will produce water vapor when they are directly sealed in the box, and it doesn't matter if the cave is cool, but the temperature outside is so high that it is easy to rot and deteriorate for half a day......"

"I see!" He Songbei suddenly realized, and then asked again. "What about the peaches on the other side? Why separate? ”

"These big owners say they are giving them away, so they have to use good boxes. When the time comes, a few boxes will be left to stock up for the New Year, and the others will be sold to fruit sellers along with yellow peaches. ”

"Give it away?" He Songbei's eyes rolled. I didn't know what to think, so I rolled up my non-existent sleeve and said, "I'll help with it." ”

"You don't need to do it to pack the boxes, if you really want to help, two boxes and a bundle are packed with ribbons, and they will be picked up in a while." He Qingdong said.

A gift box of eight peaches, if you give it away. It's quite classy to tie a ribbon into two boxes like this.

He Songbei twitched the corners of his mouth, pulled He Lingxi to do it together, and asked tentatively while tying the ribbon: "Big brother." Can I ask for two more boxes in addition to my own food? ”

He Qingdong glanced at him with a smile: "What?" Sending a girlfriend? ”

"Where, where, just ordinary friends." He Songbei was swept away by the glance of the lobby brother, and his heart was extremely weak.

He Lingxi dragged a long tone and said slowly: "Since it's just an ordinary friend, why send such a good one." It's nice for a small person to carry a bag. ”

He Songbei shot arrows at his twin brother vigorously. Helplessly, the other party was stunned and didn't receive his eye hints, wiped his face deeply, and said: "It can't be said that it is an ordinary friend......

"That's above ordinary friends and below girlfriends?" He Lingxi happily put on the words of his stupid brother.

He Songbei said: "Poor, almost." ”

He Wei couldn't help but laugh when she heard it.

He Songbei's face suddenly became Guan Gong's face, and he turned his head to look for He Qingdong in annoyance: "Big brother, take care of your daughter-in-law!" ”

He Qingdong hooked the corners of his mouth, and he didn't mean to care about his daughter-in-law at all. However, for the sake of the twins' great efforts today, he asked the two cousins to choose by themselves: "If you want to pay or want peaches, you can choose, and the salary is two hundred per person." As long as there are no more than twenty boxes of peaches, you can take whatever you want. ”

He Songbei replied without thinking: "I choose peaches." ”

"Hahahaha......"

……

At noon, we will have a farmhouse meal in the Grange's kitchen.

Grange is a general term. It includes grain fields, vegetable fields, and places where the staff in charge of the fields work and are on duty.

Two rows of seven or eight white-walled and black-tiled bungalows, the back row is a warehouse, and the front row is a kitchen, office area, and duty room. The toilet is built separately in the northeast corner of the bungalow, in the middle of the orchard and the grange, and is surrounded by green bamboo and mosquito repellent Qili incense.

In the middle of the two rows of houses is a two-acre barn field, which is made of cement, smooth and clean, an indispensable auxiliary site for the autumn harvest and a good place for heating in winter, but in the summer it suffers - the scorching sun shines directly on the bright concrete floor, and bakes the surrounding houses to a fiery heat. Fortunately, there are many tall and dense camphor trees planted in front of and behind the house, which can block some light.

Outside the front row of houses is an asphalt road for minivans, planted with willow and peach trees, and in the spring this road is charming to see. However, the peach trees beside the street only bloom and do not bear fruit.

One side of the road leads to the orchard and the farm, and the opposite direction is the exit of the farm or the dormitory.

Further out of the green alley is a shuttle-shaped fish pond that divides the field into two parts.

On the left, the fields are dedicated to growing grain, and in the fields in August, the green autumn rice is swaying in the wind, and the yellow and bright wheat that is about to enter the harvest period is graceful.

On the right is a vegetable patch, tall is corn, and low is pumpkin; The red ones include tomatoes and peppers, the yellow ones have gourds and gourds, and the purple ones are eggplants and white-skinned cucumbers; loofahs and bitter gourds climb all over the vines, and watermelons and winter melons climb all over the ground; In addition, there are sweet potatoes and potatoes growing in the ground, and water chestnuts and water chestnuts growing at the water's edge...... And that's just an open-air vegetable garden, and there are a few greenhouses for winter next to it.

The Grange's large kitchen is actually the farm's staff canteen.

There is a four-burner stove in the room, and there are gas stoves, honeycomb coal stoves, charcoal stoves for barbecue and hot pot, induction cookers, ovens, refrigerators, freezers and other modern electrical appliances are not lacking.

Outside is the dining room, with cream-white walls, cyan floor tiles, and breathable and bright windows in the north and south. The curtains are not fabric but bamboo roller blinds. In the center, there is a long dining table about three meters long and one meter wide with logs, and a long bench on each side, which is also spliced with logs, which has a bit of antique charm.

Under the north window, a set of log sofas and coffee tables can accommodate seven or eight people to sit and rest.

In the middle of the entrance door and the south window are two stainless steel hot water buckets, respectively containing boiled water and herbal tea. On the low cabinet next to the barrel are several jars of ordinary grade tea. Farm workers who come and go can come here to pour water to make tea and rest.

On the windowsills on both sides hang several pots of lush pothos and spider plants. In the corner of the windowsill lay a sticky fly board, on which lay a few medium-sized flies.

Under the coffee table and in the corner of the entrance are two thin circles of smokeless sandalwood mosquito coils. Compared with the mosquito coil with a strong smoke smell in the thick circle, this is more environmentally friendly.

After He Qingdong took over, he did not make any changes to the Grange, except for the green alley, which is a unified plan for the whole farm, and the others are still the same as before. However, there were some increases and decreases in the staff, a few unclean hands and feet were dismissed, and a few local farm workers were recruited. In terms of income, all of them have increased, which is the most effective way to retain people.

Today, there are twenty-six people working in the grange, one of whom is a husband and wife, the wife is in charge of the stove and the husband is in charge of the fish pond. There is nothing else to worry about at home, so I signed a long-term contract. In ancient times, it was the steward and the steward's wife on the village, with a little bit of power.

Since He Qingdongda decided to renovate the farm, he has done a detailed investigation of the staff on the farm to ensure that they are all available with confidence, and then he will no longer care. The left and right are on the farm, and the food is tossed with them, what they like to eat, people's bellies are always so big, and dozens of people can still empty hundreds of acres of farms?

When Nie Meiyun took care of it, there were incidents of stealing chickens and touching dogs. Although fierce mercenaries are hired to guard them, in the final analysis, it still depends on the person himself, and the person's character is not good, and no matter how strict the management is, there will be negligence. On the contrary, a person with a good character, even if it is an old man who watches the gate, still no one thinks of transporting the output of the farm out and selling it secretly.

When he came with Prince Xu and his entourage last time, He Qingdong instructed Aunt Yang, who was in charge of the stove room, that if there were guests in the future, Aunt Yang would decide what to cook by herself, and she didn't have to ask him every time, just be full of horizontal and vertical pipes.

So, this time, Aunt Yang heard that the owner had brought guests to the farm, and they were here to help pick peaches, and they would definitely eat here at noon, so she was busy as soon as she received the news. Everyone else went to Taolin to help, and she was busy enough to take care of the food of so many people by herself.

Fortunately, the chickens and ducks are all killed and sent from the farm, and she only needs to wash them here to get out of the pot.

The fish was caught temporarily by her family, two large grass carp weighing five or six catties, and a bunch of small miscellaneous fish with the thickness of fingers.

A piece of grass carp meat to make sauerkraut fish, sauerkraut was pickled in the winter last year, when there was no place for the autumn cabbage, there was no place to put it, so it was easy to pickle two jars of sauerkraut, which was very popular with everyone, especially in summer, sauerkraut soup can be two bowls of rice. Another grass carp stomped to make sweet and sour fish.

The trash fish was washed and coated in starch and fried, crispy and crispy. She remembered that Mrs. Dong's favorite dish was this fried small trash fish, which was very delicious when eaten in tomato sauce. She blew up a lot of things today, and it's enough.

In addition to the fish, there is also a bucket of lobster and river prawns. Lobsters are a regular visitor in the summer, as long as they wake up early, they can harvest a large vat every morning. River shrimp are more difficult to catch, they are small and slippery, and you have to use special shrimp baskets. But this is not difficult for her family, before fishing, put a good shrimp basket, after catching the fish to take it back, two plates of shrimp have.

What should I do with the chickens and ducks sent from the farm? In the summer, it was too greasy and unappetizing, Aunt Yang took a knife in her hand, chopped one of the ducks into four large pieces, blanched it and threw it into a large clay pot, soaked a handful of wild bamboo shoots dug up from Lin Xiushan before and after Qingming Festival and put them into the big clay pot, and let it simmer slowly; The other duck is smeared with cooking wine and spices marinated and prepared to be roast duck. The rest of the duck meat is cut into cubes and put it in the refrigerator if you can't finish it, so you can save it from making meat dishes tomorrow. Three chickens, two chicken girls, one white chop, one stewed mushroom, and one rooster make spicy roast chicken. With so many people, there are always people who like spicy food. (To be continued.) )

PS: The second watch is here~ I wish you a happy holiday in advance!