In the courtyard of the Bai family, there is a complete set of stone farm tools.

Stone grinders, stone hammers, rice mortar hammers, and many tools used by stonemasons.

When his godfather Tong Lao Wu was young, he also had a profession as a stonemason, and in addition to teaching his godson Bai Zhenxing his storytelling ability, this set of stone farming tools was his greatest inheritance.

The white hand instructed the younger brothers and sisters to wash the high steamer and the stone-ground rice mortar hammer and prepare them for rice cakes and mochi.

The white hand went to Chen Tong Street, that is, the Chen Tong Village that he came to yesterday.

There are 10 large bazaars in the county, which are recognized by the government, but do not include Chen Tong Street.

But there is also a market on Chen Tong Street, and it is every day, but the time is very short, often the market opens at five or six o'clock in the morning, and it is empty before ten o'clock.

The people who rushed to the market were all locals, those who sold and bought, and the villagers who were in the village.

From Baicun to Chentong Street, it is more than three miles away.

If you don't buy anything else on the street, you buy glutinous rice. When my father came home this time, he rolled away 30 catties of glutinous rice, and he couldn't make mochi without glutinous rice.

My mother has bad teeth and only eats mochi, not hard rice cakes, and most of the mochi is made for my mother.

I bought thirty-five catties of glutinous rice with my white hands, five catties more than the original, and carried it home without stopping.

In the afternoon, Bai Shou called the second brother Bai Dang and took out three baskets and four sacks.

The third brother, the eldest sister and the younger sister also came to help and moved the rice out of the granary.

Three baskets of japonica rice, more than 200 catties, are used to make rice cakes.

Four sacks of late rice, there are more than 500 catties at home, take half of it out and beat it into rice, and you can eat it until the beginning of spring next year.

The strength of the people is great, and the five brothers and sisters loaded the rice onto the cart, pulled it with their white hands, and the younger brothers and sisters pushed it, went out of the yard, and went towards the rice factory of the brigade.

The brigade's rice factory is located near the village by the river, and two huts have installed a diesel engine, which usually drives the rice beater to beat rice for the villagers, and drives the pumping machine to deliver water to the fields through the canal when the farm is busy.

After beating the rice, it was shipped back.

Even the chaff (rice husks) were brought home and not sold to the peddlers who were guarding the rice mill to buy the bran.

Because in the white-handed plan, two or three piglets are raised, and chaff is one of the main raw materials.

Making rice cakes and mochi is a hassle, and the first step is to soak the rice in water for at least twelve hours.

I was going to make rice cakes and mochi the day after tomorrow, so I calculated the time with my hands and decided to soak the rice at noon the day earlier.

Thirty-five catties of glutinous rice were soaked in wooden barrels, and there were three hundred catties of japonica rice, and nearly two hundred catties of japonica rice were soaked, which were soaked in three water tanks.

Before five o'clock in the morning, white hands came out of the straw stack of Widow Chen's house, called the second brother Bai Dang, and returned home in the dark.

The second brother went to wake up the younger siblings.

With his white hands, he first lit the kerosene lamp in the yard, and then hung up the horse lamp to check whether the glutinous rice and japonica rice were well soaked.

This white hand understands, take a few grains of rice and grind it with your thumb and forefinger.

With a little force, pinch the rice into flour, which means that the rice is ready to come out of the water.

The third brother, the eldest sister and the younger sister are responsible for scooping out the rice soaked in the water, putting it in a basket, and waiting for the water to dry.

The next thing is to grind the rice and grind it into powder, which is a tiring job, of course, it is the white hand and the second brother to go into battle.

Before grinding, he carried his mother to the yard with his white hands, and there was a big stove in the yard where the flour had to be cooked.

The firewood had already been prepared, next to the big stove, and his mother was in charge of lighting the fire.

It was still early to cook the powder, and my mother waited while collecting the soles of her shoes.

The eldest sister is in charge of breakfast, although she can eat rice cake mochi at noon, but she still has to eat breakfast.

The third brother is responsible for grinding the stone with rice.

The little sister is responsible for putting the ground rice noodles into the wooden barrel.

The family has a clear division of labor, each performs its own duties, and is in good order.

After working for more than an hour, the eldest sister has made breakfast, a pot of porridge, and more than a dozen wheat mushrooms (buns).

The whole family had breakfast in the courtyard.

When you're full, go on.

took the lead with his white hands, and also mobilized: "If anyone is lazy, I will go to the street tomorrow to buy New Year's goods, and I won't take anyone with me." ”

The younger siblings were busy with their work.

After another hour and a half, the soaked glutinous rice and japonica rice had been ground into flour.

He shouted at his mother with his white hand, "Mom, you can make a fire." ”

The mother answered, put down the soles of her shoes, and began to light the fire.

The pot was already filled with water.

Before the rice noodles are put into the pot, there is another important process, which is to add water to the rice noodles and add a little salt.

Salt is added to increase the stickiness and firmness of the rice cakes and mochi, which are chewy to eat.

How much water and how much salt to add, the white hands don't quite understand, but the mother she knows.

The rice noodles were placed in several low and tall wooden barrels and all moved to the mother.

Add water and salt to the glutinous rice flour with your white hands, then roll up your sleeves and expose your arms, and stir the rice noodles with your hands.

The mother watched, stretched out two fingers from time to time, picked up the rice noodles and then fell.

"Hand, it's okay."

The white hand answered and stopped stirring, "Second brother, put the high steamer on the pot." Fourth, help your mother add firewood and make the fire prosperous. ”

Bai Dang put the high steamer on the pot.

Holding a small bucket in his white hand, he poured rice noodles into the high steamer.

The high steamer is made of wooden boards, with a height of more than 60 centimeters, and can hold 30 or 40 catties of rice noodles at a time.

Make mochi first, and the first cage is glutinous rice flour, which is just full.

It takes at least 15 minutes to cook a basket of rice noodles.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Bai Shou and the second brother added water and salt to all the rice cake flour and stirred them all.

After finishing his work, he went to the steamer with his white hands again. The steamer was covered with a piece of cloth, which was already steaming, and he lifted the cloth with his white hand, took a finger, picked up the glutinous rice flour, and showed it to his mother.

The mother put it in her mouth and chewed it, nodded and said, "It's cooked." ”

The white hand shouted "out of the pot", put on a posture, picked up the high steamer, walked a few steps, and poured the cooked glutinous rice flour into the rice mortar.

Glutinous rice flour is fragrant, and the younger brothers and sisters are screaming and rushing to try it.

At this time, we must rush for time and talk about speed.

Put the empty steamer back on the pot with your white hands, add cold water to the pot, change the wet cloth at the bottom of the steamer, and then pour the rice cake powder into the steamer.

Turning around, he picked up a hammer weighing more than ten catties with his white hand and began to pound the cooked glutinous rice flour in the rice mortar.

The white hand has strength, the glutinous rice is sticky, and after some hammering, the glutinous rice flour has condensed into a ball.

This is not the end, and the white hands will continue to pound and pound.

At this time, he needed a helper, of course, the second brother Baidang, he squatted on the side of the rice mortar, and the eldest brother smashed a hammer, so he grabbed the glutinous rice ball and moved it.

Back and forth, over and over again, thousands of hammers.

Finally, the white hand shouted, "Mochi out of the mortar." ”

He put down the hammer, dipped his white hands in water, and put the mochi ball in the low bucket.

A thin layer of chaff is spread out in the bucket, and the mochi will not stick, and the white hands move competently, bend down, and move both palms in unison to press the mochi ball into a large round cake.

The work of making mochi is finally complete.

On the mother's side, the fire was no longer burning because the rice cake flour was ripening too quickly, and they couldn't catch up with their white hands.

But the first basket of rice cake noodles is almost ripe.

With a white hand, I remembered that there was still a preparation that had not been done.