“…… This is the bracken, which is known as the 'king of mountain vegetables', and it is a fairly recognizable mountain vegetable like dandelion and endive.

It evolved from the ancient fern, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the anchovy fern family, because the young shoots that have not yet stretched out resemble cat's claws and fists, so it is also called cat's claw vegetable, fist vegetable - in some places in China it is also called dragon head vegetable.

When you pick wild vegetables in this piece, don't pick them indiscriminately except for the ones I just introduced, and ask me to confirm whether they can be eaten before starting. ”

In the late spring mountain forest before the arrival of the rainy season, because the apostles appeared twice in succession, not many people have been interested in coming to the campsite for a hike recently, so the grass where Chu Xuan and the others stood was full of all kinds of mountain vegetables.

However, in order to avoid picking poisonous weeds by mistake, Chu Xuan carefully explained to the three qualified people how to identify several edible mountain vegetables with very obvious characteristics before letting them do it themselves.

- Of course, there were also scattered mushrooms at the roots of the trees nearby, but that was forbidden by Chu Xuan for them to pick, but Chu Xuan promised that if he found edible mushrooms, he would call them over to pick them.

After working together to erect four tents, Shigeru Aoba and Makoto were asked by Miri Katsuragi to handle the ingredients in her place, and Maya Ibuki was very interested in picking edible wild plants that were "pure natural, green, no pollution, no fertilization, no pesticides, and no hormones", but unfortunately her senior sister Ritsuko Akagi was past the age to participate in such "young" actions with great interest, so she had to accompany her senior sister to handle the ingredients together.

After all, her senior sister didn't know anything about cooking, and the two men didn't seem to be very reliable, so if she didn't have her here, it was really worrying what would happen to the ingredients that had been roughly processed.

But with Ritsuko Akagi, even in the worst case, the animal-based and plant-based ingredients can be handled according to the essentials of biological experiments, at least in terms of hygiene, which Maya Ibuki values well.

"Wait."

Just as Rei Ayaami, who was standing not far from Chu Xuan, bent down to pick a bracken at her feet, Chu Xuan stopped her movements again, and called Shinji Ikari and the black cat who had just dispersed.

"Bracken can be eaten with young shoots that have shrunk into a ball and the upper part of the tender stem, like this bud is almost completely spread out and is already old, but too short and thin to grow can not be picked.

Also, there is a secret to picking bracken......"

In order to demonstrate in person, Chu Xuan almost bent down against Ayanami Rei's body, stretched out his hand and pinched the stem of a thick bracken that looked very much like a cat's claw, and slowly pulled it up appropriately, and when he pulled it halfway, the stem broke off with a "snap".

"The self-disconnected here is the edible part, and the stems below are quite hard, and they taste like old garlic moss, and it is difficult to pick them all out among the other young stems."

Looking at Chu Xuan and Ayanami Rei standing intimately together, Shinji Ikari seemed to understand something.

Then he subconsciously looked at the black cat who had solemnly warned him, but found that the black cat was holding a few bracken like cat claws, and his other empty hand was held like a cat's claw, and he meowed cutely to Chu Xuan and Ayanami Rei, as if he didn't care about the ambiguity between the two people at all.

As a man, it's impossible not to think "why isn't that person me?" when you see this situation? However, because that person was Chu Xuan, Shinji Ikari didn't have any feelings of envy, jealousy and hatred at all, let alone think "I can replace him", so he could only turn his head a little embarrassed and honestly enjoy the fun of looking for mountain vegetables.

"Chu Xuan, what is this?"

After a while, Shinji Ikari heard Rei Ayaba's indifferent voice not far away, he turned his head and found that Chu Xuan and Rei Ayanami had moved to a round-leaved weed not far from him at some point, while the black cat was squatting in the other direction and trying to pick wild vegetables, dressed in black It was still easy to distinguish in the green field.

Beside Ayanami Rei, Chu Xuan was bending down to pinch the purple-red young leaves of the round-leaved weed, and he didn't even let go of the green leaves that grew relatively large underneath, he looked at it fixedly, but he didn't know what kind of grass it was.

"It's a shiso, it's edible with both leaves and stems, and at noon we fry tempura with it and other wild vegetables.

It has a high nutritional value and can also be considered a spice. ”

"It's a little different from the shiso used by black cats."

Chu Xuan and Ayanami Rei were talking lightly over there, while Shinji Ikari was secretly swallowing saliva here, fresh mountain vegetable tempura, just thinking about it, I felt as if I smelled a faint fragrance in my nose.

With the expectation of the mountain vegetable tempura, Shinji Ikari buried his head and worked harder to find the wild vegetables that could be eaten, and in this way, he searched all the way and dug all the way, and soon he came to the end of this forest field.

Straightening up his already sore waist, Shinji Ikari looked back, Chu Xuan, Ayanami Rei and the black cat had already separated, and they were picking mountain vegetables in four directions in a cross shape with him, but the progress was not as fast as him, and Chu Xuan was left last because he was called by Ayanami Li and the black cat from time to time to identify the mountain vegetables.

Although he knew that this idea of "he was the fastest" was quite naïve, Shinji Ikari still felt a little happy, and he was about to go to Chu Xuan's side to help, but the corner of his eye suddenly noticed a little red in the woods.

"That's ......"

Shinji Ikari's eyes lit up, and he immediately walked towards the red patch happily, and after more than half a minute, he happily ran towards Chu Xuan, holding a few red fruits in his right hand in front of him.

"Chu Xuan, I found wild strawberries over there, a lot!"

Before he could run in front of Chu Xuan, Shinji Ikari shouted excitedly at Chu Xuan, like a child who was in a hurry to offer treasures to adults, and when the black cat and Rei Ayanami also heard the sound and ran over, he spread his hands in front of everyone with some pride, revealing a few big and red wild strawberries.

- But it's not a wild strawberry, and it's still very different from a strawberry in appearance, but Shinji Ikari doesn't know the scientific name of the thing.

"It's also called wild strawberry, and its scientific name is 'raspberry', and because it grows on shrubs, it's also called 'raspberry', and it's ripening season.

It belongs to the same family of roses as strawberries, but one is the genus Rubus and the other is the genus Strawberry, of which the palm-leaved raspberry is the only raspberry among the 194 species of raspberries that has been selected into the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and can be used as medicine. ”

It seemed that Chu Xuan, who knew everything and knew everything, had really accurately identified this red wild berry that was as beautiful as a jewel, and Shinji Ikari would not be amazed in his heart now because of this little thing, because in his heart, it was a matter of course that Chu Xuan was so knowledgeable.

"By the way, be careful before eating."

After Shinji Ikari took the initiative to divide three of the four very beautifully shaped raspberries in his hand and give them to the other three, Chu Xuan reminded these "city children" when they hadn't put the raspberries in their mouths yet.

"Always look behind your back before eating, sometimes ants or some other larvae will run in - but blow hard inside and blow away."

Hearing that there were insects inside, Shinji Ikari and the black cat both changed their faces slightly, Shinji Ikari raised his hand and put the tail of the raspberry in front of his eyes, and on the back of the fruit, looking through the round hole that originally connected the calyx, the flesh of the fruit was neatly put together, a bit like a beehive.

And since it is a beehive, of course, there are ** bee larvae in it.

"Wow!"

Seeing the white larvae wriggling inside the raspberry, Shinji Ikari's goosebumps immediately rose, and the scream threw the ruby-like fruit into the air, but it was caught by Chu Xuan in time.

"Worms, bugs......"

Shinji Ikari made the black cat tremble, but when she cautiously glanced inside the raspberry in her hand, she immediately raised her head and gave Shinji Ikari a rather gloating smile. (To be continued.) )