The village chief, who had already lined up at the door, stretched out his head and glanced into the grain store, where the grain was piled up as high as half a wall, how could he say that there was no food?

At this time, the young man of the grain shop took the door panel and prepared to close the door of the shop. The village chief was anxious and was about to argue with the shopkeeper, when Yu Hai came over, shook his hand lightly at him, and whispered: "Village chief, it's useless for you to argue with the shopkeeper." You can also see that a person just came and told him something, and the shopkeeper said that there was no food. The above means that the shopkeeper can't be the master. ”

The shopkeeper of the grain shop faintly heard the conversation between the two, and nodded slightly to Yuhai. He felt that this person was kind to him, and after thinking for a while, he remembered that this was not Yu Hai from Dongshan Village? The Yu family in Dongshan Village is very trusted and respected by the future head of the Zhou family, which is known to all the subordinates of the Zhou family who have a head and a face.

Although the shopkeeper doesn't know why the future head of the family will treat a farmer differently, as a servant of the Zhou family, he can guess the above meaning and vote for his favor, so as to get the master's blue eyes. The servant who just came to inform him of the closure, and the fifty percent increase in the price of food tomorrow is a celebrity next to the eldest son of the big house. Although the eldest prince is in charge of the Zhou family's grain shop, the third prince in the second room is the reserve candidate for the head of the family after all. Which is more important, the grain shop shopkeeper has his own measure in his heart.

The shopkeeper of the grain shop walked over with a smile on his face and said to Yu Hai: "This is Brother Yu Hai, right?" ”

Seeing that Yu Hai nodded, he said again: "Please borrow a step to speak!" ”

At this time, the door of the Zhou family's grain store had been closed, and although the people in line in front of the door had been noisy for a while, they gradually dispersed. Only a dozen or so villagers from Dongshan Village who came to buy grain were left, looking at the village chief at a loss, waiting for him to speak.

The shopkeeper of the grain shop called Yu Hai aside, smiled, and said, "Brother Yu Hai is here to buy grain?" ”

Nonsense, lining up in front of the grain store, not to buy grain, but to buy meat? Yu Hai nodded slightly and said, "Yes, the village has suffered a locust plague, and the crops have not been harvested. I want to stock up on more food to see if I can survive the famine. ”

The shopkeeper of the grain shop thought for a moment, and then said, "Brother Yu Hai, how much grain are you going to buy?" As you can see, our eldest prince ordered the closure to increase the price. It's just that if Brother Yu Hai buys it, at today's price, he should make a friend! ”

Anyway, the eldest prince doesn't know how much grain in the store is sold, so he sent Yu Hai a personal favor today, and he will make plans in the future. The shopkeeper of the grain shop is a capable person, but he lacks opportunities, if he can show his face in front of the future head of the family from Yu Hai, with his ability, he will definitely be in charge of more than a small grain shop in the future.

Yu Hai looked embarrassed when he heard this, and slowly shook his head and said, "More than 30 families in our village are waiting for food to save their lives!" All the folks in the township, I can't do anything to patronize myself and care about the life and death of others! ”

The shopkeeper of the grain store hesitated for a moment, stretched out his thumb to Yu Hai, and said, "Brother Yu Hai is really a loving and righteous person. I wonder how much food your village needs? Within 1,000 catties, brother, I can still call the shots! ”

Yu Hai was overjoyed and said eagerly: "Really? That's great! I'll first ask the village chief how much food I need! ”

Yu Hai ran over, pulled the village chief aside, and whispered to him about the shopkeeper's promise to give Dongshan Village a thousand catties of grain in private. Most of the people who came to buy grain this time were families who had no grain in their hands and had not taken back the grain, only thirteen households.

Coarse grain usually costs five cents a catty, but now the price of Zhou's grain shop is five times that of usual, that is, twenty-five wen a catty. These dozen or so families, because they sell sea sausages and oysters, can be regarded as having a small surplus, so although they are very distressed, they are not unable to buy grain. As soon as they heard that the price of the grain store was going to rise, they all wanted to buy more grain and go back. But people only give them 1,000 catties of grain to share, what can they do?

In the end, the village chief is in charge, according to the head of the family. If there are many family members, they will share more, and if there are fewer members, they will occupy less. On average, each household can buy at least seventy or eighty catties of grain. If you want to buy it at this price again, but you don't! Tomorrow? It's time for food prices to go up again!

More than 1,000 catties of grain were loaded onto the wagon and donkey cart brought by Dongshan Village. Yu Hai symbolically bought more than 100 catties of fine grain, spending nearly five taels of silver. Yu Hai secretly sighed in his heart that the grain store was really a profitable business. When he came to purchase two days ago, a hundred catties of fine grain was only about one or two, and he spent five times more silver!

When I got home, the whole family was busy. Adults and children should work together to pickle the locusts they caught, because the weather is hot and the locusts cannot be left for a long time.

Yu Xiaocao, with the help of Liu and her aunt, made grasshopper sauce. Locusts, commonly known as grasshoppers, have delicious flesh, delicious as shrimp, and are rich in protein and various amino acids, and are very good for the human body when eaten.

In her previous life, she once tried to make grasshopper sauce according to the method introduced on the Internet, and it tasted very good and went well with rice. She asked her mother and aunt to put the locusts they had caught in the water, drown them, wash them, and then take their wings away. The wings are not chopped, which affects the taste.

Then use the ratio of one pound of locusts to one and two halves of salt, pickle all the locusts, let it ferment naturally, and it can be eaten in about 20 days. There is also a kind of freshly fried grasshopper sauce, with minced meat, chopped green onions, chili peppers, and then the grasshoppers are fried and chopped, fried together, and then cooked out of the pot, the taste is more fragrant than fried shrimp.

However, the fermented grasshopper paste can be eaten by anyone. If it is freshly fried grasshopper sauce, it is easy to be allergic to grasshoppers. Therefore, Yu Xiaocao brushed seven or eight ten-pound jars and made a lot of fermented grasshopper sauce.

At noon, the family was not in the mood to cook anything else to eat. Yu Xiaocao made cold grasshopper sauce. It is to fry the locusts, chop them, mix them with fried crushed peanuts, add some coriander, drizzle with hot oil, and then mix well with salt, sugar, and chili oil.

I also made stir-fried grasshopper sauce, first cut the fat meat into small pieces, and cut the washed and dried grasshoppers into small pieces, and then chopped them together with the meat grains and chopped them into a puree. Heat the pot over high heat, burn the oil to fifty percent hot, pour in the grasshopper puree, stir-fry to bring out the fragrance, fry until the water is slightly dry, fry the oil in the fat meat, fully integrate with the grasshopper puree, pour in the chopped green onion, stir-fry evenly, put in salt and monosodium glutamate, then add chili pepper grains, stir-fry a few times to get out of the pot.

The fragrant smell of grasshopper sauce drifted with the wind to the Zhou family not far away. Zhou Shan couldn't hold her breath, so she ran over and asked, "Xiaocao, what delicious food are you cooking, it's so fragrant, my saliva is about to flow out!" ”

Yu Xiaocao told her how to make grasshopper sauce. As soon as Zhou Shan heard such a fragrant smell, it was actually made of locusts, and he couldn't hold his breath: "Xiaocao, you wait a while, I'll call my mother over." You tell her! ”

Zhou Coral is one year older than Yu Xiaocao, and he has no talent in cooking, and he belongs to the type that can cook and eat. Let her learn to make grasshopper sauce, it is estimated that she may not be able to make a plate of grasshopper sauce by tomorrow.

Taught Aunt Zhou to make grasshopper sauce, and Yu Xiaocao made a lot of pancakes out of miscellaneous grains. At noon, the pancake roll with grasshopper sauce.

Fortunately, the Yu family is not allergic to locusts. After the grasshoppers are fried, they are very crispy and taste particularly fragrant, coupled with the unique grain aroma of pancakes, the family eats with relish. Xiao Shi, who came back from the town, ate four large pancakes in one go, and he was still unsatisfied: "Fang Ping, let's go to the foot of the West Mountain in a while, catch more locusts and come back, and there will be grasshopper sauce to eat all year round in the future!" ”

Liu Yan'er glanced at him and said, "Dafutian, the locusts can't be left for a few days, and if they are all pickled into grasshopper sauce, there won't be so many jars." ”

Xiao Fangping said childishly: "It's okay, we can roast locusts, fry locusts, fry locusts, and stew locusts...... Eat a locust feast every day!! My cousin's craftsmanship is so good, she must be delicious in every way. ”

Everyone imagined that a table full of locusts had become an insect feast, and they couldn't help but shudder. Xiao Shi smiled mysteriously and said, "You forgot, we have ice-making skills. You can make an ice cellar at home and freeze all the locusts. In this way, even if the locust plague has passed, when do we want to eat grasshopper sauce all year round, take it out of the ice cellar and make it, isn't it? ”

"Ice cellar? That's something that only a rich man can afford! Liu Hu said to himself.

At this time, the ice cellars of wealthy families were mostly collected from the river in winter and stored in the cellars. The manpower and material resources consumed can be imagined. But Yu Xiaocao has mastered the skill of making ice in his hands, and even Dafutian can conjure ice.

In the afternoon, Yu Xiaocao was in charge of ice making, and Yu Hai led the family to vacate the cellar. By evening, the first batch of ice had been prepared, and this one had been made so much that it filled a third of the cellar. In the afternoon, the person who continued to clean up the locusts also sent the first batch of locusts into the ice cellar.

Yu Caifeng looked at the ice in the cellar with some concern: "This ice won't melt overnight, right?" ”

Yu Xiaocao said confidently: "Don't worry, auntie!" Ice has a large storage capacity, and the temperature of the ice cellar is low, so it will not melt too quickly. Besides, our cellar is dug deep, and the insulation measures on it are well done, so it will definitely be no problem to change it to an ice cellar! It's just that I've turned it into a part today, and I'll make some ice tomorrow to make up for it. The ice cellar of the rich man's house can be stored from winter to summer, can we not save it overnight? ”

With an ice cellar, I am afraid that the locusts I catch will spoil. Under the leadership of Yu Caifeng and Liu, the family cleaned up all the locusts they caught overnight and put them in the ice cellar for storage. The Yu family has lived a hard life, especially in a disaster year, and has a great attachment to food.

After struggling all night, the next day, except for a few children who didn't work overtime, everyone else ate breakfast and went back to the house to catch up on sleep. Xiao Shi excitedly took the bag basket and took Liu Fangping to catch grasshoppers.