After chatting, Zhou Yang asked Li Youwei to lie down on the kang for a while, while he went outside to clean up the dining room.
After washing the dishes and chopsticks, Zhou Yang took the remaining half pot of mutton outside and prepared to make jerky.
The main reason why jerky is made is because fresh meat cannot be stored for a long time.
Although it is already the end of October, the night temperature in Saibei Province has dropped below zero, but the temperature at noon can still reach around seven or eight degrees.
At such temperatures, food can easily spoil.
Therefore, to ensure that the mutton does not spoil, it must be made into jerky.
Of course, if it is pork, it can also be made into marinated pork or bacon.
But beef and mutton are generally not used to make marinated beef or mutton. After all, the taste of beef and mutton after marinating is really hard to describe.
In a word, a waste of good things!
There are several ways to make jerky. The local method is to cut beef and mutton into small strips, put them on wires, strings or wooden racks without adding oil or salt, and let them dry naturally.
It removes moisture while maintaining the freshness.
But this approach is generally only suitable when the weather gets completely cool, usually at the end of each year when the temperature is below zero.
It is usually ready in February or March of the next year, and can be grilled or eaten raw at that time.
The air-dried beef and mutton have a crispy texture and a unique taste, leaving diners with endless aftertaste.
But the temperature is still a bit high now, so it’s not suitable for this method.
Zhou Yang could only use another method-smoking.
Although this method is more cumbersome and requires some other condiments, it is not restricted by climate.
A few hours later, Zhou Yang made more than 20 kilograms of fresh mutton into cooked dried meat.
Now you just need to put the dried meat in a cool place to dry naturally, without having to worry about the hot weather causing the mutton to spoil.
After processing the dried meat, Zhou Yang saw that there were still some bones and meat in the basin that had been trimmed, mainly sheep scorpions and sheep stick bones.
If these bones are not processed, they may smell raw again tomorrow.
After thinking about it, Zhou Yang immediately poured all the bones into the pot, added water and salt, and simmered over low heat.
By the time the mutton was about to be stewed, the sky had already darkened.
At this time, Li Youwei in the room also woke up.
Since becoming pregnant, Li Youwei feels dizzy every day and wants to sleep.
During this period, I basically sleep until eight or nine in the morning before waking up, and I also sleep for three or four hours in the afternoon.
She calculated that of the twenty-four hours a day, she slept for almost 12 hours.
Looking at the big clock on the wall, the hour hand had reached six, and she immediately walked out of the room.
Seeing Zhou Yang still squatting by the stove to light the fire, Li Youwei said apologetically: "I'll do it, you go in and take a rest!"
Zhou Yang smiled and said, "It's okay, I'm not tired!"
"I smell mutton, are you stewing meat again?"
"Well, I was worried that the meat would taste raw if left for a long time, so I made all the meat into jerky and stewed the remaining bones together!" Zhou Yang said.
"Can we finish the stew?"
"Haha, I plan to give some to Brother Yan and Teacher Qin!"
"OK!"
Just as he was talking, there was suddenly the sound of "tapping" footsteps outside the door, and at the same time there was the sound of children chirping.
Through the open door of the main room, Zhou Yang saw his old father-in-law Li Fengnian walking in from the yard with Bao'er in his arms.
As soon as she entered the room, the little girl happily raised the half pencil in her hand and said to Zhou Yang, "Dad, look, this is what Brother Huzi gave to me!"
"Then would you like to thank Brother Huzi?" Zhou Yang said with a smile.
"Thanks, Brother Huzi said you're welcome..."
Li Youwei saw that her daughter's shoes and trouser legs were wet, and she immediately frowned and said, "Bao'er, did you go to play in the creek again?"
Upon hearing her mother's accusation, the little girl immediately ran behind her grandfather and stopped looking at her parents.
Li Fengqiang coughed, and then said: "Okay, there is no water in the small river this year, so there is no danger!"
Seeing that her father had spoken, Li Youwei had no choice but to stop talking.
"Dad, have you eaten? There is meat stewed in the pot!" Zhou Yang said.
"Haha, I just ate. Your mother made mutton noodles for us tonight, and she also called Comrade Lin Yi and Comrade Yang Wenguang over!" Li Fengnian said.
"By the way, Dad, I haven't asked how the crusher is doing yet?" Zhou Yang asked immediately.
"It's done. Comrade Lin Yi gave us three crushers and a flour mill, and the effect is very good!"
Then Li Fengnian continued: "In addition, Comrade Yang Wenguang has changed all the lines in our village. During this period, he is leading the villagers to build new biogas digesters. In his words, as long as the equipment is in place, everything in our village can be used in the future." Get free lights!”
"Well, I asked Director Yang to help with the equipment and get it back as soon as possible!" Zhou Yang said.
"Okay, you can discuss the details with Comrade Yang Wenguang before we discuss it!"
"Um!"
At this time, Li Fengnian said again: "By the way, the team will have a meeting tomorrow morning, so remember to go there early!"
"What's the meeting?" Zhou Yang asked immediately.
"This autumn harvest is over, and we have to hand in the mission rations!"
After hearing this, Zhou Yang remembered that there was such an important thing that he had not done this year.
"Dad, how much do we need to pay per acre of land this year?"
"30 pounds!"
Zhou Yang breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this number.
The task of handing in public grain is different every year because the harvest in the fields is different every year.
Normally, when there is a good harvest, the public grain payment is more, and when there is a poor harvest, it is less.
If there is a big disaster, sometimes the public food will be exempted.
This year, almost all of Saibei Province has suffered from drought. The grain harvest is generally poor, and the mission grain is much less than before.
"Okay, I'll go there early tomorrow!"
Li Fengnian hummed softly, then took out an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Zhou Yang.
"What happened?"
Zhou Yang asked while taking it.
"Lin Zhiqing's father gave it to me and asked me to hand it over to you!"
Zhou Yang suddenly stopped moving his hands, and then asked: "Did they leave?"
"Well, their family also left on the third day you went to the city. I personally took them to the station!" Li Fengnian sighed.
Zhou Yang took a deep breath, and then said: "It doesn't matter if we leave, for Lin Zhiqing, I'm afraid there will only be painful memories left here!"
"Well, on the day before I left, I chatted with Lin Zhiqing's father for a long time. After the chat, I felt very touched!"
Then, Li Fengnian said again: "Xiao Yang, you did a good job with Lin Zhiqing!"
Zhou Yang nodded without speaking, but opened the sealed envelope.
What surprised Zhou Yang was that in addition to a simple piece of letter paper, there was also a stack of unity inside the envelope.
Although there is no detailed count, Zhou Yang estimates that there are at least 20 pictures.
There was very little content on the letter. In addition to once again thanking Zhou Yang for taking care of his daughter, Lin Yunsheng also explained that the money was money he left for Zhou Yang's medicine.
In addition, he also left an address, which was the address of his workplace. He hoped that if Zhou Yang could still get the special medicine, he would mail it to this place.
After reading this letter, Zhou Yang let out a long breath, and then he had a lot of thoughts!
