Chapter 22 Eat Meat
The pigs were bought back by brother Dao and his guys. At first Lin Yuan thought they were off to commit robbery with the hoes they took with them. But brother Dao has his reasons.
“The mountain paths are hard to walk through. The wild beasts are also a nuisance, not to mention the mountain bandits.” Brother Dao says with experience, “having something heavy at hand would be better than nothing at all.”
Lin Yuan thinks it reasonable and only told them to be careful. Compared to human life, pig or sheep meat is not as important.
On the side, one of the guys hears and says in a loud voice:”Boss, only you think this way. When I was young and my hometown became ravaged by famine, a sack of fine grains can buy a young pretty girl. Sometimes human life can also be cheap!”
At certain times, grains and meat can be more important than human life, especially during turbulent times.
Lin Yuan:”Go quickly.”
The person smiled wide showing yellow teeth:”We’re going.”
When they came back they brought with them 2 goats, 5 piglets, 2 females and 3 males.
The 2 female pigs and 1 male pig will be left to breed. The remaining 2 pigs had been castrated. Lin Yuan made sure to relay this clearly since nowadays the practice was not common everywhere. And since no one in the farmstead knew it was better to have the seller do it just in case. Once they are raised a bit then they can be killed and eaten.
The goats were rather large in size, just a bit skinny. These days humans can’t even eat their full let alone livestock.
Brother Dao:”The seller is on the mountain and only asked for some old grains in return, saying that livestock can’t be sold for a good price anymore. But they don’t want to sell cheaply so they kept it themselves.”
Nowadays people with money all buy grains, those who buy meat are very few.
One goat was killed that evening, the goat head was used for soup while the meat was salted and made into bacon which will be used for rewards.
Li Da heard that there will be goat head soup that evening so he finished his work very early and sat in the field to wait. The cold wind blowing on his face seemed as if it became warmer.
Someone struck up a conversation with him:”What’s with the foolish smile?”
Li Da says quietly:”Tonight there’ll be goat head soup, there might even be some pieces of meat!”
The person is surprised:”How do you know? There really is goat head soup!”
Li Da laughed:”The head cook in the dining hall told me that there is goat head soup tonight and also goat feet, everyone will get a piece of bone to gnaw at.”
The mention of meat had everybody swallowing their saliva. People all have a craving for meat.
The human body needs energy, The source includes carbohydrate, fat and protein. White buns have carbohydrate, soybeans have protein as for fat——now even Lin Yuan craves fat meat, let alone others.
Although there isn’t any fat meat, but the flavor and tastiness of lean meat and beans cannot even compare.
If there’s meat to eat, who would eat beans instead?
Now, the snack eaten in the farmstead is sauteed beans which are chewy and filling. Only, it causes a lot of gas so living in a dormitory, if someone ate too much beans then the rest will suffer the whole night.
At dinnertime, everyone cleaned up and headed towards the dining hall. Poor people only eat two meals a day, one in the morning and one at night, having never even heard of lunch. In order to improve his underlings’ physical strength so that in the future they will be assests Lin Yuan changed it to three meals a day.
Although the food is crude, it is filling. Indeed the the physiques of the people have improved.
At least this winter there was not many people who came down with a cold. Though it could have also been related to proper warming conditions as well.
Recently the women have been busy with sewing. At first they were hesitant, poor families must cherish a single needle and can’t even buy a roll of cloth in a whole year. So their skills in making clothes can only be called average, being able to be worn without it splitting apart is already very good.
Lin Yuan had them make long sleeves and long pants, which was rather easy, just cut along the lines drawn on the cloth and then sew the pieces together.
This of course can only be worn as under clothes, and there was no cotton to be added but the women thought of a solution. They separated into several small groups with three to four people focusing on rubbing dry grass which will then be stuffed into the seams of the clothes.
This actually improved the warmth of the clothing, only it is not too convenient to move around in them.
Lin Yuan also had them make the clothes in the same size, called uniform size in the modern times. A piece of cloth was used as a belt and attached at the waist so if the size was too big they could just tighten it up. As for if the size was too small…..everyone is just skin and bones and likely won’t even grow too much width in the coming years.
Rubbing dry grass was something Gou zi taught them.
First dry the grass by the fire then rub each of them until it is no longer hard on the outside. Then use a rock to flatten, repeating the process all over again. Although it is slightly troublesome but it is still effective.
Without cotton or wool this was already the best solution.
As for the goat fur and down, Lin Yuan does not know how to process it so he left it for now.
Lin Yuan wants to raise goose next year, maybe by the end of the year there will be down-filled garments to wear. But likely there won’t be enough cloth, so he could only wait until then to consider.
“It smells really good!”
“It’s too fragrant, I’m almost drooling.”
“I can even eat two more buns just by smelling this scent.”
When they arrived to the dining hall, they lined up the way Lin Yuan taught them, there is no choice since they won’t be allowed to fill their bowls with food if they don’t line up properly.
The bowls are all on the side and each person takes one to fill with rice. Once finishing all the cutlery must be placed in the same place.
“Add some more, add some more for me!” Someone moaned, “I saw some meat pieces, move your ladle in that direction!”
“Hey, I got a piece of goat brain!”
“Me too, me too!”
Aside from goat head soup, there was also cut up pickled vegetables. And combined with mixed grain buns, everyone ate without lifting their heads. The female cooks already ate but they still have a craving for more. If there are any left overs it well then belong to them.
Though they also felt the tastiness when they were eating but looking at the men eating like they are hungry ghosts, they also felt hungry again.
The head cook hollered from outside:”Tomorrow evening we’ll have goat organ soup.”
The weather now is good for storing animal viscera as it won’t grow smelly. The head cook prepared the goat head today, and will prepare goat viscera tomorrow. The day after they can have blood sausage.
First clean the goat intestines then fill it with blood, a crude version of blood sausage will then be made.
And then cook it with pickled vegetables; it would be considered a rare delicacy.
Lin Yuan and his family also ate simply, only cutting a small piece of goat meat, enough for each person to have two bites, and stewed with pickled vegetables. With a side of rice it was fairly savory and a rare delicacy.
Lin Yuan wonders privately if there are any starch vegetables in the area since rice flour is too expensive…..he dare not think.
Mung beans can be made into mung bean flour too, only it is a question whether there are any mung beans in the current time.
Its origin land seems to be India and Myanmar.
When spring arrives he’ll have people ask around, maybe there will be some result?
When the pig grows a bit, pig meat can be stewed with vermicelli, what a happy prospect.
Thinking of pig meat reminds Lin Yuan of the foul smell of pigs.
As for the smell, he needs to also think of a good solution.
And a way to have them grow fatter.
TN: Hello, I’m back! Sorry for disappearing for two days! Guiltily, I must admit I was immersed in a new Chinese novel and I just wanted to binge _(:3」∠).
TN2: On another note, I would like your opinion on whether I should stick with just updating Ming Charity or can I also start other translation projects and then update alternately. Which would be better?