Chapter 127 - 127 Cutting Leeks

127 Cutting Leeks

Hearing her grandmother’s words, Gu Qingming walked over carefully and squatted down. She lowered her head to take a look and even touched it with her slender and fair hand. She asked in confusion, “What’s the difference?”

Grandma was speechless. She was now very sure that her granddaughter was an agricultural idiot. It was such an obvious difference, but she actually said that there was no difference.

Grandma said, “The leaves of the rice seedlings are relatively large and thick. Furthermore, they have a furry appearance. The thorns are also thicker. When you hold them in your hands, you will feel that they are rough. You will feel as if you are cutting your skin.

“As for the chives, their leaves are relatively thin and soft, and their stems are thin and white. When you hold them in your hand, they’re soft and you won’t feel like they’re cutting your skin. When we go back later, you can see the difference between them!”

Gu Qingming nodded and smiled. “Okay!”

After looking at the chives for a while, she stood up and looked at the other vegetables in the vegetable field.

“Grandma, this is eggplant. I know!” Gu Qingming pointed at an eggplant tree with purple leaves, purple flowers, and purple fruits. “This is exactly as described in the book.”

Grandma smiled and said, “That’s right. This is eggplant. The eggplant your second aunt made yesterday was picked from here.”

“This is chili?” Gu Qingming pointed at a piece of chili and said in confusion, “Grandma, is this chili so small?”

“We call it little chili. Of course, it’s small.”

“Is it spicy?”

“Of course it’s spicy! This little chili is very spicy. Usually, we use this little chili to make chopped peppers, stone mushroom chili sauce, and pickled chili. However, the most common method of preparing little chili in the countryside is to dry it. Then, if you like to eat spicy food, when cooking, add some dried little chili. The dishes made are fragrant and spicy.”

Grandma smiled and said, “Country bumpkins like basically leave some dried chili peppers in every family. The rest are sold for money. The dried chili peppers cost more than 20 dollars a catty. Those that aren’t dried are sold at an annual price.”

Gu Qingming said in surprise, “I didn’t expect that there are so many methods in handling small chili.”

However, her habits did not make her addicted to spicy food!

Gu Qingming pointed at a vine seedling that was even larger than her palm and asked curiously, “What vegetable is this?”

Gu Qingming thought of something and asked, “Is this a sweet potato?”

“That’s right!” Grandma said. “We grow them ourselves. They’re red sacs and very sweet. When we want to eat them, we steam them in a pot. When prepared with plain porridge, it tastes quite good.”

“There’s also a type of sweet potato used to make sweet potato starch. Sweet potato starch can also be used to make many delicious things. It can be used to make cornstarch, fried meatballs, egg rinds, noodles, starch, and so on. There are many uses for it. In the future, if there’s a chance, we’ll make them for you!” Grandma smiled and said, “Other than meat that needs to be bought and some seasonings that need to be bought, the rest are basically grown by ourselves.”

Gu Qingming smiled happily and said, “Then I want to try them all!”

Grandma suddenly thought of something and said, “Oh, sweet potato leaves are delicious. I’ll stir-fry a dish for you and grandpa today.”

“Alright, I’ll pluck it!” Gu Qingming reached out excitedly and plucked the leaves.

She started plucking the leaves.

Grandma immediately said, “Ming’er, don’t pluck the leaves like this. You have to pluck the leaves together with the stems.”

“Oh!” Gu Qingming lowered her head and bent down in the direction of the leaves and vines.

However, she picked a small sweet potato leaf.

Grandmother smiled and said, “When picking the sweet potato leaves, take those with thick stems. The stems can be used to stir-fry with garlic and chili. As for the leaves, you can just stir-fry them with the garlic. The children like to eat them. They don’t like other vegetables, but they like these sweet potato leaves.”

“Then I have to try more!” Gu Qingming said happily.

Then, she lowered her head and took a look. She realized her hands were a little black and sticky.

Grandma said, “Plucking leaves will produce oil. It’s not easy to wash. Ming’er, don’t pluck them. Grandma will pluck them. I’ll pick a large handful and make two big plates of them.”

Gu Qingming’s hand was stained with sweet potato oil. It was sticky and a little uncomfortable, so she did not pluck the leaves again.

Gu Qingming pointed at a green seedling and asked, “Grandma, is that cabbage?”

“That’s right, this is cabbage!”

This piece of dry land was not big, but there were many vegetables planted on it.

This was the first time Gu Qingming had seen the vegetables she usually ate in their original form. She was a little surprised.

“So the food I eat looks like this. As the saying goes, it’s better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books! Based on the introductions in the books, even if there are pictures, it’s sometimes difficult to recognize them without seeing them in real life.”

After picking a large handful of leaves, Grandma found a piece of dry straw and tied it up before putting it aside.

She picked some red peppers, a few ripe eggplants, and a few cabbages. The basket was almost full.

Grandma said, “It’s time to harvest chives!”

“Cutting chives!” Gu Qingming immediately became excited again.

Cutting chives was a popular online saying nowadays.

According to the saying, Chinese chives referred to the grassroots masses of the financial world. They were synonymous with people who were novices and didn’t learn well. Usually, such people were tricked by other so-called experts into buying stocks, wealth management, and other financial products, and eventually end up losing money. This trick is known as “cutting Chinese chives.”

It was also used to describe how the stock market had plummeted as a result of the dumping of stocks by some institutions, funds, and big players, giving them new opportunities to build stocks and re-establish them at low levels, making profits in a cycle of bands.

The term was also used to refer to the act of scrounging by retail investors.

As someone in the business world, she was extremely familiar with the term “cutting chives”.

However, this was also Gu Qingming’s first time experiencing it physically.

Gu Qingming looked around but did not find it. She frowned slightly.

Grandma asked in confusion, “Ming’er, what are you looking for?”

Gu Qingming asked, “A knife! Grandma, don’t you need a knife to cut chives? Did we not bring a knife when we came just now?”

Gu Qingming was not an idiot. Since she was harvesting chives, she naturally needed tools.

Grandma smiled and said, “Ming’er, I didn’t bring a knife. However, cutting chives doesn’t have to be done with a knife.”

With that, she bent down and found a clam shell on the field.

She said, “Just use this!”

Gu Qingming asked in confusion, “What is this? A clam shell?”

“That’s right!”

“But how do we do that?”

Grandma bent down and easily cut a handful of chives with the clam shell. She smiled and said, “We cut it just like that.”

Gu Qingming was speechless.