Chapter 167： Tiancang Festival

After the twelfth lunar month comes the New Year. After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, on the nineteenth day, the family begins to steam cakes and prepare food for the Tiancang Festival.

Tiancang means tiancang, which means that the home's granary is full and there is plenty of food and clothing.

Chunniang and her two sisters-in-law used rice flour, wheat flour, bean flour, etc. to shape ingots, pots, baggage, sheep, cows, chickens, and dog-shaped lamps, and steamed them in cages.

After that, take it out, put cotton threads into the lamp-shaped steamed cake, and pour a little castor oil.

At night, the Jiang family lights rice lanterns one by one and places them in every corner of the house, which symbolizes prosperity, abundant grains and abundant livestock in the garden.

Early the next morning, all the men of the Jiang family went out. Those who carried water carried water, and those who carried soil carried soil. The water was poured into the water tank, and the soil was cultivated in a circle outside the circle of reed mats and grain.

Pour all the grain from the grain bag at home into the grain pile until the grain pile is filled. The grain is piled high into a spire, which symbolizes abundance and contentment.

Chun Niang and her two sisters-in-law got up early and were busy cooking. They made a pot of crucian carp soup, made dumplings and eggs, and fried the rice, noodles and lanterns from last night in lard for the family to eat.

Dumplings mean filling a warehouse, hezi means building a warehouse, and drinking fish soup means having more than enough every year. These are all festival foods.

When Chun Niang was making dumplings, she also used dough to shape a few little hedgehogs and a few little mice, and placed them in the corner of the yard.

From the 20th day of the first lunar month, the rice vat at home cannot be empty, the water vat must not be short of water, and there must always be food in the pot, even if it is just a few steamed buns.

On the twenty-fifth day of the first lunar month, Mrs. Jiang Liu filled the ash pit with plant ash.

I saw her holding a sieve in one hand and a small wooden stick in the other hand as she walked and knocked. The green ash she shook drew circles of grain store shapes in the yard, and then the three-ring and five-ring sets of grain stores painted on these green ash Inside, sprinkle rice, wheat and other grains, press a few stones on the corners, and then drive your own chickens in to eat.

This meaning means that the barn is full of grain and the grain is abundant.

At noon, the Jiang family brought out the incense case and hung up the painted statue of Cangguan. The whole family lit lamps, burned incense and knelt down to pay homage to Cangguan.

After the Datiancang Festival, the Spring Festival in the first month of January is completely over.

Soon it’s early March and the weather is getting warmer, making it a good time to transplant seedlings.

Yingbao took out dozens of grape vines and a bunch of pepper seedlings from the cave and secretly placed them in a bamboo shed in his yard.

This bamboo shed has been managed by Yingbao. Dad and the others built a new row of bamboo sheds in the vegetable garden outside the yard to serve as mushroom sheds.

“Dad, I have cultivated a lot of seedlings. Where do you think they should be planted?”

Yingbao pulled her father into the bamboo shed and pointed to a pile of seedlings on the ground, "This is the grape from the Western Regions, and this is the pepper seedling."

Jiang Sanlang squatted down and picked up a pepper seedling to examine. "Really pepper?"

Pepper is a precious commodity. Although many noble families are growing it now, its price is still extremely high and demand exceeds supply.

But there are no small mountain villages like Chuanhe Town.

Yingbao nodded: "It's pepper. The pepper seeds I bought at Jiukang Medicine Hall in the county town are unmistakable."

Jiang Sanlang didn't mean not to believe his daughter, but he just found it incredible.

Is my daughter a human or a fairy?

Everything she took out was ordinary. Including the constant water treasure gourd that everyone has been rumored about.

Jiang Sanlang felt that it should all have something to do with his daughter, and his second nephew Jiang Quan was just taking the blame for Yingbao.

But no matter what, he only needs to know his daughter's magical methods. He will fight back anything others say or suspect.

“What should we pay attention to when growing pepper?” Jiang Sanlang asked.

Since my daughter cultivated these vine seedlings, she must also know some planting methods.

Yingbao: "Pepper is drought-tolerant and should not be planted in wet places. It is best to plant it in sandy soil fields with good drainage. The same goes for grapes."

This is what a clerk at the pharmacy told her. The clerk also heard what a pepper farmer said.

As for grapes, she has grown them once before and has some experience.

Jiang Sanlang thought for a while and said, "Our family might as well build a vineyard and a pepper garden."

Yingbao really meant this, otherwise she would have grown it herself. Planting seedlings requires a lot of land, so she must first obtain her father's permission.

After the father and daughter completed the calculation, Jiang Sanlang immediately went out to inspect the land.

Finally, it was decided to plant pepper and grapes in a low-grade field outside the village.

But this place is remote and seedlings are easily damaged by wild animals.

So Jiang Sanlang invited several villagers to help cut some bamboo and put a bamboo fence around the two fields.

It was a bit outrageous to put a bamboo fence between two low-grade fields, which attracted villagers to come and watch.

“Third brother, what are you doing?” Chen Yin asked while standing on the bamboo fence.

Jiang Sanlang and Chun Niang were digging a hole to plant seedlings. He said without raising his head: "Plant some grapes."

“Grapes?” Chen Yin knew this. He secretly picked grapes from the orchard of Brother Jiang’s house and ate them.

“If we plant grapes in this area, wouldn’t it be too much?”

Fruit trees are fruit trees after all and cannot be used for food. It doesn’t matter if you plant one or two at home. Planting too many will not only take up land, but may also increase taxes.

Jiang Sanlang cultivated a seedling, "It's not much. If you can't finish it later, you can make wine."

If it's not good enough, sell it directly to the wine shop in the county town, that's what the little girl said.

Chen Yin scratched his head and pointed to the fence next door, "Grapes are grown there too?"

“Plant pepper on that piece.” Jiang Sanlang dug up the soil with his hands, placed the grape seedlings inside, and then compacted the soil.

"What? Pepper!" Chen Yin jumped up, his eyes shining with excitement, "Third brother, do you still grow pepper at home?"

Pepper is a good thing, and it’s worth selling so there’s no need to worry about selling it. Drug stores in the county are rushing to buy it.

Jiang Sanlang glanced at him and said nothing.

Chen Yin ran in through the fence gate, blinked and asked: "Third brother, do you have pepper seedlings at home?"

“Hmm.” Jiang Sanlang planted another grapevine without stopping.

Chen Yin chuckled: "Can you give it to your brother evenly?"

“Let’s wait until the pepper seedlings grow up.”

The little girl said that pepper vines can be cut and transplanted, and then pepper seeds will no longer be needed to cultivate seedlings.

“Brother, let me make an appointment first.” Chen Yin knelt down to help Jiang Sanlang plant seedlings.

Several villagers who were watching outside saw it, looked at each other, and hurried in to help plant seedlings.

With help, grapes were quickly planted on a piece of land, followed by pepper seedlings.

Pepper is a climbing plant. Jiang Sanlang planted a circle next to the bamboo fence first, so that he would not need to install a climbing frame for them in the future.

Then he planted the pepper according to the distance and planted it throughout the pepper garden.

When these seedlings grow up, they will be given climbing frames.

Jiang Sanlang and his wife planted seedlings with several villagers, while Yingbao watered the plants behind with a small bucket.

She used water from the cave, mixed with a little river water, and watered each seedling thoroughly.

The two gardens were soon filled with seedlings, dots of green, and neatly arranged, which was very pleasant.

Fell asleep all of a sudden, delaying the update