Although the neighbor accepted Wen Qian's two piglets, they didn't let her return empty-handed.
They gave her some freshly obtained venison and a large fish.
So Wen Qian took them back, pondering the ingredients for roasted suckling pigs on the way.
They gave her two piglets, but she still had seven left and didn't plan to raise them, ready to kill and eat them all.
When she reached the riverside, Wen Qian went to the steps to slaughter the pigs first, spending quite some time processing the sow and putting her in her space.
Then she went to the temporary pigpen to get the piglets out and processed them the same way.
That day, she spent her time washing and cleaning by the river. After everything was prepared, she left one piglet salted for curing, and put the rest in her space.
Wen Qian even used a broom made of sorghum stalks to sweep the steps clean, splashing water to make them spotless, wanting to wash away all traces of blood.
On her way back, she dismantled the temporary pigpen outside her home and stored it in her space. Without the squealing of pigs, it became much quieter.
That night, she ate the roasted suckling pig she made herself, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, accompanied by a plate of stir-fried vegetables, and Wen Qian was very satisfied.
Since the hunting yield was quite substantial this time, Wen Qian didn't go far for hunting the next day, but set traps nearby instead.
After setting them up, she went to the fields beside the nursery with a basket, where she had planted a plot of chili peppers, with a total of three varieties.
The largest ones were the bell peppers, commonly used green peppers, now bearing quite a number of green peppers with some turning red.
Back home in the past, when these chili peppers turned red, they would be taken to the street for processing, ground with salt to make a very fine freshly ground chili sauce.
It would be used for pickling vegetables or cooking fish.
The chili peppers as thick as a little finger, called Chao Tian peppers, also started to turn red, and the third variety was the long and slender chilies, about as thick as an index finger.
These were the varieties she had originally purchased from different places, all hybrid varieties, so the packaging warned that they couldn't be used for seed saving, as the yield was not guaranteed.
Wen Qian picked some of the healthy green bell peppers and long chilies into a basket, planning to store them in her space for later consumption.
The red chilies were also picked and stored separately by variety, so she could use fresh chilies for cooking even in winter, with both red and green colors to enhance the visual appeal and appetite.
In the meantime, Wen Qian didn't forget to select good enough chilies, tying them with cloth strips to let them mature naturally, which would then be sun-dried for saving seeds.
For the chilies that later turned red, she generally picked all three varieties together, mixed them, and whenever she had enough, she would grind them into chili sauce at home.
She either didn't make chili sauce or made it in batches of at least ten pounds.
Without a machine for rapid grinding, even the hand-crank grinder would take her quite some time.
These chilies could be harvested from June until the frost in late autumn.
The chilies were washed clean with well water by the pool, then drained of water, and ground with a water-drained grinder, adding salt during the grinding process.
Then, after cleaning an empty oil barrel, she placed a funnel on top and poured the ground chili sauce into it.
The chili sauce might separate into layers after settling, and gradually ferment with time, causing the barrel to expand.
Fearing an explosion, she would occasionally grab the handle and gently shake it up and down, so that the chili sauce inside wouldn't all float up and get stuck in the narrow bottle neck, preventing an explosive mess.
All this was done outside on the corridor, with Wen Qian wearing goggles just in case the chili got in her eyes.
After making the freshly ground chili sauce, Wen Qian didn't forget to make some chopped chili as well.
The chilies were washed clean and drained, with the cutting board and knife also drained of water, and clean, water- and oil-free glass jars prepared.
With salt and peeled garlic ready, the chopped chilies were mixed with salt and garlic, then packed into the jars.
After making both varieties, Wen Qian left a small portion outside and kept the rest in her space.
This way, she could eat them for a long time without spoilage. When she wanted to eat them, she could just take them out without the extra work.
For the chili sauce accumulated later, Wen Qian started using various sizes of jars instead of plastic bottles.
After all this was done, Wen Qian would sun-dry the remaining harvested chilies by setting up an iron mesh rack in front of her hut.
She would wipe the mesh clean, let it bask in the sun, wash the harvested red chilies clean and spread them out on the mesh to sun-dry into dried chilies, which she would then store away.
Wen Qian also ground some of the dried chilies, mixed them with hot oil to make chili oil, and stored it in small jars.
Using dried chilies, lean meat, and other seasonings simmered slowly in oil, she made chili meat sauce, which tasted great when added to noodles.
She tried out all the chili processing methods she knew, though trying her best to avoid getting chili in her eyes, but still couldn't escape getting a taste of the heat.
Before the calamity, she had stored some chilies, but not too many, and her living environment later wasn't suitable for growing chilies, so she had never grown such a large batch until this year.
The harvest was quite decent, and before her chili sauce ran out, she wouldn't grow so many again, at most planting a few plants each year for cooking.
For the chilies meant for seeds, she didn't wash them, but left them to sun-dry separately. After drying, she would tear open the skins and collect the seeds inside.
Although the yield might not be stable later, she still kept the seeds from the better-looking chilies.
The chopped chilies could be cooked with fish, tasting great, and the pickling process made the chilies less spicy. Wen Qian wasn't a big fan of very spicy food, so this would last her a long time.
Besides harvesting chilies from the fields, she would also pick sweet potato tips from the sweet potato patch.
Stir-fried sweet potato tips made a nice vegetable dish. Besides cooking them fresh, she would bundle the leftovers with straw ropes and store them in her space to eat in winter.
Green vegetables were the scarcest in winter.
During this period, the corn she planted was also ready for tasting, so she peeled and stored many juicy fresh corns.
She also collected some corn silk to brew tea with.
She always reminded herself to drink more water, but plain water could get dull after a while, so she would brew something for extra flavor.
She grew corn purely for eating fresh corn, as once the corn was mature, it wouldn't taste as good when boiled.
In her space, there were also corn kernels, corn grits, and corn flour.
She collected some tender corns, so that she could eat fresh corn even in winter. The remaining ones would wait for her to pick them when they matured.
Tender corn tastes good whether steamed, stir-fried, or fried into corn fritters.
Apart from wheat, which was the main crop that required close management, Wen Qian grew various other crops based on her preferences.
Most of the corn was picked by her when it was tender, and not many were left to mature.
As summer temperature gradually rose, there were more sunny days compared to the same period last year, and the summer days also became longer, but it had not fully recovered to the previous level.
According to the data records, everything was developing in a positive direction.
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