Today, I went back to the field for the first time to collect vegetables, and God took care of me. The sky was covered with a thin layer of "gray cloth" and the sun was hidden. Without sun exposure, there is no need to spray water again and again to keep vegetables fresh when they are on the market.
Early in the morning, the sky was just bright, and the child's mother had already started cooking breakfast. A pot of noodles with clear soup and a stack of pancakes. Before people wake up, the pancake with green onions smells straight into people's noses. It's convenient to get up in summer. Neighbors are plowmen, so they don't need to be as particular as city people. When they go out, they should be dressed neatly. They just need to wear a big trouser head with bare arms to get in and out. Everyone's arms, chest and back are bronzed, and they will never laugh when they see each other.
Wash your face, eat your meal, put on an undershirt and a towel on your shoulder, and it's time for Mariel to work underground. Selling vegetables on the first day, trying to get into town early, maybe you can get a good price. In the cloudy weather, although the air is a little stuffy, there are still a few cool winds blowing from time to time in the wild. The wind whirled, "Hua" shook the leaves of the willows, and then, like a child, it jumped on people's faces, and then it would bring a refreshing feeling when you met the sweat slightly from your forehead. Fields without the sun are no longer as dazzling as usual, and rows of sorghum and corn leaves are green, showing their original colors. Dew remained on the leaves of grass last night, and people walked on the ridges covered with weeds. Dew often rolled down from the leaves of grass playfully, scrambling to stick to people's trouser legs, shoes and even feet. My feet are covered with dew and sticky, just like this semi-cloudy day, sticky and unwilling to rain a drop.
Our vegetable fields and those of our neighbors are on both sides of the same road. Along the road that stretches into the distance, the greenhouses are next to each other, and there is no end in sight. Open the curtain of the greenhouse and go in, and a heat wave comes to my face, which is also mixed with the smell of pesticide that was sprayed last night, which makes people dizzy. Fortunately, this situation is not the first time I have encountered it. It has always been like this in recent years, and I have long been used to it. As long as you stay in the greenhouse for three to five minutes, your nose will become numb. However, the sultry humidity can't stop it. Yesterday morning, after a day of exposure, the sun evaporated all the moisture in the ground into the air. At night, the greenhouse was closed, and the moisture could not find an outlet to spread out, so it could only continue to transpiration and wander around in the greenhouse.
Pull off the towel on your shoulder, wipe the sweat on your head and neck, pick up a vegetable basket from the ground and plunge into the vegetable field.
Vegetables are planted in different beds, and this one is more than a dozen cucumbers. One by one, the seedlings climbed straight up along the bracket, and the vines were thick and the leaves were covered with a layer of faint white hair. Between the branches of Guateng, pale yellow male and female flowers are blooming at intervals, which are small and unobtrusive. The male flower is only responsible for pollination, which is fruitless. Only after the female flower is pollinated, will a green belly bulge under the receptacle. In two or three days, that little belly will gradually become a little melon with a little finger length, and it will look funny with a withered little flower hat on its head. In about seven or eight days, the little finger will grow thick and strong, like a thick ham sausage. This year's cucumber harvest looks good. After a while, I picked three baskets.
Tomatoes are planted in that area. This year's tomatoes are growing better than in previous years, and the seedlings are much stronger than cucumber seedlings, with deep roots and a trunk two fingers thick. Among the lush feather leaves with serrated edges, starfish-like yellow flowers bloom brightly, and there are quite a few spherical fruits. There are small green balls as big as fingernails after the flowers have faded, raw tomatoes that have grown up but have not turned red, semi-red and semi-green tomatoes that can be picked in a few days, and of course, more fruits are ripe. Those ripe tomatoes are really pleasing to look at, some are like a baby's pink face, some are like a round red agate, all fist-sized, round and jade-like, with a charming soft luster. Picking such fruit is the happiest thing, even if the beads of sweat drip from the corner of your forehead, you can't afford to wipe them. Most of the time, the neighbors rolled up the corners of their T-shirts with their left hands and smeared them on their faces, then went on working. Today, fortunately, I have a towel on my shoulder, but after wiping the sweat several times, the towel is already wet. I guess I can wring a jar of water. After this trip, the harvest was better, and tomatoes of different sizes were filled with six large baskets.
Out of the shed, I sat cross-legged on the ground, lit a cigarette leisurely, smoked and fanned the wind with a towel to enjoy the cool. Looking at the results of the morning's labor, it seems that I have earned a lot of money, and I can't help but show a smile at my mouth. From the beginning of spring to the present, let alone the investment in plastic film, seeds and pesticides, let's talk about this manpower. These three acres of land are really disturbing enough. Going out early and coming back late with the children every day is not to water and fertilize the seedlings, but to open the straw mat on the top of the greenhouse and let the seedlings bask in the sunshine. Anyway, hard work for half a year has finally paid off today. This year, I am counting on these acres of vegetable fields to have a good harvest. Children need tuition to go to college, and their mothers should also buy beautiful clothes to treat them, and by themselves, they can play with a few kilograms of good wine, so that when they are idle in winter, they can live a good life like a fairy for a few days.
It was only six o'clock in the morning when I loaded several baskets of vegetables with agricultural tricycles and rushed to the city vegetable market. However, the vegetable market is already full of people. On both sides of the road, there are miscellaneous transport vehicles in nearby villages, and seven or eight large trucks from other places are parked. On the ground, there are newly listed vegetables this year-cucumber, tomato, eggplant, fennel ... whatever you want. The vegetable farmers squatted on the ground and shouted loudly, hoping that a big customer would buy all their own dishes at once.
After getting off the tricycle, I hurried forward to inquire about the market, only to know that this year cucumbers are 20 cents a catty, and tomatoes are even worse. A dime a catty can be wholesale. This price is really blindsided. If you sell it at this price, even if you sell all your own vegetables, you will barely be able to pay for yourself and the gas money for this tricycle once and for all. In a flash, the joy of the morning was thrown to the outside of the cloud nine, and a layer of cold sweat could not help pouring from the top of my head. Bow your head and think about it. It's lucky that you don't lose money on this trip. However, where should you send the three acres of vegetables that are maturing that day in your greenhouse?
Today is cloudy, the weather is not very hot, but the sweat can't help but fall, and my heart is already gone ...