Chapter 32 Fresh Crops

There are more than 300 households in Zaihu Village, and the total population, big and small, exceeds 1,500.

After all, this is an era where everyone has a big family.

Uncle Ruan Gui didn't expect that Zhao Liya and Hu Ling would come again, and he was extremely happy.

Seeing that they brought so many gifts, the whole family was both happy and apologetic. They scolded them, "It's so thoughtful of you to come and see us, but bringing so many things is such a waste! Who doesn't have to be frugal these days? You can't do this again!"

Zhao Liya smiled and said, "Uncle Ruan, you're too polite! As long as you don't mind its simplicity, it's fine!"

Uncle Ruan Gui asked his daughter-in-law to kill a chicken and asked his son to dig bamboo shoots at the edge of the village. He went to the vegetable garden to pick vegetables and prepared lunch with a smile on his face.

Since Zhao Liya was here, she naturally wanted to walk around and take a look, so she also wanted to follow Aunt Ruan Gui to the vegetable garden.

Aunt Ruan Gui said cheerfully: "What's so interesting about the vegetable garden? If you want to go, just go. It's a good opportunity to help me pick some beans."

Zhao Liya nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay, Auntie, please ask me to help you in any way I can!"

"Why!"

Uncle Ruan Gui was also happy to hear this. This Zhao family is really different. They are just likable.

Zhao Liya never expected to see sweet potato vines and tomatoes in Aunt Ruan Gui's vegetable garden!

"This, this—Aunt Ruan Gui, you actually have sweet potatoes! And tomatoes!"

Zhao Liya pointed, her eyes widened in shock!

She suddenly thought, yes, this area is only two or three hundred miles away from the sea, and in a broad sense, it can also be considered a coastal area.

So, what's so strange about some crops from the West appearing here?

"Are these called sweet potatoes and tomatoes?" Aunt Ruan Gui was also a little surprised and smiled, "Here we call sweet potatoes ground fruits and tomatoes sour fruits. Pick a handful of these ground fruit seedlings and stir-fry them. They're so fresh and tender, and we love them. The more you pick them, the more they grow, and they grow fast. They're great! When the fruits are ripe in the fall, ask your Uncle Ruan Gui to send you two baskets! Children love to eat sour fruits raw. It's so sour and sweet and quite appetizing, but they're not very good when cooked. They taste weird and become sticky if you cook them for a while."

Zhao Liya looked at the tomatoes in the corner and then at the small patch of sweet potatoes.

It seems that Aunt Ruan Gui and the others don't know that sweet potatoes can be propagated using vines. It can be seen from this small patch that all the potatoes are grown using sweet potato seeds.

Sweet potatoes are good things, but Aunt Ruan Gui and the others simply grow them as vegetables and don't take them seriously at all.

This is not surprising, after all, who could have imagined how good this thing is?

"Aunt Ruan Gui, can I pick some tomatoes and sweet potato vines when I go back?"

Aunt Ruan Gui laughed cheerfully and said, "Why not? You can have as much as you want. It will grow back anyway."

"Thank you, Aunt Ruan Gui!" Zhao Liya thanked her happily, and then said, "Aunt Ruan Gui, let me tell you, these sweet potato vines can be cut and planted directly in the ground. They will survive, grow, and bear fruit. Sweet potato fruits can be boiled, steamed, cooked with rice porridge, or even buried with the skin under hot ashes in the stove. They are delicious. There are also other ways to eat them. When I harvest them, I will show you how to make them!"

"Tomatoes can also be used in cooking. Cut them into pieces and stir-fry them with peppers and meat, or add them to soups, scrambled eggs, stir-fried beans, etc. You can add some as a side dish. They are sour and sweet, and they are very appetizing in summer."

Aunt Ruan Gui was extremely surprised when she heard this, her eyes widening. "Oh, you're from the capital, you know so much! It turns out this is really a good thing!"

Zhao Liya smiled secretly, thinking that the rich girls in the capital would never understand this!

But she didn't explain, and nodded with a smile: "Well, I'm not lying to you, this is really a good thing."

Aunt Ruan Gui smiled and nodded. "Okay, okay, I'll remember that. I'll try planting some more sweet potatoes later. They grow really fast, so planting more will help feed the pigs, chickens, and ducks. It'll save me a lot of trouble!"

Zhao Liya agreed: "That's right, this whole body is full of treasures."

"Haha, that's a little bit!"

Thinking of the geographical location of this area, Zhao Liya asked again with a try-it-out attitude, "By the way, Auntie, are there any other vegetables or crops in our village that are imported from outside? I'd like to see some rare ones!"

Aunt Ruan Gui thought for a moment and jokingly said, "Well, I don't know which ones are considered outsiders. We have a vegetable garden at home. Do you want to go and take a look?"

Zhao Liya was delighted and nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay, thank you for troubling me!"

Aunt Ruan Gui was at a loss for words. She had never expected that she was so curious.

"Okay, let's go have lunch!"

Zhao Liya couldn't say that she had to go at this moment, wouldn't that be unreasonable?

"Well, I'll go after dinner."

Aunt Ruan Gui and her daughter-in-law cooked lunch. Zhao Liya wanted to help, but the Ruan family refused to allow it. How could they let guests into the kitchen to help? If they told others about it, they would be laughed at.

Zhao Liya had no choice but to go out and talk to Uncle Ruan Gui and the others.

Lunch consisted of local chicken with bamboo shoots, scrambled eggs with green onions, stir-fried sweet potato vines, stir-fried green beans with chili peppers, and a pot of steamed rice.

The Ruan family kept asking Zhao Liya and Hu Ling to eat more. Uncle Ruan Gui had a three-year-old grandson, nicknamed Tu'er. When Zhao Xiang came to celebrate Old Man Ruan's birthday, the Ruan family asked him to help choose a name for him. Zhao Xiang chose Ruan Tu, meaning "great ambitions." The Ruan family was delighted and now call the child Tu'er.

The child was very sensible. He stared at the chicken eagerly. The adults didn't say anything and didn't make a fuss. Zhao Liya picked up a big chicken leg for him, which made him very happy.

After a lively lunch, Zhao Liya was in a dilemma: should she discuss the sugarcane planting with Uncle Ruan Gui first, or go to the vegetable garden with Aunt Ruan Gui first?

After some hesitation, I decided to talk about sugarcane first. Time waits for no one, and the crops and vegetables in the vegetable garden will not run away.

Uncle Ruan Gui was very surprised when he heard the two of them talk about growing sugarcane. "Are you planning to buy land to grow sugarcane, and then build a workshop to make sugar?"

"yes!"

"This—this land isn't hard to buy, but no one in our village has ever grown sugarcane. I've heard people talk about it, but I don't know if it's difficult. And making sugar... No one has ever done it before. We really don't understand it. No one in our area knows how to do it either."

There are no sugar-making workshops in Gaolian County, but it seems that there are some in Lin County.

When Zhao Liya asked in detail, Uncle Ruan Gui told her everything he knew.

There are sugar mills in Linxian and Suixi counties. The sugar is a brownish-yellow color, cut into rectangular blocks, commonly known as "sliced ​​sugar." Well-made sugar has a beautiful color, is free of impurities, and has a pure sugar flavor. Less well-made sugar, however, is darker in color and contains irregular impurities like sugarcane residue. The sugar also has a less pure flavor, with a hint of bitterness.

Dear readers, please vote, add to the bookshelf, and check in! It’s about to be pushed, so please don’t keep posting, the 11 updates are very stable!

(End of this chapter)