Washing potatoes requires a lot of water. Although there is a well in the yard, it is not inexhaustible, so it is better to wash them by the river.

Without the pollution of modern times, the stream at the foot of this mountain is crystal clear and very clean.

Together they unloaded the potatoes from the truck, and everyone gathered around Meng Zhao, waiting to see what she would do.

"The first step is to peel the potato and then wash it clean. It's important to remove all the bumpy and uneven parts."

In fact, in modern starch production processes, potatoes do not need to be peeled, as this would reduce yield. However, this is contingent on the availability of modern sterilization methods, which ensure the product's cleanliness and hygiene even without peeling.

In ancient times, however, it was all handmade and could not be sterilized. The only way to peel the skin was to use the most traditional method, keeping only the intact parts. Although this would reduce the yield and increase the difficulty of production, it would at least not affect the quality of the product.

Most of the workers were women, and peeling was very easy for them. As soon as Meng Zhao spoke, they started working.

They were still using ordinary kitchen knives to peel things, which was not only dangerous but also inefficient. Meng Zhao made a mental note of this and knew she had to get a peeler out quickly.

After everything was done, Meng Zhao had them take the peeled potatoes back to the ancestral hall.

Have everyone work together to cut the potatoes into chunks, and then crush them with a stone mill or stone grinder.

Place a cloth-lined basket on top of the water vat, pour in the soybean pulp, and knead it while pouring water on top, so that the dough paste leaks into the water vat below.

When only soybean pulp remains, wrap it in a cloth and squeeze out the last bit of water.

As Meng Zhao was squeezing the gauze, Madam Zheng said, "Meng Zhao, I'm strong, let me do this."

Sure enough, as soon as she took it, the cloth bag that Meng Zhao had felt had been wrung dry started to ooze out a lot of flour paste again.

She thought she was quite strong, but compared to women who were used to farm work, she was still far inferior.

Ultimately, the process of making starch is not complicated. Meng Zhao only taught it two or three times, and everyone remembered the steps. All that was left was to pay more attention to some precautions that Meng Zhao mentioned.

After walking for about 15 minutes, the village head and his group arrived at their destination, Xiahe Village. They pulled the cart straight to the large tile-roofed house at the east end of the village.

The village head stepped forward, knocking on the door and calling out, "Brother Zhao, Brother Zhao, are you home?"

The people inside quickly put down what they were doing and came out to greet him. Seeing that it was Shen Zhengtai, the village head of the neighboring Shenjia Village, they invited him in while saying:

"Brother Shen, what brings you here today? Are you here to have a drink with me?"

The village head shook his head and said with a smile, "No, I came to ask you for help, brother."

"What's up?"

“I’m planning to buy some potatoes. Brother Zhao, you have a lot of connections in the village, so could you please put in a good word for me and see which family is willing to sell them?”

The man asked directly, "How much are you planning to charge?"

"At least 1000 jin (500 catties)."

The man's eyes widened in surprise. "So many? What do you need so many potatoes for?"

Why buy this stuff when it's neither a holiday nor a festival, and potatoes don't fetch a good price anyway?

"Don't worry about that. I need it. Could you please put in a good word for me, brother? I'll treat you to a drink later."

Having acquaintances makes things easier. The man turned around and went to find people, mostly families in the village who had just harvested potatoes. As soon as he asked, everyone was willing to sell.

Shen Dazhuang and Li San'er, who were brought over by the village head, were both good at working and were very capable when it came to carrying baskets.

Gu Yun was not to be outdone, and immediately carried a large basket of potatoes onto the car, weighing at least several dozen kilograms.

Xu Ping was a bit lacking, but he also had his advantages. He had worked in a butcher shop and knew how to use a scale, so he helped the village head weigh the items.

While Li Zheng was busy weighing and loading the trucks, Meng Zhao was looking at the discarded potato scraps and was at a loss.

These potato scraps are a good thing; they can be used as animal feed or fermented as fertilizer. But with so many potato scraps, where are we going to get enough livestock to eat them?

The best way is to make it into fertilizer; any amount will be used up.

Making fertilizer requires fermentation, and fermentation requires containers. In order to settle the starch, they have used up all the containers they could collect, and there are no extras.

The formation of an industry will inevitably lead to the emergence of many supporting industries. These can only be improved little by little during the production process. In the short term, it is not possible to fully utilize potatoes.

Meng Zhao said to Li Yumei, "Those of us who work here, if they raise chickens or pigs, can bring the potato scraps home during this period. They can be steamed or boiled and used as feed. If they can't use them all, they can only throw them away for now."

Meng Zhao felt heartbroken to think that so many resources were being wasted.

She had inquired and learned that the current potato yield was extremely low, only 200-300 jin per mu (approximately 100-150 kg per hectare). After deducting taxes and poll taxes, she could only keep a little over 100 jin (approximately 50 kg) of potatoes.

It's important to know that in modern times, the highest yield of potatoes per acre can reach tens of thousands of kilograms, so the difference is simply too great.

If we could make good use of waste and ferment useless potato residue into fertilizer to increase the yield of potatoes or other crops, that would be a great thing. She needs to study it carefully.

In between making starch, Meng Zhao also had someone go to the county to buy ten bolts of linen to make starch bags.

“Sister Yumei, are there any old women in our village who are not doing well but can sew clothes? We could have her sew bags.”

After all, making starch is a physically demanding job, and it's not something that can be done by people who are old, strong, or weak. But sewing bags doesn't require much skill.

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