Chapter 218 Substitutes for Onions and Garlic!

This was my first time trying hot pot, and I thought it was pretty good. Although it was missing some key seasonings, this is the wasteland, so I couldn't ask for more or better.

She had Xiaobao make two more hot pots in the same style. The control panel was modified by Maoli using electronic components salvaged from scrap metal she had bought, while the main body was made by Xiaobao.

Zuo Shan planned to give the two newly made hot pots to Uncle Wu and Madam Gu, and also teach them how to cook them.

The sesame powder she's using now was all donated by Uncle Wu. In his words, the sesame seeds grow in his yard and are just waste if no one uses them. He suggested giving them to Zuo Shan so that the sesame seeds could be put to their true purpose in her hands.

Uncle Wu's family has been running a small shop for many years. Although they are not particularly wealthy, they can still afford ordinary ingredients.

Zuo Shan gave them some pork bones, which were leftovers from making sausages and pork meatballs. She also taught Uncle Wu how to grind the pork bones that had been used to make broth into powder and mix them into wild vegetable paste, which could help supplement calcium. After all, the couple was not young anymore and it was time for them to supplement their calcium intake.

She only delivered pork once, along with soybeans and peanuts, just enough for one meal. They would feel burdened if she delivered too much, given the high price of meat.

Just like when they gave her a mutated wild duck egg, she always remembered to repay the favor.

Under her guidance, Uncle Wu made a hot pot and immediately fell in love with it. As winter approached, he found a new source of enjoyment.

The husband was happy, and Aunt Zhou was also very happy, so she would come to visit every few days, bringing them some daily necessities such as salt, toothpaste, and soap.

Old Madam Gu is even more important to Zuo Shan. She saved Zuo Shan's life, and now they are running the plantation together. The old housekeeper has also taken Lele as his apprentice and taught her how to forge weapons.

As for Xiaobai, well, I owe Xiaobai the most favors, and it will take many years to slowly repay them, or perhaps I can never repay them at all.

Zuo Shan had just had hot pot at home, and planned to deliver another hot pot to Madam Gu's house in a few days and teach them how to cook it.

One day in the plantation, she accidentally discovered that one of the plants grown from the old housekeeper's fifteen seeds had leaves that looked somewhat like mutated wild chives.

She was about to make fun of him, because among the 15 seeds he treasured, there was actually a mutated wild leek, while wild leeks were now growing in large patches in the plantation and were not rare at all.

Then she suddenly noticed a red flower bud hidden between two leaves.

She immediately realized that she had made a mistake; the plant was not wild chives at all.

She looked around and saw that the old housekeeper was watching Ah Chen, Han Han and Xiao Bao playing. So she quietly took the testing knife and cut a small slit in a leaf.

The announcement came through: "Beep! Moderately mutated wild garlic leaves detected. They are edible, but taste bitter and spicy. It is not recommended to pick them in large quantities."

Left fan:......

She was so excited that she cried tears of joy!

Wastelanders really don't know anything about cooking! Wild garlic! It's a top-quality cooking ingredient that can replace onions and garlic, and they actually say it's bitter and spicy and don't recommend picking it in large quantities?!

If she encountered this in the wild, she would want to dig it up and bring it back immediately.

Okay, now that we're in a plantation, if she takes good care of it, she can turn one plant into countless plants.

Zuo Shan recalls that the most common method used by people in the countryside to grow garlic was through rootstock and bulb propagation. They would cut off a section of the rootstock from an old garlic clove or separate the cloves from the old garlic for breeding.

But right now there's only this one precious plant here, and she dares not divide it carelessly. If she kills it, she'll be in deep trouble.

Moreover, this treasure belongs to the old steward. Given how much he cherishes those 15 seeds, if he were to kill them, he would probably cry in front of her.

However, now that a key cooking ingredient has been discovered, Zuo Shan naturally wouldn't just stand by and watch.

That very day, she secretly called Lele over and asked her daughter Suisui to add something to the mutated wild garlic.

The mutated wild garlic, infused with life, grew wildly. Recently, Sui Sui also received a lot of ten-thousand-year-old spiritual milk from Zuo Shan, which greatly enhanced her supernatural abilities.

The wild garlic on the ground has flowered, and Zuo Shan manually inseminates it to help it produce seeds as soon as possible.

Then she quietly dug up the soil around its roots and saw a large clump of white roots. Without any hesitation, she cut off three roots about five centimeters long, wrapped them with the surrounding loose soil, and took them home to plant in a planting box.

The old steward only noticed that this plant seemed to be growing exceptionally well recently, completely unaware that Zuo Shan had already stolen three sections of its roots.

Zuo Shan didn't neglect the three root sections in the planting box, letting Sui Sui directly encourage them to sprout into seedlings. When Wan Wan saw this, she also purified them, reducing the radiation level of the seedlings and the soil in the planting box to zero.

It can easily handle such a small amount of purification!

To express his gratitude to them, Zuo Shan took everyone to the basement that day and gave each person 5 drops of the Ten Thousand Year Spirit Milk, whereas originally each person was given 4 drops each time.

That night, Lele broke through to the third level, and the Heavenly Rank Tree grew its 11th branch. Mao Li was so excited that he circled the Heavenly Rank Tree many times.

For him, every branch that the Celestial Tree grew meant that his hope of returning to his home planet increased.

Zuo Shan became even more cautious. With her entire family advancing to the next level, she had to temporarily stop using the Ten Thousand Year Spirit Milk. Otherwise, once the extreme cold weather passed, her whole family would probably advance to the next level as well.

This would easily lead the members of the Fearless Mercenary Group to conclude that she had also gone down into that cave, and thus deduce that she had obtained a lot of millennia-old spiritual milk.

However, chestnut and privet can continue to be used; no one will notice a robot cat and a potted plant.

**

Lele has been very busy lately, studying for eight hours a day, which has allowed her to quickly master a lot of new words. As a result, she was able to understand the skinning techniques recorded in the book "Refining Tips" that the old steward gave her.

However, skinning skills are not something you can learn just by looking at the techniques; you need to practice repeatedly. In the end, Uncle Wu helped her contact an assistant weapon refiner in District 48 who specialized in tanning mutated beast hides.

This assistant weapon refiner wasn't good at weapon refining, but he was very good at tanning fur. Mercenary groups from several surrounding districts would send their prey directly to him for skinning and tanning.

It wasn't that they didn't know how to peel the skin; the key issue was that the assistant weapon refiner disliked their technique, saying that the peeled skin was uneven in thickness and still had the meridians attached. Once the meridians dried, they were very difficult to peel off.

Therefore, he usually requires them to bring the whole prey, which he will skin and tan himself before handing it over to the weaponsmith to make defensive armor.

This weapon refiner's assistant needs a handyman, who must also know a thing or two and be able to help him deal with damaged furs or scraps.

The wages he offered weren't high, only 30 silver coins a day, but Pandora gritted his teeth and agreed in order to have more opportunities to practice.

Zuo Shan, of course, respects her child's choice. Everyone has their own hobbies and pursuits. She chose to farm in order to earn money, but she may have new choices in the future when she has more money.

As for Lele, she was obsessed with skinning techniques. She learned this first so that she would be more adept at the advanced weapon-refining techniques that the old steward would teach her in the future.

Therefore, she chose to support it.

"Sister, I will practice peeling techniques as soon as possible," Lele said solemnly.

She felt deeply grateful to Zuo Shan. Her sister knew that Zuo Shan earned very little money doing odd jobs and that it took up a lot of her time every day, but she still chose to support her.

It was simply because her sister respected her, trusted her, and supported her unconditionally.