Chapter 21 A Rich Harvest

"Do you have any ideas, young lady?" Hu Zi saw Su Ying looking around the brothel for a long time, as if she was thinking about something.

"Not yet!" Su Ying smiled.

With the current financial resources of the village, it is simply unable to afford the burden of building a new lime kiln, not to mention that the busy farming season is coming soon, so let's talk about it later.

"If not, let's go back quickly!" Hu Zi's eyes were anxious. He held a bunch of red fruits in his hand and picked some to put into his mouth.

"Hey, where did you pick it?" Su Ying grabbed Hu Zi.

"Would you like to try it, girl? It's sour and salty, and tastes pretty good." Hu Zi handed it to Su Ying.

"Hu Zi, please tell me where you picked it?" Su Ying was very excited.

"Uh, there are a lot of them right behind the shack." Hu Zi pointed.

Su Ying turned to the back of the shack and parted the thatch. Inside, there was a large patch of yellow and red grapes like bunches of wild grapes, so dazzling in the sunlight, so attractive!

Pick a few and put them in your mouth, the sour juice has a salty taste.

"Aying, what is this?" Su Boyan also tasted it. It was sour and salty. He didn't understand why his sister was so excited.

"Rhus chinensis!" Su Ying said as she began to pick them. "Brother, pick more, pick the red ones, because the red ones are ripe."

Su Boyan smiled and said, "It's just a wild fruit. My sister is really a child at heart."

Hu Zi also helped to pick them, "Girl, do you like to eat this salt fruit?"

"This is called Rhus chinensis. In autumn, a layer of white frost will form on its surface, like salt frost, so it is called Rhus chinensis." Su Ying explained.

"Salt frost? No!" Hu Zi looked around. The leaves were green and the fruits were yellow and red.

"Silly boy, you can see the salt frost in the morning, but at noon when the sun is strong, the salt frost melts and you can't see it anymore, but the fruit still tastes salty." Su Ying smiled.

"Oh, is that so!" Hu Zi scratched his head, "Girls really know a lot!"

Rhus chinensis is a special plant whose fruits and tender stems are edible, and its salt frost can be used as a seasoning instead of salt.

In ancient times, poor people could not afford salt and vinegar, so they used saltwort instead.

The fruit can be soaked in water and used as a substitute for vinegar. Eating it raw will quench your thirst with its sour and salty taste. The seeds can be used to extract oil.

However, the salt frost of Rhus chinensis is mainly composed of calcium malate crystals and cannot completely replace the function of table salt.

Su Ying's family had not eaten salt for many days. People would have no strength without salt. Having this saltwort solved their urgent problem.

"Then let's pick more!" After listening to his sister's introduction, Su Boyan quickened his pace, picking a few and putting them in his mouth from time to time.

Hu Zi was also eager to help.

"Don't you want to pick some to take back? You can eat them as salt." Su Ying asked Hu Zi.

"There's plenty here, and we can't pick them all." Hu Zi shook his head and smiled, "My family isn't short of salt for now."

"Really? Don't the villagers lack salt?" No wonder no one picked them. It seems the village is not too poor.

"It's okay. No one knows that Rhus chinensis can be used as salt. We all go to the town to buy coarse salt. If you can't afford coarse salt, you can buy a piece of vinegar cloth and save it to last for a while."

Fine salt was already available in the Tang Dynasty, but only nobles and high-ranking officials could afford it.

Ordinary people mostly eat coarse salt, which is naturally crystallized salt with coarse grains and contains impurities. It tastes salty and bitter, which greatly affects the taste and flavor of the dishes.

Even the poorest people could only afford vinegar cloth, which, as the name suggests, was a piece of cloth pickled in vinegar, and sometimes salt was added to the vinegar.

When cooking soup, cut a piece and put it in the pot to add seasoning and replenish the substances needed by the human body.

People living along the coast dry kelp and soak it in vinegar, then sell it to the poor. It is also called vinegar cloth, called vinegar kelp.

Hu Zi picked the larger fruits. Su Ying's words made him very happy. "In the future, the villagers can save some money on salt."

"That won't work! You can use it as a temporary substitute when you really don't have any salt. You can't eat it for a long time. The ingredients it contains are not real salt and can't provide the substances needed by the human body." Su Ying said seriously.

Sodium salt is an indispensable substance for the human body. If it is not replenished in time, a large amount of salt will be excreted from the body through sweating and urination every day, causing weakness in the limbs.

In severe cases, it may cause hyponatremia, headache, nausea, drowsiness, confusion, coma, muscle spasms, and even respiratory and cardiac arrest.

Su Boyan and Hu Zi were confused. Since it was called salt, why wasn't it real salt?

"Su Ying, why don't I understand what you are saying? You've confused me." Su Boyan hated himself for not having enough education.

"I'll tell you in detail when I have time another day. Hu Zi, remember this, if you can eat real salt, don't always eat this, remember?" Su Ying reminded.

"Remember!" Hu Zi nodded, not understanding but executing it.

The girl knows so much, reading is indeed useful!

"That's enough. Let's pick this much for now. We'll go into the mountains tomorrow and maybe find something good. We can exchange the money and buy salt." Su Ying said as she looked at the backpack that was half full of saltwort.

"I'll carry it!" Su Boyan grabbed the backpack.

My sister is so thin and frail that I’m worried that the backpack will break her bones.

When passing by the thorn bush again, I picked a lot of bright red raspberries. The sea buckthorn had thorns and it pricked my hands, so I didn't pick many.

On the way, Hu Zi pestered Su Ying, pointing at the plants on the road and asking questions. The only question he had was, what is this and is it edible?

"Most of them are herbs. I didn't study medicine, so I don't know many of them." Su Ying quite likes this studious and inquisitive little guy.

"What about this one? Do you recognize it?" Hu Zi pulled up a handful of weeds by the roadside and asked Su Ying, "It's everywhere. You can always tell me what it is, right?"

"This is Polygonum multiflorum. Don't underestimate it, it's a good thing!"

"Really?" Hu Zi immediately let go of his hand, worried about damaging the hot pepper grass. "Can it be eaten as a vegetable? We only use it as a spicy seasoning."

"Well, the young seedlings or leaves are edible. Blanch them in water, squeeze out the moisture, and add seasoning to stir-fry, serve cold, or make soup."

"Oh, I thought it could be made into powder like fern root and kudzu root!" Hu Zi was a little disappointed.

They are just wild vegetables. You can't eat them after the season is over.

"Don't underestimate it, it's very useful! Do you know why it's called Polygonum multiflorum?" Su Ying was amused by Hu Zi.

"Why?"

"Because it's very spicy, you can use it to prevent rice lice, rice stem borers, and other maggots. If there are a lot of maggots in the toilet, chop up the hot pepper grass and throw it in. It will definitely kill them with the spicy food!"

"Really?" Hu Zi was eager to try it. The maggots in the toilet were really disgusting when the weather was hot.

"Of course, hot pepper can also be used to make wine yeast. The fermented glutinous rice you have eaten is made from it." Su Ying began to drool when she said this.

I haven’t eaten sweets for a long time, and I really want to have a bite of sweet and greasy fermented glutinous rice wine.

"Can you make fermented glutinous rice wine?" Hu Zi went to the town with his grandfather to eat it once, and he always remembered the fermented glutinous rice wine that was sweet and sour, and had a strong aroma of wine.

"It's not that difficult. You can make it with rice and yeast. It's very simple. Didn't your mother make it for you?"

"No!" Hu Zi looked at Su Ying eagerly, "My mother doesn't know how to do it. Can I find a woman to do it in the future?"

"Well, maybe later, not now!" Su Ying also wanted to eat, but there was not enough food now and she was busy with farming.

The sun was setting, the sky was filled with colorful clouds, and a person was walking towards us from afar.

"Aye! Aye!" Su Ying recognized her father and ran towards him cheering.

Su Bucheng strode over and caught his daughter.

"Why is Aye here?" Su Ying's little face was dirty, and there were a lot of dead leaves on her head and body.

"I'm here to pick you up. Is the road safe?" Su Bucheng raised his hand and removed the debris from his daughter's head.

"What a great harvest!" Su Ying smiled proudly.