Chapter 30, Inn No. 30: Growing Mushrooms and Making Peach Blossom Wine
When Zhang Lin returned from town, he immediately saw the large, black dog and exclaimed in shock, "Wife, you bought a dog so quickly?"
Yunyin patted the dog's head to relax it and let it recognize her. "Today I went to the village head to register the cow's information and happened to meet someone selling a dog. I thought the dog was very healthy and the price was right, so I bought it."
The big dog whimpered a few times, as if it knew she was praising its health. It wagged its tail and rubbed against Yunyin. This dog was really smart. It knew who its owner was now and started to act cute towards her, which made Yunyin like it very much. She put a lot of meat in the food she cooked for it.
Yunyin tied the dog to its kennel, put out some freshly made dog food for it, and seeing that it was eating with relish, she left reassured.
Zhang Lin was surprised that Yunyin was so fast, even having finished building the doghouse. He asked, "What's the dog's name?"
"It's called Black Bean, that's what its previous owner named it."
Yunyin patted him and said, "Alright, now that there are two more members in the family, we need to work even harder to earn money."
She had wanted to grow straw mushrooms before, and the cultivation guide explained how to grow them at home. Of course, many methods are quick fixes, such as buying spawn, but Yunyin could only cultivate the spawn herself.
Yunyin wanted Zhang Lin to try, but he shook his head and refused, saying he had never heard of mushrooms being grown and that he knew nothing about it and wouldn't know how to grow them. Even after she told Zhang Lin how to grow them, he was still worried that they wouldn't survive.
Yunyin could only try it herself. Fortunately, she had extracted spores from the mushrooms she had picked earlier that morning, and these spores could be used.
She had already soaked the straw needed for the substrate, then disinfected it, and then put the boiled straw into a winnowing basket to cool naturally to room temperature.
Yunyin prepared a wooden box, laid a layer of freshly cooled straw at the bottom of the box, placed the paper with spores on the straw, and then continued to lay straw on top, adding spores, and so on, stacking 4 layers.
Then, these wooden boxes are placed in the constructed bamboo shed, where sunlight can enter through the gaps but cannot reach the boxes. Afterward, cool water is sprayed periodically to keep the straw moist. This completes the inoculation process. The next step is to check for success; if mycelium grows, it's considered successful.
Yunyin inspected the mushroom house every day to see if mycelium was growing. Finally, after 7 days, she saw strands of white mycelium growing in the straw.
Of course, not every one will successfully grow mycelium; some will grow mixed bacteria and deteriorate. These failures need to be replanted, and the wooden boxes should be scalded with boiling water and then exposed to the sun to prevent the presence of mixed bacteria.
Although I'm always nervous when I open a box, I still feel a great sense of accomplishment when I see the successful ones.
Besides cooking, Yunyin spends her days tending to the mushrooms, even neglecting to pick fresh mushrooms, eagerly awaiting the growth of straw mushrooms.
Finally, on the tenth day, she saw straw mushrooms sprouting from the haystack.
The round, plump mushrooms stood neatly in the wooden box like little soldiers. Yunyin exclaimed "Wow!" and immediately covered her mouth, afraid of startling the little elves.
The newly sprouted straw mushrooms grow very quickly and must be harvested before they open their caps, otherwise they will open too soon and become inedible.
From then on, the first thing Yunyin did every morning after waking up was to pick straw mushrooms. Occasionally, she would also go to pick them in the middle of the night. Looking at the pile of straw mushrooms in her basket, she smiled so hard that her teeth were showing.
After successfully cultivating the mushrooms, Yunyin no longer needs to wait for rain to harvest them; as long as the temperature and humidity are suitable, she can grow them using this method.
Although the yield is not as high as that of modernly cultivated mushrooms, it is enough for her. In addition, she also gets mushrooms from the villagers, so she no longer lacks mushrooms for her mushroom sauce.
Luo Man was surprised when she learned that Yun Yin was growing straw mushrooms herself. She made a special trip over and saw the shelves in the bamboo house filled with densely packed wooden boxes, which were indeed full of straw mushrooms.
She exclaimed, "You're really amazing, girl! You can even grow straw mushrooms yourself. You're so smart, now we don't have to worry about not having enough mushrooms."
Yunyin was hardly worthy of her praise. She was merely standing on the shoulders of giants; these were things that predecessors had figured out, and she was just using them.
She quickly waved her hand and said, "Sister Aman, please don't praise me. I just saw this method in a book, and it worked after I tried it."
"There are books like this?" Luo Man asked curiously. "I wonder where you saw it, my lady. I'd like to buy a copy and take a look."
Yunyin naturally couldn't tell her that her book was brought from the modern era. She smiled shyly and said, "I don't really remember that. I just saw it by chance."
Seeing that her face was red, Luo Man changed the subject, saying, "Did you work for a wealthy family before, Lady Yun?"
Luo Man had wanted to ask this question for a long time, but she was too embarrassed to ask it before because she wasn't familiar with Yun Yin. Now that she was familiar with her, she found that Yun Yin was a very pure person and didn't mind these things, so she felt comfortable asking it.
Yunyin opened her mouth slightly, and after a long while said, "Why would Sister Aman make such a guess?"
She thought about it carefully. She had never paid attention to these things before and was unaware that Madam Luo thought this way.
Luo Man recalled for a moment, then murmured, "Isn't that right?"
"When I first met you, I was struck by your elegance and confidence. You didn't seem like a girl from an ordinary family."
Yunyin recalled the scene when she first arrived in Dazhao. It had only been a little over two months, yet she felt as if it were a lifetime ago. After understanding what Luoman meant, she thought carefully and remembered that it was because of filming. At that time, she played a maid in a wealthy family and had specially learned the etiquette in that regard. When she first arrived in Dazhao, she was worried about giving herself away, so she used what she had learned while filming.
Unexpectedly, Madam Luo misunderstood. She quickly waved her hand and said, "I am just a girl from an ordinary family, not from a wealthy family."
Although Luo Man was surprised, she did not associate with Yun Yin because of her status. She nodded and said, "Girls from ordinary families are fine too. As long as they can be independent, there is nothing to be afraid of. We are not much worse than the daughters of officials."
Yunyin sensed something was off about Luo Man's words, and after a moment's hesitation, she asked, "What's wrong, Sister Aman?"
Luo Man and Yun Yin sat on the grass outside the bamboo shed, watching the clouds drifting in the sky. After a long silence, Luo Man said, "I came here today to see your mushrooms and change my mood."
"I don't know who to talk to about these things. My former close friends have all gotten married and are too busy with their own families to keep up. I don't want to disturb their lives."
She lowered her eyes and said, "Song Shi's mother came to see me yesterday."
Yunyin looked up at her and saw that she was calm and unmoved by the appearance of Song Shi's mother.
"Her mother is a respectable person, so she naturally wouldn't say anything unpleasant, but she did mention that their family is looking for a daughter for Song Shixiang, hoping to finalize his marriage before Song Xuan gets married."
Yunyin looked at her with concern: "Does Song Shi know?"
Luo Man shook her head and said, "I don't know if he knows or not, but whether he knows or not, it has nothing to do with me. That's what I told the registrar's wife as well. Song Shi and I are just a customer and a cook. He likes the food I make, and I make food for him."
"As for what Song Shi thinks, I can't control that. I've already rejected him, but he still won't give up, and that's not something I can decide."
Yunyin patted her hand and said, "Yes, you've already refused, so the registrar's wife shouldn't have come to you at all."
Luo Man took a deep breath and said, "Although I don't feel embarrassed about it, I still feel suffocated. Talking to you about it today has made me feel much better."
"Thank you for listening to me," Luo Man said gratefully to Yun Yin. "Buying your wild vegetables was the right decision; I've gained another friend."
Seeing that she had cheered up in the blink of an eye and stopped talking about those sad things, Yunyin echoed her, "Yes, I'm also very happy to have made another good friend."
She now has two close friends, and perhaps she will make many more in the future, but she will always be grateful to Roman for accepting her mushroom sauce, which allowed her to settle down in Da Zhao.
Luo Man was in a bad mood today, and Yun Yin wanted to make something delicious to cheer her up. She took out the wild cherries she had bought that morning and cooked them into cherry jam with sugar.
Wild cherries are not as sweet as cultivated cherries and taste more sour, so you need to add more sugar to eat them.
Then knead the wheat starch into a dough, roll it out into round wrappers, wrap them in the prepared cherry sauce, and steam them in a pot. A simple and delicious plate of cherry piro is ready.
In addition to cherry blossom wine, Yunyin also prepared a pot of peach blossom wine.
Not long after she arrived in Dazhao, she found a peach tree in the deep mountains, covered in peach blossoms. At that time, she did not know that she would stay here forever, but she did not want to miss these peach blossoms, so she picked some, dried them, and preserved them.
Later, she decided to stay here, thinking that peach blossoms could be used to make wine. She brewed a jar of wine using both fresh and dried peach blossoms.
Now was the perfect time to drink. Yunyin poured out the pinkish-white wine from the glass jar, filled it with the prepared cherry blossom wine, and came to Luo Man's side, saying, "Sister Aman, let me treat you to some wine and snacks."
The pure white porcelain cup seems to be filled with fragrant blossoms. Taking a gentle sniff is like being in a peach orchard, with a delicate fragrance permeating the air, refreshing and delightful.
Looking at the peach blossom wine, Luo Man felt as if the fragrance of the flowers had swept away her bad mood from the day. She took a sip, and the sweet taste spread, making her unconsciously intoxicated by it.
Seeing Luo Man drinking one cup after another, Yunyin took out a cherry pastry from the food box and called out to her, "Sister Aman, don't just drink alcohol, have some snacks."
Luo Man snapped out of her reverie, put down her wine cup, looked at the small, cute, and crystal-clear pastries that resembled beautiful women, picked one up, tasted it, and nodded, saying, "Delicious, very sweet."
Sipping peach blossom wine and eating cherry pastries, Luo Man gradually relaxed, and a smile appeared on her face. She sighed and said, "Suddenly I feel that there is nothing in this world that cannot be overcome. Eating the snacks you have carefully prepared, I feel that there are many things worth caring about in the future, and there is no need to be unhappy about those little things."
She raised her wine cup to Yunyin: "With a confidante like you, I should drink a big toast."
Yunyin raised her glass in return to Luoman, and the two drank their wine while enjoying the breeze, letting all their troubles drift away with the wind.
The two drank more and more heartily, and Luo Man would occasionally tell her some funny stories, which even made Yun Yin laugh out loud.
As they chatted and laughed, Song Shi stood behind them with his head down. Luo Man didn't see him, but Yun Yin did. Seeing that Luo Man was already a little drunk, she got up and walked to Song Shi's side, saying, "Did you come here for something?"
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