Chapter 37, Inn No. 37: Herbal Tea and Plum Juice
Lianggao (cold rice cake) is naturally more complicated to make than liangfen (cold jelly). It requires grinding soaked rice into rice paste, then adding wood ash water and cooking it in a pot. It needs to be stirred constantly during the cooking process, otherwise it may burn easily.
Pour the cooked rice milk into a container and let it sit for a few hours to solidify. The chilled rice cake is now ready. When eating, add brown sugar water. You can also refrigerate it for an even better flavor.
Yunyin tasted the chilled rice cake she made and thought it was quite good. She planned to get up early tomorrow morning to make more chilled rice cake. Even if the women in town didn't eat it, it would be good to sell it to passersby. It was a very good treat for cooling off in the summer.
The next day, Yunyin got up before dawn. That's the downside of making lianggao (cold rice cake); you need to grind the rice into a paste. But if it's liangfen (jelly), you don't need to grind it at all. You just need to knead the liangfen seeds into a sticky liquid and let it sit for a few hours before eating.
Unfortunately, it's not the season for jelly now. We'll have to wait until the jelly fruit ripens in August to pick it. For now, we'll use jelly cake instead. However, jelly cake and jelly have different textures. Yunyin likes anything that tastes good.
After making the chilled rice cakes, Yunyin also prepared some almond milk, just in case.
As dawn broke, Zhang Lin went to knead the dough. Ever since the shop started making locust leaf cold noodles, more and more people have been eating these noodles in the morning, while fewer people are eating soup noodles. Yunyin no longer needs to cook so much bone broth; she can just make locust leaf cold noodles directly, which are both refreshing and delicious.
The noodles with locust leaf juice have a bright green color. They are soaked in spring water, stirred with cooked oil, and then refrigerated in spring water. Spring water is cooler than regular water, so it can preserve the noodles well.
Once Yunyin's house is built, she will also build a well. The well water will be warm in winter and cool in summer, making it an excellent choice for chilling fruit and cold food. It will be much cheaper than using ice blocks. If it weren't for the ice blocks that Luo Man gave her, she wouldn't be able to afford to use ice.
After making the chilled rice cake, Yunyin took advantage of the cool weather to pick some more green plums. Last time she made preserved plums, and this time she mainly made some dried plums. These are used to make sour plum soup, and the summer heat dissipates in that bowl of sweet and sour plum soup.
Unlike preserved plums, dried plums need to be smoked, which is very time-consuming. Yunyin plans to make a lot at once to save for making sour plum soup later.
Making sour plum drink is expensive, so it can be sold to the ladies of wealthy families. Others also need a refreshing drink in the summer, so Yunyin decided to brew another pot of herbal tea. Although it is bitter, it is also very effective in relieving the heat.
The herbs needed for herbal tea, such as Yunyin, can all be found in the mountains, and they are all common varieties. She had drunk it when she was a child, but it was too bitter and she didn't like it. However, her grandmother would brew a big pot of it every year.
After picking honeysuckle, houttuynia cordata, plantain and other herbs, wash and dry them, then boil them in a large pot and filter the broth. This is the simplest form of herbal tea.
The herbal tea we drank when we were little was sweetened without sugar, and Yunyin naturally didn't add any sugar either. Although the herbal tea was bitter, it was very effective at relieving summer heat. Yunyin would put it in a big pot and place it by the roadside. When someone passed by, she would sell the herbal tea.
She sold her herbal tea very cheaply, only one coin a bowl, and passersby would all buy a bowl. Some would even pack a large bamboo tube to take with them on their journey. As the weather grew hotter in May, travelers avoided traveling at noon and chose to travel in the morning and afternoon.
Yunyin was selling herbal tea and waiting for people coming from the county. Just as the sun was rising, Yunyin spotted a familiar carriage approaching. She took out the food box she had prepared earlier and asked, "How is your wife's meal?"
Xu Fei was the servant of the woman who sat next to her at her coming-of-age ceremony. He usually helped his mistress pick up snacks and also delivered snacks to the other ladies in the household.
Xu Fei smiled broadly and said, "My wife really likes it. The weather has been getting hotter lately, and she hasn't had much of an appetite. After eating the almond milk you made, her appetite has improved a bit. My wife also asked me to thank you for the fruit you sent. The fruit was very sweet. I wonder if I could buy some to take home?"
Yunyin raised an eyebrow and asked, "Your wife wants to buy fruit. How much do you need?"
"My wife wants all the fruit you sent, just one basket each."
Yunyin nodded and said, "Okay, come and pick it up tomorrow."
After seeing Xu Fei off, Yunyin called Zheng Guilan over and said, "Have the village send over another basket of fruit tomorrow. I'll help sell some of it. Just give me the market price for this batch of fruit. Someone will come to pick it up tomorrow."
Zheng Guilan was washing the dishes when she heard this and her eyes lit up. She now had a wage and could support herself and her daughter, but many people in the village didn't have money. If these fruits could be sold, they could also get some money, and there would be less arguing.
She wiped her hands and said, "Thank you so much, my lady. I really don't know how to repay you."
Yunyin shook her head and said, "I only recommended it to my customers. It's because your fruit is good that they are willing to buy it."
As the weather gets hotter, fewer and fewer people come to eat lunch, so she simply stops selling lunch and starts making dinner in the afternoon when the temperature drops, and merchants also choose that time to travel.
More and more people were staying overnight in the thatched huts, and Zhang Lin had to get up from time to time to check on them, so he was not very energetic during the day. Yunyin had to take the breakfast herself so that he could sleep a little longer.
Meanwhile, Qian Si had also completed his preparations. He and his men arrived early in the morning, selected a suitable location, surveyed where there was groundwater to facilitate well drilling, and after everything was done, they began laying the foundation and building the house.
"Hey, you're going to build a house?" a merchant asked curiously while eating a cold locust leaf snack.
"Yes, we're planning to rebuild the restaurant. It won't be so hot when you eat there, and it will be a bit warmer in winter."
The merchant agreed, saying, "Your food is delicious and inexpensive, but the place is too simple. There isn't enough room for all the people I brought. You should build a bigger house."
"By the way, does your restaurant offer accommodation in the future?" the merchant asked. "If it does, I can stay here if I miss my place to stay in the future."
Yunyin was surprised that someone had inquired about accommodation before the restaurant was even built. It seemed that Luo Man and Qian Gong's suggestion was indeed correct. She nodded and said, "Of course, I will build two rooms, one large dormitory room and the other medium-sized room. You can choose where to stay."
The merchant said with satisfaction, "Hmm, it's very good. When will your guesthouse be completed?"
Yunyin glanced at Qian Si and the others who had just started work and said, "It will take at least 3 months."
"That summer is long gone, it's been too long."
Yunyin shrugged: "There's nothing I can do, this is the fastest I can do."
After seeing off the group of merchants, Yunyin took out the dried cotton seeds that had been soaked in water and wood ash, and walked through the fields to the newly leveled fields.
By this time, many seedlings in the cultivated fields had grown and blossomed. In another month, some vegetables would be ready to eat. Yunyin planted the seeds in her basket, placing one seed in each stalk. She would then transplant the seedlings after they sprouted, which would increase the germination rate.
After planting and watering this acre of cotton, Yunyin's back was so sore she could barely stand up straight. Looking at the full plot of land, she felt very tired but also very satisfied. She told Zhang Lin to finish planting the rest of the land when he had time in the afternoon, so that they could harvest a lot of cotton in five months.
When they returned, Qian Si and the others had just finished work. He said to Yun Yin, "The ground here is really hard to dig, and there are a lot of weeds. We didn't do much today, just cut grass and picked up stones."
Yunyin said helplessly, "The condition of this land is indeed not good. I'm sorry to trouble you."
"Alright, I've taken your deposit, so I'll do a good job. But this area has plenty of water, so digging a well won't take too much effort, which is good news."
Although this place is desolate, it is not lacking in water. However, even with abundant water, the soil lacks fertilizer, and the weeds here do not grow well.
Although she now has cow dung, it's not enough to fertilize all her land. Planting cotton has used up the compost she had previously made, so it's time to ask Luo Man to buy sheep dung. She wanted to bring it up last time, but it wasn't convenient then. This time, she wants to have a proper talk with her.
The next day, Yunyin's smoked plums were finally ready. It took her two days to make the plums. Although plums are easy to obtain, they need to be watched over constantly while being smoked. She and Zhang Lin took turns doing it and finally finished making the plums.
The prepared dried plums have thick, dark flesh and a faint smoky flavor. They are very sour and perfect for making plum juice.
She learned how to make sour plum drink online, and she tried it and found it tasted really good. She poured dried plums, hawthorn, dried tangerine peel, and licorice into a large pot, brought it to a boil over high heat, then simmered it over medium heat for a while. She then poured it into another pot with rock sugar, added water, and continued to simmer over low heat. Finally, she mixed the two kinds of broth, added osmanthus flowers, and made authentic sour plum drink.
When drinking it, filter out the osmanthus flowers, leaving only a thick brown color. It tastes both sour and sweet. Before the sun comes out, Yunyin packs up the sour plum candies and soaks them in spring water. By the time Xu Fei arrives, the sour plum drink is already chilled.
Seeing the mouthwatering sour plums, Xu Fei couldn't help but exclaim, "Yun Niangzi knows so much! She drinks a different beverage every day!"
Yunyin smiled and said, "These are all seasonal foods. It is because Long'an County is rich in local products that I have room to make use of them."
He handed her a purse and said, "This is for snacks for the next two weeks. By the way, my wife is going to hold a flower viewing banquet and would like you to help with the cooking and snacks. When are you free to go?"
She had heard Song Xuan mention the young lady of the Xia family before, and they had a good relationship. Yunyin nodded and said, "I wonder when she plans to hold the banquet. I need to adjust my schedule."
"It should be about a month from now, which will be the season when the lotus flowers are in full bloom. They are going to the village to admire the flowers, so they want you to make some lotus flower pastries to complement the scenery."
Yunyin said she understood, "I will make time for it."
"Ding-dong." Yunyin woke up early in the morning to the sound of Qian Si and his team starting work. After washing up, she crossed the stream to the construction site. It was unrecognizable. The foundation had been dug and stones had been transported over. After the foundation was dug, the stones would be used to pave the wall base, which would effectively prevent the earthen walls from being soaked by rainwater.
Yunyin turned her head and saw a craftsman drying soil. After listening to Qian Si's explanation, she learned that only dried soil could be used to make mud balls that would last longer. He would also add glutinous rice paste between the mud balls to make them stick together better.
That's why he charges higher fees, and he uses only the best materials. Yunyin looked around but didn't disturb them while they were working. She placed the herbal tea that Zhang Lin had brewed aside and said, "If you're thirsty, you can drink this herbal tea; it'll help you cool down."
Qian Si wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Thank you, Lady Yun."
Yunyin returned to the food stall in front, sat down and ate a bowl of cold noodles with locust leaves. The cool and refreshing noodles dispelled the heat in her body, leaving only the fragrance of locust leaves.
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