Madam Lu knew there would always be a line for breakfast and dinner at Xu's Restaurant, so she went there early with Zhen Wu. Unexpectedly, they arrived early, and there were already quite a few diners. Luckily, they arrived early, so they still had a table. They chose a seat by the window. It wasn't large, and the distance between the tables in front and behind seemed a bit close. Madam Lu, a former daughter of the Duke's mansion, had always enjoyed the best of everything, but she felt a little uncomfortable. Zhen Wu couldn't help but ask, "If you're not used to this kind of seating, why don't we find another restaurant?"
Madam Lu shook her head. She was a little curious about Miss Xu's cooking skills. Could it be better than the Zuixianlou in Raozhou City? Otherwise, why would there be such a long queue?
When Zhen Wu returned to Raozhou City, he said that Xu Ji's breakfast was very delicious, and it was more tempting than the breakfast he had tasted in all the years he traveled around the country.
Mrs. Yuan, who was serving the guests, recognized Mrs. Lu and immediately came over, smiling and saying, "Madam, what would you like to eat? We have everything at Xuji."
Mrs. Lu asked, "What's the sign here?"
Yuan immediately said, "We have quite a few signature dishes at Xu's, like fish with pork intestines, charcoal-grilled hand-pulled lamb chops, fried eel shreds, stir-fried shrimp, and butter. But now that it's cold, our host has just introduced a copper pot hot pot mutton hot pot. It's a must-try at almost every table. It's served in a copper pot with our host's clear broth, which is then used to cook the lamb tail fat, lamb, lamb leg, lamb head, and other dishes. Madam, would you like to try it?"
Mrs. Lu couldn't help but become curious. It sounded a bit like the hot pot in Zuixianlou.
She said, "Then bring a copper pot, and give me one portion of each dish you mentioned, and one portion of each other vegetarian dish as well."
"Okay, ma'am, please wait a moment."
Yuan went to the kitchen and told Xu Qinyu, who then asked Wen to exempt Madam Lu from the bill. She quickly filled the copper pot with burning charcoal, poured clear soup into the pot, and asked Yuan to take it out. The other dishes were also taken out one by one.
Xu Qinyu knew that Madam Lu came to eat with Zhen Wu from yesterday.
Mrs. Lu only introduced that he was the leader of the caravan, but Xu Qinyu could see that the relationship between the two was not ordinary.
It was obvious that Zhen Wu was a big eater, so she served two portions each of lamb tail fat, lamb, lamb leg and lamb top, one portion of other vegetarian dishes, and a large portion of wide noodles that she had rolled by hand.
This portion of lamb leg also includes the front leg and the hind leg, half each.
That is, the so-called small tri-tip and large tri-tip on the mutton, each tastes different.
Wait until the pot and ingredients are served.
Mrs. Lu is a good eater, and you can tell that the ingredients are very fresh.
But the soup in the pot is too clear, just like water. How can the dishes cooked in it taste good?
This pot was cooked by Xu Qinyu with just water, chopped green onions, a little ginger slices and her mushroom powder. It has just a little bit of umami flavor, without any other taste, not even salt, because the taste of sesame paste is just right. The meat is coated with sesame paste and eaten with just the right amount of saltiness. This way, you can have the tenderness and original flavor of the meat, as well as the fragrance of sesame paste. If salt is added to the clear soup and then dipped in sesame paste, it will be too salty.
Yuan knew that it was the first time for the two of them to eat mutton hotpot, so she explained to them in detail how to cook it.
The boss prepares the sesame sauce bowl by bowl, and charges five cents per person for just this bowl of sauce.
Zhen Wu listened carefully, and then started to rinse with sheep tail oil.
After it was cooked, it was placed in Mrs. Lu's bowl. Mrs. Lu was a little disgusted. How greasy and smelly must it be?
But after rinsing it, she smelled a strong fragrance and couldn't help but dip it in the bowl of sesame paste. She accidentally dipped too much and some sesame paste dripped down. When she put it in her mouth, it was indeed greasy, but also fragrant. This fragrance was the fragrance of sheep tail oil combined with another kind of fragrance, which should be the fragrance of this bowl of sesame paste, which went straight to the top of her head.
She also had to admit that she liked the taste of the sheep tail oil that she disliked.
Then there is the taste of mutton hot pot, the meat is tender and fresh.
The lamb leg was tender and juicy, and the lamb top was fat and lean, allowing her to taste a different flavor in every bite.
For a moment, Mrs. Lu didn't bother to talk to Zhen Wu and just ate the mutton hotpot quietly.
Zhen Wu helped her scald the meat and picked up the meat for her, so she didn't have to worry about anything throughout the process.
Only when she was busy eating would he eat some himself.
It was also the first time that he saw Madam Lu eating so seriously. After he tasted it, he knew the reason. It was indeed delicious. It was the most delicious thing he had eaten in all his years of traveling around the country. No wonder there were people lining up to eat in this small restaurant every day.
After eating, Mrs. Lu felt a little full.
In order to maintain her figure, she had not dared to eat so much at dusk for a long time, but the taste was so good, so Mrs. Lu decided to indulge herself a little in the next few days and come to Xu Ji to eat every day. After all, she would not be able to eat such delicious food when she returned to Raozhou City, and she would probably find other food tasteless.
When she was about to pay the bill, Mrs. Lu realized that Miss Xu would not accept her money. She did not act pretentiously and did not push the issue with Mrs. Wen. She just said something to Mrs. Wen and left.
After the others left, Yuan and Wen whispered, "This lady is so lucky."
She could see that the man next to this lady should be her man. It was the first time she saw a man willing to take such good care of his wife outside. This Mrs. Lu ate from the hot pot and never shabu-shabu the meat herself.
Wen smiled, it was indeed enviable.
…
The next day, Mrs. Lu and Zhen Wu came to Xuji early for breakfast.
Once again, she was amazed by Xu Ji's breakfast. Everything was delicious, and her favorites were the brown sugar rice porridge and custard buns.
This time, she really hoped that Miss Xu’s restaurant would be opened in Raozhou City. No matter how small or crowded it was, she would be willing to eat there.
After breakfast, Mrs. Lu and Zhen Wu walked around the town.
Yuanbao Town is still much smaller than Raozhou City. There are no larger workshops at all. We can only see if there is land to build a winery.
In the following days, the two of them kept looking for workshops or land suitable for building workshops in the town and nearby villages and towns.
In the past few days, the two of them have been eating breakfast and dinner at Xu Jiyong's place.
Mrs. Lu only decided to try the restaurant's other signature dishes after eating mutton hotpot for three consecutive days.
I didn’t expect that the signature dish is just as good as mutton hotpot.
Madam Lu was convinced and said to Zhen Wu, "Young Lady Xu told me before that this wine could only taste like this if she made it. I didn't believe it, but now I finally believe it. With Young Lady Xu's cooking skills, it's no surprise that the wine she makes is so delicious."
Because even the simplest dish of fried tofu, she ate it with satisfaction and thought it was delicious.
I even wondered why tofu is so delicious?
Zhen Wu also agreed.
The two men then looked around the area and decided to buy about ten acres of land in Dagu Village to build a winery.
Dagu Village is the closest to Yuanbao Town. If you walk north out of the town, it only takes half a minute to get there by carriage. There are many villagers in the village. It is also close to the foot of the mountain and has many fields. There is also a large open space at the end of the village. Mrs. Lu took a fancy to this place. It will be convenient for her to pick grapes in the mountains in the future. She also asked Miss Xu whether fruit grapes grown in other places can be used to make wine.
The grapes introduced here from other countries are green grapes. When ripe, they are very sweet, with a slight sour taste and a strong grape flavor.
Xu Qinyu said yes, and said that the wine made from this green grape is light green, the color is very beautiful, and the taste is even better than that made from wild grapes.
Even if Mrs. Lu had a plan, she would have no way to do it, because there are not many grapes grown in the southwest. If she really wants to transport grapes from other places to the southwest, the cost and loss will be too high, and it will be impossible to preserve them. It will take seven or eight days to transport them to the southwest, and they will have rotted long ago.
There is no large-scale planting in the southwest because it is expensive and difficult to produce and sell by oneself. Ordinary people are reluctant to eat it. Even if it is for wealthy gentry to eat, they cannot consume it all if they plant too much.
After choosing a place, Mrs. Lu went back and talked to Xu Qinyu about it.
Xu Qinyu knew that Dagu Village was near Yuanbao Town, so it would be convenient for her to go there when making wine in the future.
Finally, Mrs. Lu said regretfully, "It's a pity that we don't have green grapes. The cost and waste of transporting green grapes are too high, and the cost of making wine is too high. It's not suitable."
She priced the wine at about three taels of silver per bottle. If the price was higher, it would be difficult to sell. After deducting the transportation costs, she could make about one tael of silver per bottle of wine.
Xu Qinyu couldn't help but say, "If only the people here were willing to grow grapes, we would have the conditions to make green wine."
The taste of green wine is slightly different from that of wild grape wine, and it tastes sweeter.
There is no need for large-scale planting for the time being. If you want, you can divide the arable land into one or two or several mu of land for planting. One mu of land is one tenth of an acre of land, which will not affect food supply.
Green grapes can bear fruit in the second or third year. Most people are certainly not willing to take the risk of trying it on a large scale. They have to grow crops to take care of their own food. Besides, grapes have only been introduced a few years ago, and even other places do not dare to plant them in large quantities.
So you can plant a small amount first. If you don’t want to plant it in the fields, you can plant it in the front and back yards of your house.
The geographical conditions in the southwest are favorable, and fruits are easy to mature. There is sufficient sunlight and rainfall, and the fruits are sweeter, so it is still very suitable for growing grapes.
Madam Lu couldn't help but say, "Why don't you talk to your friends and family and ask them to plant some grapes? I'll talk to my friends and family when I get back. Even if we can make less, we have to try it first."
Her caravan's business was rather sporadic, mostly transporting things for other people, more like an escort agency. Madam Lu also wanted to make the caravan more stable. If the wine business could continue to grow, maybe she would really only need to run this business in the future.
So Mrs. Lu still hopes that the southwest can slowly try to grow some grapes. Of course, it is not possible to become fat in one go. Take it slowly, and maybe in a few years,
Xu Qinyu had an idea and thought that she could go talk to County Magistrate Yang.
After planting the grapes, she and Mrs. Lu were willing to buy them to make wine.
Growing grapes can make more money than growing grain, and people don't have to use all their land to grow grapes. An ordinary family will have at least two or three acres of land, and one or two mu of land will be enough, or they can grow grapes in the front and back yards. After all, no one in the village has two pieces of open space in front and behind their house. Even people in the town have a small yard. A few grape seedlings can grow a large area, and you can build a rack and climb a rack. The yield of grapes is much higher than that of grain.
This is about making everyone rich together, boosting the economy of the entire village, and it does not require the use of most of the arable land. You can start small and work slowly.
Xu Qinyu thought she could talk to County Magistrate Yang about it.
She shared her idea with Mrs. Lu, and Mrs. Lu also thought it was feasible.
However, it is more troublesome to plant with grape seeds. There are no grape seedlings grown by cuttings in Yuanbao Town, so they have to be bought from other places. Mrs. Lu has a caravan, and she plans to ask the caravan members to go there and buy some grape seedlings grown by cuttings to see who is willing to buy them and try planting them.
Afterwards, Madam Lu went back and told Zhen Wu about it, and Zhen Wu asked someone to do this. The two of them stayed in Yuanbao Town and bought a house first. It was troublesome to live in an inn. Madam Lu thought that even if Zhen Wu was in charge of this place in the future, she would still want to come here often to eat the breakfast and evening meals made by Miss Xu, so it would be more convenient to buy a house.
There were many houses for sale in Yuanbao Town, and Mrs. Lu also wanted to live closer to Xu Qinyu, so she bought a two-story house in Laixi Lane in front of Guihuaxiang, which was big enough for her and Zhen Wu to live in.
After buying the house, Mrs. Lu didn't want to go back to Raozhou City for a while. She just wrote a letter asking the two maids who usually served her in Raozhou City to come over. She wanted to stay in Yuanbao Town for a few more days because Zhen Wu would definitely be busy here for a long time.
After choosing a location to build the winery, Zhen Wu took care of other matters.
After Zhen Wu bought the land, he began to look for people to build a winery. He hired many craftsmen. Although food was not provided, the wages were good, fifty cents a day, which was one and a half taels of silver a month. If there were many people, the winery could be built in a month or two. Building a winery is not like building a house. You just need to lay a good foundation and make each room spacious.
He was building the winery as quickly as possible regardless of the cost.
Zhen Wu was busy looking for a craftsman, and Xu Qinyu's time for rest had just come, so she went to the county government office to find County Magistrate Yang.
Every time she went to look for County Magistrate Yang, she would go through the backyard. The gatekeeper who was guarding the backyard had already recognized her and called her "Miss Xu" with a smile, and asked her, "Miss Xu, are you looking for our young lady or the master?"
Xu Qinyu hurriedly said, "I have something to ask you, sir."
The doorman went in and passed the message, and County Magistrate Yang immediately asked the doorman to invite the person in.
Since the diarrhea, County Magistrate Yang has not met Xu Qinyu in private, but he will no longer treat Xu Qinyu as an ordinary young lady.
It was apparently his idea to treat diarrhea, but there was no reward from the capital, so he took twenty taels of silver from the public account and gave it to Miss Xu as a reward. This was the amount of silver he had saved by trying hard to be frugal, and he gave it all to the doctor who helped treat diarrhea and Miss Xu.
However, Miss Xu refused to accept it, and told him to leave the reward money for someone who needed it more.
When County Magistrate Yang saw Xu Qinyu coming, he smiled and said, "Young Lady Xu, why are you here today?"
Xu Qinyu directly stated her purpose.
When County Magistrate Yang heard this, he thought it was a very good idea. It would help the villagers get rich, and they wouldn't have to use all their land to plant crops. They could just divide up a few acres of land. If they didn't want to, they could plant in the yard. It would only cost some money to buy grape seedlings, but the other costs would be gone.
Xu Qinyu smiled and said, "This is just like a jujube tree or a pear tree. You don't need to take too much care of it. Just fertilize it and water it occasionally."
People here like to plant jujube trees, pear trees and other trees in the front and back yards of their houses. Xu Qinyu's family has a jujube tree, and the jujubes harvested last autumn were all eaten by her family.
Magistrate Yang thought for a moment and said, "Okay, then I'll post notices everywhere tomorrow, asking everyone to try planting it, and saying that if anyone is willing to buy it for 20 cents per pound, it will be sold."
The price of grapes in other places is about twenty cents per catty, which is more expensive than fine grains. White flour and rice are only about ten cents per catty.
Xu Qinyu said, "I also need to inform everyone that when more people grow grapes in the future and the price drops, we can only buy them for ten coins per pound. So if you are willing to grow them in the first one or two years, you will make the most money."
Otherwise, if the entire southwest wants to grow grapes in the future, it will be impossible to purchase them at twenty cents per catty. It is normal for the price to fall, but even if the price falls, the lowest purchase price will be ten cents per catty. The yield per mu of this thing is high, and the harvest from planting half an acre of land is more valuable than the grain from ten acres of land.
County Magistrate Yang nodded and planned to write all of this down.
Xu Qinyu talked to County Magistrate Yang for a while, telling him how to plant these grapes, how to raise seedlings and transplant them, and how to add some fertilizer to the seedlings to make them better. Then he told him how to water them, and how to build a frame to guide the vines after transplanting. If the grape branches grow too fast and there are too many fruits, they need to be pruned, and how to prune them, etc.
Xu Qinyu knows how to grow grapes because she deals with food ingredients and has read books on the cultivation of general fruits and vegetables, and the feeding of poultry.
However, it is just talk on paper. However, some modern planting and poultry raising are definitely better than those of the ancients.
In addition, Xu Qinyu also told County Magistrate Yang that she and Madam Lu had a wine-making business in partnership. The winery was located in Dagu Village. In the next one or two years, they would continue to use wild grapes to make wine. In the future, when green grapes could be grown, they would also make green wine.
Last year, Xu Qinyu gave about ten bottles of wine to the Yang, Xu, and Xia families, so County Magistrate Yang also tasted the wine and found it was indeed delicious.
After Xu Qinyu left, County Magistrate Yang wrote a notice and asked the yamen runners to go to Yuanbao Town and the villages under its jurisdiction to post the notice.
Many villagers could not read, but when they saw the notice, they would gather around and ask the yamen runners to help read it out.
Sometimes taxes and labor service are announced through notices, so the people know that it is an important matter when they see the notices.
After the yamen runners read out the notice, the people began to discuss, "Although these grapes are expensive, they take two years to bear fruit, right? What should we do in the first year?"
"I've already told you that you can't use all your land for farming. You can set aside one or two acres for farming. If you want to make more money and are bold, you can plant more. It depends on whether you have the courage. If you don't even dare to plant one or two acres, you can buy two or three seedlings and plant them in the front yard or behind the house. If they grow well, people will harvest them too."
"Why did the county magistrate ask us to plant grapes? Will anyone really buy them? Why would that person buy so many grapes? He's not trying to trick us, is he? Can he eat them all? Why would he buy so many grapes?"
Upon hearing this, the yamen runner said, "People use grapes to make fruit wine, which they sell for silver. A bottle of wine can fetch one or two taels of silver. They let you grow grapes so they can make money with you."
This yamen runner was from Yuanbao Town. When Miss Xu was suffering from diarrhea, he helped to prepare meals. Everyone in the town knew about it and knew that Miss Xu was honest. Now that Miss Xu said she wanted to harvest grapes, he believed her and planned to go back and ask his mother to free up some land for him to try planting them.
Someone immediately asked, "Sir, who is actually harvesting the grapes? Are we really going to harvest them all? Even if we're making wine, we don't need that many, right? If every household grows a few, they'll produce a lot of fruit. But if we make too much wine, can we sell it all?"
They also saw that the wines produced by the small wineries in the town were not selling well. If everyone planted grapes, wouldn't they be able to produce a lot of fruit wine? Is fruit wine really that easy to sell and so expensive?
The yamen runner said, "It's Miss Xu from Xu's family who's buying it. They've partnered with a caravan from Raozhou City to make wine, and they're currently building a winery. They could originally make wine with wild grapes from the mountains, but they heard green grapes taste different, so they're also trying to make green wine. They're definitely not just selling it in the southwest; the caravans will ship it to other wealthy cities. The caravans also bought seedlings and didn't make a cent off the price, selling them to us at the original price. But it'll take several days for the seedlings to arrive."
"Building a winery? I know about that. The winery is being built in Dagu Village. They hired a lot of people to build the winery. My husband is working there, and he's being paid fifty coins a day."
"Is the salary so high? Do you still need people? I'll let my husband go too."
"What are you thinking? When they hire a craftsman, they'll ask him to build a house. Your husband can't build a house. Do you really think the caravan members are being taken advantage of?"
"Oh, what's so difficult about this? It's just adding bricks and tiles. It's very simple."
"It's simple as shit." The two women had a little argument.
Everyone else was still focused on the grapes. Someone said, "Miss Xu? I've heard she was the one who cooked for the victims during the diarrheal epidemic. She opened a restaurant. The food is delicious and she's a very nice person. Is she even going to start a winery in partnership with someone?"
"I think I've heard of her too? Is this really reliable for us to grow grapes?"
"Forget it, I'll go buy some seeds and sprinkle them in the corner of the yard."
"How can we just spread them randomly? Didn't the yamen runners tell us to grow seedlings first? They just sell the seedlings and we can just come back and plant them."
…
Xu Qinyu didn't know that her name had spread to the nearby villages.
She knew that most people would be reluctant to give up even a sliver of land, and just as she expected, most people planned to buy one or two grape seedlings and try them out in front of or behind their houses. They would probably wait until they made some money before they would be willing to plant large quantities of land.
Xu Qinyu was not in a hurry either. She just went with the flow. If she could continue the green wine business, she would do it. If she couldn't, she wouldn't force herself. Her focus was still on the restaurant.
However, she still talked to her daily partners, He Laobo and Tian the butcher, and suggested that they plant some grapes at home and she would harvest the fruits when they were ripe. She could also talk to her relatives and friends about it.
After receiving the news, Mr. He went back and discussed with his children and grandchildren about planting grapes on all the fields at home.
Now, their family relies on fishing, catching shrimps, snails and crabs in lakes and canals, which they supply exclusively to Xu Ji Restaurant. They also help Xu Ji deliver milk, and they can earn several taels of silver every month, sometimes up to ten taels. They also bought a small boat, and the family lives a prosperous life, much happier than before when they were hungry and cold.
Therefore, the He family is not only grateful to Xu Qinyu, but they almost regard Xu Qinyu as their benefactor.
After hearing what Mr. He said, the He family decided to use half of their land to grow grapes. Now that the He family can afford to buy food without farming, they really don't need to farm, so they plan to divide half of the land to grow grapes.
Miss Xu said that this season is the best time to transplant grape seedlings, so Uncle He bought a lot of them immediately after the caravan returned.
The price of grape seedlings was high in the first few years, but has dropped a bit in recent years, but it is still much more expensive than other fruits and vegetables.
One acre of land requires about seven or eight silver coins worth of grape seedlings.
The He family had a total of five acres of land, and they planted two acres of it, spending a total of fifteen taels of silver.
Mr. He also told other relatives in the family, but they didn't want to use the farmland, so he bought two seedlings. The seedlings were expensive, almost a hundred coins each, so most people would only buy one or two, and they would buy them only after gritting their teeth. Most people thought it was unreliable and didn't buy any.
Even the butcher wanted to buy one or two acres of land to grow grapes, but land was not cheap, and grape seedlings were not cheap either. Land was hard to buy, so he had to give up and only bought a few seedlings and planted them in the yard.
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