Chapter 112: Sugar Squeezing Successfully
There are a total of five sugar presses working at the same time. After a while, a large bucket of sugarcane juice is obtained. It is poured into a pot and simmered slowly over low heat. Then an appropriate amount of lime water is poured in to remove impurities. The sugar liquid is then precipitated, crystallized, and formed to obtain relatively pure brown sugar.
Freshly made brown sugar is a large square piece, a little over one centimeter thick. At this time, use a sharp knife to cut it into equal parts vertically and horizontally, cutting it into small pieces about four centimeters wide and twelve centimeters long. This is the sugar flakes sold on the market.
The sugar flakes are very hard and very sweet. Although the purity is average, and occasionally there is some grass-like sugarcane residue that has not been removed cleanly, this kind of impurity is very rare, especially the one made by Zhao Liya and her team. After Zhao Liya improved the equipment, the sugar produced is much better than that on the market.
There are almost no impurities, the color is bright and authentic brown, the surface is smooth and almost no bubbles, very beautiful! The sweetness is also very pure, without a trace of bitterness.
Everyone started working early in the morning, and by noon, the first pot of candy was pressed and shaped.
Zhao Xiang, Zhao Liya and others were all overjoyed after tasting it.
The candy sheets that had just solidified had a moderate hardness, but were also easy to cut. After Zhao Liya discussed with her father, she ordered the craftsmen to cut the first batch of four large pieces of candy sheets into thumb-sized pieces, put them on trays and take them out for the villagers to taste.
The villagers rushed to the scene, cheering loudly, and laughter was everywhere. This was the real excitement of the New Year!
"Ah, so sweet!"
“Delicious, so delicious!”
"This candy is much more delicious than the ones we buy!"
“I think so too, haha!”
"It's done! It really worked! Our village has finally made some sugar!"
"Hahahaha, our village really makes sugar!"
“.”
The children were even more delighted. Each of them was given a piece of candy and they were reluctant to finish it all at once. They took a lick and were intoxicated. They licked the syrup on their hands clean and refused to waste any of it.
"So fragrant and sweet! So delicious!"
"I'll come here every day from now on!"
This naive remark caused the adults to burst into laughter, and they began to teach him a lesson: "You can't come here every day! This is the money the big boss wants to sell!"
But, can we talk to Mr. Zhao and Miss Zhao and the others so that everyone can buy some cheap candies during the New Year?
The sugar-making workshop actually produced sugar, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief! This way, their long-term source of income was secured!
After everyone drank the sugar liquid, they felt relieved, and the village head and two elders began to drive people away.
"Alright, alright, we've seen it all, we've eaten it all, and it's time to relax. Don't stay here and get in the way anymore. Let's go, let's go!"
"Yes, yes, go away, don't get in the way here!"
Everyone burst into laughter and soon dispersed.
I can't stay here and delay the workshop work any longer. I want to buy candy anytime. There's no rush.
Everything is under the care of the village head and clan leader.
In the workshop, Zhao Liya, Hu Ling and others planned to stay here for a day, so Zhao Xiang, Deng and others went back first.
Looking at the bustling scene in the workshop, Zhao Liya felt genuine joy.
After a quick calculation, she went to talk to Hu Ling and said with a smile, "At this rate, we can produce sugar from five or six acres a day. This year, we've planted about three hundred and twenty acres. We'll save some for seeds and plant more next year, leaving another ten acres for fruit to eat and sell. Let me do the math."
Sugarcane has perennial roots, so as long as you keep the roots, you can continue planting next year, and the tail can also be saved for seeds. So most of the seeds are already there, and there is no need to buy more.
As long as these root ends are properly preserved, they will still grow well next year.
We plan to plant about 800 mu next year. In addition to the 320 mu of perennial roots and tails this year, there are still about 160 to 170 mu of whole sugarcane that need to be preserved for seeds.
Zhao Liya planned to leave more, enough for 200 acres, to facilitate checking for any deficiencies and filling in the gaps.
Their sugarcane grows well, and one full stalk can be used to plant seven canes. One mu of land requires about 370 canes, so for 200 mu, that's about 74,000 canes. This means they need to leave about 30 mu of sugarcane for planting.
In other words, there are about 270 acres of sugarcane that can be used for sugar extraction this year.
Hu Ling was worried about whether he could make money, so he asked her quickly.
Zhao Liya smiled and said, "I just did some calculations. Our sugarcane is growing very well. The yield per mu is about 4,600 to 4,800 catties. About 7 or 8 catties of sugarcane can produce one catty of yellow sugar. Excluding losses, one mu can produce at least 670 catties of yellow sugar. Even if we take 270 mu, that's 180,000 to 2,000 catties. Last year's purchase price for yellow sugar was 30 wen per catty. Our quality is better, with no bitterness at all and a purer sweetness. It's no problem to add an extra 2 wen per catty. With this calculation, even if we sell yellow sugar, we can still make around 6,000 taels."
"Because this is the first year of planting, all the seedlings need to be purchased, so the cost is a bit higher, but in the future, we can keep the perennial roots and tails for seeding, which saves a lot of money."
Even so, after deducting all the costs of planting, manual management, and even all the investments in land reclamation and workshop construction, we will still make a profit this year.
It's just that the profit is not much. According to this calculation, the profit is at least more than two thousand taels.
After deducting most of the biggest costs next year and expanding the scale of planting, there will be no problem in making over 13,000 to 15,000 taels in one season.
You can plant two crops a year, which doubles the profit to about 30,000 silver coins.
I will buy more land in the future and rotate planting about four to five hundred acres every year. I can plant soybeans, peanuts and other crops, and extract oil from them.
Well, do we need to build an oil press to match it?
Zhao Liya has now made a rough estimate of the account and only told Hu Ling.
Hu Ling was extremely excited. He rubbed his hands and laughed, "Aya is really capable! She's really capable! It was already that month when we came here. We thought we wouldn't be able to do anything, but we didn't expect to earn almost two thousand taels already. This is great, really great!"
This is more profitable than making money in Beijing!
Zhao Liya was also a little proud. She blinked and smiled and said, "This profit is calculated based on the price of yellow sugar. I want to try making it into white sugar. The price may be higher."
Hu Ling smiled and nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay!"
Hu Ling was completely convinced. He agreed with everything Zhao Liya said. He knew it wouldn't go wrong.
Zhao Liya counted on her fingers and smiled, "Based on the current scale, our workshop will take about 40 to 50 days to make sugar. I'll give it a try in 10 days or half a month."
"OK!"
Ask for monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)
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