"Take your tools."
Su Yujiao gave each of the three a bamboo basket, gloves, and a small hoe.
"Mommy, Mommy, I want some too, I want some too!" The two children also clamored to dig up the vegetables.
Su Yujiao had come prepared, giving each of the two little ones a small basket and a small wooden shovel, so they could play freely in the vegetable garden.
"Sister-in-law, your yard is getting bigger and bigger."
"Yes, we also bought the house in the back, and the two courtyards have been connected."
"Half of this yard is used to grow vegetables, and the other half is used as a training ground for the children."
Su Yujiao led them to a lush green vegetable field, which was about half an acre in size.
The two little princesses asked excitedly, "Sister-in-law, is this the vegetable we're going to dig today?"
"right!"
What's this dish called?
"Potato!"
The prince asked curiously, "Sister-in-law, is the fruit of this vegetable a kind of bean?"
The prince looked closer and saw only green leaves, not beans.
The name of this dish is quite strange; a perfectly good leafy green vegetable is named after a bean.
Su Yujiao smiled and said, "The fruit is buried in the soil; we don't eat its leaves."
"Actually, fresh tender leaves can be eaten after blanching, and they can also be used in medicine."
"For example, it can be used to treat symptoms such as stomach pain, eczema, and burns."
"In addition, potato leaves also have the effects of beautifying the skin, regulating the stomach and intestines, clearing stomach heat, and relieving symptoms of high blood pressure and high blood lipids."
In short, every part of the potato is valuable.
"However, this vegetable is mainly eaten for its roots and stems, which can be used as a staple food or as a vegetable. Few people eat the leaves, except during famines, as they are always tastier than tree bark."
"We'll have potatoes for lunch today."
Su Yujiao gave a serious introduction, and the Crown Prince and Princess were quite interested.
When I heard that this was what we were going to eat for lunch, I was a little disappointed.
Can you swallow a vegetable that tastes slightly better than tree bark?
However, the prince and princess were not disappointed, since they were there to experience farm life.
To put it bluntly, we're here to have fun. If it's delicious, eat more; if it's not, eat less!
My mother often said that they were too spoiled and didn't know the difference between grains and other foods. She said they should be made to experience some hardship so that they could understand the difficulties faced by ordinary people.
"Sister-in-law, teach me how to dig."
"Okay, I'll demonstrate first."
With a shovel in one hand and potato leaves in the other, Su Yujiao dug and dug with a hoe. After the soil loosened, she pulled hard and pulled out a string of potatoes, some big and some small.
"Wow, potatoes are so big! I thought they were the size of fennel beans."
The two little princesses exclaimed in amazement, and the two babies also cried out in surprise, clapping their hands in perfect unison.
Lu Ziqian and the Crown Prince's expressions changed; they hadn't expected a single vegetable seedling to bear so many fruits.
Lu Ziqian was a step ahead of the Crown Prince, and he picked up the potato and felt its weight; it was quite heavy.
"Go and get a scale."
"yes."
The prince hurriedly asked, "Sister-in-law, do these potatoes have seeds? Can you eat the skin? How much of it is edible?"
Seeing their two brothers looking nervous, the two little princesses quieted down and stopped laughing and joking.
They knew that when their brothers showed such expressions, it meant something very important.
"There's no pit, so you can eat the whole thing."
"The skin doesn't taste good, but it's okay to eat it."
As Su Yujiao spoke, Lu Ziqian had already taken out the dagger he carried with him and cut the potato in half in front of everyone.
The cut surface is very flat, with no pits or seeds, and the internal texture is the same.
Lu Ziqian asked in surprise, "You can eat the whole thing?"
"Yes, just wash it, boil it, and eat it. There's almost no waste."
The prince's face lit up with excitement: "Sister-in-law, can each of these plants bear so much fruit?"
Su Yujiao said with a smile, "Why don't you dig up a few plants, Your Highness, and take a look?"
Without saying a word, the prince rolled up his sleeves and started digging.
Just then, the servant brought over the small scale.
Lu Ziqian placed the largest potato on the tray and weighed it; it weighed a whopping eight ounces.
This plant weighs over three pounds!
Realizing how high the yield of potatoes was, Lu Ziqian called everyone in the yard to come and dig them up.
He wanted to see how many kilograms of potatoes this half-acre plot could produce.
The Crown Prince shared this view and had his own guards join in.
Seeing this, Su Yujiao went to prepare the meal. She took a large basket of potatoes, weighed them, and then brought them to the kitchen so that they could count the quantity later.
"Grandma Zhang, go kill a few chickens."
"Stewed chicken with potatoes for lunch today."
"There are too many of them, let's kill ten."
"Okay."
"Xiao Tao, go wash and peel all these potatoes."
"yes."
Su Yujiao gave the instructions methodically: stewed chicken with potatoes as the main dish, then make hot and sour shredded potatoes, candied potatoes, French fries, potato chips, and a side of green vegetables.
"Miss, these potatoes have all been peeled."
Su Yujiao nodded: "Soak them all in water."
"Some are cut into thin strips, some into thin slices, some into strips about the size of a little finger, and the rest into rolling cuts."
Su Yujiao spoke and demonstrated at the same time.
While people were busy cooking in the kitchen, they were also working hard in the vegetable garden.
As expected, many hands make light work. Before Su Yujiao had even finished cooking, all the potatoes had already been dug up.
After all, it's only half an acre of land, but there are more than a dozen people, so the efficiency is naturally very high.
Lu Ziqian and the Crown Prince looked at the mountain of potatoes, their eyes sparkling with excitement.
This is only half an acre, and it's already this much!
If all the people grew potatoes, wouldn't they never have to go hungry again?
It's better to eat it than to starve!
After all, it was a year of famine; there was no other choice!
"Weigh yourself."
"yes."
The guards brought in a large iron scale from outside, which they had borrowed from the butcher's house; it was used to weigh whole pigs.
Then the guards packed all the potatoes into large bamboo baskets and weighed them one basket at a time.
There were a total of 22 baskets, plus the 100 jin that Su Yujiao took, which adds up to a total of 2,530 jin.
Everyone present fell silent, except for the two little princesses and two adorable babies who had no idea what those two thousand kilograms of potatoes meant.
Everyone else was shocked, staring wide-eyed at the ledger in Lu Ziqian's hand.
Is there no mistake in the calculation?
Half an acre of land yielded 2,500 catties of grain!
Is this a dream?
The key point is that they wouldn't even dare to dream of so much.
The crown prince trembled with excitement, his voice even changing tone: "Cousin, you...you didn't miscalculate, did you?"
Lu Ziqian handed him the ledger: "Calculate it yourself."
The Crown Prince calculated it himself, and it was accurate to the last detail, with no discrepancies whatsoever.
"No, weigh it again."
Lu Ziqian nodded.
Not to mention the crown prince, even he himself didn't quite believe it.
The Zhou people all felt it was necessary to weigh it again.
This sounds so fake, no one would believe it if I told them!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
