After Liu Tan said this, Huo Guang suddenly remembered that Liu Tan saved Li Xi because he allowed Western grapes to survive and bear fruit in Chang'an.
However, although not much time had passed, everything Liu Tan did later was more eye-catching than this, so gradually people forgot that he could grow grapes and make wine.
Kou Zhengda, standing by, hesitated for a moment before saying, "Wine... I've tried it before, but the quality isn't as good as that from the Western Regions. It's also extremely difficult to transport and easily spoils."
After all, wine has a shelf life and has more stringent requirements for storage conditions. Even white wine must be stored in a sealed state, but the transportation conditions in this era make it difficult to ensure that it remains sealed on the road.
The main reason is that Dunhuang’s tax revenue cannot support long-distance transportation. For short-distance transportation, a trip would hardly make any money and even result in a loss. Besides, people don’t like the slightly sour taste of wine.
The quality of the wine was not good enough to be offered as tribute, and it could not be sold. Over time, Kou Zhengda stopped brewing it.
Liu Tan calculated the ripening time of the grapes and found that the large-scale fruiting period this year should have passed. According to the storage conditions of this year, the grapes should not have been stored until now.
But he still asked, "Are there any grapes left?"
Kou Zhengda nodded and said, "The weather is cooler this year, so there are some late grapes. However... these grapes are generally not very good, so most families keep them for themselves."
Liu Tan said, "Send some over to me. I want to make something."
Kou Zhengda didn't know what Liu Tan was going to do, but he didn't object.
However, Huo Guang couldn't help but glance at Liu Tan, and couldn't help but imagine the scene of Liu Tan running to play with grapes and getting covered in grape juice. He resisted the urge to open his mouth to warn him. After all, Kou Zhengda was still here, and he had to save some face for his prince.
He was just thinking about this when he heard Liu Tan say to him, "Prime Minister Huo, let's exempt Dunhuang from tax this year."
Huo Guang glanced at him, hesitated for a moment, and then agreed.
Although the Northern Border Kingdom's treasury is not very full now, this is Liu Tan's first order in government affairs and it is difficult to reject it.
I could only comfort myself by saying that Dunhuang County didn't pay much tax anyway.
Kou Zhengda, however, had not expected a direct tax exemption. He excitedly stood up and saluted: "I thank Your Highness on behalf of the people of Dunhuang!"
Liu Tan said gently, "Go back and rest first. You passed the exam, but you need to stay for a few days. I'll talk to you about something after they all pass."
Of course, there was no point for Kou Zhengda. He was not that busy, so staying for two more days would not be a big deal.
After he left, Huo Guang couldn't help but ask, "Your Highness, what are you going to do?"
Liu Tan smiled and said, "Has Prime Minister Huo ever eaten dried fruit?"
Huo Guang was a little confused: "What is that?"
Liu Tan said, "Well, it's hard to explain. You'll know when I finish it."
Oh my god, how could I have forgotten about raisins before?
Although Dunhuang's geographical location is not far enough west, its climate is very close to that of the Western Regions. The quality of the grapes there should be very good, and they are perfect for making raisins.
As for apricots and peaches, he didn't have any particularly good solutions for the time being.
Although these two fruits can also be made into dried fruits, their natural sugar content is not as high as that of grapes. If you want to make them into edible dried fruits, you need a lot of sugar.
Liu Tan did have a recipe for making sugar, but unfortunately the Northern Border Country was not suitable for growing sugarcane.
The growing environment of sugarcane needs to be tropical or subtropical. To put it more generally, it can only grow well in the south. In the north, it is probably not a question of whether it grows well or not, but whether it can grow at all.
Without sugarcane, we have to rely on rock honey from outside, which increases the cost too much. How much should the dried fruit be sold for at that time?
When the market is first opened up, the price is too high and there will definitely not be many people willing to buy it, so it is necessary to use raisins that do not require sugar to test the waters first.
Liu Tan thought about this and turned to Miao Rui, saying, "Go buy some grapes first. I want to try making some."
First, use the grapes from Shuofang to determine the production steps, and then refine the process after the grapes from Dunhuang arrive.
After all, there is still some distance from Shuofang to Dunhuang, and the grape varieties may be different.
Liu Tan remembered that he had seen the method of making raisins in the past, and there were two methods.
One is the method used in Turpan, and the other is the ordinary method.
In Turpan, people take advantage of the dry and hot weather to put the fruits in a ventilated room to dry in the shade.
However, both Shuofang and Dunhuang are far away from Turpan, and the climate is naturally different. This method cannot be used, so the only option is the most common one - exposure to the sun.
Fortunately, it is still autumn in Shuofang, which means there is plenty of sunshine.
The first time Liu Tan did it, he asked people to pick grapes with thin skin, rich juice but not soft. As for bad fruits... they would never appear in front of Liu Tan, so there was no need to remind him.
After finding the grapes he thinks are most suitable, he puts them on the drying trays that have been prepared long ago. These drying trays are made of reeds and have sufficient ventilation underneath, and then he starts to expose them to the sun.
Liu Tan wasn't sure how many days of exposure to the sun would be needed, but he asked someone to record it every day, and he would go and check it out when he had time.
Anyway, there are still a few days before the re-examination, so he might as well take care of these grapes since he has nothing better to do.
When he checked on the grapes again after two days of drying, he found that the grapes had not lost much moisture except that they were a little wilted.
He subconsciously thought that this wouldn't work. How long would it take to dry like this?
Of course, time is not a problem. The problem is that there are only a few days of suitable climate in a year, and it is not the real Western Regions. What if the light is not sufficient and there is not enough time to dry the finished product?
And it really depends on whether God is willing.
If you want it to be quick, you have to use some methods to process it, so you have to start by speeding up the evaporation of fruit juice.
When Liu Tan was looking through the grapes, he accidentally discovered that one of the grapes was broken for some reason. The flesh of the broken grape was obviously shrunk compared to the other intact grapes, which showed that more juice had evaporated.
Although this grape would not be a qualified raisin even if it was really dried, it provided Liu Tan with a direction - to start from the skin.
The peel protects the flesh and naturally prevents water from evaporating.
It is not possible to remove all the peels, so the only thing you can do is to make the presence of the peels as weak as possible.
However, Liu Tan didn't know what method to use until that day when he saw Miao Rui and Bigo carefully helping him remove the skin of the walnuts.
Liu Tan likes walnuts very much, but the problem is that after the walnuts are shelled, the skin on the flesh tastes astringent, which he doesn't like very much.
However, because the walnut flesh itself is uneven, it is very difficult to peel it.
Before Liu Tan came through the time travel, no one had skinned him specifically, so he actually used other methods to peel the skin at that time.
As Liu Tan was thinking, he suddenly slammed the food table and said, "Come here, get me some alkali!"
Miao Rui and Bigo were startled by him, and only one thought popped into their minds: What is His Highness going to do now?
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