Chapter 233 Mid-Autumn Festival
Entering the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the sweet-scented osmanthus flowers begin to bloom, and the lotus flowers and leaves in the pond are also in the withering season.
Xia Juanjuan then called the villagers and was allowed to pick lotus seeds, dig lotus roots and fish.
Not many people in Lotus Village eat Lotus, and there aren't many of them. Even if they pick them, there won't be enough to share. So the villagers decided to let Xia Juanjuan pick them for herself and keep them. After all the lotus flowers were picked, they would arrange for people to come and catch fish and dig lotus roots.
Xia Juanjuan was quite happy. Lotus seeds are a kind of medicine. They can be used to cook eight-treasure porridge and make lotus seed mooncakes. They have many uses.
However, nowadays, the popular mooncakes are the five-nut mooncakes, which contain green and red silk, large pieces of rock sugar, peanut kernels and the like.
Fillings like lotus paste, jujube paste, red bean paste, and salted egg yolk were not popular yet.
There was no small boat in the village, so Xia Juanjuan found a large wooden tub and sat in it to collect the fish. She could swim, so she was not afraid if she fell into the water.
Use a knife to cut the lotus heads one by one and place them in a wooden basin. Then, while they are still fresh, peel out the lotus seeds, remove the green outer layer, and dry them directly in the sun so that they can be preserved.
After the lotus flowers were picked, the village gathered a dozen strong men, and they moved the water in the pond into the river. When only shallow water was left in the pond, it was easy to catch fish and dig lotus roots.
A dozen strong men went into the water, and in two days' time, they had caught all the fish and lotus roots.
After weighing, it was found that this pond had harvested 300 kilograms of fish and 500 kilograms of lotus roots!
There are more than 30 households in Qingshui Village, and each household received about ten kilograms of fish and fifteen kilograms of lotus roots.
Everyone had a beaming look on their face. After all, they didn't contribute anything, yet they still got a big fish and a bag of lotus roots. Who wouldn't be happy with such a good thing?
When everyone saw Xia Juanjuan, they couldn't help but greet her with a smile.
Xia Juanjuan didn't care, she just nodded and smiled.
She got some extra, including two large fish and 20 kilograms of lotus roots. She sent some to Shen Wanxue and Yang Qiushi so that they could make fish soup.
The remaining big fish was also used to make fish soup, and Xia Shuangshan was called over, and the whole family ate it.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon, and she has started to prepare mooncakes.
Lotus seeds were harvested this year, so lotus seed paste filling is a must. There are also salted egg yolk, red bean paste and jujube paste fillings.
Xia Juanjuan is not interested in the five-nut stuffing, it is really not tasty.
Xia Juanjuan asked Lin Yuru who in the village had the mooncake mold.
Lin Yuru smiled and said, "We have it at home, but we haven't made it in many years. I'll go find it later."
Xia Juanjuan started preparing the filling and skin.
Lotus seeds are easy to make. Soak the dried lotus seeds for a few hours, then boil them in water until they become soft when squeezed by hand. Use a spoon to mash them into a paste, then add sugar and mix.
Red bean paste and jujube paste are similar.
The mooncake skin is made by mixing flour, cooking oil, sugar, honey and baking soda.
Salted egg yolk and red bean paste are paired together. Wrap the cooked salted egg yolk with red bean paste, then wrap it with dough, then put it into a mold to press it into shape and bake it.
There were also the osmanthus flowers planted in Luo's house. Xia Juanjuan also picked a lot of them, made them into osmanthus cakes, and also brewed some osmanthus wine.
I even went to Beijing to give Grandma Luo some mooncakes and osmanthus cakes.
The Mid-Autumn Festival soon arrived, and the family was enjoying the cool air in the yard and eating moon cakes.
Shen Wanxue and Yang Qiushi also came secretly at night.
It’s a pity that Lizhan is not at home.
Yanyan, Yeye and Yaoyao have already learned to stand up with the help of something, but they are still afraid to walk. When the adults tease them, they still have to squat down tremblingly and then crawl over using all four limbs.
Shen Wanxue and Yang Qiushi were so happy that they held them in their arms and teased them.
There was a cold moon in the night sky. Shen Wanxue looked up and couldn't help but mutter:
"May we live long and share the beauty of the moon together even though we are thousands of miles apart."
As she kept muttering to herself, her eyes couldn't help but become red.
August 15th is the day for reunion, but unfortunately her family is still scattered and cannot be reunited.
When Beibei saw this, he ran over and cuddled up to her, asking, "Grandma Shen, why are you crying?"
Shen Wanxue quickly wiped her tears and said, "Alas... Grandma is not crying, it's just that a bug got into her eye."
Beibei handed her the mooncake in her hand and said, "Grandma Shen, have the mooncake!"
"Oh. Thank you, Beibei. Grandma will eat it." Shen Wanxue smiled.
Ye Ye in her arms suddenly pointed at the moon in the sky with his little hand and shouted, "Hmm!"
Shen Wanxue's heart almost melted. She also looked up at the moon and said with a smile, "The moon is so bright tonight."
Xia Juanjuan took out the sweet-scented osmanthus wine and said with a smile: "Moon-watching without wine is a bit lacking. Let's have a drink together and wait until next year. We will surely be reunited!"
Lizhan didn’t know whether he ate the mooncakes or missed her and the kids.
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the villagers began to prepare for the autumn harvest and winter wheat planting.
Xia Juanjuan contacted Luo Cheng and agreed with him to do another business deal.
This time, she was selling ginseng. The ginseng in the space had been growing for more than a year, which was actually equivalent to the wild ginseng that grew in the mountains and forests for six or seven years. One ginseng could be sold for at least one hundred yuan.
Xia Juanjuan didn't take out many, just twenty, and offered Luo Cheng fifty yuan per tree.
Luo Cheng then sells it to pharmacies or individuals through various channels, and can get about 80 yuan for it. The price difference for each tree is 30 yuan, so for 20 trees, the profit would be 600 yuan.
Moreover, ginseng is not like cotton or wood. One ginseng weighing 100 grams is already top quality. Therefore, it is light and does not take up much space. There is almost no transportation cost. The only risk of being caught when buying and selling ginseng is that it can be said to be a huge profit.
Luocheng was no longer surprised by the fact that Xia Juanjuan could get anything.
Xia Juanjuan said they were picked from the mountain, so he just smiled. If you say you picked one, he might believe you, but if you say you picked twenty, and the quality is so good, no one would believe it.
However, the prerequisite for doing business with Xia Juanjuan is not to ask about the source of the things, so he didn't ask either.
"Originally it should be sixty-one, but thanks to you and Dahei for helping me in Beijing last time, I'll give you a discount of ten yuan per tree this time. Don't make it an exception next time." Xia Juanjuan said with a smile.
Luo Cheng grinned and said, "It's just a piece of cake, why do you take it so seriously? But I heard from Dahei that you were asking about the courtyard houses in Jing City?"
Xia Juanjuan didn't expect to keep it a secret from Luo Cheng, so she nodded and said with a smile, "It is true. You grew up in Beijing, too? If you know anything about it, please help me check it out."
Luo Cheng smiled and said, "Siheyuan is a good thing, but now many people only have the title deed, but they can't really make the decision. Those who can make the decision probably don't lack a few thousand yuan, and the asking price will not be low, tens of thousands or tens of thousands, but I'm afraid it's just a base number. Is the money you have saved enough?"
Even if Xia Juanjuan made a huge profit from this trip of twenty ginseng plants, she only earned one thousand yuan.
Xia Juanjuan glanced at Luo Cheng and realized that what he said was right. If she really thought that tens of millions or tens of millions were just a base number, then her previous estimate was too low.
With the money I have now, even if I want to buy one, I'm afraid I can only afford a set of average quality. And that's when people are short of money and in a hurry to sell!
Luo Cheng changed the subject and said with a smile: "But why did you buy a courtyard house? You don't have a Beijing hukou, right? You can't live in it, right?"
Xia Juanjuan glanced at him, but didn't say anything. She just smiled and said, "This is my private matter. I don't have the obligation to tell you, right?"
She is not stupid. If she says that the current courtyard house will appreciate thousands or even tens of thousands of times in the future, wouldn't that create a competitor for herself?
Seeing that she didn't say anything, Luo Cheng didn't force her and smiled and said, "Okay. But since you're short of money, next time you have something good, feel free to come to me. I really like doing business with you."
Luo Cheng paused for the last sentence, apparently on purpose.
Xia Juanjuan couldn't help but glance at him.
She didn't want to deal too much with Luo Cheng. Another hidden reason was that when Luo Cheng first did business with her, he was planning to be her's partner.
Although he clarified the matter immediately, it was still in his way.
If Lizhan knew about this, he would be so jealous that he would be very jealous!
"Luocheng, I should have told you that I have a man. If you joke and show disrespect like this again next time, there will be no next transaction." Xia Juanjuan warned solemnly.
After hearing this, Luo Cheng scratched his head in confusion. After hearing that Xia Juanjuan was married last time, he no longer had any improper thoughts. Today, he was just being a hooligan out of habit.
Luo Cheng smiled solemnly and said, "I was wrong. It won't happen again. I'll see how the ginseng this time sells. If it's good, you can see if you can get more. The risk is much smaller!"
Xia Juanjuan nodded and went back.
She earned one thousand yuan from selling ginseng this time, and now she has about fifteen thousand yuan in hand.
If ginseng really sells well, then you can make money much faster.
She thought that before buying a courtyard house, she should have at least 30,000 or 50,000 yuan so that she would have the confidence to negotiate the price with the seller.
As the ninth month of the lunar calendar approaches, the chestnut trees on the mountain begin to drop chestnuts.
Xia Juanjuan, along with other women in the village, went up the mountain to pick chestnuts, carrying a backpack.
I missed it last year because I was pregnant, so I didn’t want to miss it this year.
Xiaowen and Xiaowu started going to school again. After school, they would come to pick chestnuts and cut some grass for the lambs at home.
The simplest way to eat chestnuts after picking them is to make them into sugar-roasted chestnuts.
To make something more complicated, Xia Juanjuan also made a chestnut paste cake, which happened to be Xiaowu’s birthday, so she used it as a birthday cake.
In September, the autumn harvest officially began. Everyone went to the fields to pick corn, harvest peanuts, harvest soybeans, dig sweet potatoes, etc. They were so busy and tired that they could not even straighten their backs.