Chen Kai looked at the tempting red plum juice, scooped up a little with a small spoon, blew on it a few times, carefully tasted it, smacked his lips, and said, "It's pretty good, not so sour anymore."
Er Ya took a bowl, scooped out a little, tasted it, and said happily, "Sister Daya, the plum juice you made this time tastes much better than before!"
At this moment, Chen Shi ran over and shouted, "Uncle, Uncle, I've dug up the soil, hurry up and perform a magic trick for me!"
Da Ya said with a smile, "I made some plum juice. My uncle thought it was good. Go wash your hands first, then have some and try it."
Chen Shi wiped himself down, then scooped up some plum juice and drank it. After finishing, he said, "It's alright, Uncle, let's go do some magic tricks!"
Chen Kai slowly finished the plum juice in his bowl, then said, "Da Ya, save me a few baskets of fruit. I need to make jam. Juice the rest!"
Daya smiled and said, "Okay!"
Er Ya suddenly asked, "Uncle, what is jam? Is it delicious? I want some."
Chen Kai said, "Jam is made by cooking fruit until it becomes thick and sticky. It can be eaten with steamed buns and it tastes especially good!"
Er Ya said excitedly, "I want to eat, I want to eat, let's start making it now!"
Chen Shi said loudly, "No, my uncle promised me, do my thing first."
Seeing that Er Ya and Chen Shi were arguing, Chen Kai immediately stopped them, saying, "Alright, I'll promise my nephew first. Er Ya, do you want to see your uncle perform magic tricks?"
Er Ya pouted and said, "Alright! Uncle, I want to see you do magic tricks."
In the courtyard, Zhou saw the soil and said to Chen Kai, "My dear son, if you want to play in the mud, it's better to use the mud from the pond."
Chen Kai, who was walking into the yard, rolled his eyes when he heard what his mother said, and said, "Mom, I don't want to play with mud, I want to cook mud. Mom, can you help me cook mud? I'll perform a magic trick for you."
Upon hearing that her beloved son was going to perform magic tricks for her, Zhou immediately said happily, "Okay! Mother will do it with you. But my dear son, when did you learn magic tricks?"
Chen Kai said in a coquettish tone, "I saw it in a book, but Mom, I don't want to use the iron pot at home. Can you help me find a pot to boil mud?"
Zhou patted Chen Kai's head and said, "Let me look for it for you. I remember there should be an old pot that we used to replace." As she spoke, Zhou walked towards the place where miscellaneous items were stored.
Chen Kai asked Daya to start a fire in the stove in the backyard, and then asked Chen Shi to find a relatively large wooden barrel, preferably one with a broken bottom.
Chen Shi said happily, "I know there's a leaky wooden barrel there. I wonder what was put in it before, and it got broken by rats. I'll go find it."
A short while later, Zhou and Chen Shi returned. Zhou asked, "My dear son, should we boil this mud directly?"
Chen Kai said, "No, Mother! We need to soak the soil first. I want to boil water filtered from the mud."
Chen Kai instructed Chen Shi to place the wooden bucket with the hole on top of the large wooden bucket, then have Chen Shi pour the soil from the wooden bucket into the wooden bucket with the hole on top, and then slowly pour water over it.
The initial filtrate is highly concentrated and reddish-brown, gradually decreasing in concentration and color. The filtrate should be collected separately according to its concentration. Once three buckets of filtrate are full, no further water is added for rinsing. The filter residue is removed, and fresh soil is added for rinsing. For this rinsing, the first batch of heated nitrate solution is used as the rinsing agent, followed by the second and third batches of nitrate solution. Finally, clean water is used to replenish the rinsing solution until three buckets of filtrate are obtained again.
Chen Nong pressed down the soil in the broken bucket, and after compacting it, he started watering it. Er Ya thought it was fun, so she also rushed to pour water.
Mrs. Zhou asked, "My dear son, how long are we going to have to soak you in this water?"
Chen Kai said, "Let me check in a bit. Er Ya, go get an egg."
Mrs. Zhou frowned and said, "My dear son, these eggs are for eating, not for playing with."
Chen Kai laughed and said, "I'm not something to play with, Mom. Don't worry, I won't break the eggs."
During nitrification, a fresh egg can be used to determine the residual nitrate content in the soil. Place the egg in the wooden bucket above; if the egg floats to the surface, it indicates a high nitrate content in the pool. If the egg sinks, it means the nitrate content in the soil is low, and nitrification can be stopped.
Mrs. Zhou relaxed her brows and said, "That's good, my good son!"
Er Ya quickly brought the eggs over. Chen Kai noticed that the water flowing down had lost its color, so he put the eggs in the bucket above. The eggs sank a little, and Chen Kai told them to keep pouring water.
After a while, Chen Kai tried it again and found that the egg floated. He then asked Chen Shi to pour out the soil from the bucket and replace it with fresh soil. Once the saltpeter was ready, they would start boiling the saltpeter.
Pour the leached saltpeter solution into a pot, turn the fire up high, and once the solution boils, reduce the fire and simmer over low heat until it becomes thick.
Take a small amount of nitrate solution and observe it after it cools. If it becomes solid, it means that the nitrate solution has been boiled and the fire can be turned off.
At this moment, Chen Kai said, "Da Ya, put the spoon at the bottom of the pot and then scoop it up."
Following Chen Kai's instructions, Da Ya scooped out a spoonful and asked in surprise, "Uncle, what is this?"
The Zhou family and the others were also surprised to see what Daya scooped out; it looked like salt!
Chen Kai whispered, "Da Ya, keep scooping until you can't scoop any more out."
Mrs. Zhou asked, "My dear son, is this salt?"
"This is nitrate, but it needs further processing. This salt doesn't taste very good, and eating too much of it can make you sick," Chen Kai said.
The saltpeter is wrapped in a cloth and then rinsed repeatedly with clean water. Next, the cloth is placed in wood ash to absorb all the remaining moisture from the saltpeter. Finally, the saltpeter and a certain amount of water are boiled together until thickened, and then cooled to form large saltpeter crystals.
Zhou said with a smile, "It's salt, that's good. We can eat less and exchange it with the salt we buy. It's better than having no salt at all. We can also use it to trade with other things in the village."
Zhou told Er Ya to quickly bring over a clean jar to store the saltpeter, so that no one would see it.
Chen Kai thought helplessly, "This hasn't even been dealt with yet, why are you in such a hurry!"
Zhou pushed Da Ya aside and excitedly started to work on it herself. After a while, she scooped out a spoonful of saltpeter. After scooping out a few spoonfuls, she could no longer scoop out any saltpeter.
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