Chapter 416 Soaking Materials
All of this is due to the fact that before building fences, people grazed the grain fields and released piglets before grazing. When no crops were grown on the land, some fertilizer was spread to maintain the land.
The temperature this year seems to be lower than last year. Corn and wheat have been planted, but rice is still in the seedling stage. The most suitable temperature for its growth is above 20 degrees. The lowest temperature during this period has reached 15 degrees. Zhao Yeqing is a little worried that if the temperature continues to drop, it will affect the growth of its seedlings.
But the seedlings have already been grown, we can’t just not plant them.
The rice fields had been rotated with several other crops before this sowing. The last time they planted corn, and the time before that they planted wheat. Now that the land has been well maintained, they are planting rice. The two are still hoping for a good harvest, but they hope it won't be ruined by the temperature.
Mu Xi walked out of the nursery and talked to Zhao Yeqing about the situation of the seedlings.
"In a few days, we will be able to plant rice seedlings. They look good, but the growth rate is a little slower. I don't know if these rice seeds have survived the extreme conditions in the past few years and have evolved a little. I feel like they have hardly been affected."
Mu Xi's tone was full of uncertainty as he spoke, fearing that it was just his own illusion.
Zhao Yeqing was optimistic. "It's okay. Wheat won't be a problem no matter what. It's cold-resistant. We won't starve to death if we have wheat. Even if we can't grow rice, we can just not grow it."
She thought that there would not be a total loss, at most the yield would just be reduced.
As they were talking, they went to the gutter outside the yard to look at the soaked papermaking materials.
After the drainage ditch is widened and adjusted, the water flow is relatively small, with only a small amount of flowing water, which ensures that it will not rot and can also remove soluble impurities contained in the material.
The bamboo with the green part scraped off and the mulberry bark with the brown, rough old skin removed are soaked in it. It has been about ten days now and can be taken out for cooking.
The materials become softer after soaking, and the mulberry bark and bamboo strips can be torn into strands directly by hand.
After tearing the noodles and putting them into a bamboo basket, put them into a large pot that has been set up on a red brick stove, add water and sprinkle lime. After boiling, cover the pot with a lid and let it ferment for a week.
Seven days later, the malt in the grain field had already sprouted little tips.
The originally bright yellow fibers in the iron pot now turned gray, like moldy, rotten wood.
Gently rub the fibrous tissue with your hands, and a layer of soft substance will be rubbed off. The fingertips can clearly feel some rough fiber strips under the soft substance.
Zhao Yeqing poked it with his finger and nodded with satisfaction:
"It's almost done. It's still early today, so why don't we start processing it today? It will take a lot of time to dry it later."
Fermenting materials with alkaline water saves a lot of time. Another method is to soak the materials in alkaline water. That method takes more than three months, while boiling and fermenting the materials only takes a few days.
After the materials are processed, they need to be pounded with a stone pestle. The two plan to use the stone pestle used to make glutinous rice cakes during the Chinese New Year. They clean the dust inside. This stone pestle has not been used for a long time and is hardly used when not making glutinous rice cakes. After all, glutinous rice has not been planted for a long time and there is not much left.
When the two men moved the stone pestle out, they planned to plant some glutinous rice in the second half of the year. They can't plant it now because the weather is no longer suitable for growing rice, and the same goes for glutinous rice.
After putting the soaked ingredients into the mortar, Mu Xi took out a long wooden stick that was more than two meters long and thicker than his calf and was used to beat the rice cakes.
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