Chapter 458 Lotus Root
He was startled by the sound of "splash". He pulled his hand out of the water and took two steps to the edge of the pool and climbed onto the shore.
Zhao Yeqing had just brought out a cup of honey water for him to rinse his mouth when he saw that the panic on his face had not yet faded away. He walked ashore in two steps in one go.
"What's going on?"
Seeing her coming, Mu Xi shook his head and said, "I don't know. There is something slippery in the water."
"Water snake?" Zhao Yeqing was most afraid of this thing and subconsciously thought it was a water snake.
Mu Xi stretched out his palm and clenched his fist, recalling the touch: "It seems... not quite like it. I subconsciously thought it was, but now that I think about it carefully, it's not right. It's more like a loach or something like that."
This makes sense. It is common to have loaches in lotus ponds. The two have never been in here and have not paid much attention to them. If there really are loaches there, it would be an unexpected gain.
Zhao Yeqing didn't dare to go down, so he instructed Mu Xi: "Go down and take a look."
...Mu Xi was speechless. Is her boyfriend so worthless?
After going down further, it was not so easy to touch it. Instead, I found the grown lotus root by following the lotus root whip.
The growth method of this thing is somewhat similar to that of bamboo. After the lotus seeds that were originally planted grow a few lotus leaves, the rhizomes under the water will spread and continue to grow, producing lotus root whips. Lotus leaves will continue to grow on the nodes of the lotus root whips and jump out of the water.
The long spreading lotus root may be divided into several or dozens of nodes to grow lotus leaves and lotus flowers. After the last lotus leaf grows out, the lotus root will begin to accumulate energy, supply all nutrients to its own end, and swell to grow into lotus roots.
(Pictures available here)
The lotus root as long as an arm was pulled out. Mu Xi washed the mud off it in the water and then handed the white and tender lotus root to Zhao Yeqing.
The lotus root is divided into two sections. Zhao Yeqing compared it and found that it was only slightly shorter than his arm, about the thickness of a fist.
Mu Xi also found some lotus roots below, broke them off and threw them onto the shore. These were lotus roots that had not yet swelled, and they were sweet and crisp when fried. One lotus root was only as thick as a finger. The pond at home was not big, so after searching the entire pond, he only got less than 200 kilograms of lotus roots.
Isn’t this thing said to produce several thousand kilograms per mu?
Although the lotus pond is less than one acre, it is still about half an acre. These two hundred kilograms are really too little.
Mu Xi thought he had not felt carefully enough, so he felt again from beginning to end, but still no lotus roots were missed. Zhao Yeqing put all the lotus roots that Mu Xi threw up into a bamboo basket on the shore. There were not many lotus roots, but there were more lotus stems than the two had imagined.
Zhao Yeqing had never grown lotus roots before. Looking at the small basket of lotus roots, he guessed, "Could it be that they haven't fully grown or are not fully mature yet?"
Mu Xi had no more catches in the lotus pond and was about to go ashore. He moved his feet slowly towards the edge of the pond when he suddenly felt a familiar slippery surface. He moved swiftly downwards, pulled the brown loach out of the pond and threw it onto the shore.
The water droplets just happened to fall all over Zhao Yeqing's body. The water droplets were not clear, but brought up the black and yellow color of the underground soil, which was very obvious on his face.
Zhao Yeqing was splashed all over and was confused. Suddenly, she felt a slippery sensation at her feet, which scared her so much that she jumped three feet high.
After seeing clearly that it was a loach, he stroked his chest in shock, looking at Mu Xi with a ferocious look.
"Okay, okay, revenge, huh?"
Seeing her rolling up her sleeves and taking off her shoes and about to jump into the pool, Mu Xi hurriedly stopped her and apologized: "Wrong, wrong, I really didn't mean to do that. I just didn't choose the right direction to throw it up. Don't come down. There are still some stones in the water that haven't been cleaned up. Be careful not to prick your feet."
By the pond, the sun was shining brightly and the breeze was swaying the lotus leaves, which were still covered with water droplets that had just splashed on them. Zhao Yeqing was sitting on the large grass nearby and was barely coaxed into submission by Mu Xi after a long time.
In fact, I wasn't really angry. It was mainly because I saw how seriously he was trying to coax me, so I just watched him look nervous and found it quite amusing.
Seeing that he was finally coaxed, Mu Xi breathed a sigh of relief and wanted to jump back to feel for more loaches, but Zhao Yeqing stopped him: "Don't go down, it's so cold in there, let's talk about it tomorrow."
That’s how it is in the mountains, the hotter the weather the colder the water gets, and when it’s cold the water gets warmer.
Soaking in the small rivers and streams in the mountains, I felt cool when I first got in, but by the time I got used to the water temperature, I had unknowingly missed the time and caught a cold when I got home.
Mu Xi followed Zhao Yeqing into the yard, dragging a bamboo basket of lotus roots. He took them to the backyard, turned on the faucet and washed the lotus roots.
Zhao Yeqing took some freshly dried and still hot ginger from the yard, cut it into slices, and put it in a pot to boil it into ginger soup.
The hotter the weather is, the easier it is to catch a cold if you're not careful. Both of them drank a bowl of soup, and after staying outside for a long time, a thin layer of sweat appeared on their backs. When they went indoors to get cooler, this sweat made them easily catch a cold.
Zhao Yeqing took out all the lotus stems that Mu Xi had washed, put them in bags and put them in the refrigerator. The bags used were sealed bags. The cross-section of the lotus stems was very easy to oxidize, and the surface was also easy to oxidize and turn yellow and black in less than a day without a sealed bag.
Set aside a large plate of it to fry and eat tonight.
As for the lotus roots, Zhao Yeqing hasn't figured out how to eat them. Although the yield is not high and there must be something wrong with their cultivation methods, they cannot finish eating the 200 kilograms of lotus roots they dug out.
“So why did we finish digging it then?”
Zhao Yeqing asked a soul-searching question, which stumped Mu Xi. The two of them were speechless for a moment. After a while, Mu Xi spoke:
"How about making lotus root powder?"
If you can’t finish eating so much lotus root, the fastest way to use it up is to make it into lotus root powder.
But isn't it a bit of a waste to do so? Zhao Yeqing remembered that it took them two whole years to finish the kudzu root powder they made. Even if they only used 100 kilograms of the 200 kilograms of lotus roots to make lotus root powder, they could still get nearly five or six kilograms.
It doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot when you eat it. I eat a bowl each time, and put a few spoonfuls in each bowl. Five or six pounds of lotus root powder can last for a long time.
Mu Xi opened the cabinet and found that the osmanthus honey he had made earlier had been used up. "Last time I said I would go get some osmanthus flowers, but I got so busy I forgot. I'll go there in the next two days and get some more. I can use it to make honey or tea."
There are flowers everywhere in this season, and little bees can live in any beehive placed outside. The two of them made rainproof curtains where the beehives were placed, leaving only a few gaps for the bees to fly in and out. Even in the rainy season, the rain will not wet the hive.
The yield is not high, but the honey produced each year is just enough for two people to eat for a year.
Zhao Yeqing went to the lotus pond and dug some silt back, intending to use the sticky and wet silt to preserve the lotus roots.
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