Chapter 459 Processing Lotus Root
She had not experimented with this method, but had used it in a similar way when preserving ginger and garlic.
The original owner of the house had a small cellar, but the two of them didn't need it to store anything, so they just filled it with soil and put the garlic and ginger in it. They didn't cover it with much soil, they just put them on top.
The lid is closed to block out light, and the ginger and garlic inside can be preserved for a long time, much longer than if kept in the refrigerator. If you store ginger in the refrigerator, it will wilt after a while. Ginger stored in a small cellar will also wilt. However, the ginger can be preserved several times longer.
The wilted ginger will be dried by the two of them and put into bags for use as medicine. Not only are the medicinal effects of dried ginger different from those of raw ginger, but even if it is the same dried ginger, there is a difference between sun-dried ginger and roasted ginger. Zhao Yeqing can't remember, so it is usually Mu Xi who makes the distinction.
She only uses it to make ginger soup, but all three types of ginger can be used.
Two bottles of pickled ginger leaves as a side dish had already been eaten up, leaving only the last bottle in the refrigerator. The two empty glass jars were sterilized again and can be used to store lotus root powder later.
The two of them planned to use 150 kilograms of lotus root powder, and estimated that they could make 10 kilograms. Even if they couldn't finish it, it was better than wasting the lotus roots. After all, the lotus root powder was easier to store. If that didn't work, the lotus root powder could also be used to make desserts.
Zhao Yeqing placed all the excavated silt in the backyard and poured it into the small brick reservoir. After the silt sank, he threw the lotus roots in and buried them.
It should be feasible to use silt for storage. She originally thought why bother digging the soil and pouring it into the pond, which would then have to be cleaned up. Wouldn't it be more convenient to bury it directly back in the lotus pond?
But on second thought, the water pool is not clean. If it is not kept in a clean water pool, the cut end will be infected and rotten.
The lotus root must be eaten, and the lotus stem must not be kept. It must all be eaten within a few days, otherwise it will go bad immediately. Because it is more tender, it contains less fiber and higher water content, which makes it much less durable than lotus root.
While having dinner in the evening, a crisp chewing sound came from the kitchen, which was the sound of lotus stems being bitten into pieces in the mouth.
However, it was not the two of them who bit the food, but the four dogs in the house. Besides a few lotus stems, there was also a piece of lotus root in the bowl. It is no problem for dogs to eat a small amount of this thing, and they have good teeth, so the sound of eating is crisp. The two of them felt that the meal was appetizing while listening to the dogs' eating show.
Mu Xi went out early in the morning with a plastic sheet to pick osmanthus flowers. There was no mist this morning, and the picked osmanthus flowers would not carry too much moisture, so they would not rot easily and were easier to dry. It was a good time to pick them.
Mu Xi was very careful when he went there. He brought a gun and a full-body motorcycle helmet that he had found in the tourist area.
The osmanthus tree is very close to the peach blossoms. You don’t have to guess to know that the group of monkeys will not let go of the peaches on the tree. The last batch of peaches should have just ripened during this period, so you might run into them if you go there.
He was still frightened from being hit last time, and this time he was fully armed, wearing such a thick helmet, he didn't believe that he would still be hurt.
Zhao Yeqing was also a little worried and asked if he wanted to go with him. Mu Xi thought about it and refused, "It's not very safe, and it's best not to leave the house empty recently. Someone needs to look after the house."
The beef sausages in the drying room are still being smoked. It will probably take another four or five days before they can be taken down and placed in the shade outside to dry.
It would be better if the smoking could last longer, but it would be a waste of fuel. In addition to the charcoal, there was also a metal gasoline barrel with half a barrel of firewood in it. This was the main reliance for producing enough smoke to smoke the bacon and sausages.
This kind of open flame will explode when it comes into contact with the grease dripping from the bacon, which can easily cause a fire. The surrounding walls are covered with paper, but the ceiling is still made of wood.
Originally, the two planned to use the material of the detachable prefabricated house of the family they saw on the meadow before to make a drying room, but they were worried that long-term high-temperature baking would cause the paint on the inner wall to produce toxic substances, so they had to give up.
After Mu Xi left, Zhao Yeqing walked to the mushroom house in the backyard. The mushrooms inside were still growing lushly as before.
However, the mushrooms this time were not the oyster mushrooms as before. Oyster mushrooms only accounted for a small part, and the remaining medium was filled with wild mushroom rhizomes that Zhao Yeqing found in the spring.
Originally I planned to give it a try, so I cut off the roots of the mushrooms I picked, buried them in the same medium, sprinkled some water on them, and waited without hope.
Zhao Yeqing went to check on it several times but didn't see any mushrooms popping up. Later, he got too lazy to care about it and forgot about it. More than a week later, he remembered to water the oyster mushrooms that were still growing inside. As soon as he went in, he saw that the originally bare wood chaff and straw medium was full of small mushrooms.
It wasn't just one kind of mushroom. There were many varieties picked in the spring, and she didn't distinguish them apart. She just buried them all in there, thinking that if they didn't grow, they would grow. She didn't expect these wild mushrooms to be so successful.
It’s just not very big and the taste is not that fragrant, but it is enough to satisfy your craving.
Occasionally, any foreign fungi that pop up will be picked out by her. This happens not only in the mushroom house, but also in the vegetable garden. Various wild fungi will pop up from time to time. It is not as serious as last year, but they still have to be pulled out, especially those growing in the yard. The silly chickens will scramble to eat them when they see them.
Whoever grabs it first in the end wins.
I walked around the vegetable garden and picked a small basket of cherry tomatoes. I washed them and put them in my mouth. They tasted sour and sweet, with a high acidity. It might be because the fertilizer was not applied correctly. In addition to farm manure, I also need some fermented organic fertilizer.
The kitchen waste fermentation barrel has never been idle. The fertilizer produced is specially supplied to the vegetable fields, and it is enough for self-production and self-sale.
On a hot summer day, a glass of iced mint water, a portion of sweet and sour cherry tomatoes, a slowly swaying cattail leaf fan and a creaking rocking chair, the breeze brings a drowsy warmth.
Zhao Yeqing took a short nap in the rocking chair and set the alarm for half an hour. When he woke up, he was sweating, especially on his neck and chest. The hair around his ears was wet and stuck to his cheeks.
She wet the towel with cool well water, wiped her body clean, stretched herself, and had a slight blush on her face.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Zhao Yeqing planned to take advantage of his free time to process the lotus roots and make them into lotus root powder for storage. This thing is not difficult to make and is much simpler than kudzu root powder. It only requires simple mashing, filtering and then drying.
There are special tools for crushing it, and the juicer the two brought back can do the job.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
