Chapter 185 Buying Longan
After returning home, Zhang Ze happened to see Chen Xudong coming out of his house.
"Adong, you're looking for me?"
Chen Xudong shook his head. "My relative sent me a lot of fresh longans, so I brought some over for everyone to share. His longans are good, juicy and sweet, and I guarantee they'll taste good."
"Thank you then!" When Zhang Ze heard that they were here to give each other some fruit, he didn't care. It was normal for villagers to give each other food, especially when they had a good relationship.
"By the way, have you bought the boat?"
"I just took a look today and we are still negotiating the price. It should be ready soon!" Speaking of the boat, Chen Xudong grinned, revealing a mouthful of big yellow teeth. It was obvious that he was very happy to own his own big boat.
"Okay, once you get your ship, we can go out to sea together when we have time."
"Okay, it's settled then."
The two didn't talk much. Chen Xudong gave longan to Zhang Ze, but he didn't give any to some other people.
The land was distributed this year, but his relative's village already had people growing longan trees, so it is still planted collectively.
In previous years, the production of longan was not large, and there was not much left after some local factories divided it up. Every household in the village could take some and dry it to keep for later consumption so that it would not be wasted.
But starting today, everyone is working for themselves, so when the season arrives, many supplies on the market are suddenly in oversupply.
The longan season starts in July and lasts until October. At the beginning, they can still be sold well, even at a lower price, in large quantities.
But after the market became saturated, they could no longer sell their longans.
After all, it’s not just their village that grows longan, there are other places too.
Due to inconvenient transportation, it is not easy to transport longan to other provinces for sale, so some villagers thought about sending some to their relatives, since the ones that cannot be eaten will rot anyway.
For example, Chen Xudong's relatives sent a basket of longans, with the purpose of asking him to share some with the families in the village who could afford it. Maybe others would want to eat more after they had eaten them. "Aze, come and try this longan, which Adong sent. It's big, sweet and juicy." Zhang Huihong greeted her son as she saw him come in.
Zhang Wu next to him was eating desperately. No child doesn't like these sweet things, including Tong Shuyao.
Zhang Ze was shocked when he saw the large number of longans placed next to his wife.
"Don't eat too much of this stuff, it can cause oral ulcers and even dry stools and other side effects. Eating too much of this stuff can cause internal heat."
"I can't eat it!"
Tong Shuyao was startled, and then put down the longan she had just picked up in annoyance.
After she became pregnant, her diet was basically controlled by Zhang Ze, because Zhang Huihong was just a country girl, and after her family became well off, he gave her everything to eat, including hawthorns which were not suitable for pregnant women.
Finally, Zhang Ze found out and strictly forbade her to eat anything she wanted, and not to eat too much. She should eat small amounts every time she was hungry and have multiple meals a day.
Because of this, he was often scolded by Zhang's mother.
Fortunately, Tong Shuyao has a gentle and obedient personality, and she will cooperate with whatever Zhang Ze says.
His family members had asked him before why he knew all this, and Zhang Ze said that he had asked the doctor when he accompanied his wife for a check-up.
After this excuse came out, Zhang's mother didn't know what to say.
Zhang Huihong saw her son saying that her daughter-in-law couldn't eat longan, and she looked regretful: "So Shuyao can't eat it. Adong's relatives grow a lot of them, and the price is very cheap now. I was thinking of buying more dried longan and cooking it for Shuyao when she is in confinement!"
"Hey, that's fine!"
"Um?"
Hearing Zhang Ze say yes, Zhang's mother and Tong Shuyao were confused again and looked at him in unison, as if waiting for his explanation.
"I don't let Shuyao eat now because eating too much may be bad for the baby in her belly. The doctor told me that pregnant women must be careful about what they eat."
"However, dried longan has the effect of replenishing qi and blood and calming the mind. Shuyao can eat some in moderation during her confinement, but not too much."
"Besides, this stuff tastes good. It would be nice if we dried some and stored it to eat later."
Most people in the south prefer light taste, and in many places they even prefer sweet taste.
He likes to eat boiled longan eggs in the morning.
People in the northern part of China may not understand this. After all, pig hearts can be made sweet, and adding some dried lychees seems to be very nutritious.
Zhang Ze prefers something sweet in the morning, but he doesn’t like it that much at noon or at night.
"In that case, I'll talk to Adong tomorrow and ask his relatives to send some over. By the way, how much should we buy?"
"Let's buy 500 kilograms. After drying them, it will probably be only a little over 100 kilograms. If we divide them up later, there won't be much left."
This is the one with the core. If it is like those in later generations where the core is removed, it would be considered a lot if only 30 to 40 kilograms could be obtained from 500 kilograms after drying.
When Zhang Huihong heard the number "five hundred kilograms", she almost choked on the longan she was eating.
"How many pounds?"
Longan is not a cheap fruit. At normal market price, one pound is estimated to cost more than one yuan, almost two yuan. Ordinary people simply cannot afford to eat it.
This is in the longan producing area in the south. If it is transported to the north, longan can be sold at a sky-high price.
Even though local production is now in excess and cheap, 500 kilograms is still a large number.
Zhang Huihong originally planned to buy only 50 kilograms to dry in the sun, and no more than 100 kilograms.
Although there wasn't much after drying, it was enough for the family to eat. But Zhang Ze asked for 500 kilograms.
"Buy 500 kilograms. Money is not a problem. When the sun is done, I can send some to Qian and Qing. If I send some to them, I will have to send some to Brother Bin as well."
There is no need to prepare the dried longan that I dry myself for my grandparents in Hong Kong Island, but of course I have to send some to my relatives in Nanfang.
The next day, Zhang Huihong was originally going to buy longan, but it started to rain heavily. Zhang Ze was originally going to go out to sea, but the weather was still rough, so he took over the task of buying longan.
He put on rain boots, changed into a raincoat, rode a motorcycle to Chen Xudong's house, and stated his purpose.
Then Chen Xudong put on rain boots and raincoat, got on his motorcycle, and headed to the village where his relatives lived.
It wasn’t too far and we arrived at our destination in about an hour.
The main reason is that the roads are slippery on rainy days. There are no concrete roads or asphalt roads now. They are basically all dirt roads with potholes everywhere.
Some places are better, with some small gravel laid out, but some places have many puddles, so Zhang Ze can only get off and push the motorcycle.
Fortunately, when we arrived at Chen Xudong's relatives' village, the heavy rain had turned into light rain.
This is a village backed by a mountain. As soon as Zhang Ze arrived, he saw longan trees growing on the hill.
Afterwards, the two came to a small courtyard. Not many people came out on a rainy day, but the villagers came to the door and stared at them after hearing the noise.
The main reason was that Zhang Ze's motorcycle was too conspicuous, and the richest family in their village didn't even have one! "Uncle San, open the door, I'm Adong!"
"I'm coming." A woman opened the door. She was surprised to see Chen Xudong. "Adong, why are you here?"
"This is my friend Aze. He ate the longan that my uncle sent me yesterday and thought it was delicious, so he asked me to lead the way and came to buy some longan from you." Chen Xudong first introduced Zhang Ze, and then stated the purpose of his visit.
Upon hearing this, Chen Xudong's third aunt showed obvious joy on her face and quickly invited the two of them into the house. Then Zhang Ze saw a middle-aged man walking out of the house with his belt tied around his waist, obviously having just been sleeping.
On a rainy day, most people would choose to lie down if they have nothing to do.
After they introduced each other and got to know each other, Chen Xudong's uncle Chen Jiansong asked, "Aze, how much do you want to buy?"
"If it's suitable, I'll buy 500 kilograms. I plan to dry the longan. By the way, how much is longan now?"
"Hiss~" Several people were immediately shocked by this number.
Chen Jiansong has sold hundreds or even thousands of kilograms of longan at a time, but those were delivered to the factory.
This was the first time he had seen someone like Zhang Ze buying 500 kilograms.
But when he saw the motorcycle parked at the door, he felt relieved. It didn't seem strange that someone who could afford a motorcycle would buy 500 kilograms of longan.
After the shock came the pleasant surprise. Five hundred kilograms! As long as they could sell them, their family’s life would be better in the second half of the year.
"Longan is cheap now. It was sold for two yuan per pound when it first came on the market some time ago. But a few days later, longan was sold everywhere in the market, and the price suddenly dropped. Now you can buy a pound for 80 cents. If you want to dry such a large amount of longan, it is definitely worthwhile to buy it now."
"And you're Dong's friend, so how about this? I'll give you 70 cents a pound. What do you think?"
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Seven cents a pound, 500 pounds is 350 yuan. He can make the money back by selling a red-billed sturgeon in his space.
The price was so cheap, and the farmer was a relative of Chen Xudong, so Zhang Ze was too lazy to bargain any further. After all, a cheaper price would only be a few dozen yuan at most, and he was willing to let the farmer make money.
"Okay, 70 cents a pound. You can help me deliver it to the village when the time comes."
There is an ox cart in the village, so it is much more convenient to ask Chen Jiansong to help transport the goods than to transport them back and forth on his own motorcycle.
"No problem, no problem, but it may take time until the rain stops and the sun comes out for a day."
"Is there any explanation for this?" Zhang Ze asked curiously.
Chen Jiansong smiled and explained: "It's like this. When it rains heavily in the morning, the longan trees will absorb a lot of water, which makes the longan not so sweet. When the sun shines on them, the longan will become very sweet again, and the dried longan you dry will also be sweeter."
"So that's how it is!" Zhang Ze nodded suddenly.
After the deal was done, Chen Jiansong wanted to invite them to have lunch, but Zhang Ze refused.
Although the rain has stopped and the sun has come out again, it would probably be the day after tomorrow at the earliest before they could pick the longans and deliver them to his home.
So they simply agreed to send it over the day after tomorrow. Zhang Ze also planned to go out to sea while the weather was fine and come back the day after tomorrow.
One day in advance, he could go to the city to sell the fish and then help his family dry the longans.
After returning home and having lunch, Zhang Ze said goodbye to his family and went to Jin Sanbao's house to ask them to deliver the longline to his boat, and then went to the dock to collect the bait.
During the following period of time, Zhang Ze bought six more longlines so that he could use them in turn every time he went out to sea. This way, he would have longlines available when he went out to sea the next day after he came back. Otherwise, no matter how fast Jin Sanbao's family members were, it would be difficult for them to sort out the messed up longlines in time.
Arriving at the dock, a large group of fishermen were getting ready to go out to sea.
Only a few boats came back with catches, and Zhang Ze took the opportunity to buy bait from these people.
After the heavy rain, I thought it would be cooler, but it turned out to be very stuffy.
Fortunately, his house is equipped with air conditioning, so his family members won’t suffer from the heat.
After the baits were purchased, Jin Sanbao also pushed a cart to bring over his longline. They came as a family again. After moving the longline onto the boat, they skillfully went on board to hang the baits.
As for the bait on the surface, it has been replaced by the magic bait by Zhang Ze.
After getting ready, it was already past three in the afternoon. Zhang Ze thought about it and decided to take a detour to go fishing for red-billed sturgeon first.
After this point, it is almost time for dinner, and when you come out after dinner, the fish start to become active.
When we arrived at the red-billed sturgeon fishing spot, it was just five o'clock.
Zhang Ze originally wanted to go to the kitchen to prepare dinner, eat breakfast and go fishing, but as soon as he got here, he found a reef area full of oysters.
"this"
Zhang Ze hesitated for a while and finally decided to eat later.
You can eat at any time, but the tide will rise later, so you will have to wait until next time to pry these oysters.
He wanted to pry open these oysters, not because he liked eating them very much, but because he was thinking about the oyster sauce as a condiment. Dishes cooked with oyster sauce do taste much better.
It’s just that it’s not easy to preserve, so it seems he needs to buy a refrigerator.
If he didn't have the space, he would have to buy a freezer.
The thing that fishermen's families have the most is fish. Some seafood that cannot be sold can be placed in their own freezers.
However, with the space, Zhang Ze can eat the freshest seafood at any time and does not need a freezer.
Carrying tools and taking a rubber boat to this reef covered with oysters, Zhang Ze just went up and saw a large puddle in the center of the reef area.
Suddenly I want to smoke!
Pumping out a water hole is as interesting as fishing. You make a nest and then come back to pump out the water the next day and you can usually catch a lot of good fish, especially in this day and age.
Water pumps are not a rare commodity. Currently, the development of aquaculture in coastal areas requires the use of some water pumps.
If it is really impossible to buy one, Zhang Ze can also ask the village carpenter to make a water-pumping pole out of bamboo, the manual kind.
The Duoyu has such a large space that you don’t have to worry about not having enough space for the pumping rod.
After being out at sea for so long, I saw some big puddles and it would be a shame not to pump them out.
But there was no time to think about it now. Zhang Ze picked up the tools and started looking for those big oysters and pried them off.
With two slashes of the dagger, an oyster the size of a palm was pried off. It was estimated that not many people bought the oysters here, as each one was particularly large.
He threw it into the bucket, with no intention of trying it raw first.
Although Zhang Ze likes to eat lao jiu, he won't eat it in its original form without any processing. Who knows if there are parasites in it.
Then he continued to pry out the next oyster. The oyster was quite big and soon the bucket was full.
Unlike abalone, which are small in size and like to stick to each other, a lot of them can be put in a bucket.
Zhang Ze stood up and poured the oysters in the bucket directly onto the rubber boat, then continued.
This can save a lot of time. Otherwise, how many oysters can he pry if he runs back and forth? Soon, more than an hour passed.
The sea water began to rise. Although the waves did not hit where he was, it would not take long for them to rise. Seeing this, Zhang Ze had no choice but to go back.
In such a short time, we didn't get many oysters, probably only about 60 to 70 kilograms, and there wasn't much left after removing the shells.
Zhang Ze thought that after going to Dongsha tomorrow, he could look for some oysters and get some to make more oyster sauce when he returns.
(End of this chapter)
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