Chapter 352 Chapter 353: Make more money while you are young
Trichosanthes kirilowii is divided into four types: trichosanthes kirilowii peel, trichosanthes kirilowii seed, whole trichosanthes kirilowii, and radix trichosanthis.
When the fruits are ripe, they are picked in batches and hung in a ventilated place to dry to become the whole Trichosanthes kirilowii. The fruits are cut open from the stem, the pulp and seeds are taken out, and dried in the sun to become the Trichosanthes kirilowii peel.
Gualou Pi: sweet, slightly bitter, cold, non-toxic. It has the effects of clearing the lungs, astringing the lungs, calming coughs, and relieving asthma.
Trichosanthes seeds: bitter and cold, moistens the intestines, relieves gas and moistens the lungs, treats wheezing and relieves fullness, and can also clear away heat and resolve phlegm.
The rhizome of the male plant of Trichosanthes kirilowii is the raw material for making Radix Trichosanthis. Radix Trichosanthis is the root of the plant Trichosanthis kirilowii of the Cucurbitaceae family. It is a heat-clearing and fire-purging medicine. Its specific effects are clearing heat and purging fire, promoting body fluid and quenching thirst, and draining pus and reducing swelling.
The root of Trichosanthes kirilowii is thick, cylindrical, with a yellow outer skin and rich in starch, and is somewhat similar to Pueraria lobata.
The process of making Radix Trichosanthis is the same as that of making braised starch. The powder precipitated after grinding is dried in the sun or in an oven to become Radix Trichosanthis.
After Zhou Yiding cut down a shrub, Yang Chunyan asked them to pick the red Trichosanthes with the stems for drying in the sun.
The wild Trichosanthes kirilowii is somewhat similar in shape to passion fruit, but is slightly larger in size.
Zhou Huaian put the picked Trichosanthes into his backpack and asked, "Yan'er, do you want to sell them dried or send them down the mountain fresh?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "It's not worth selling them fresh, so string them up and hang them under the eaves to dry before selling."
Zhou Huaian thought about it and realized that the price of dried goods was sometimes twice as expensive as fresh goods. "After picking all of these, there might be 100 to 200 kilograms."
Wan Xuejiao picked up a piece of green fruit and said regretfully, "We should not have cut the tree down. Look, there are still many fruits that haven't turned red yet. If they were all red, we could have picked three or four hundred kilograms without any problem."
Yang Chunyan: "The vines are too high. Even if we don't cut down the trees, we will still have to pull them apart. Next year, when we plant our own trees, we can pick the fruits as they ripen so that they won't be wasted."
Wan Xuejiao: "This thing might be the same as growing pumpkins and winter melons, right?"
Yang Chunyan: "They are all melons, so the planting methods should be the same, but it will take about two or three years for this thing to bear fruit after it is planted."
Wan Xue smiled and said, "It's better to grow Trichosanthes. After two or three years, you can pick them and sell them every year. It's more cost-effective than growing pumpkins and winter melons."
Zhou Yiding cut down a few bushes and came over. "Youngest brother, how many seeds have you saved now?"
Zhou Huaian thought for a moment, "Bletilla striata, Viola yedoensis, Plantain... these herbal seeds are plentiful, but the most valuable are Paris polyphylla seeds, which probably weigh a few kilograms."
Zhou Yiding looked at him in surprise, "You have saved so many kinds of herbal seeds?"
"That's right! Since you have decided to plant herbs, you have to prepare them early!" Zhou Huaian looked at him proudly, "My family is still harvesting, and I have planted all the herbs that can be planted. It will be much more convenient for you to plant next year."
Yang Chunyan took over and said, "Yiding, you should ferment more mature fertilizer when you go down the mountain this time. If the soil is too dry, the herbs won't grow well."
"The biggest problem in my family is the lack of manure." Zhou Yiding thought of something and looked at Wan Xuejiao with a smile, "But next year I will be married, and then I will raise a few big fat pigs, and there will be plenty of manure."
Wan Xuejiao blushed and rolled her eyes at him, "How can you be like me? You give away all the chaff and other things, and only give you a few buckets of manure every year."
Zhou Yiding spread his hands and said, "My younger sister is studying, my old man has to go to work, and I have to work as a temporary worker. There is no way I can raise pigs!"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "You can have a wedding banquet in the spring. If you want to raise pigs, you should tell my mother as soon as possible so that she can help you keep an eye out for good piglets so that you don't have to go to town to buy them."
Zhou Yiding nodded repeatedly, "Yes, I'll tell Er Niang when I get back."
The four of them were busy for quite a while, and the picked Trichosanthes filled two and a half backpacks, which added up to about one hundred and thirty or fourteen hundred yuan.
Zhou Huaian dug up two Trichosanthes plants and left the others for them to find tree trunks to climb next year.
Zhou Yiding patted his stomach and said, "It's growling. We'll reach the ditch in about ten minutes. Let's go there to wash our hands and grill some bear meat."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian and he carried the Trichosanthes together, Wan Xuejiao carried Xu Changqing, and Yang Chunyan carried the vegetable basket and went to the ditch.
Beside the ditch there is a huge banyan tree that requires several people to hug. In front of the tree there is an earthen stove made of stones, a table made of stone slabs, and a dozen stones next to it.
Zhou Huaian put down his backpack and wiped his sweat, "Wow! We can even have a picnic here!"
"It's comfortable, isn't it?" Zhou Yiding pointed at the stone table and said with a smile, "These were built by my husband and his friends. Every time they come to chop wood, they don't want to waste time walking back and forth, so they bring a hanging pot to cook here."
"Easy!" Zhou Huaian looked at the thick branches of the big banyan tree, "If we build a wooden house on the tree, we can guard it here and catch musk deer."
Zhou Yiding's eyes lit up, "This is a good idea, why didn't I think of it!"
"You don't even look at who I am!"
"Tsk~" Zhou Yiding rolled his eyes and went to collect firewood.
Zhou Huaian and his companion collected firewood to start a fire and cut a few long wooden sticks. Yang Chunyan and Wan Xuejiao strung bear meat, steamed buns, and salted vegetable cakes on the sticks and rotated them back and forth on the fire.
After a while, the steamed buns gave off a burnt aroma of wheat flour.
Wan Xuejiao handed a wooden stick to Zhou Yiding and the other man, "There are tiger-skin chili peppers and salad shreds in the basket. Use your chopsticks to pick them up."
"Yes!" The two of them started eating, taking bites of steamed buns and some vegetables.
Zhou Huaian ate half of the meat and took the stick from Yang Chunyan. "I'll grill the meat. You eat a bun first."
Yang Chunyan took a piece of salted vegetable cake and said, "I like to eat this."
"I like it, too." Wan Xuejiao took one off the stick. "Such a pancake sells for eight cents in town, and the fillings inside are not as much as ours."
Zhou Yiding took a pancake and took a bite. "People who live on the street can make a lot of money. There is a retired old man in the forest farm canteen. His hometown was the provincial capital before he came here. Last year, he bought a shabby house in Ning'an, renovated it, and took his wife and grandson to the city to sell pancakes."
Zhou Huaian asked curiously: "Where is his son?"
Zhou Yiding sighed, "His son had an accident when he went up the mountain to cut trees and was crushed to death by a fallen tree. His daughter-in-law remarried within two years of his son's death, and he and his wife are living with their grandson."
"He said that his son and he were already buried in the mountain Kaka in this life, and he couldn't let his grandson be buried there too."
"After he retired, the old man sold the house in the forest farm and moved to Ning'an. He got a small cart and the old couple went out to sell pancakes every day. I heard that the money they made every month was higher than his pension."
Zhou Huaian sighed, "This old man is smart. If he doesn't bring his grandson to the city, he will have to find a job in the forest farm when he grows up. This way, even if he is not good at studying, he can still make money by doing business."
Zhou Yiding: "Yes! If they still stay in the forest farm, the family of three will only get poorer and poorer with his pension. When the grandson grows up in a few years, where can we find money to buy a grandson's wife?"
Yang Chunyan: "The old man is a visionary."
She thought that in the future, not only the village primary school, but even the primary and junior high schools in the town would be gone. If children from the countryside wanted to go to school in the city, they had to have a house in the city to attend a good school.
The whole family scraped together enough money for the down payment, and no matter what they did, they had to rely on the weather for their livelihood. The monthly mortgage payment was like a mountain pressing down on their heads...
Zhou Huaian poked Zhou Yiding and said, "We have to learn from him in the future."
Zhou Yiding nodded, "Make more money while you are young, buy a house in the city, and live in the city when you are old."
(End of this chapter)
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