Chapter 222: Harvesting Poria Cocos and Ganoderma Lucidum (Vote Request)
The dispute over water has been settled for the time being, but the weather is still hot, the sky is clear, with light white clouds, and there is no sign of rain.
The villagers' faces are still full of worry because they know that if it doesn't rain, the harvest this year will definitely be reduced.
From a national perspective, there is no shortage of food now. As long as you are willing to spend money, you can buy rice and vegetables.
But for the villagers, money is very precious. So when Gao Mingcheng just came back from the county, the people he hired to cut down trees came to his house and asked Gao Mingcheng if he could continue cutting down trees.
They are desperate to make money.
Gao Mingcheng naturally agreed and asked them to start working.
A mountain of three hundred acres is not big, but it does take a lot of effort to tidy it up.
Cutting down trees is just the first step. Next, the tree roots in the soil must be dug out, otherwise it will be impossible to plant fruit trees.
After these tree roots are dried, they can also be used for burning, and one tree root can burn for a long time, making it a fuel that many people like.
In addition to the workers who were cutting down trees, other villagers also came up to ask Gao Mingcheng if they could harvest the medicinal herbs.
Different medicinal materials have different harvesting times. Now it is the end of August, and the Poria cocos and Ganoderma lucidum in the mountains can be harvested. As for Gardenia jasminoides and Hedyotis diffusa, we have to wait.
Both of these herbs can only be harvested from September to October. After harvesting, Hedyotis diffusa only needs to be cleaned of impurities and soil, and then dried. Gardenia jasminoides is more difficult, and needs to be steamed and then dried.
Gao Mingcheng spread the word that he could collect herbs and told everyone to just go into the mountains to collect them. He could even tell friends and relatives that he could collect herbs from several nearby villages.
This year, there is no need to carry the medicinal materials and squeeze into the train. With Xiao Jinfeng's trucks, the more cargo the better.
After hearing Gao Mingcheng's words, the women and children in the village started to get busy. As for the men, some of them were cutting trees for Gao Mingcheng, while others were working in their own fields.
In fact, women are better at things like collecting herbs. They are more careful and more tenacious.
Gao Mingcheng also went into the mountains to collect herbs. Just like last year, he went straight to the deep mountains to collect herbs. As for the herbs at the foot of the mountain, he gave them to the villagers.
He brought the digging tools and two bags, one bag for Ganoderma lucidum and the other bag for Poria cocos.
When the body of the Ganoderma lucidum stops growing, its color changes from light yellow to reddish brown, its cap and stipe are the same color, it changes from soft to hard, and spores are ejected, it indicates that the body is mature and can be harvested.
Ganoderma lucidum is also a kind of fungus. It doesn't have any roots. You can just break it off with your hands. That's what Gao Mingcheng did last year.
But later at the medicine trade fair, he made friends with some people with his eloquence, and learned from them that when harvesting Ganoderma lucidum, it is necessary to use a sharp knife to cut the Ganoderma lucidum from the base of the stipe!
By doing this, you can leave 0.5 cm to 1 cm of the stalk, allowing the incision to heal slowly and then form the cap primordium, which will then grow into a new fruiting body. Depending on the volume of the grown wood, it can be harvested continuously for 2-3 years.
After knowing this, Gao Mingcheng felt a sense of regret for making a mistake!
This year he brought a knife with him and scanned the forest with his eyes. He quickly found the place where the Ganoderma lucidum grew. As long as it was a mature Ganoderma lucidum, he would cut it off with one knife.
Ganoderma lucidum is an annual plant and there is no benefit in keeping it too long because it will eventually become woody and lose its medicinal properties.
He often walked in the mountains and had specifically looked for the growth points of Ganoderma lucidum and Poria cocos, so now he only needed to go to the places he had remembered before to get something.
At this moment, the Ganoderma lucidum is basically mature, but the Poria cocos may not be the case.
First of all, the Poria cocos he planted is definitely not mature yet. He planted it in May, and it usually takes about ten months to grow. So this batch of Poria cocos can be harvested in the spring of next year.
As for wild Poria cocos, you need to observe whether it is mature. It can be harvested when the skin of Poria cocos is yellowish brown. If the skin is yellowish white, it is not mature. If it is black, it means it is over-mature.
Harvesting wild Poria cocos is more complicated because it is better hidden.
At this time, you need to observe the growth conditions of the pine trees and the ground conditions around the tree stumps in the pine forest. After finding the growth point of Poria cocos, use an iron cone probe to probe, search, and dig.
Insert an iron cone probe into the ground and feel for lumps at a depth of 10-20 cm. When you pull it out, you will see white Poria powder, which can then be dug and harvested.
As the saying goes, if you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools. After Gao Mingcheng learned this method, he asked a blacksmith to make an iron awl tool, and now he uses it quite smoothly.
He brought a special small hoe, which can also be called a medicine hoe, which is convenient for carrying and digging. Using this small hoe, he quickly dug out a few Poria cocos, which looked like black lumps.
This is fresh Poria cocos. It then has to go through a series of processing and preparation to be made into blocks of dried Poria cocos, which is the finished product.
Wild Poria cocos is smaller in size and has a firm texture, while artificially cultivated ones are larger and not as firm in texture. In the market, the price of wild Poria cocos is higher than that of artificially cultivated ones.
Gao Mingcheng walked and collected along the way. Soon, the bag of Poria cocos was full, while the bag of Ganoderma lucidum was only half full and looked light.
Well, it seems I have to bring a few more bags next time. At least he can carry them!
I ran all the way down the mountain, and after returning home, I poured the Ganoderma lucidum into a bamboo sieve to dry in the sun. This is easy to handle, just remove the rotten wood and soil, and then dry it in the sun.
Poria cocos is much more complicated. There are two ways to prepare it, one is raw sun-drying and the other is cooked sun-drying.
Before drying raw, the Poria cocos needs to be washed clean, then piled in a sheltered place indoors, covered tightly with straw or sacks to make it sweat and release water, then spread out to dry and covered repeatedly until the skin shrinks and turns brown, then use a knife to peel off the black skin. Choose a sunny day, cut the Poria cocos into small pieces, and spread the white and red pieces on a bamboo sieve to dry separately.
The dried pork is prepared by cutting the skin of fresh Poria cocos, placing it in a steamer, steaming it thoroughly, then using a knife to slice it, then cut it into strips, and finally cut it into cubes, which are then dried in the sun.
The general drying rate of these two methods is about 50%, that is, one kilogram of fresh product can produce half a kilogram of dry product. The quality of the product is determined by whether it is dry enough, has the skin removed, is shaped into square pieces, has uniform thickness, and is white in color.
But when cutting, there are always some edges and corners that are not formed. In order to get a higher selling price, it is best to dry these parts separately. Then you can sell them at a lower price or keep them for your own consumption.
Poria cocos is a mild medicinal herb that can be eaten every day. It has the effects of promoting diuresis, eliminating dampness, strengthening the spleen and calming the mind, and is suitable for most people.
Rather than selling it at a lower price, Gao Mingcheng would rather keep it for his own consumption.
As for how to process Poria cocos, Gao Mingcheng chooses to dry it raw.
Although raw drying takes a long time, it is actually more convenient if the quantity is large.
Because the Poria cocos needs to be steamed before it can be dried. However, if the quantity is large, you have to light a fire every day to steam it. His family has firewood, but burning fire on a hot day is not a friendly thing.
After dealing with the Poria cocos in the bag, he took a few more bags and went into the mountains again.
Relying on his strong physical fitness, he could enter the mountains as easily as taking something from a bag. As long as he was willing to spend time and energy, he could transport the treasures from the mountains bit by bit.
There are many Masson pine and red pine trees in the mountains, and Poria cocos and Ganoderma lucidum both like to grow in this kind of forest.
In the next few days, according to Gao Mingcheng's plan, he searched one mountain and forest after another, and had rich harvests every day.
When he was busy in the mountains, Xuanyuemei took over the work in the fields at home. If someone came to sell goods, she would be responsible for inspecting and receiving the goods.
After the villagers got busy, they saw hope of making money, so even if there was a drought and the grain yield in the fields decreased, their worries gradually dissipated.
After the news of Gao Mingcheng's collection of medicinal herbs spread, villagers from other villages also went into the mountains to collect herbs. Last year, the people in these villages envied the people in Gaojia Village, and now it was their turn to sell medicine.
That day, Gao Mingcheng came down the mountain carrying two large bags of Poria cocos and immediately saw several plastic bags piled in the corner.
These are the medicinal materials received these days.
Many beautiful women are turning over the dried Ganoderma lucidum in front of a bamboo sieve. This batch of Ganoderma lucidum has been dried very well and can be packed in bags.
Seeing Gao Mingcheng coming back, she said, "Mingcheng, the skin of the first batch of Poria cocos has shrunk and turned brown. Go and take a look to see if it can be cut into pieces tomorrow."
Gao Mingcheng responded and went to the empty house. He lifted the covering straw and observed the Poria cocos underneath. Sure enough, it had shrunk and turned brown.
Seeing that the whole room was full, Gao Mingcheng couldn't help but regret it. It seemed that he had built the house too small!
He has fenced in his backyard and there is still some space, so he plans to build another room.
Many families would raise pigs in their backyards and build a row of pig pens, but Gao Mingcheng did not plan to raise pigs, and the cattle pen was on the other side of the kitchen, not at the back.
I planned all these in my mind, but because of the water shortage, I plan to find time to build it after the spring of next year.
Building a house also requires a lot of water. Now he still has water in the well, but he can't abuse it.
Xuanyuemei has never handled Poria cocos before, so Gao Mingcheng plans to stay at home tomorrow to teach Xuanyuemei how to handle it.
As for choosing a sunny day to cut the pieces and dry them, there is no need to worry about that at all. It has been sunny every day recently. If it rains, the villagers will be very happy.
"You can cut it into pieces tomorrow." Gao Mingcheng walked out and said, and saw Xuanmei holding a small bag of Cassia seeds in her hand.
Cassia seed is a commonly used medicine, which has the functions of clearing the liver, improving eyesight and relieving constipation. It is also a species with extremely strong vitality. After being soaked in boiling water, the seeds can still germinate. It is widely distributed in the provinces south of the Yangtze River, and they naturally have it here.
However, there are relatively few villages in their area, so these Cassia seeds were definitely not collected from the villages.
Seeing Gao Mingcheng looking over, Xuanyuemei said, "This Cassia seed was sent by someone from Dongjia Village. She asked me if I would accept it. She said that this thing grows a lot around the edge of their village, on the roadside, and in the wilderness."
Gao Mingcheng said, "This stuff sells well. Next time she comes, tell her that we will buy a lot! Also, pick out some seeds with full kernels and leave them. I plan to spread them on the wasteland at the foot of the mountain next year and grow a batch myself."
Cassia seeds are easy to sell and grow, and there are many open spaces in the mountains, so they can be planted among the fruit trees.
When the fruit trees are young seedlings, they are far apart from each other, leaving a large open space. You can plant a small patch of cassia seeds in the middle to increase your income.
I'm asking for votes. There were only ten recommendation votes yesterday, and I contributed four of them myself...
(End of this chapter)
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