There were too many people growing tomatoes at the base, so they couldn't exchange much.

After repeated consideration, Xia Lunong had to give up the idea of ​​exchanging tomatoes with Lao Liu.

The tomatoes had to be picked from the branches, otherwise they would slowly rot.

The two carried the tomatoes back, changed to a larger basket, and continued to pick tomatoes.

Their tomatoes were particularly sweet and red, and they suffered more damage.

Some tomatoes were pecked by birds, and some were eaten by insects. They skipped over the tomatoes that were pecked by birds and eaten by insects, and picked another half a basket. Together with the two baskets they had carried before, they had a total of about one and a half baskets of tomatoes.

In addition to tomatoes, eggplants, beans, and peppers also had a bumper harvest in the vegetable fields. They picked all of them, half a basket of eggplants, a basket of beans, and another basket of peppers.

After the two of them took the vegetables and fruits home, they filled up a corner of the living room.

In the evening, Xia Huoqu was surprised.

Yan Xinian asked in astonishment, "How can you grow so many vegetables in just five mu of land?"

"Not five mu of land." Xia Lunong replied, "Two mu of the five mu of land are planted with peanuts, and the remaining three mu of land is used to plant these vegetables and a small patch of garlic. All in all, the output is just over two mu of land."

Yan Xinian was really shocked when he saw the pile of fruits that looked like a small mountain. "Xiao Nong, your ability is too useful. You can get such a harvest from such a small piece of land. If I give you more land, you can probably support the entire base without any problem."

Xia Huoqu asked calmly, "Everyone in the base has hands and feet. Who needs to rely on whom to support them?"

Yan Xinian raised his hand to beg for mercy. "That's what I said. Why don't you say that ?" Xiao Nong will suffer a loss. Having said that, peppers are fine, they can be dried and kept for years, but what about eggplants and beans? I remember that eggplants can't be dried, right? Once dried, they become like paper, which is boring."

Xia Lunong touched her chin, "I'm thinking about it too. I plan to ask the children who are more often at home to help dry the peppers, there's no rush to dry them slowly, and I can make sour beans into beans, and eggplants - eggplant sauce?"

Xia Huoqu nodded, "All is fine, and what about tomatoes?"

Xia Lunong said, "I have an idea for tomatoes. Brother, what do you say we roast the tomatoes into dried tomatoes?"

Xia Huoqu looked at him.

Xia Lunong gestured and said, "The problem we are facing now is that there are too many tomatoes. The base cannot consume them, nor can they be exchanged. The essence is that there are too many similar foods. If they are made into dried tomatoes, it will be different. We can simply process them and bake them into dried tomatoes to see if we can exchange them for other things in the base."

"If we can't exchange them, won't we go to Yacheng? We can exchange them for something there. If it really doesn't work, dried tomatoes are not heavy, we can bring them back and eat them as snacks."

Xia Huoqu thought about it carefully and nodded, "We can try it."

"Then I'll try tomorrow to see if I can make dried tomatoes into different shapes."

The base is now sunny and rainy frequently. It is too risky to dry delicate vegetables like tomatoes in the sun alone. If it is cloudy and rainy one day and they are not allowed to dry outside, the tomatoes will rot immediately.

Baking is much safer and more convenient.

Everyone let Xia Lunong do it.

The next morning, Xia Lunong carried rice on his back and took Kong Zhi to the market to exchange for a suitable pot.

He exchanged for a particularly large iron pot, which was tall and deep, with a flat lid on it, a bit like a soup pot.

When tomatoes are baked in this kind of pot, the heat will be relatively even.

After Xia Lunong changed the pot, there were still more than seven pounds of rice in the basket. Gan Cui went to exchange it for a large piece of meat.

Kong Zhi didn't quite understand, "Why exchange meat?"

"Since we are planning to roast tomatoes, we must develop the flavor." Xia Lunong said, "I thought about it. Tomatoes are sour and sweet. It may not be suitable to make sweet snacks. We don't have that much sugar. If it is made into a sour and spicy flavor, it may be more attractive."

Kong Zhi waited quietly for him to continue.

Xia Lunong smiled, "Since we are planning to process it, if we add meat, the taste of dried tomatoes may be better? And whether it contains meat or not, the feeling is completely different. The same one pound of dried tomatoes, without meat, may only be exchanged for one pound of rice, but with meat, it may be exchanged for three pounds."

Kong Zhi didn't expect that he was quite good at doing business, and he was a little surprised.

Xia Lunong leaned back and said, "Let's make some to try first. If it doesn't taste good, we can keep it for ourselves."

Kong Zhi had no objection.

The meat in Xia Lunong's hand was a piece of pork with fat and lean meat.

He took the meat home, washed it with rice water, cut it into meat cubes, and then added a lot of green and red peppers in a ratio of 1:1, and added minced garlic, minced ginger, rice wine, soy sauce, etc., mixed evenly, and then put it into the pot and stir-fried it quickly to make meat sauce.

Xia Lunong's family's peppers are fragrant and spicy, and the fried meat sauce is also very spicy and fragrant. The smell makes people's appetite open.

Xia Lunong originally wanted to use this meat sauce to roast dried tomatoes, but when he smelled this fragrance, he couldn't help it, so he cut off a part of it and served it on the table as a sauce for breakfast.

Also on the table were fried bamboo shoots with bacon, and stir-fried eggplant with mushrooms.

There was no need to say much about the bacon and bamboo shoots. With Xia Lunong's cooking skills, she could never mess it up.

The bamboo shoots they had specially picked that day were very fresh and tender after being cut. When they were fried with bacon and chili, the bamboo shoots were fresh, spicy, and a little sweet.

The best part was that the salty and fresh taste of the bacon made the bland bamboo shoots thicker, and the whole dish had a more solemn feel.

Not to mention that they were having breakfast by themselves, this dish would be qualified to be sent to a large banquet.

The eggplant was the dish that surprised Xia Lunong the most.

They hadn't eaten eggplant for a long time, and this eggplant dish was different.

The eggplant in my memory was somewhat hard, but this eggplant was soft, tender, smooth and fragrant. When stir-fried over high heat, it was full of eggplant flavor and tasted good with just a little salt.

The same goes for the stir-fried beans. The beans produced at home were fleshy and thick. When stir-fried over high heat, the beans were sweet, tender and slightly salty, and went well with rice.

Xia Lunong estimated everyone's appetite and steamed a large pot of rice, but it was still not enough with these dishes.

Even his brother, who was so frugal, had four bowls of rice, not to mention the others.

After eating, Xia Lunong touched his belly and looked at the empty rice pot next to him, feeling a little melancholy. "It seems that we really need to hurry up and go out to collect supplies, otherwise we won't have enough rice."

Yan Xinian smiled, "That's not the case. We also get paid for building the hydropower station. I'm going to buy 100 catties of rice. We've been busy for four days and have 80 catties. With today, it's 100 catties. I'll have them deliver it in the evening."

Xia Lunong thought for a moment and said, "It's okay to wait a few days, but with this amount of food, the rice at home can only last for a month at most."

They do have a lot of rice at home, but four grown men can consume nearly 10 catties of rice a day.

In addition, they have to exchange rice for fertilizers, seeds, daily necessities, etc., and occasionally go to the canteen to exchange for dishes. Rice is needed in various places. If you exchange a little here and a little there, you really can't keep much rice at home.

Kong Zhi put away the dishes and said, "I have nothing to do these two days, so I can go out and collect some things and exchange them for some rice. I'll prepare today and go out tomorrow."

Xia Huoqu stopped him, "Not really, if it's not possible, let your brother Xi Nian bring back this year's dividend in advance." Kong Zhi said,

"It's okay, I also went out alone when I was in our base."

"Wait!" Xia Lunong grasped the key point, "What dividends?"

Xia Huoqu remembered, "I haven't told you yet, your brother Xi Nian presided over the establishment of this base, all public income in the base, such as the grain we pay, must be divided into 20% with him first, and the rest will be used for public maintenance, such as distributing supplies to the property management committee. For a big income earner like the base cafeteria, all profits must be given to him 20%."

It was the first time that Xia Lunong heard this statement after he woke up, and the look in his eyes when he looked at Yan Xinian was instantly different.

He didn't expect that his brother Xi Nian was still a local tyrant?

Yan Xinian laughed, "Xiao Nong, what's that look in your eyes?"

Xia Lunong said faintly, "I was wondering how you can live in such poverty with so much income?"

"Hey, little brat, I'm so touched."

Yan Xinian shook his head after laughing and explained to them, "Most of my income is used to support the scientists in the white building. At first I said to use the public materials of the base for support, but everyone disagreed, so I paid for this alone."

Xia Lunong didn't expect this to be the reason. This matter is indeed very expensive.

"No, that's not right." Xia Lunong's mind turned and she quickly reacted, "If that's the case, then the results of the scientists' production also belong to you?"

Yan Xinian smiled, "Yes."

Xia Lunong: "..."

He said it, when did his brother Xinian become a great man? It seems that he is still that profiteer.

Scientists rarely appear in front of the public, but they do a lot of things.

Dan Xialunong knows that projects such as truck modification, seed cultivation, and fertilizer fermentation are all projects led by scientists in the White Building.

When people in the base use these results, they have to exchange them for materials. Over the years, the White Building has definitely made a lot of money.

Xia Huoqu concluded: "Don't worry about the food at home. There is really no shortage now. If there is not enough, let him take some out and use it, and then fill the gap when you are free."

He raised his chin towards Kong Zhi and said, "Kong Zhi, you too, with your ability, this year's harvest will definitely be far greater than the expenditure, don't be so anxious." Xia Huoqu said: "The most difficult time has passed, there is no need to worry now, just take it slow, we don't need to lack food."

Xia Lunong

obediently

agreed, "I know, I will try the tomatoes a few more times."

After dinner, Yan Xinian bowed and continued to work at the hydropower station.

Previously, Xia Lunong was wondering why his brothers were so hardworking and worked so hard. Now he understood that this was his former brother's business, no wonder he cared so much about it.

Xia Lunong stayed at home and took care of his tomatoes.

The tomatoes were dried in the sun and should have been cut into two pieces. Their tomatoes were big, so they were finally cut into four pieces.

These tomatoes were grown in an open-air environment. Occasionally, there were some worm eyes, so his uncle had to dig them out. The dug parts were thrown into the bucket next to them, and they would feed the chickens later.

The remaining tomatoes were cut and placed in a large wooden basin.

Before roasting the tomatoes, Xia Lunong first marinated them with a thin salt, and after controlling the moisture as much as possible, he put the meat sauce in to marinate, and then put them into the pot to roast.

The pot is a special large pot, with charcoal left behind after the firewood burns, and some burning charcoal on the pot lid.

The upper and lower parts are roasted together to maximize the even heating of the batch of tomatoes.

Xia Lunong continued to cut the dried tomatoes while roasting them, occasionally looking up, looking forward to the finished product inside.