Chapter 163 Digging sweet potatoes, sweet potato flour and fern root powder
After the meal, Lin Heng's third uncle and aunt were a little drunk, but they ate very happily.
The food at Lin Heng's house was like a dream to them. The food was so delicious that they drank too much without noticing.
After dinner, Lin's mother helped them to the old house to rest.
Lin Heng asked his eldest brother, Li Shiwei and others to help move the wood.
"Brother, did you ask Dad to go out this morning to deal with these rotten wood?" Lin Yue asked curiously.
Li Shiwei was also curious: "There are so many rotten woods here, why do we have to pull them from Shimen Village?"
Lin Heng smiled and said, "Speaking of rotten wood, if you can pick up one section by yourself, I will give you one dollar."
"That's what you said." Li Shiwei suddenly became excited.
Lin Heng nodded: "I said so."
"Then I'll try it too." Li Baiquan also said with a smile, not for the money, but for the bet.
When they got down to the road and saw the cross section of the wood, they were surprised: "This is really not an ordinary piece of wood."
Father Lin also laughed and said, "Of course, no one can move this one."
After removing the rope, Li Shiwei wanted to move the wood down by himself, but found that he couldn't move it at all.
He was shocked: "Damn, is this wood so heavy?"
Lin Heng laughed and said, "You rookie, you thought this was just ordinary wood? These are things that have been buried underground for thousands of years, and their density is not comparable to that of ordinary wood."
"Is this ebony?" Li Baiquan showed a shocked expression.
"Uncle, you also know ebony." Lin Heng showed a hint of surprise. The dark wood is also called ebony.
Li Baiquan smiled and said, "I heard that ebony can cure diseases. It is also very valuable when made into benches and furniture."
"No more talking, just help move it." Lin Heng smiled, walked over and helped everyone carry the roots of the ancient red toon back first.
He moved all these things directly into the house and put them upstairs. He didn't plan to sell them, so he decided to find a time to make a set of furniture out of these pieces of wood.
The root of the red toon tree is of top quality. It can be made into a tea tray or a root carving.
"By the way, how much are these woods worth?" After moving everything, Lin Heng's uncle asked curiously.
Xiulan, who was holding Xiaoxia, was also curious. What did her husband mean by making a fortune this morning? Just a few pieces of rotten wood? Lin Heng glanced at everyone and said with a smile, "Since we are all family, I will tell you. Just those few pieces of wood can be sold for four or five hundred yuan, and they will become more and more expensive in the future."
And if the inside of that tree root is also blood red when it is cut open, it will be worth thousands of dollars without any problem, and it will be even more expensive in a few years."
"Four or five hundred, thousands!!"
“Oh… my god!”
Everyone couldn't help but gasp; the price was far beyond their imagination. Their eyes were as big as bells.
"Really?" Li Shiwei was a little unconvinced.
Lin Heng nodded: "Of course, you can also keep an eye out for it in the future. If you come across it, buy it. I can find a buyer for you."
"I will definitely look for it when I get back." Li Baiquan said immediately.
Li Shiwei even suggested: "Why don't we go to the river dam and look for it now?"
"Can."
Everyone immediately decided to look for it in the river.
"You guys go, I won't go. Whatever you pick up is yours." Lin Heng smiled.
"Well, don't regret it." Li Shiwei said with a smile.
Since there was nothing to do at noon, everyone went to the dam together.
Lin Heng took the red dates to the stable, added grass to feed them, and went home to help clean the floor.
Then I told my wife that I was planning to renovate the house next month, paving bluestone slabs with cement and painting the outside of the house with plaster.
"If we add the plaster, it would cost more than two hundred yuan. Let's just forget it." Xiulan felt a little sorry for the money.
Lin Heng waved his hand and said, "It's nothing to spend money at home. Otherwise, when it rains, there will be mud everywhere, and I will be so annoyed."
Being used to walking on hardened roads, he found this kind of yellow mud difficult to tolerate. When it rained, five or six kilograms of yellow mud would get on his feet, and it was so sticky that he couldn't shake it off.
He couldn't harden everywhere, but at least he had to harden his own home and yard.
"Then it's up to you." Xiulan said with a blink.
Lin Heng looked at his wife and smiled, "Let's go to the backyard and clean my ears again."
"Okay." Xiulan wiped her hands and went to get the ear spoon and paper.
Lin Heng took his daughter to the backyard. It was cloudy today, so it was quite comfortable to stay in the backyard at noon, and there were no annoying mosquitoes.
When Xiaoxia arrived at the yard, she looked at the fish in the pond curiously. The giant salamanders were lying in their holes and had not come out, the carps were swimming at the bottom of the water, and the black carp were in the water, attacking some stream groupers from time to time, eating them one by one, very fiercely.
Xiongba has been enjoying eating fish these past two days, and has been rubbing against Xiaoxia. He is now almost as tall as Xiaoxia, and is becoming more and more powerful.
However, when Xiaoxia threw the small wooden stick, it would still rush out to pick it up. Even if Xiaoxia pulled its ears, it would not get angry, as it knew its position very well.
Xiulan brought the ear spoon, and Lin Heng lay down on the bench in the pavilion, put his head on her legs, and closed his eyes comfortably.
"You're not trying to pick your ears, but you're really trying to sleep with your head resting on my legs." Xiulan looked at him.
Lin Heng closed his eyes, smiled slightly, and rubbed his wife's legs.
Xiulan gently cleaned his ears for a while, let him sleep for half an hour, then woke him up and lay on his lap to rest.
"Sit still and don't move." Xiulan glanced at him and squinted her eyes.
Xiaoxia was playing hide-and-seek with Xiongba in the backyard, but no matter where she hid, Xiongba could find her quickly.
Lin Heng leaned back in his chair, looking at his wife taking a nap on his lap, his daughter playing in the yard, and his wolfhound, feeling extremely comfortable and enjoying himself.
At two o'clock, Xiulan opened her eyes, got up, looked at Lin Heng and said, "We're going up the hill. Let's go dig up some sweet potatoes this afternoon so we can make sweet potato vermicelli in a few days."
"Then let me help you. Hongfeng Mountain doesn't need me for the time being." Lin Heng said with a smile.
Xiulan glanced at him and said, "It's not that I don't need it, it's just that you're lazy."
Lin Heng grinned: "How can adult matters be called laziness? I'm just worried that you'll get tired."
"Then let's go. You have to do your job well." Xiulan smiled and rolled her eyes at him.
"Okay, I'll go to Hongfeng Mountain first." Lin Heng nodded.
They rode their horses to Hongfeng Mountain. Just as everyone started working, Lin Heng lit the fire and boiled a pot of water.
Although there is no food, there is definitely enough tea and water.
"Li Shiwei, did you get anything?" Lin Heng built the fire, walked over and asked with a smile.
Li Shiwei shook his head helplessly: "We found a small tree root. Your father found it. We brought it back and placed it next to the cement."
"I'll go take a look." Lin Heng was a little surprised that he actually found it.
I ran to the cement and saw that it was a tree root with a light gray appearance and the surface texture looked a bit rough.
I lifted it up and it didn't look big but it weighed more than 100 pounds. It was undoubtedly sunken wood, but there was no cut in it, so I couldn't tell what kind of wood it was.
If it were the same beautiful blood red color as the root of his red toon tree, it would be worth a lot of money.
"Dad, you are lucky. Maybe this is worth a few hundred dollars." Lin Heng walked over and said.
Father Lin grinned and said, "I found it in the sand. It was buried and only a corner was left. Maybe we can find it again when the water level rises."
After chatting for a while, Lin Heng looked at everyone's work progress. He estimated that it would take more than ten days to level the remaining two rows of land.
After taking a look, he said something to his father and ran away.
When we arrived at the sweet potato field at home, my mother and sister-in-law were already digging sweet potatoes. Xiulan was picking sweet potatoes with gloves on, and Xiaoxia and several nephews were playing games by the field.
"Mom, give it to me, I'll do it." Lin Heng walked over and said.
"Okay." Lin's mother nodded, rarely doing anything to insult Lin Heng.
There is no technical skill required to dig sweet potatoes. You just need to dig them out with a hoe at the root. You can dig out five or six sweet potatoes with one hoe, which weighs four or five pounds in total. The yield is much higher than that of other crops.
"The yield is not bad. Next year, let's plant all yellow potatoes. I'll go buy some. These sweet potatoes are not delicious." Lin Heng said with a smile.
There are many kinds of sweet potatoes. The ones they grow have red skin and white inside, and they taste very ordinary.
There are also sweet potatoes that are yellow on the outside and yellow on the inside, which are called inside and outside yellow. This kind is the most delicious and the roasted sweet potatoes taste the most fragrant.
The kind with red skin and red inside is purple sweet potato, which they don't have here.
Mother Lin nodded: "Two years ago, I told your father to buy some sweet potato seeds that are yellow inside and out, but he thought they were too expensive and refused to buy them."
"That's okay. I'll buy some next year. The dried sweet potatoes made from sweet potatoes are not delicious either." Lin Heng nodded.
He knew very well that his father was always frugal in everything he did.
"The sweet potatoes are good this year. I estimate that the yield per mu can reach 1,500 kilograms, which can produce a lot of flour." Liu Juan said with a smile.
Their family planted more than five acres of sweet potatoes and estimated that they could harvest 8,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes. After grinding them into powder, there would be enough to feed the pigs.
Compared with sweet potatoes, the yield of wheat and rice is much lower. Lin Heng dug very hard and was very happy with the harvest.
Lin's mother and her friends have been digging sweet potatoes recently. The two mu here are the last. In one afternoon, the four of them dug more than half a mu and 800 kilograms of sweet potatoes.
At six o'clock, the work at Hongfeng Mountain stopped, and Lin's father and others came over to help carry the sweet potatoes.
The old house, which was once the bedroom of Lin Heng and Xiulan, is now filled with sweet potatoes. The joy of the harvest makes everyone smile from ear to ear.
"But when I think that so many sweet potatoes are not as good as the few rotten woods picked up by you, Lin Heng, I really don't want to talk anymore." Lin Yue shook his head and laughed.
Lin Heng smiled and said, "Brother, my wood has also been underground for thousands of years. It is not ordinary wood. But growing crops really doesn't make much money."
Father Lin shook his head and sighed, "Lin Heng, I'll take the dark wood tree I picked back with you later."
"Okay." Lin Heng did not refuse. He would just sell it when the time comes and give the money to his dad.
In the evening, the eldest brother Lin Yue invited his third uncle and aunt to have a meal, and Lin Heng and others naturally followed.
The next morning, the two said goodbye and left. Lin's father and others gave them some meat and dried fish and asked them to take them back.
The two of them were very happy here. When they left, they held the hands of Lin Heng and others and repeatedly told them to come over and play when they had time.
After everyone left, Father Lin shook his head and said, "Hey, it's not easy for them either. Their son and daughter-in-law are not filial."
"Go back." Lin Heng smiled. Ninety percent of the people in this world have a hard time.
He now only wants to lead his family to rise, and he is not in the mood to help others for the time being.
The sun was very strong today, so Lin's father and the others continued to go to Hongfeng Mountain to help, while Lin Heng went to dig sweet potatoes with Xiulan and the others.
After a day of digging, there was still half an acre left to be dug, so we dug again in the morning on November 3rd.
In the afternoon, Lin's mother and others began to wash sweet potatoes and prepare to make sweet potato flour.
Pour the sweet potatoes into a large wooden basin, fill it with water and use bamboo roots to pound them vigorously. The small protruding roots on the bamboo roots can remove the mud and sand very well, and the sweet potatoes will only have their skin damaged at most.
After pounding the sweet potatoes once, take them out and pound them again in a new wooden basin. They will usually be completely clean.
After the sweet potatoes are washed, they are ground by hand using the same grinding plate used for grinding konjac.
This type of grinding plate is usually made by nailing small holes on the iron plate with iron nails, and sweet potatoes are used to protrude on the small holes. The rough side can be ground into powder.
After washing the sweet potatoes, Xiulan and the others began to grind them slowly. After grinding them into sweet potato puree, they added water to wash the slurry, and then filtered it with a cloth bag to get a slurry containing sweet potato starch. After sedimentation, they got sweet potato flour.
However, in order to ensure the purity of sweet potato flour, the sweet potato flour is usually dissolved in water and washed twice to precipitate out the sweet potato flour.
Because there are no machines and it is too troublesome to transport thousands of kilograms of sweet potatoes to the town, they do it themselves.
Generally, it takes nearly a month to grind several thousand kilograms of sweet potatoes. One hundred kilograms of sweet potatoes can produce ten to fifteen kilograms of sweet potato starch.
The remaining sweet potato residue is cooked and fed to pigs to fatten them up before the Chinese New Year.
Lin Heng had no choice. Since there was no electricity in the village, he couldn't use the machines he bought. He could only take it slow. Every household was like this.
But fortunately it’s not particularly tiring, and it’s fine to take it slow.
"Xiu Lan, I want to dig some fern root powder to make some fern root powder to eat." Lin Heng said to his wife.
Cold fern root noodles is one of his favorite delicacies, it tastes simply delicious.
Xiulan nodded and said, "Sure, go dig it up and we can make vermicelli together later."
There is basically no farm work during this period. Wheat and rapeseed have already been planted. All that can be done are some odd jobs. The family members also have free time to prepare various foods. "Okay, then I will go dig them in the next two days. There are fern roots over at Hongfeng Mountain." Lin Heng nodded.
The next morning, when Lin Heng went to work at Hongfeng Mountain, he took a hoe and started digging fern roots.
Life was moving forward steadily. The weather was cloudy and sunny but it hadn't rained for several days. The dried fish at home had been almost dried.
The sausages were also dried, and Xiulan fried some for Lin Heng to eat. This kind of dried sausages was full of meaty flavor and was very chewy. The more you chewed it, the more delicious it became, making you unable to stop.
As time passed, the autumn wind became more and more bleak, the leaves became yellower and yellower, and finally they could not bear the weight and fell off. Even the sturdy cotinus and red maple were not spared.
The ginkgo trees in the center of the village also fell completely in the raging cold wind overnight, and thousands of square meters of area nearby were covered in golden color.
It was like a golden carpet, attracting many children to pick it up and scatter it everywhere. Lin Heng also picked up some and made a ginkgo bouquet for Xiulan. She loved the flowers made of golden ginkgo very much, and placed them in front of the bedroom window after drying them.
At noon on November 11, Lin Heng returned home with a basket of fern roots. He estimated that he had dug two to three hundred kilograms of fern roots in the past ten days.
"Wife, how much noodles can be made from this?" Lin Heng asked, pointing at the pile of fern roots in the room. He and his wife lived a comfortable and warm life.
"This thing is not as good as sweet potato. I estimate that fifteen or sixteen pounds can produce one pound of flour." Xiulan said after thinking for a while.
"Then I have about 300 kilograms of fern roots, which can produce 20 kilograms of powder. I won't dig it anymore, so this is it." Lin Heng gave up. More than 20 kilograms would be enough.
Xiulan blinked her eyes and smiled, "Then forget it. Wash your hands and eat. I made fried bacon with Chinese toon this morning. Let's eat up the last bit of Chinese toon."
"Okay, I knew it smelled so good, it turns out to be fried toon with bacon." Lin Heng immediately became interested, washed his hands and scooped up some rice.
Fried Chinese toon with bacon is one of the impeccable dishes that goes well with rice. It is so delicious when eaten with rice.
The family of three was enjoying their meal when suddenly there was a knock on the door.
"Who is it?" Lin Heng stood up curiously and walked out with the bowl in his hand.
My headache got better this afternoon, but I still managed to finish a chapter. Everyone should take care of their health recently, as there are many infectious diseases during this period. (End of this chapter)
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