Lu Chuan pushed open the courtyard gate and saw that the Taoist priest was already sitting inside.
Xu Han asked, "You're back quite early! It seems you had a good day."
The Taoist priest said smugly, "Haha, usually I only come back when my basket is full."
Lu Chuan looked at the basket placed to the side of the corridor and said, "You picked quite a lot of wild fruit today, plus what we picked, I don't know if the cellar can hold it all. These fruits can't be crushed. Especially wild grapes and the like, they're very easy to break."
Xu Han also walked over, looked at the people behind her and said, "You can put your baskets here too. When you go back later, take some ripe wild fruits with you and eat them as fruit."
After hearing this, the others quickly got to work, and after putting their things away, they sat down to rest.
Lu Chuan looked through the wild grapes in the basket and said to Xu Han, "Should we process these wild grapes today? There are quite a lot of them, and I'm afraid they'll get crushed."
"I've been thinking about that too, but it's too late today. Even if I manage to wash it, I doubt I can make it into wine."
"It's alright, let's wash them first and put them in a winnowing basket. That way, the surface moisture will be dry by tomorrow morning, and we can soak them in alcohol directly."
"Okay, I'll get them to do it together."
After Xu Han finished speaking, she said to everyone, "You all take a break for a while. We'll work a little harder later and wash the grapes first. Otherwise, they'll get crushed overnight. If the crushed ones aren't taken out in time, even more will spoil."
"Then all our effort of carrying it all the way back from the mountains will have been for nothing."
Dan Niang said, "Madam, we're not tired, let's go straight to the bath."
Liu Erzhu said, "Yes, Madam, we're not tired. Let's hurry up and get out of the shower before it gets dark, otherwise it will be inconvenient."
Xu Han said, "No rush, you all rest for a while and have some water. I'll have Mu'er go to the valley and call the people back. We'll take a shower together when they get here."
Those who followed the Taoist priest back, seeing that no one had returned for a long time, had already gone back to the valley.
Everyone was quite tired after walking all the way from the mountains today, but the grapes would definitely spoil if they weren't picked out in time, so Xu Han only asked Mu'er to call people over to do the work.
After receiving the mission, Mu'er quickly ran out, and Ze'er followed suit. The two of them went to the valley to call for help.
Just as the people from the valley arrived, Dan Niang and the others had finished resting and were about to go to the backyard to pick grapes when Han Qi returned with his men.
Xu Han said, "Danniang, why don't you take them to the backyard to wash the grapes first?"
Remember to sort through the ingredients first. Keep the good ones and throw away the bad ones or the broken ones, otherwise they will spoil easily when soaking in alcohol.
Also, when you're washing grapes, be careful not to remove the stems, as grapes spoil easily when wet.
"Yes, madam, I understand. I saw you washing grapes before, so I know what to do."
Xu Han nodded, and then said to Han Qi and the others, "You guys rest for a while, drink some water to calm down, and then go wash the grapes after you've recovered."
Xu Han picked a lot of wild fruits this year and plans to make some wine and other fruit wines. When the shops in the county town open, she can sell them directly there.
They can also sell their homemade sweet potato wine.
However, we didn't expect that when we planted the sweet potatoes, we didn't grow many this year. Fortunately, we made a lot of sweet potato wine last year, which we can use to make wine this year.
If we don't have enough sweet potatoes at home, we can go down the mountain to buy some and make sweet potato wine in the county town.
They went to wash the grapes, and Xu Han wasn't idle either. According to them, they first picked out the ripe wild berries separately, and kept those to eat as fruit.
The remaining hawthorn berries weren't needed for the time being, so Lu Chuan had them moved to the cellar, where the temperature was lower and they could be stored for longer.
Xu Han also asked them to move the pear preserves that had been made yesterday into the cellar.
Xu Han called out to Lu Chuan, "Lu Chuan, why don't you go down the mountain tomorrow and buy some more things to make fruit preserves? We also need to order some more jars; let's order a lot this time, 800 more."
There are lots of wild hawthorns and other wild fruits in the mountains. We'll go pick them all in the next few days and make them into hawthorn preserves.
Lu Chuan said, "Okay, I'll go tomorrow. I'll have Liu Erzhu come with me tomorrow; he's strong and can help me carry things."
"Yes, remember to buy more. A lot of sugar is needed for making wine and fruit wine, and you won't have enough if you buy too little."
"I understand, don't worry."
The two chatted briefly before returning to their respective duties.
With more people working together, they not only cleared out all the wild grapes before dark, but also didn't delay them from doing other things.
After everyone temporarily put the last of the wild grapes inside the house, they all dispersed.
At this time, Danniang also cooked dinner, and the family ate dinner while making arrangements for tomorrow.
Xu Han said, "Tomorrow Lu Chuan will come down the mountain, and I'll stay home and make fruit wine. If the others have nothing to do, they can continue making bluestone slabs, or you can take them to the mountains to pick wild fruits."
The Taoist priest replied, "Let's continue picking wild fruits. Let's take advantage of these few days when we're not busy and quickly pick all the ripe fruits in the mountains."
"Didn't you want to make money with these fruit wines? Of course, the more you pick, the better."
Xu Han hesitated and said, "I want to make money from them, but I've never sold them before, and I'm afraid I won't be able to sell so many at once."
Xu Han also really wanted to make a big splash, but since she hadn't been in contact with the market environment here, she didn't know much about the current market.
In addition, with the constant natural disasters and wars in recent years, it's unlikely that these novelties will sell well when launched at this time.
Over the past few years, everyone has spent most of their money. Even if they have money, they dare not spend it recklessly now. Xu Han's items will definitely not be cheap, and she is really afraid that she will not be able to sell them all.
Grandpa Zhao said, "It's alright, don't worry, just do it. This wine gets better with age, don't worry. If we can't sell it, we'll just drink it ourselves."
Lu Chuan also reassured him, "We have a large family, so you can do it without worry. In any case, even if you can't sell them, it won't go to waste."
Besides, these things were all picked by family members from the mountains, so even if we lose money, we won't lose much.
Upon hearing this, Xu Han gritted her teeth and said, "Alright then. When you go to order the ceramic jars tomorrow, please also buy some wine jars."
Remember to buy large ones, so we can portion them out after cooking. Otherwise, small wine jars are too much trouble.
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