Lin Yiheng returned from the fields and went to the office to find Lin Yinan, only to find her holding a piece of paper and staring blankly into space.
During busy farming seasons when he was busy with government affairs, he would also go to the fields to help.
"Anan, what are you thinking about so intently?"
Lin Yinan handed him the letter, "It's a letter from Yun Si and the others."
Lin Yiheng's brows furrowed more and more as he looked at it.
“The Nanzhou Prefecture has requisitioned people and grain, and other powerful families have taken the opportunity to divide up the land. As a result, the amount of land that can be cultivated has been greatly reduced. This year, we may not be able to pay our taxes.”
"With fewer people, the tax grain to be handed over to the imperial court will definitely fall on other people's shoulders, and I'm afraid there won't be enough grain to eat this year."
“Then we need to make some preparations in advance,” Lin Yiheng said.
"It's too late to plant rice this season. Almost all the paddy fields that can be developed have been planted. We'll clear more wasteland on the mountains and expand the corn planting area."
Lin Yinan had been farming for two years, and while he wouldn't say he was an expert, he was at least very familiar with the land.
She knows exactly what to plant in which season, how long to wait between planting, watering, fertilizing, and weeding.
After the brother and sister had a couple of cups of tea, Lin Yiheng put down his cup and said, "Yes, I'll go to the back storeroom to check how many seeds are left."
Lin Yinan stood up as well, "I'll go with you."
The two arrived at the storeroom behind the county government office where seeds were stored.
The county government office was not a large place. After last summer's harvest, the granary was moved out and a larger, more airtight grain storage warehouse was built outside.
Lin Yiheng pointed to the few bags of corn seeds and asked, "Anan, do we have to plant all of these?"
"Do we still have that much land in Longtan?" Lin Yinan asked him in return.
Lin Yiheng said with great ambition, "There's plenty of land; if not, we'll go up the mountain and reclaim it."
After thinking it over, Lin Yinan said, "I'll give some to Chi'an. That way, I'll have an extra acre of land to plant with new seeds."
"New seeds? Where did you get these new seeds?" Lin Yiheng asked, puzzled.
Lin Yinan raised an eyebrow, smiled, and said, "With a wave of my hand, several sacks appeared out of thin air like magic."
Lin Yiheng stepped forward and opened one of the bags. Inside were oval-shaped, stone-like objects that were icy cold to the touch. If you squeezed them hard, your fingernail could scratch the skin.
He brought his nose closer and smelled it; it had an earthy smell and a fresh, unique scent of plants.
"What's this?"
"Potato."
These potatoes were found by Lin Yinan at a seed technology company during a mission in the post-apocalyptic world. Three years had passed since the apocalypse, but the potatoes were still well preserved in the company's seed warehouse, totaling one thousand kilograms.
She stored all 1,000 jin of potato seeds in her spatial storage, a fact unknown to anyone, not even her partner, Yu Xiaojia.
She had planned to find a place to live in seclusion after eliminating all the zombies, and learn to farm and grow potatoes, but she never got to see that day.
However, now is the perfect time to promote potatoes.
How do we eat this?
"It can be eaten as a meal or as a side dish, and it can fill you up just like rice and corn."
Potatoes contain a large amount of starch, as well as protein, amino acids, and various vitamins and minerals.
"What a strange thing! We've never even heard of it before. Anan, how are we going to explain this to the outside world?"
Lin Yinan had already thought of this problem. She smiled slightly and said, "Just say that it was found on the Japanese pirate ship. Now that the Japanese no longer invade, we can put the blame on them and no one will investigate."
Lin Yiheng stepped forward, picked up a few bags, and weighed them in his hands. "There should be three hundred jin here. Have you planted them all?"
"Yes, they've all been planted."
Hearing her say that, Lin Yiheng swallowed the words he was about to say. He was still thinking of cooking a meal to see what it tasted like.
He knew the seeds were precious, and it wouldn't hurt to eat them after they were grown. "How many acres of land can these potatoes plant?"
"We can only cultivate about one acre."
“It takes only a short time to cultivate an acre of land, so when do you plan to plant it?” Lin Yiheng pondered in his mind.
"The first step in planting potatoes is to sprout them, which takes about five to seven days. We need to take the seeds out and cut them into pieces first."
Lin Yiheng's heart skipped a beat, "Can he still live after being cut open?"
"Yes, we cut them open to encourage germination, so we can plant them in the ground after they sprout."
"Okay, I'll call some people in now to help carry it out."
Lin Yiheng was about to go out to call someone when Lin Yinan quickly stopped him, "Go to the kitchen and bring over two baskets of wood ash."
Lin Yiheng didn't know what he was going to do with the wood ash, but he obediently did as he was told.
When Aunt Li and Yu Niang each carried a basket of wood ash, the clan chief and village chief of Linjia Village, as well as Uncle Lin, came over.
In the early spring of March, when the weather was still chilly, the three elderly people unfortunately caught a cold. They were unsteady on their feet, but they still insisted on working in the fields.
The younger villagers reported this directly to Lin Yinan, who strictly forbade them from going to the fields. They had no choice but to stay home and rest for the past few days.
They are getting old, and having an elder in the family is like having a treasure. Lin Yinan hopes they can live a long life.
They were very curious when they heard that Lin Yinan had a new seed that could yield several thousand kilograms per mu.
Aunt Li and Yu Niang are always practical people. They put down their baskets, took out the kitchen knives from their waists, and Aunt Li asked Lin Yinan with a smile.
"Anan, what do you want me to cut?"
Lin Yinan untied the burlap sack and poured out the round potatoes. "Here, cut these."
Aunt Li and the others bent down and picked one up. The clan chief looked at it from left to right and made sure he had never seen this thing before.
"Anan, is this the potato you were talking about?"
"Yes, it was found when we seized the Japanese pirate ships. After some severe torture, the Japanese pirates finally confessed everything about the potatoes." Lin Yinan lied without batting an eye.
Is the yield high?
"It's not just tall, it's extremely tall. It's said that if you take good care of it, it can yield one or two thousand catties per mu."
Lin Yinan's words were conservative, and everyone gasped, their faces showing disbelief.
"So tall!"
Just then, a guard brought over a wooden board, and Lin Yinan took the knife from Aunt Li to demonstrate.
"Look closely at the sprouts on the potatoes. Cut them into pieces like this, with at least one or two sprouts on each piece. Don't cut them too small. The smaller the potato pieces, the less nutrients and water they contain, which will affect the development of the seedlings."
"If there are any moldy or blackened pieces, pick them out and don't cut them. You two try it."
They heard that this stuff was hard to come by and very precious. Aunt Li and Yu Niang carefully cut a few pieces at first, but after Lin Yinan checked and found no problems, they started cutting more.
Being seasoned cooks, the two chopped quickly and skillfully, soon leaving a pile of chopped food on the floor.
The clan chief was heartbroken to see them carelessly placing the chopped potatoes on the ground. He picked up the chopped potato pieces and scooped them up with the hem of his robe.
"Anan, isn't it okay to leave it on the ground like this? Shouldn't we put it in wood ash?"
Lin Yinan looked at the juice still seeping from the potato chunks, "We have to wait for the cut surfaces to dry before we can coat them with wood ash."
"We can't just leave them on the ground like this; the ground is dirty."
Lin Chunfang, who had come to help, had just stepped into the courtyard when she heard the clan chief's words. She left after saying just one sentence.
"I'll go to the kitchen to get a winnowing basket to dry."
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