"Take the wild mushrooms you picked back with you. We'll have wild mushroom and egg soup for lunch."
Zhao Lingling was overjoyed to see so many big steamed buns; now she would have steamed buns to eat.
Seeing his younger sister run far away, Zhao Xian began selling ground mushrooms. These ground mushrooms weighed a total of eleven catties and eight taels, and were priced at one hundred and twenty coins per catty, for a total of more than one thousand four hundred coins.
"Haha, another tael of silver is back." Zhao Xian laughed.
He bought some seasonings for making kimchi, which cost over a hundred coins. These seasonings could make several hundred kilograms of kimchi.
Based on this calculation, the cost of one pound of kimchi is less than one cent.
The kimchi I make can easily sell for more than ten coins per pound, and I can definitely make a profit.
He bought ten kilograms of rice and some vegetables through the system, and after thinking about it, he also bought some seasonings. Since he has a big carp at home, he doesn't need to buy meat anymore.
He had too many copper coins, so he exchanged a thousand copper coins for one tael of silver, leaving him with two hundred copper coins.
After he finished doing these things, he picked up his basket and headed back.
When he got home, the first thing he did was check the vegetable leaves hanging on the line.
The vegetable leaves have dried and are ready to be made into kimchi.
No one in the family went out. They were anxiously waiting for Zhao Xian to come back and make kimchi. Zhao Lingling had just come back and said that Zhao Xian had traded steamed buns for ground mushrooms. At first, they were very surprised, but then they thought it made sense.
My brother is a scholar, so he not only knows a lot of things, but also knows a lot of people. It's normal for him to help people exchange steamed buns for wild mushrooms.
Zhao Lingling brought back several large steamed buns, which really excited them. Those tempting steamed buns must be delicious.
This time, he wanted to teach his mother and two younger brothers how to make kimchi.
So he began to seriously explain the ingredients used to make kimchi.
"This is coarse salt, the main ingredient for making pickles, primarily for pickling vegetables," Zhao Xian began, explaining each ingredient one by one.
The system also has coarse salt, mainly used for food pickling, but the quality is much better than the coarse salt sold in salt shops.
"Brother, I heard that coarse salt costs fifty coins a pound. That's too expensive. It's definitely not worth using it to make pickles." Zhao Xiaosheng said with some concern.
"One pound of coarse salt can make fifty pounds of pickled vegetables. If these pickled vegetables were sold, they could fetch at least five hundred coins, which would definitely be a good deal."
Zhao Xian had said that selling kimchi could make money, but they never expected it to be this profitable. Their hearts started pounding.
"These are star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, Sichuan peppercorns, small red chilies, white vinegar..." Zhao Xian introduced them one by one, and the others listened attentively.
These things didn't exist at that time, and you couldn't buy them on the market at all, so he wasn't afraid of it getting out.
When Zhao Xian introduced rock sugar, Zhao Lingling immediately became interested upon hearing the word "sugar".
"Brother, what is rock candy? Can you eat it?"
Zhao Xian smiled, didn't say anything, and put a piece of rock candy into Zhao Lingling's mouth.
"So sweet, so delicious!" Zhao Lingling exclaimed.
Seeing how much his younger sister enjoyed it, his mother and two younger brothers also wanted to try some.
"Rock sugar is delicious and not very expensive. Try it all. To make kimchi, you need to understand the properties of these ingredients first."
The group took a piece of rock candy and put it in their mouths to taste it. It was so delicious, much better than some pastries.
Finally, Zhao Xian took out the yeast and said to them:
"This is called starter culture powder. It can greatly shorten the time for making kimchi. Without starter culture powder, it takes at least three days to make kimchi, but with starter culture powder, it can be eaten in just half a day."
After explaining all this, Zhao Xian began to teach them how to make kimchi.
He first had the dried vegetables taken down, chopped them into small pieces, and then added various ingredients in order to marinate them, while constantly twisting and kneading to ensure the vegetable leaves were fully mixed with the ingredients.
During the preparation process, Zhao Xian repeatedly emphasized the proportions of the ingredients used, as this is how to make the best-tasting pickled vegetables.
The whole family took the process very seriously, but it's unrealistic to expect them to remember how to make kimchi after just one lesson. I need to patiently teach them several times.
After completing the main processes, the next step is to pack the food into containers, seal them, and allow them to ferment.
Li Chun'e found a larger earthenware jar, put the pickled vegetables inside, and then sealed the jar.
After doing all that, all I have to do is wait. I estimate that I'll be able to enjoy delicious kimchi by tomorrow morning.
It was lunchtime, and Zhao Xian was about to make lunch when Li Chun'e stopped him.
"Zhao Xian, you take a rest and let your mother do it. I know how to use seasonings and I can cook a good meal. I'll clean the fish first. We'll have carp for lunch. We can't finish all these fish in one meal, so I'll marinate half of one first."
Zhao Xian didn't say anything; he let his mother cook, then suddenly remembered something.
"Mother, let's cook all the carp and send some to Uncle, Grandpa, and Grandma so they can have a taste."
Li Chun'e was taken aback at first, then smiled, it seemed that her scholar son had completely changed.
Zhao Xian was intelligent and sensible from a young age, passing the imperial examination at the age of eleven. He became a scholar at the county level and a licentiate at the age of fourteen, becoming the pride of the Zhao family.
The entire family poured all their resources into his education, hoping he would become an official and benefit the whole family.
He wanted to pass the imperial examination to become a scholar, but he was repeatedly thwarted, and gradually his mentality deteriorated.
He longed for a life of luxury, but his family had been farmers for generations. He believed that the reason he could not pass the imperial examination was because he was born into a peasant family.
Because he was a scholar, he enjoyed many privileges. He was ambitious but his fate was as fragile as paper. He disregarded the people around him, and even his own family, Zhao Xian did not give them a second glance.
But today Zhao Xian asked her to cook all the fish and send some to her uncle, grandfather, and grandmother's house, which shows that Zhao Xian still cares about them.
Two days ago, their son was placed on a door panel as if he were dead, which made the Zhao family very sad. Fortunately, their son eventually woke up. If their son had really died, their grandparents would have wanted to die.
Just then, the village carpenter arrived with the village head.
The village head, surnamed Wang, is over fifty years old and has served as the village head for more than ten years.
Zhao Xian let the two of them into the house, already knowing their purpose.
"The village head has arrived. Please have a seat."
"Scholar, you don't need to be so polite. Your villagers have done a good deed by spending money to build waterwheels for the villagers to use, and the villagers are very grateful to you."
But our village has 150 households and more than 1,000 mu of paddy fields, and one waterwheel is simply not enough to handle them all.
Some villagers chipped in to build a waterwheel, but the carpenter said he dared not build it because you provided the blueprints, and he didn't know what your requirements were.
Wang Lizheng's visit was something he had expected. He wanted to promote the use of waterwheels so that the working people could benefit.
The village head is the most suitable person to do this. He should give the credit to the village head, since he will need to ask the village head for help many more times in the future.
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