Chapter 124 Making Dried Fruits and Dried Sweet Potatoes
"Mom, godmother, brother Jiankang, do you think we can finish eating so many sweet potatoes?" Yike asked.
"It definitely can't be finished, but we still have to feed the pigs and cows, right? And there are so many chickens and ducks, that's going to be a lot of food too," Du Jiankang replied.
"Mother, godmother, are you willing to give it all to the livestock?"
"We can't bear to part with it. We can sell some of it."
"Yes, sell some and leave some for the animals to eat. If it's not enough, we can still have sweet potato vines. If it's still not enough, we can pick leaves to make do with. We can't eat all the sweet potatoes. It's such a waste! People outside don't even have sweet potato leaves to eat."
"Mom, Aunt Yuling, Sister Yike, we can't sell many sweet potatoes even if we want to because they are too heavy. We can't use a cart to carry them out of the mountains, we can only use a wheelbarrow. Sweet potatoes are hard, unlike meat which is soft and easy to tie. We might as well grind them into powder. And sweet potato powder is very expensive. We can feed the sweet potato residue to pigs so that it won't be wasted."
"Brother Jiankang, what a great idea! Sweet potatoes can not only be ground into powder, but also dried into sweet potato chips. The fruits in the orchard are about to ripen, and I am preparing to make dried fruits. This way, I can sell them together with the dried fruits."
"I know some people buy sweet potato flour, but does anyone buy dried fruit or sweet potato?"
"Don't worry, we will sell it in big cities, and it will definitely sell well." Yi Ke was full of confidence. There were still many rich people in big cities, but they had money but nothing to buy.
"Then we can dry the sweet potato vines and then dry the sweet potatoes." "I also want to make canned fruit. After Ziyi and his friends have planted wheat, I will ask them to help me make bamboo tube jars. When the time comes, I will process the fruit and put it into the bamboo tubes, seal them with wooden corks, and then seal the mouth with wax. In this way, the canned fruit will not go bad for at least three months."
"Didn't you say you wanted to canned meat? You can make some canned meat when you have some free time."
"Isn't the pig not grown up yet? Why do you want to kill it, mom?" Du Jiankang asked Wang Cuihua.
Wang Cuihua took a sip of the snake soup and said, "Why kill pigs? We have plenty of rabbits, right? Let's kill the rabbits first and make canned rabbit meat."
As soon as I thought about the fact that there are eight or nine rabbits in a litter, and they only grow up in two or three months, and give birth five or six times a year. Now half of the cave has been separated for the rabbits to move around, and the other half is full of rabbits, I decided to make canned rabbit meat in the second half of the year.
"We have more time in the second half of the year, so we'll make canned rabbit meat. When we make 500 cans, we'll give them away to sell."
"That's good. Those rabbits are annoying me to death. They give birth to so many babies so quickly. Even if we give them half the territory, it's still not enough. Now when I go to clean the area, there's no place to step. I'm afraid I'll step on a rabbit if I take a big step. Besides, we're tired of eating rabbit meat every day." Wang Cuihua often feeds rabbits, so she always complains when she talks about rabbits.
"Oh, what's wrong with those men? Why do they drink so much? Look, they are talking nonsense." Zhang Yuling suddenly exclaimed.
Sure enough, the people drinking at that table were drunk. Liu Bing and Wang Feng were sitting on the ground, leaning against the table legs and falling asleep. Du Qingcang was lying on the table snoring loudly. Ma Youcai and Dong Guoqing were still clamoring for another drink. Only Li Haoran and his son were eating their food in silence, and refilling Ma Youcai and Dong Guoqing's glasses with wine from time to time.
"How could you two do this? You got them all drunk and then you eat all by yourself?" Zhang Yuling went over and tried to take Ma Youcai's wine glass.
"Auntie, don't take it away. I can still drink. Today won't be over until I get him drunk." Ma Youcai staggered to protect the cup.
"Wife, don't worry about it. After you have eaten, go and rest. I'm here." Li Haoran said.
"Mom, you go and have a rest. Tell Yike to go and have a rest too. Don't wait for me. The two of them are going to compete in drinking more water and alcohol today. They won't stop until there is a result." Ziyi also said to Zhang Yuling.
"Well, then you two shouldn't drink too much." Zhang Yuling had no choice but to give up and came over to talk to Yike. Then, after their table was full, they went to rest and ignored the table that was drinking.
…
The next day the sun rose early again, as if it was not the one that lost its temper yesterday. However, no one could do anything about it and everyone had to cheer for the sunshine after the rain.
The land where the sweet potatoes had been dug was wet, but fortunately Du Qingcang was a good farmer and he asked everyone to dig ditches and make raised ridges at the beginning. So even though it rained heavily yesterday, there was no water in the wheat field.
"Godfather, could the organic fertilizer we applied a few days ago have been washed away by yesterday's heavy rain?" Yi Ke was really worried.
Du Qingcang smiled and said, "It's not that easy to disappear. The fertilizer was deeply plowed into the soil when the land was prepared."
"Oh! So that's how it is. So now you don't apply fertilizer after turning the seeds?"
"Yes, it was called top dressing at that time, and now it is called basal fertilizer. Not only do we need to apply fertilizer, but we also need to irrigate the fields. However, this place is close to a stream, so it is convenient to irrigate the fields. If it rains, we don't need to irrigate the fields. In some places, there is no rain, and there are no rivers or streams, so we have to carry buckets of water to irrigate the fields manually, which is hard work."
"I never thought growing wheat was so hard. I thought I just had to plant the seeds and pull out the weeds." Yike has never plowed a field in her two lifetimes. Although she did farm work in the first ten years of her life, because she was young, she only pulled out weeds and dug the ground. She had no opportunity or ability to do such technical work, so she didn't know.
"You don't need to learn these. You are so smart, so you should do the work that requires your brain. You can leave the physical work like farming to us." Du Qingcang admired his goddaughter very much for being able to come up with so many good ideas. The organic fertilizer applied in the wheat fields is something that has never been seen before. Buying fertilizer outside is not only expensive but also difficult to buy. With just a few words, the goddaughter taught everyone how to make this organic fertilizer, and they no longer have to worry about running out of fertilizer when farming.
The weather was nice and sunny during the days of planting wheat, allowing everyone to plant the wheat smoothly. After planting wheat, Yike started taking everyone to pick fruits and make canned and dried fruits. He also asked Ziyi to lead everyone to build a big kang against the wall of the cave. This kang was not for sleeping, but for baking dried sweet potatoes and dried fruits. Simply relying on the sun is not enough, so one can take a two-pronged approach.
For half a year, Yike was busy like a top. Mainly busy making dried sweet potatoes, dried fruits, and canned fruits. Then they had to make canned rabbit meat, which they found to be very popular when they took them out to sell, with high prices and good sales. Ma Youcai and his friends were so happy that they couldn't stop smiling.
In order to produce more, there were not enough people, so Ma Youcai and his companions often took turns to stay and help. Even Tang Jianguo, the nominal black market boss, had to serve as a transporter. Because Ma Youcai and his companions had to stay and help, there was no one to deliver the goods outside.
Later, Ziyi decided to let Li Youcai, Chen Shengli and Hu Haohan's families do whatever they could, calculating by quantity, with the method of "the more they do, the more they earn". Everyone felt a little relieved, and Ma Youcai and Li Haoran were finally able to go out from time to time. This winter is not as cold as last year. Li Haoran asked everyone to help build a house in the cave in the paradise. It is also a wooden house like the one Li Youcai and his family used. Ma Youcai and several others also built a row house together. Wang Hongjun in the provincial capital also sent a message asking for a room. This will be his home in the future and he will spend the New Year holidays here. Of course, theirs is not that big, with only two rooms, a bedroom with a bathroom, a warehouse, a shared main room, and a large kitchen. The overall look is just like the factory dormitories in the previous life.
The New Year has come again in the midst of busyness. This is the second New Year that I can celebrate in this world. Compared to last year when I celebrated the New Year alone in the cold and lonely, this year is much more lively and happier. Ma Youcai, Wang Feng, Liu Bing, Dong Guoqing and Wang Hongjun, who had no family, all came into the mountains to celebrate the New Year together.
Today is New Year's Eve. Li Haoran invited Li Youcai, Chen Shengli and Hu Haohan's families to have a reunion dinner together.
The women were busy cooking and frying, and the grown men were also busy on New Year's Eve. They all ran to the traps to see if any prey had fallen into the net. They even threatened to make a few more nooses and dig a few more traps. Strive to have a good harvest at the beginning of next year. If you cast a wide net, you will always catch prey.
Sisters Yike and Hu Lili, together with Chen Fugui, were responsible for arranging the snacks.
"Fugui, do you want to have a bite?" Yike raised the dried fruits in his hand and teased Chen Fugui.
"Is it okay? Mom said that I can't eat anything randomly. I have to wait until everyone starts eating. I'm a good boy and I won't eat." Chen Fugui said he didn't want to eat, but he couldn't help swallowing his saliva.
"Come, come, each of you eat some dried fruits first and then set aside." Yike distributed two dried apples, five raisins, and a handful of dried sweet potatoes to each person. This year, there were the most dried sweet potatoes. More than half of them were made into dried sweet potatoes. Only a part was made into sweet potato flour, a part was left for steaming in the morning, and a part was left as a snack for the animals.
"Sister Yike, have you sold all your chestnuts?" While eating grapes, Hu Fenfen thought of the chestnuts that Yike had given her before.
"They're all sold. There aren't many chestnuts, only over 100 kilograms. We sold some and ate some. Next year, you can ask your father and Ziyi and the others to go to the forest to look for chestnut trees. If there are any, we can transplant them back so that we can have chestnuts to eat next year." There are still too few chestnuts on Chestnut Hill, and Yike also thought about planting more.
Hu Lili likes spicy food, so she asked, "Sister Yike, how do you grow your peppers? Can you teach me how to grow some next year?"
"Sure. Next year, go to my ginger and pepper garden and dig up some seedlings to plant. If you want to plant more, you can take the seeds home and plant your own seedlings."
"Okay, can I take some back when I go back? I want to grow more. I want to learn how to make chili sauce like you, it's delicious with rice."
"Okay, I'll teach you how to make chili sauce then."
"I want one too. I want one too. Sister Yike, I also like the chili sauce you make. I also want to grow chili peppers. You teach me how to make chili sauce." As soon as Chen Fugui heard about eating, he wanted to learn how to grow chili peppers.
Seeing that everyone wanted to plant, Li Xiaoying hurriedly walked up to Yike and said, "Sister Yike, I want to plant too. Please give me some too. I will cut grass for you."
"Yes, yes, we can cut grass for the cows in exchange. Mom said that we can't take other people's things for free." Hu Lili and Chen Fugui also expressed their willingness to cut grass in exchange.
"Okay, you all have them. I have saved a lot of seeds. You can have as many as you want. I will teach you all when the time comes to make chili sauce." Yi Ke said with a smile.
"Now that we're done eating, let's start setting up the table." Yike gave everyone a bag filled with different dried fruits.
There were five bamboo baskets on the table, similar in shape to the fruit bowls in the previous life. Each basket should be filled with different kinds of dried fruits and placed on the table during the New Year's Eve stay-at-home party for everyone to eat.
After the dried fruits were packed, Yike took them to set up the tables and stools. There were two tables in total, one table for the men who drank, and one table for the men, women and children who did not drink. After setting the table, Yike took them to wash the dishes.
Du Jiankang and Hu Xiangdong pasted couplets on every door. As for the Utopia, couplets were already pasted on the house when they moved into the new house, so there was no need to paste them again.
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