Traveling through troubled times to escape famine and cultivate crops as a grain merchant

Chapter 236 Preparation of Ginseng

Li smiled and said, "No, this table is old. The shopkeeper sold it to the two children at a low price. This basin is not expensive either..."

When I returned to the village and ran into other families, I saw that they were bringing back a cart of furniture, so I said, "We must go shopping next time we go to the market. We don't even have a table to eat at home, and it's not nice to squat in the yard all day."

Zhou Guo placed the new table in a place in the yard where it would not block the way. When the weather was good, he could eat three meals a day in the yard. He placed a stool next to the table so he could sit down when he was tired.

She sat down on a stool, looked at the newly built courtyard, smelled the fragrance of orchids in the air, and suddenly felt that life was quite comfortable.

"Oh, Zhou Gu, can't you wait a while before letting go? My hand almost broke!" Zhou Dacang's voice came from the toilet.

"I'm sorry, uncle, I really didn't mean it, my hand slipped!"

Several people were renovating the toilet at home today. The roof and other things had been built before, so now the pit needed to be repaired. It is cleaner to build it with stones than with wood, and it can be cleaned by just flushing it with water.

Zhou Guo didn't want to go there, so he went to find the old man, "Master, I cut six pounds of mutton, bought two stacks of cakes, and a few bowls of soup. This is what we'll have for lunch."

The old man was still rubbing the fur. He nodded and said "hmm". When he had rubbed the fur in his hands for almost enough, he picked up the fur on the ground and went into the house.

Zhou Guo was stunned and looked up at the sky. "Master, where are you going? It's not even noon yet."

The old man asked, "Don't you want to learn how to prepare ginseng?"

When Zhou Guo heard this, he stood up and followed him inside.

……

The Zhou family's children formed a circle and watched the old man's movements.

"Wrap the ginseng in a wet cloth, moisten it, and roast it slowly over the fire. Don't be impatient, like this..."

This step was a bit long and the children had little patience, so they stood up and left after watching for a while.

In the end, only Zhou Guo and Zhou Mai were left.

When it was done, the old man asked the two to touch it with their hands and said, "This is it."

Zhou Guo waited for the next step with sparkling eyes.

The old man put the roasted ginseng into the sieve and placed it under the eaves in a well-ventilated place away from the sun. Then he went to roast another one and gave one to Zhou Guo and Zhou Mai respectively. "Don't just watch, try it too."

Zhou Guo looked at the sieve, thinking that he had to roast out the remaining ginseng before proceeding to the next step.

The men roasted all the ginseng, and the old man put them all into the sieve. He took a rope and passed it through the edge of the sieve and hung it under the eaves, where it was well ventilated but not exposed to the sun. "It's done."

Zhou Guo was dumbfounded, "That's it?"

Zhou Mai also found it incredible.

The old man clapped his hands. "That's all. This is just one of the methods. It's said to be the simplest. I only learned this. It's enough. Put it in boxes after it's dried. Remember to turn it over every day. Collect it at night, even if it rains. It will get moldy if it gets wet."

Zhou Guo was greatly shocked. He couldn't believe that ginseng, a rare treasure from heaven, was so simple to prepare, yet there were really only these few steps.

Zhou Mai smiled and said, "It's better to keep it simple. It's not hard for us to remember and we can get started quickly."

The old man twirled his beard with satisfaction. This was exactly what he thought at the beginning.

After the two men left, Zhou Guo stood in front of the sieve, looking at the ginseng in a daze.

At noon, Zhou Xing did not cook, but only heated up the mutton soup and mutton that Zhou Guo brought back, and the family ate bread and meat with the soup.

One bowl of mutton offal soup was not enough for each person, so she simply added a few large ladles of water and some salt, and boiled it. Not to mention one bowl per person, three bowls would be enough for each person. Drink as much as you want, and if it is not enough, just add more water.

Zhou Guo accidentally saw her rough way of making soup, and his brows were twisted into a knot. Is it possible to taste the flavor of the mutton offal soup that has been heated like this?

Zhou Xing said, "Who cares if you can taste the flavor or not? As long as there's soup, it's better than drinking water. Besides, there's so much meat and soup in it, don't worry, it will definitely taste good. Didn't I add so much salt to it?"

The old man happened to pass by and shook his head when he saw her half pot of water and half pot of soup. He thought that he should go with her next time she went to the market. At least he could have a bowl of delicious mutton soup.

……

Zhou Guo took a sip of the hot soup...hmm, it tasted salty, but after careful tasting, it still had a bit of the original soup flavor. He ate a piece of mutton offal, which tasted bland but quite chewy.

He drank half a bowl of soup, tore the bread in his hand into pieces, soaked it in the soup bowl, pressed it, put a piece of mutton on the softened bread, two pieces of bread and one piece of meat, like a roujiamo, and stuffed a big piece into his mouth.

The aroma of the cake and the meat, it is soft and chewy, and tastes very good.

She ate six cakes and drank three bowls of soup in one breath, and was about 50% full. She still bought too few cakes. She didn't expect Zhou Xing really didn't cook a grain of rice and just ate cakes. If she ate to her heart's content, there would be nothing for others to eat.

Li handed her the cake in her hand and said, "I can't eat this one anymore, you eat it."

Zhou Guo waved his hand and said, "Eat it yourself." How could he be full after eating just one and a half meals?

After dinner, Zhou Dacang and his companions continued to repair the toilet. The old man fiddled with his leather, and Li Zhou Xing was busy making shoes.

Zhou Guo called Zhou Mi, and the two of them each pulled a cart, planning to go cut grass. They had to prepare more fodder for the winter.

In one afternoon, the two men made four trips and brought back eight carts of fodder. They spread it in the yard, on the fence, on the pile of rocks next to the vegetable garden, or wherever there was open space.

Zhou Xing and the others looked at the results of the two people's afternoon work and shook their heads. They had been picking and choosing for a whole day and only managed to harvest this much. Sometimes they even walked further away and still couldn't harvest this much.

Zhou Gu said: "I said that you should not be too picky in doing anything. Look, I was very picky, but I didn't bring back more than half of what others did."

Zhou Xing looked at Zhou Mi, "Why are you the same as Guo Guo now? I remember that you had to pick the grass before to cut it."

Zhou Mi said, "That's fast. I can harvest three bundles of fruit by harvesting half a bundle. Do you think half a bundle or three bundles will be enough to fill me up?"

"Of course three bundles are enough to fill you up."

"That's it. They are all grass. The grass in three bundles may not be less than that in my half bundle. They don't know what is beautiful or ugly, so it's useless to arrange them neatly."

Zhou Mai smiled and nodded, "Yes, it is indeed much faster to cut it this way."

Wang Qian's family from next door came back from the fields and passed by. Seeing the green grass spread out on the ground to dry in the sun, they were very envious. They pulled Li and said, "Sister-in-law, you are lucky. There are many children in your family, so there is enough manpower. Unlike me, I have to do everything by myself. Every day I wish I could grow a few more hands and split into two people."

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The method of processing ginseng is taken from "Shennong's Herbal Classic"