latelenovela Chapter 173 The Sweet Potatoes Are Ripe
Chapter 173 The Sweet Potatoes Are Ripe
Tian Tian was unaware of these matters. After accompanying Li Huaiyuan in entertaining the three adults from the prefectural city, she went back to her own business.
The potatoes were just harvested, and now the sweet potatoes are ripe!
Qian Fulai accompanied Tian Tian to the field.
This huge field of sweet potatoes... he'd never seen the fruit growing underground before.
The potato leaves on these have already earned him a lot of money.
Potato leaves, though seemingly simple green leaves, can actually be prepared in several ways.
The most popular dish is stir-fried sweet potato leaves with minced garlic. It's simple to make and preserves the tenderness of the sweet potato leaves to the maximum extent.
Other dishes include cold potato leaf salad and potato leaf rolls.
Sweet potato leaves have a unique flavor, which is fragrant, sweet, and has a crisp and smooth texture.
I just don't know...
How does the sweet potato below taste?
It took the farmers in Qianjiazhuangzi nearly twenty days to harvest potatoes.
Each one had solid muscles dug out.
Of course, they were even happier about the potato yield.
The yield is 3,800 jin per mu, of which 1,140 jin are theirs.
Tian Tian had already notified everyone that she would be in charge of purchasing the potatoes, at a price of five copper coins per pound.
They calculated that 30% of 100 mu of potatoes could be sold for 570 taels!
There were more than twenty of them in total, and each person could receive more than twenty taels.
In the past, if you grew rice and converted all the grain you received into silver, it would only amount to eight or nine taels.
This twenty-odd taels is more than double what they earned growing rice before!
And that's without even counting the sweet potatoes.
The second daughter once said that sweet potatoes are produced in greater quantities than potatoes.
"Girl, let's start digging!" The farmers couldn't wait any longer.
Each of them carried a pickaxe and shovel for digging potatoes, ready to rush into the field at Tian Tian's command.
"Don't be impatient, listen to me first."
Tian Tian gestured for everyone to quiet down.
"Before digging up the sweet potatoes, we have to pull off all the sweet potato vines."
Half of the sweet potato vines have withered, but some are still fresh, with many tender leaves at the top.
These leaves are also very useful.
"You have to be careful when digging sweet potatoes, just like when you dig potatoes, because you have to tear off the vines first."
"Those responsible for picking sweet potatoes should scrape off some of the soil from the surface of the sweet potatoes, and absolutely must not wash them with water."
"The dug sweet potatoes are first laid out on flat ground to dry for three or four days before being stored in the warehouse."
Freshly harvested sweet potatoes have delicate skin and are full of moisture. They are dried for three or four days to evaporate the moisture on their surface so that they can be stored for a longer period of time.
"Second Miss, we understand," everyone said in unison.
Tian Tian smiled and waved her hand, "Then let's dig."
The farmers rushed into the fields, and together they tore off the sweet potato leaves from several acres of land.
Then we started digging sweet potatoes.
"Wow, so many! So big! So red!!" The first person to dig up a whole sweet potato plant exaggeratedly carried a string of sweet potatoes.
On that one root hung eight or nine bright red sweet potatoes, pointed at both ends and thick in the middle, with some rootlets below them.
Others also dug up the whole sweet potato plants one after another.
The ones everyone dug up were the same as before, with eight or nine, or even ten, sweet potatoes hanging from each root.
"This one must weigh several kilograms." Everyone weighed the sweet potato in their hands.
The person closest to her handed the whole sweet potato to Tian Tian like a treasure.
When Tian Tian took it, she almost dropped it, but luckily Qian Fulai helped her catch it.
"It's so heavy...it must weigh seven or eight pounds." Qian Fulai weighed it in his hand.
Tian Tian's sweet potatoes are quite large; even if a single sweet potato doesn't weigh a pound, it can still weigh eight or nine ounces.
There are eight or nine on this string...it must weigh at least seven or eight pounds.
"Tian Er, what dishes can we make with these sweet potatoes?"
Qian Fulai was genuinely curious.
The potatoes we dug up earlier can be used in various ways: they can be cooked, served as snacks, or even made into pastries. They are incredibly versatile.
This sweet potato, planted alongside potatoes, can't be any worse than potatoes, right?
He was really looking forward to it.
"Sweet potatoes... can be used to make many dishes and pastries, as for vegetables..." Tian Tian couldn't think of too many for a moment, only remembering one... "There's candied sweet potato."
Looking at the dug-out sweet potatoes, she suddenly missed their sweet taste.
"I'll take some sweet potatoes back with me later and cook a few dishes for everyone to try."
Upon hearing this, Qian Fulai exclaimed, "Then I should inform my parents!"
Tian Tian nodded, "Hmm, let's go to... Baishi Tea House."
The farmers tacitly agreed to dig up the sweet potatoes from the same acre of land, put them in bamboo baskets, weighed them first, and then spread them out on the flat ground to dry, as Tian Tian had instructed.
"Sweet potatoes will definitely yield more than potatoes." There are no results yet, but the farmers already have their own guesses.
first...
"Sweet potatoes are bigger than potatoes..."
"Last time we dug potatoes, it only took us half a day to dig one acre."
"It took longer to dig sweet potatoes today."
"How many kilograms are we talking about now?"
"It's already five thousand catties."
"It's already five thousand catties?" Everyone looked back; there was still a piece of land that hadn't been dug out yet.
"The yield of sweet potatoes per mu...it can't be 6,000 jin, right?" If it's 6,000 jin, that's twice that of potatoes.
"Hurry up and dig, you'll know when you're done."
Everyone rolled up their sleeves and dug with all their might.
Another half hour passed, and all the sweet potatoes were dug out.
No one was in the mood to continue digging; everyone was waiting for the weighing results.
"Second Miss, the weight is out."
"Seven thousand three hundred catties."
"Seven thousand three hundred catties?!" The crowd gasped in astonishment!
3,800 jin of potatoes and 7,300 jin of sweet potatoes!! That's actually double the amount.
"These sweet potatoes can be eaten raw, everyone should try them."
As Tian Tian spoke, she took a sweet potato and temporarily bought a peeler from the system.
She quickly peeled off half a sweet potato and handed it to Qian Fulai, saying, "You should try some too."
She dug one out herself and took a bite.
The sweet potato is crisp, sweet, and refreshing... Take a bite and your mouth will be filled with saliva.
Qian Fulai took a bite and said, "Mmm, delicious."
It smells wonderful! And it tastes sweet.
No wonder Tian Er said that this sweet potato is mostly used for meals and pastries, as it has a natural sweetness.
"Pack me a few baskets, I'll take them back to the teahouse."
Before leaving, Tian Tian encouraged the farmers, "I'll still buy these sweet potatoes and potatoes for five coins a pound. Everyone, please work hard and dig them out as soon as possible."
"There are still very important things to do."
"Don't worry, girl, we'll dig it out as soon as possible." Hearing this, the farmers rallied even stronger.
They can get more than 20 liang (a unit of weight) of potatoes from 100 mu (a unit of land area).
If the yield of sweet potatoes doubles from one hundred mu of land, then the silver they receive will also double, amounting to more than forty taels.
That year, they would receive more than sixty taels.
More than sixty taels!
This is money that takes years to earn!
How could they not work hard?!
If they knew that the important thing Tian Tian mentioned... could bring them even more money, they would probably regret not speaking louder than they did.