If these chrysanthemums were planted along the roadside, wouldn't it be like having several acres of extra harvest for free?
Moreover, unlike growing crops, which requires large-scale land reclamation, planting flowers only requires digging planting holes about the size of a washbasin at intervals.
The main advantage of doing this is that it will not damage the mountain vegetation, and it will not occupy the people's original farmland.
The public's resistance will also be greatly reduced.
"Yes, yes, yes! And if Langshan is covered with chrysanthemums, and the mountains are in full bloom in autumn, our town might be able to hold a tourism festival."
Sun Zheyuan became more and more excited as he thought about it, and couldn't help but pat Jiang Xiaoman on the shoulder, "You're pretty good, kid! You're quite quick-witted."
"Hehe~ This isn't actually my own idea; I saw it on a TV show before." Jiang Xiaoman, with her social media savvy, took the opportunity to take out her phone and add the poverty alleviation cadre as a friend.
I also recommended several videos to him about how chrysanthemum cultivation has helped local people get rich.
"Director Sun, look, this is the video. This town is also in a mountainous and hilly area. They are short of water, and the environment is not as good as ours. Look at their chrysanthemums, aren't they growing very well?"
Jiang Xiaoman specifically found this case study to show the town's leaders, and even downloaded it in advance to save them mobile data.
Sun Zheyuan then took Jiang Xiaoman's phone and sat down to look at it for a while during the break. Once he started looking at it, the others couldn't help but join in, and no one wanted to leave.
Since the program was only about ten minutes long, Jiang Xiaoman simply let them watch the video first, while she squatted by the mountain spring and picked a couple of handfuls of tender, newly sprouting houttuynia cordata.
The houttuynia cordata sold in the market is usually the root, but Jiang Xiaoman really likes to eat the tender shoots on the top, especially the shoots in this season, the first shoots that just sprout in early spring. She picks them, washes them, cuts them a few times, and simply mixes them with salt, minced garlic, and chili oil. They taste particularly refreshing.
If you don't like cold dishes, the tender leaves of this houttuynia cordata are also delicious in hot pot.
Most importantly, this dish is free!
Jiang Xiaoman, who was born with the "saving money gene," has been planting a little here and a little there along the road from her home to the village since she was old enough to understand things.
Now, along the road from the village at the foot of the mountain to Jiang Xiaoman's home, the roadside and ditches are covered with common rural wild vegetables such as purslane, dandelion, water celery, houttuynia cordata, wild onion, wild garlic, wild amaranth, toon, and wild lily.
They even planted a lot of jelly fruit, wild hawthorn, and Sichuan pepper trees.
When Jiang Xiaoman was a child, he had a simple idea: he felt that it was hard to find wild vegetables all over the mountains every year when the season came, so it would be better to plant them in a fixed place, preferably a place that he could pass by often.
This makes it easy to find, and you can see at a glance when it's ready to eat.
When his father, Jiang Youliang, heard this, he laughed heartily and told him that there was no such suitable place in the world. Besides, there were so many kinds of wild vegetables in the mountains; even if they planted their entire vegetable garden, it still wouldn't be enough!
Who would have thought that his son would be so clever? He broke the whole thing down into smaller parts and used the few years he spent in elementary school to clear land, sow seeds, and transplant roots bit by bit.
The road from his house to the village was transformed into a mountain path overgrown with wild vegetables...
It has to be said that the fact that this child could get into university despite such harsh conditions, where he couldn't even afford two study guides, and still beat so many competitors in the county, is absolutely inseparable from his clever little brain.
Jiang Xiaoman had just picked three handfuls of tender shoots of houttuynia cordata when she finished watching the video.
Seeing Sun Zheyuan and the village officials with flushed faces, eager to immediately pick up their hoes and clear the land to plant chrysanthemums, he knew that the matter should be considered settled.
Sure enough, on the way there, the village officials and Sun Zheyuan chatted enthusiastically about whether chrysanthemum cultivation could be developed in Langshan Village.
The village officials naturally sided with their own village, boasting that although their village was a bit remote, it had abundant water and soil, and even wild Ganoderma lucidum and red mushrooms grew very well, not to mention chrysanthemum seedlings that could survive even when thrown into the wild.
Sun Zheyuan had little experience in farming, but he was an expert in applying for project subsidies! He immediately asked the village to cooperate with him to get the project subsidy approved first.
The beginning is always the hardest. Only by helping Jiang Xiaoman and his group take this first step and letting these "first-timers" make money will we be able to motivate people to make money without having to go door-to-door to persuade them.
As they chatted, they unknowingly arrived at the location of Jiang Xiaoman's old house.
This is the Zen retreat guesthouse invested in by Tang Xinlan.
"Wow! This house is really impressive! Xiaoman, is this your home?" Sun Zheyuan was startled.
“Director Sun, you think too highly of me. My family doesn’t have that kind of means. This is a Zen retreat homestay invested in here by Mr. Tang from Shuangwan Town.”
"So it was her... I saw her on the news, no wonder!" Sun Zheyuan was extremely envious. This is a real tycoon. She can invest whenever she wants without even having to apply for subsidies from the town.
From the guesthouse, it's just a few minutes' walk to Jiang Xiaoman's house.
"Director Sun, the place below this slope is where my family plans to plant chrysanthemums. Please take a look first, and I'll go make you a pot of tea."
As she spoke, Jiang Xiaoman quickly unlocked the kitchen door, took out a tea cake, pried off a few pieces of old tree tea, brewed a large pot of tea, and took out the leftover melon seeds, peanuts, pastries and other snacks from the cupboard. She then set up a small table full of them on the ground in front of the door so that they could have a little something to eat first.
After hiking all the way up the mountain, everyone was indeed thirsty and hungry. After exchanging a few polite words, they couldn't resist picking up the cloud cakes on the table, opening them, and eating two or three bags in one go with their tea!
This kind of cloud cake is a must-have for local festivals. It's cheap and pretty. You tear off pieces one by one to eat it, which is fun and filling. Nowadays, in the city, the people who like to eat this kind of cloud cake are mostly elderly people. Only in their mountain village is cloud cake a must-have for festivals or happy occasions.
While they were drinking tea and eating snacks, Jiang Xiaoman took two more bundles of noodles, cut off a piece of cured pork, sliced the cured pork, heated oil in a wok, added scallions and garlic to sauté until fragrant, poured in the cured pork and stir-fried it for a few seconds, then immediately poured in water.
After boiling, he put the noodles into the pot, covered the pot only halfway, and continued to cook until it boiled again. While the noodles were cooking, he quickly ran to the vegetable garden behind the house, picked a bowl of rapeseed, washed them, chopped them a couple of times, poured them into the pot, and finally added salt and chicken essence to taste. A simple and filling pot of noodles was ready.
Worried that some people couldn't handle spicy food, Jiang Xiaoman didn't add chili peppers to the noodles. Instead, she served half a bowl of chili oil, a dish of pickled radish, and a dish of pickled chili peppers separately. She also took out the pickled Jerusalem artichokes that she had prepared earlier, sliced them, mixed them with some chopped chili peppers, and served them on a plate as well.
Seeing that he had come out of the house a short while later with a large bowl of noodles and several side dishes, the village chief smiled and stood up to help him serve the noodles, saying with a smile as he did so—
"I've heard those kids at school say that Xiaoman's cooking is delicious, but I've never had a chance to try it. Today, I'm lucky to have Director Sun's help."
"Oh dear! I was so focused on work that I forgot to buy meat and fish! This is my first time visiting Xiaoman's house! My apologies, my apologies..." Sun Zheyuan slapped his forehead, feeling extremely annoyed.
It's all because Jiang Xiaoman described such a beautiful future to him that he got so excited that he forgot the local custom of visiting someone's home.
"Director Sun, I disagree with you. If you can help us get this project approved, it's not just like giving my family a hen; it's like giving every household in the village a golden egg. Isn't that a valuable gift?"
Jiang Xiaoman's words were not meant to be flattering. As a poverty alleviation cadre in their town, Sun Zheyuan may not have the authority to approve such entrepreneurial poverty alleviation projects, but he certainly has the right to refuse to sign off!
To put it bluntly, if Sun Zheyuan didn't sign it, the application materials wouldn't even be submitted!
Moreover, they even offered to help them revise and improve the approval materials, so from what he said, he was determined to do everything he could to get this project off the ground.
As long as there are no other strong competitors in their town in the second quarter, Jiang Xiaoman's chrysanthemum planting project, with the strong support of Sun Zheyuan, is a sure thing.
The old village chief hadn't expected Jiang Xiaoman to be so fluent in official jargon, managing to charm the town officials so well, and he couldn't help but admire him.
Back when Jiang Youliang was supporting his son through high school, he secretly reminded his cousin not to waste his life savings on this adopted child, otherwise the child might want to find his biological parents when he became successful.
In order for Jiang Youliang to have children and grandchildren to support him in his old age, the village chief's idea was simply to send him to a vocational school and learn a trade. He could then go out to work for a few years, save money, build a house, and get married. This way, Jiang Youliang would have someone to rely on in his old age.
Looking back now, it's fortunate that Jiang Xiaoman lived up to expectations and got into university. Otherwise, those guys from their village wouldn't have dared to utter a sound when they encountered town officials. Would they have been as eloquent as Jiang Xiaoman?
Chapter 147
After finishing their noodles, Jiang Xiaoman took them to see the small plot of wasteland that Jiang Youliang had cleared out in his spare time.
These scattered plots of land can't even be considered arable land!
There are patches here and there, which may look shabby, but they are perfectly fine for growing chrysanthemums.
Moreover, because the plots are small, watering and fertilizing are convenient. In any case, they can't use large agricultural machinery in the mountains, so farming mainly relies on manpower and livestock.
"Director Sun, you see, this is why I said that Langshan is suitable for developing a chrysanthemum planting cooperative. Our mountain people, every household has a lot of such idle wasteland in front of and behind their houses. Chrysanthemums do not need very fertile land to grow, and these wastelands can be cultivated."
"I've calculated it. Based on a yield of 1,500 to 2,000 catties of fresh chrysanthemum flowers per mu, the average income per mu can reach 5,000 yuan."
“Take my family for example. The land that used to grow corn and sweet potatoes has been converted to grow chrysanthemums. In addition, there are scattered wastelands that have been cleared out. It is about eight acres in total. We can earn 40,000 yuan just by selling fresh chrysanthemums.”
“Our family plans to make dried flowers directly, which will be more profitable than selling fresh flowers. Based on the current retail price of golden chrysanthemums in the market, the yield per mu can double. If the harvest is good, my family can earn 80,000 yuan a year just from growing chrysanthemums.”
"Moreover, I've also inquired and found that there's a large market demand for these chrysanthemum seedlings. After harvesting the flowers from these eight acres of chrysanthemums, if we take good care of them, we only need to keep one-tenth of the new seedlings that sprout the following year as seedlings. We can sell the rest of the seedlings to make some money."
"Director Sun, you work in poverty alleviation, so you should know how much an average family in Langshan earns each year. I think if we can open up sales channels, our local people might not need to leave their homes to work elsewhere in the future."
“If a family plants more than ten acres of chrysanthemums on the mountain, they can earn seventy to eighty thousand yuan a year just by selling fresh flowers and seedlings. If they also raise dozens of beehives, the whole family can earn more than one hundred thousand yuan a year. Isn’t that more worthwhile than going out to work?”
...
"What bees?" Sun Zheyuan looked at Jiang Xiaoman with a puzzled expression.
Jiang Xiaoman could only briefly explain to Sun Zheyuan their plan to establish a beekeeping cooperative and develop the beekeeping industry by taking advantage of the abundant nectar-producing plant resources in Langshan.
"Oh dear! Why didn't you say so earlier? Your project is also eligible for startup subsidies!" Sun Zheyuan suddenly stood up.
“We’ve finished making all the beehives…” Jiang Xiaoman was stunned.
“What’s the big deal? As long as you continue this year, even if you do less, as long as it brings real income to our local people, you can apply for the entrepreneurship poverty alleviation project subsidy!” Sun Zheyuan was overjoyed.
I originally thought this trip was just to get a feel for things, but I never expected to stumble upon a gold mine!
Sun Zheyuan immediately decided: put the Huangju project aside for now, and help Jiang Xiaoman and the others submit the beekeeping cooperative project application first!
In that case, we can focus on beekeeping in the second quarter and concentrate on the chrysanthemum project in the third quarter!
The first batch of chrysanthemums in the third quarter is also in bloom, which will allow the leaders to see the achievements of this project in person.
Sun Zheyuan immediately decided that he wouldn't go back that night. He would stay at Jiang Xiaoman's house overnight to organize the information about the beekeeping cooperative, so as to avoid having to make another trip.
Luckily, the weather isn't hot now, otherwise Sun Zheyuan wouldn't have even brought a change of clothes, and he'd probably stink by tomorrow...
However, Jiang Xiaoman was more than happy to have Sun Zheyuan stay and help him prepare the application materials!
Thinking of this, Jiang Xiaoman thought fiercely, "I'll give Baidu Wenku a bad review later!"
This document library is garbage! All they care about is making money! They're even using expired templates to scam people out of their money!
Director Sun himself said that the template he downloaded from the document library was several years old, and they were already using the latest version. Moreover, they didn't need to spend money to download it online; it could be downloaded for free from the county's official website... Jiang Xiaoman was almost furious after hearing this!
He wasn't distressed about the ten-odd yuan; he just felt that these document libraries were really harmful. He was lucky to have met a responsible poverty alleviation cadre like Sun Zheyuan.
If someone else did the same thing as him, downloading an expired application template online, and then encountered an irresponsible township official who threw the incorrectly formatted application form into the trash... Holy crap!
Isn't this harmful?
After this incident, Jiang Xiaoman became secretly wary and no longer fully trusted the information she found online, especially the official application materials.
Thinking of this, Jiang Xiaoman saw off the village officials who were in a hurry to go home, then quickly went into the chicken coop, grabbed an old hen, and planned to cook some good dishes for Sun Zheyuan that evening.
Sun Zheyuan looked refined and gentle, but he was actually quite approachable. When Jiang Xiaoman carried a basket to the vegetable garden to pick vegetables, he followed behind to help.
Jiang Xiaoman went to the bamboo forest to dig for bamboo shoots, and he also took a hoe to help. Unexpectedly, he also dug up several.
"Director Sun, you look like you're from the city, how come you're so good at farm work?" Jiang Xiaoman was genuinely impressed with him.
"Haha~ You don't know this, do you? I started interning in various villages during my summer vacation when I was a sophomore. After graduating in my senior year, I applied for a job in agriculture. There's no other way. My old man has been doing agriculture all his life. Now that he can't do it himself, he can only ask us to continue."
Jiang Xiaoman was filled with awe.
There were only two people at home that evening, and Sun Zheyuan kept telling him not to cook too many dishes. After thinking about it, Jiang Xiaoman simply cut the old hen in half and stewed a big pot of chicken soup. She would eat half of it that night and save the other half to make chicken soup noodles the next morning.
Then I cut off a piece of good cured pork and made a stew of cured pork and winter bamboo shoots, a stir-fried cured pork with mixed mushrooms, a cold salad of tender shoots of houttuynia cordata picked on the way, and a stir-fried rapeseed.
After the start of spring, the vegetables in his garden couldn't be eaten in time, and they all started to grow flowering stalks. At this time, the flowering stalks are the most delicious, tender and sweet. They are very tasty when picked, broken into a few pieces, and stir-fried with a little soybean oil.
Jiang Xiaoman also specially saved some rapeseed shoots, which she can put in the chicken soup noodles as a side dish tomorrow morning.