Not to mention his father, even the seemingly frail Lang Ying could carry dozens of kilograms of goods through the mountains.
"Alright, my dad has carried the big things down the mountain for us. Let's hurry up and go dig for wild vegetables."
The reason Jiang Xiaoman asked her father to help deliver things down the mountain was mainly because the wild vegetables they needed to dig up to make pickles were not on the same path they had taken to get there.
They had to climb over the mountain behind their house, and down the other side was the territory of the neighboring village. The soil there was strange; it was more suitable for wild mountain vegetables like scallions, pagoda greens, and dandelions than theirs.
Wild scallions, also known as sand onions, grow particularly well on sunny slopes and can spread out in large patches. Summer is the perfect time to dig them up. The wild scallions can be stir-fried with eggs or chili peppers, or tied together in bunches and put into a pickling jar to make pickles.
However, although this thing tastes delicious, it is extremely troublesome to clean, and the villagers find it too much trouble, so almost no one digs it up to eat.
Given the time, they would rather go to their own vegetable garden, cut a couple of cabbages to make pickles, which taste even better than pickled scallions.
Locals also call it "ground ring" or "pagoda vegetable." It is the underground stem of a plant that locals usually dig up to make kimchi. It is crisp, tender, and refreshing.
However, digging this thing is just as troublesome as digging wild scallions. Some people are too lazy to go up the mountain to dig it, so they go to the market to buy it that others have already dug.
When Jiang Xiaoman was a child, he liked to come here to dig for earth rings. He would then have his father take them to the market to sell. He remembered that when he was a child, earth rings only sold for two yuan a pound, but now he heard that they cost more than ten yuan a pound.
Upon hearing that this stuff actually sells for over ten yuan per kilogram, the fans were immediately motivated.
Foraging for wild vegetables is an addictive activity; once you start, it's hard to stop.
At first, Jiang Xiaoman led them in digging, but later they all recognized what these wild vegetables looked like, and they all dispersed, wielding their small hoes and digging with all their might.
Fortunately, Jiang Xiaoman bought twenty small hoes online in one go and kept them at home, otherwise how could everyone have a hoe?
At the time, he was thinking that when guests came to stay in the guest rooms, city people liked to go into the mountains to dig for wild vegetables. He could have his father take the guests to dig for some wild vegetables nearby, which would be a kind of entertainment in the mountains.
I never expected that these little hoes would come in handy so quickly.
While they were all digging for ground stalks and wild scallions, Jiang Xiaoman looked around and then went into the woods to pick some bamboo shoots.
These bamboo shoots are different from spring bamboo shoots. They grow from a local bamboo called "Ma bamboo". Because the bamboo shoots have less flesh, locals don't like to eat them. They usually go into the mountains to find some to use as a side dish when they make pickles.
Jiang Xiaoman cut a full woven bag, tied the opening tightly, laid it down, and kicked it down the mountain. The bag rolled down the mountain with a gurgling sound.
The fans, who had never worked in the mountains before, were stunned by what they saw.
No, is this how you mountain people transport things down the mountain?
As it turns out, Jiang Xiaoman was only this simple and crude with the tough-skinned bamboo shoots. When packing ground leeks and wild scallions, he didn't use woven bags, but specially used a bamboo basket, and even put a layer of fern leaves at the bottom for shock absorption...
Chapter 174
That evening, with the fans' permission, Jiang Xiaoman went live while making kimchi and recorded the whole process.
However, he also promised that if anyone doesn't want to appear on camera, they can tell him, and his face will be blurred during editing.
If you have some old brine for making kimchi at home, making kimchi is really easy.
The most tedious part is actually the initial food preparation.
First, peel the bamboo shoots you cut, put them in a large pot of water to blanch, boil for a few minutes, then take them out and rinse them repeatedly with cold water, and then soak them in cold water with ice cubes.
Actually, you don't have to add ice, but Jiang Xiaoman is used to adding ice to chill the bamboo shoots when she makes them. This way, the bamboo shoots inside won't easily rot and smell bad when making kimchi.
Next, wash the ground ivy and wild scallions clean, drain them, and set them aside.
It's a bit of a shame that we couldn't find Yang He today, but he has a lot of vegetables. Jiang Xiaoman took out two cabbages, sliced them, washed them, and drained them. She also washed the long beans, flat beans, and chili peppers and set them aside.
Finally, there's the sweet potato vine. You need to remove the leaves first, leaving only the leaf stalk in the middle. You don't need to cut the sweet potato stem, as cutting it before soaking will make it rot easily. Jiang Xiaoman is used to using it directly to make pickles, and then cutting it into sections when eating.
Watching him skillfully handle various ingredients, the live stream chat was filled with "666" (a Chinese internet slang for "awesome"). Some fans, however, grew increasingly angry and couldn't help but exclaim in frustration that since those seven lucky fans had already enjoyed a free three-day trip to Langshan, they shouldn't be included in this kimchi-grabbing frenzy...
In response, Kong Feifei and the others smiled and remained silent.
Paying to watch a live stream?
No, no, no, their kind and generous brother Xiaoman said that in order to express his apology for making them wait two extra months, he decided to make a jar of pickled vegetables for each of them as a souvenir for their Langshan experience trip.
It's free!
The kimchi made in the live stream was mainly for pre-sales, so there wasn't much—only two jars.
However, Jiang Xiaoman had already told the fans who were helping that she would go and pick more ingredients for making kimchi tomorrow, bring them back, make a jar for each person, and let them take it home themselves.
"Are we going to pick wild vegetables again tomorrow?" The fans were eager to try.
“No, we’ll go pick the ones grown by the farmers tomorrow,” Jiang Xiaoman said with a slight smile.
The next morning, the fans found out why Jiang Xiaoman would choose to buy vegetables from farmers instead of growing vegetables from her own garden.
“Both of Uncle Tao’s children are in school, the older one is a senior in high school and the younger one is a freshman in high school. They are at a time when they will need a lot of money, so I can’t help much. I’ll just help as much as I can,” Jiang Xiaoman explained to them in a low voice.
Jiang Tao started working in the mines to earn more money so that he could support his two children's schooling.
As a result, he didn't make any money, but lost one eye completely due to a work injury.
Because of his disability, Jiang Tao couldn't go out to work, so he could only do odd jobs nearby. His wife, Aunt Erhong, was also very hardworking. The couple picked up land that others didn't want and planted vegetables on several acres of land. They went to the market to buy vegetables almost every time.
However, because vegetable prices are low in rural areas, he doesn't earn much, barely enough to cover the family's living expenses.
When they heard that Jiang Xiaoman was going to buy up all the vegetables in their garden that could be used to make pickles, Jiang Tao and his wife were so excited they couldn't speak.
"Are you taking them all? Today? Then I'll give you a discount." Jiang Tao was very grateful to Jiang Xiaoman.
This year, their family has earned more than 20,000 yuan by following Jiang Xiaoman's beekeeping practice.
With this money, if my eldest son can get into university next year, at least we won't have to worry about tuition fees.
I've heard that not only are tuition fees expensive at university, but there are also accommodation fees, book fees, food fees... On average, supporting a university student requires at least 2,000 yuan per month, which is really not something that an average rural family can afford.
If it were an ordinary family with a son and a daughter, they would definitely support the son through school and send the daughter out to work after she finishes high school, so that they could earn money together to support their brother's college education.
But Jiang Tao and his wife refused.
The younger daughter's grades were even better than the older son's, always ranking first in the entire school. The homeroom teacher was worried that the family would choose to sacrifice their daughter because of the heavy burden. Almost every time Jiang Tao took his daughter to school, the homeroom teacher would stop him and repeatedly urge him to support his daughter to go to university!
A child with such academic talent is someone other families would kill for. Now that God has sent such a smart child to their family, how could Jiang Tao and his wife possibly let their daughter give up her studies?
A few years ago, when my family was going through the most difficult time, I was so desperate that I would have sold my blood to support my two children's education.
Since Jiang Xiaoman returned, the Jiang family has been building houses, making furniture, and manufacturing beehives. They have much more work than before, and at their peak, they could earn four or five thousand yuan a month.
This was a huge help to their family!
Therefore, when Jiang Xiaoman said she wanted to harvest a batch of vegetables to make kimchi, Jiang Tao gave her a discount without hesitation.
Jiang Xiaoman smiled and agreed.
It's not that he's taking advantage of the situation; it's just how things are in the countryside. If you keep giving without giving, people will think your whole family is just too nice, and then a constant stream of people will come to your house to freeload, which will be a problem.
Jiang Youliang taught his son from a young age that there must be reciprocity among relatives and friends, and that one should cut off contact with those who only want to take advantage of you without giving you any benefits!
Even if you give your entire fortune to this kind of person, they might still complain that you didn't sell yourself to them for cash.
Seeing that Jiang Tao and his wife gave him a discount without hesitation, Jiang Xiaoman nodded secretly, thinking that the couple was a good match. While helping to harvest the vegetables, he told Jiang Tao that if the pickled vegetables sold well, he planned to lead the villagers to grow vegetables and make pickled vegetables together.
"Uncle Tao, I remember that some plots of your vegetable garden were scavenged from land that other people didn't want, right?"
“If we really want to grow vegetables and sell them for money, I suggest you find the owners of these plots of land, negotiate the rent with them, and rent the land.”
"Otherwise, if we make money growing vegetables and people ask you for money, how much would be appropriate to give them?"
Jiang Xiaoman is not exaggerating.
This kind of thing is all too common in rural areas!
Don't be fooled by the fact that there are many abandoned plots of land in the countryside now, left behind by people going to work in other places. People may not want it, but try taking their land and planting vegetables or grains without asking them first.
Those who care about saving face will at most say a few words to you.
If you encounter an unreasonable person, and you plant vegetables in their field, and they come back and harvest all the vegetables to sell, you have nothing to say.
“Great! If you really want to start a kimchi business, Xiaoman, your aunt and I will rent more land and use it all to grow vegetables.” Jiang Tao had unconditional trust in Xiaoman.
After surviving a near-death experience in the mine, he developed an immense reverence for metaphysics.
Therefore, Jiang Tao firmly believed in the old shaman's claim of being a "lucky star," and even now spoke to Jiang Xiaoman with a sense of awe.
The vegetables grown in Jiang Tao's yard are all seasonal vegetables, but not all vegetables are suitable for making pickles.
Finally, Jiang Xiaoman harvested several thousand kilograms of chili peppers, sweet potato vines, tender ginger, cabbage, long beans, and flat beans from his vegetable garden, calculated the prices for each, and transferred more than three thousand yuan to him on the spot.
This is almost the entire year's income that Jiang Tao and his wife used to earn from selling vegetables.
Seeing the amount transferred, Aunt Erhong felt ashamed and hurriedly asked her husband to transfer some more back to Jiang Xiaoman.
They usually sell local chili peppers for four yuan a pound at their stall, so why did Xiaoman charge them three yuan and fifty cents a pound?
"No, no! If you take them all, it's two yuan a pound! I'm the one who calls the shots in this family!" Aunt Erhong wanted nothing more than to snatch his phone and forcefully return the money.
Unfortunately, transferring money is not like paying cash; even if she wanted to get the money back, she couldn't do anything without knowing the password.
"Alright, alright, Aunt Erhong, why are we talking like this?" Jiang Xiaoman quickly put her phone in her pocket and began to flatter him with a grin.
“I have a few guests from the city who have come here. The vegetables behind the courier station aren’t enough for us. If I need any vegetables these days, I won’t hesitate to come and pluck them from your garden.”
"Go ahead and pick! Pick whatever you want! If you're too busy, just call your uncle and I'll pick some and bring it over." Aunt Erhong seemed to want to pack up the whole vegetable garden and take it with her to Jiang Xiaoman.
After leaving Uncle Jiang Tao's house, Jiang Xiaoman went to Jiang Feng's house.
Jiang Feng was more business-minded than Jiang Tao. He probably discovered that some uncommon vegetables were more expensive at the market, so he didn't grow cheap, common vegetables like sweet potatoes and potatoes on his family's mountain land.
They grow pagoda greens, celery, scallions, and Jerusalem artichokes.
Don't underestimate these few vegetables just because they're not commonly used in everyday cooking. But what family doesn't have a pickling jar without them?
In the end, although Jiang Feng's plot of land was not as big as Jiang Tao's vegetable garden, he managed to sell these vegetables for more than five thousand yuan!
"Xiaoman, do you have enough capital? If not, just leave it for now. You can pay me back when you sell the kimchi." Jiang Feng trusted Jiang Xiaoman even more than Jiang Tao did, and directly told him to owe the payment first.
"That's enough, Uncle. What are you saying? If I can't even come up with this much capital, what business can I possibly run?"
As she spoke, Jiang Xiaoman opened her phone and transferred the money for the groceries to him.
With vegetables from these two companies, we can start making the first batch of kimchi.
Jiang Xiaoman immediately called Lang Ying and asked her to help find some capable aunties and sisters-in-law in the village so that he could transport the harvested vegetables directly to her house.
Lang Ying's house was close to the river, making it very convenient to wash vegetables. There was also a large open space next to the house, which was perfect for drying washed vegetables.
Hearing that her former daughter-in-law was going to recruit people from the village to do work again, Lang Ying's former mother-in-law, Lang Liugu, couldn't sit still.