Jiang Quan went to the town and bought ten kilograms of frosting and a few jars.
Second Aunt said that the prepared preserved fruits should be stored in jars, so he bought some in advance as a precaution.
Then it’s time to pick apricots.
Choose apricots that are 70% to 80% ripe. Those that are overripe and have worms in them are not acceptable.
Then wash and remove the core, marinate with finely pounded icing sugar and add a little salt during the marinating process.
After being pickled for a few hours, the apricots will start to release juice, and you can then pour them directly into the pot and boil them.
Don't cook it for too long, otherwise the apricot flesh will not form.
Take out the apricot meat and soup in time, leave them aside for an hour, then pick out the apricot petals from the soup, place them one by one on a bamboo plate, and then take them out to dry in the sun.
After being dried in the sun for two or three days, the apricot flesh becomes as springy and chewy as persimmons. It is bright yellow in color, and tastes sour and sweet and is very delicious.
The dried preserved fruits can be stored for a long time if they are sealed in jars.
The remaining soup is thick, sour and sweet, and is loved not only by children but also by adults.
Yingbao has no interest in dried apricots, but she likes the sweet and sour juice left over from cooking apricots.
If you add some ice cubes, it will be a great drink on a hot day.
Yingbao looked at the apricot trees and made up her mind.
"Second brother, let's pick all the apricots on the tree."
Ying Bao said to Jiang Quan, "Give some of the ripe ones to the villagers, and make dried apricots out of the half-ripe ones. Don't throw away the apricot kernels, as they can be ground into almond powder later."
In her previous life, she had drunk almond tea, which was made by boiling almond powder, rice milk, and milk, and then adding a little maltose. It had a rich aroma.
But there is one thing: almonds are poisonous, especially the skin of the almonds, which is highly toxic. If not handled properly, it may be life-threatening, and children are not allowed to even touch it.
But she has the Pupil Spring. When the time comes, she can use the spring water to soak the almonds, which will probably remove a lot of the toxicity.
Jiang Quan opened his eyes wide, "Yingbao, there are several apricot trees. How many apricot preserves do you want to make? If they can't be sold, the money I spent on buying sugar will be wasted."
"It will be sold." Yingbao was not worried at all.
At worst I can make less profit and sell the whole apricots to the vendors, which is better than letting so many apricots rot in vain.
Yan Ru said, "Why not sell the dried apricots to the dried fruit and preserves shop in the county? Even though the profit is small, it can still be an income. At least we can get the money for the icing sugar."
Her suggestion coincided with Yingbao's.
"Okay, second brother, let's go to the county town after all the apricots are made." Yingbao was full of confidence.
It just so happened that Yingbao wanted to go to the county town to take a look at her new house and see if there was anything missing so that she could buy some for herself.
"Second aunt, those peaches can also be made into preserved fruits, right?" Yingbao asked.
Yan Ru: "Yes, the process of making preserved peaches is similar to that of making preserved apricots, so we can make some."
"Then let's make some peach preserves. The peach pits can't be thrown away. Peach kernels are a kind of medicinal material. We can sell them to the pharmacy when the time comes." The price is estimated to be not high, but it can at least make back some of the investment.
Jiang Quan was still unsure: "How much sugar would that cost?"
"Let's do this first. We bought a lot of sugar, so we can negotiate with the store and the price will definitely go down."
Yingbao had done business in her previous life, so she knew a little about the twists and turns involved.
Yan Ru also nodded: "If you go to the big stores in the county to buy candy, you can save a lot of money if you buy more."
"All right."
Jiang Quan scratched his head and asked, "When are we going to the county town?"
The fruits on the tree wait for no one. They ripen and rot day by day. It’s heartbreaking to see them.
Yingbao didn't say anything, but was frowning in thought.
I have so many fruit trees at home, and the apples and grapes are almost ripe. I definitely can't eat them all, and I can't sell them in the village. I can't bear to give them all away.
It's very worrying.
I worked so hard to plant the fruit trees and thought I could make some money, but I didn't expect it to become a burden.
Otherwise, let my second cousin open a shop in the county town, specializing in selling fruits and preserved fruits.
I still have more than 300 taels of silver in my hand, so buying a shop should not be a problem.
With the shop, they no longer have to sell their preserved fruits and fruits to others at low prices. In the future, when the rare grapes and apples come on the market, the shop may become the focus of the county.
Even if the fruit market is out of business, there are still golden ear and snow ear mushrooms. If all else fails, my second aunt Yan Ru will make perfume and rouge and sell them in the store.
Yingbao has already scattered a lot of flower seeds on the brown soil of the cave, such as roses, wood hibiscus, peonies, peonies, honeysuckle, impatiens, safflower, red and blue flowers, etc. She also scattered some lotus seeds by the pond, and now small round lotus leaves have grown.
But the problem is, how to position your own shop
Other people's shops are all specialized in one business, like Shengde Pastry, Fengrun Grain Shop, Jinxiu Cloth Shop, Qianji Gold, Silver and Jade Shop, etc. Even the bamboo ware shops specialize in bamboo ware.
Although the goods sold in my shop are diverse, it cannot be called a grocery store.
Suddenly, an idea flashed in her mind.
Or just call it a local specialty.
Although Qinchuan County is a lower county, there are many travelers coming and going. If we label our products as local specialties, I believe that those who visit relatives and friends would be willing to buy some to take away.
Because other places have their own specialties, like Langqiao wooden comb, Haoyang yellow pear, Qi persimmon, Yan chestnut, Wushan red orange, Nanzhong tea seed, etc. It would be unacceptable for travelers to go to a certain place without buying some.
However, Qinchuan County seems to have no special products.
There is no tea, no silk embroidery, no inkstones or strange stones, and no rare medicinal materials.
This is just an ordinary little county where most people make a living by farming.
Unfortunately, Qinchuan County is located in a hilly area with few fertile farmlands, yet taxes have not been reduced at all. It would be strange if people were not poor and destitute under such circumstances.
In the past, the imperial court stipulated that each adult male could be allocated 100 mu of land, but here they could only be allocated 60 mu.
These sixty acres are not all fertile land, there is also some mountainous land.
Now even sixty acres cannot be divided, for there is no land left to be divided in the countryside.
My eldest cousin is already seventeen years old this year. He should have been allocated land long ago, but there has been no movement from the village head so far.
It’s not that the village head is doing nothing, but that the land in the village has been basically divided up, and what’s left is just rocky wasteland where no grass grows.
If these wastelands were distributed to the people, it would be tantamount to forcing them to die.
Who can afford to pay taxes on land that can’t even grow a single grain of food
So Yingbao decided to take a different approach and create a way to make money for her eldest and second cousins.
Aren’t those golden ear and snow ear fungi of their own the unique product of Qinchuan County? Even the Wen family has sent people to wait for the purchase. It is not too much to make them the specialty of Qinchuan County.
It would only be natural to then label preserved apricots, peaches, and pears as Qinchuan specialties.
By the way, we also have grapes and apples at home. Although these are not Qinchuan’s specialties, they can be sold as well.
Having made up her mind, Ying Bao smiled and said to Jiang Quan, "I will go to the county town tomorrow."
Not only do you need to buy candy, you also need to buy a shop.
She has already thought of a name for the store, "Jiang's Specialties".
Although the store is creating special products from Qinchuan County, the word Qinchuan must not be in the name of the store, otherwise the store will be arrested and beaten by the county government.
Merchants were lowly, and not only could the county and township names not be added to shop signs, even the word "Murong" was not allowed to appear on the signboard.
Because the royal family of the time was named Murong, all common people had to avoid these two words.