Just like that, Qiao Qiao carried all the fish fry back with a plastic bag in each hand.
At home, grandma Wang Lifen and Wu Lan were busy washing things in the yard.
There was no other way. According to local rules, when you hire villagers to work, you have to provide them with lunch. Song Tan's family of four, grandparents, Zhang Yanping, the young man who drove the excavator and lived at home, and three old friends of Song Sancheng who helped with the work on the back hill...
There were eleven people in total, and because the food at home tasted delicious, except for Song Tan who had a normal appetite, the others could finish two or three bowls of food in one meal.
Cooking is a huge undertaking.
Song Sancheng is very busy now, and so is Wu Lan. They have to go to the fields with Song Tan and Qiao Qiao early in the morning to pick astragalus.
As the weather gets warmer, there are more and more sweet vetches with flower buds in the fields. These can no longer be picked as they are old and inedible.
Therefore, in order to ensure quality, the time spent picking and sorting each day has increased.
What's more, since people know that Chinese aconite cannot be eaten for long, more and more people come to the vegetable market to buy vegetables. They buy them in batches of ten or eight kilograms, then blanch them and freeze them at home, so that they can eat them until the New Year.
Song Tan added another order early this morning: "Mom, we have to ship another 2,000 kilograms to other places today."
The whole family was mobilized for this.
Wu Lan was still wondering: "Does he sell them wholesale?"
Song Tan shook his head: "No, he said his family runs a farm stay, and after the Chinese asparagus is delivered, it is blanched and frozen, and then a portion is served to each guest who comes to eat."
Regardless of whether it is used for cooking, making soup or anything else, just say that they are wild vegetables grown in the fields and there are not many of them, so they are not sold and only given away.
Wow, there are so many customers coming in during this period!
Spring is a good season for eating wild vegetables. After all this effort, everyone knows that this farm stay has an excellent reputation and its income has increased greatly.
Of course, the young man who bought the vegetables did not tell you the inside story, but Song Tan guessed it.
In the past, Wulan was only happy about making money. But now she has to figure out how to do it quickly and well without delaying her lunch break.
Too much work can be frustrating.
but…
"Well, with this 40,000 yuan, plus the miscellaneous money from the vegetables I sold these two days, can we pay the remaining contract fee?"
Otherwise, you'll always be in debt and feel bad.
Song Tan cruelly broke her fantasy: "Mom, since we are planning to get subsidies to plant fruit trees in the back hills, we can't plant them in vain. We must see the results this year."
It takes three to five years to grow seedlings. If you plant a hundred of them on an acre of land, it will cost at least 20,000 yuan.
"After that, you'll have to hire someone to plant and water the plants, right? This little hill is all dependent on the pond down there. It'll cost a lot of money to buy an electric water pump with a coil of long pipe and other insignificant things."
"And in our fields..."
Before Song Tan finished explaining, Wu Lan closed her eyes in pain:
"Alright, alright, stop talking nonsense."
Then he asked, "Did you sell the honey? That's money too!"
Is there anything that cannot be sold
After a call in the group, the out-of-town customer who wanted 2,000 kilograms of Agastache rugosa also ordered ten bottles at once.
There are only thirteen bottles in total, and now there is only one bottle left to drink, and the stock is cleared.
The bees have to go back and brew nectar for a few days, so there is no stock for the time being.
When I asked them what they were going to do with the wholesale, they said they were going to mix honey water as gifts.
Song Tan pondered, if the time had not been too short and the profit point had not been calculated, this visionary young man would have made tea their signature product!
Wu Lan packed up the dishes at hand and instructed Song Tan: "Find some time to go to the back mountain and feed the pigs, chickens and ducks."
Song Tan went up the mountain, looked at a group of ducklings, and came back with another idea:
"Mom, I think the ducks are molting. Let's build a duck shed by the pond in the back hill."
Originally, I planned to raise ducks in the pond on the farm side, but the farm side is a neat square with rounded edges, while the pond on the back hill is like a mirror with a handle. The handle of the mirror is just right for building a simple duck shed. Then the whole back hill will be watched by the king, and you can see everything from above, which is also convenient for management.
Wulan thought for a moment and said, "No hurry, wait until the mountain is cleaned up before doing anything else. The fruit trees are the most important thing now!"
April waits for no one!
Then I remembered: "What are you going to plant?"
Song Tan was still humming:
"After all, express delivery is still a little inconvenient here, and the mountain roads are bumpy. I see that the town has not had much money to repair the road for us in the past two years."
People in the suburbs can set up orchards and pick and sell fruits on site, but that's not possible here.
Even people who don’t get carsick will get carsick on this trip because the road is really difficult to travel on.
"In that case, we need to plant something that is durable and not afraid of collisions."
Wulan thought for a moment and said, "Is that an apple? A pear? A pomegranate, a date? A grape?"
She couldn't think of anything else.
Anyway, you definitely cannot grow cherry trees like the one in front of my house. They taste good, but after you pick them, you can't cover them, squeeze them, or worry about them getting bumped. If you don't eat them for half a day, it will be bad.
Song Tan also hesitated: "I haven't thought about it yet."
This wave is really relying on the spiritual energy and high skills of the people to be bold. If it were any farmer, it would be strange if he didn't lose money if he was so reckless and without planning.
As he was speaking, Zhang Yanping came back wearing a straw hat and carrying a rake, with his shoulders drooped like a genuine old farmer.
He had a sad face:
"Sister, no matter what you plan to plant, I have someone who can help you. Take me with you and let's go pick out the seedlings."
I really don't want to go up the mountain.
Wu Lan laughed out loud: "Yan Ping, you should go home. If you keep working for your aunt every day, your mother will be really distressed."
Zhang Yanping wanted to cry but had no tears: Doesn't he want to go back? It's clearly his mother who calls him every day and orders him to stay here!
But the younger aunt finally said something fair: "Tan Tan, you really have to ask Yan Ping what to plant. Your aunt said that he has a picky palate! He eats anything delicious. He has eaten up all the imported fruits in the store."
"Our products are so expensive, if you want to grow something, you should grow something expensive."
Zhang Yanping perked up: "Yes! You have to listen to me on this matter! Let me think about it - apples and oranges don't grow well here. There is no other reason, it's just a climate problem. Rule it out."
"Grapes are no good either. Zhengjiagou grapes are famous all over the city. It will be much more difficult for us to grab the market."
"Domestic cherries and blueberries are very popular now, but we can't get as much sunlight as they do here. Besides, most of these are grown in the suburbs and are run as plantations. We are newbies, so the risk is a bit high."
"By the way, the kiwis in Huacheng are very famous. The climates here are similar. Have you considered growing kiwis? They are climbing vines, so they can be stored for a long time before they are ripe."