"real?!"
The tribe leader was so excited that his eyebrows were wide open and his eyes narrowed into slits. "Then I will arrange for the orcs to pick them right away."
There is no time to lose in picking food.
He couldn't wait to see how much food he could harvest from the rice.
Fox Jiaojiao smiled and told the tribe leader how to pick rice. The tribe leader immediately gathered a hundred orcs to pick rice.
Rice should be picked together with the rice grains, straw and ears, and then the rice grains are taken out with tools, and further threshed, cleaned and dried to ensure that the rice grains are dry so that they can be preserved.
Orcs don't have sickles, but their claws are their best tools.
One by one, the orcs went to the field, bent over, held the top of the straw with one hand, and used the other hand to produce an animal claw to serve as a sickle. Soon, the rice in the field lay down in patches.
A total of thirty acres of rice were planted.
In modern times, two machines could complete the harvest in a few hours.
But they were not worried. Over a hundred orcs joined the battle. All of them were good workers and were not afraid of the wind and sun. With the excitement of harvesting food, they harvested thirty acres of land in one day.
The next step is to take the rice and dry it in the sun.
The chief personally took care of it and led the orcs for two days before they managed to take out all the rice.
Looking at the bags filled with rice, the clan leader was very happy.
I didn't expect they would be able to stockpile so much food in the spring.
In the past, he would never have dared to dream of this.
"Chief, we need to take these rice grains back to the tribe and dry them in the sun for a while so that they won't spoil easily." Hu Jiaojiao did not forget to remind the chief.
They spent the past two days collecting rice from the rice fields.
But you can’t dry the fruits here as they may be eaten by birds and animals. And if it rains, you won’t have time to harvest them.
It just so happened that the tribe had a large open space for drying clothes.
"Okay." The patriarch wrote down everything.
One orc was curious and couldn't help but pick up a grain of rice and put it in his mouth.
After taking two bites, I found it tasteless, but I didn't want to waste food, so I swallowed it.
Then he asked with a bitter face:
"Chief, why is this food so hard and tasteless..."
It also irritates the throat.
Is this thing really edible
The orc had some doubts in his heart, but he didn't dare to say it directly. It was not because he was afraid of wasting so much time, but because he was worried that Hu Jiaojiao would blame herself after hearing it.
Hearing the orc's words, Fox Jiaojiao chuckled.
"You can't eat it this way. You need to remove the outer shell and cook it with water. Then you can eat it with meat, which will make it easier to fill your stomach."
After listening to Hu Jiaojiao's explanation, the orc suddenly understood.
He scratched his head embarrassedly, "So that's how it is, Hu Jiaojiao, you are so awesome."
"But... the rice grains are so small, how do I remove the husks? It would be too slow to peel them one by one."
The orc next to him raised another question.
If they continue to peel the food like this, they will starve to death before they are full.
The speed of peeling cannot keep up with the speed of digestion!
"You need a tool to husk the rice. Before you eat it, use the tool to remove the husk and then cook it and you can eat it." Hu Jiaojiao explained briefly.
"Oh! That's just like skinning the prey." The orc nodded in understanding.
No need to peel it by hand.
In order to reassure everyone, Hu Jiaojiao called an orc on the spot, got a stone mortar made out of it, found a wooden stick to make a pestle, and showed them how to do it right on the spot.
In ancient times, the process of husking rice was called pounding rice.
Use a pestle to hit the rice in the mortar. The husks that come off the rice are rice bran, and the rice grains inside are rice.
The orc was shocked to see the round and plump rice grains inside.
“It turns out it’s white inside.”
"It looks so clean, I can't bear to eat it."
The orcs raised their dirty hands and took a look. They immediately moved away from the mortar, not daring to touch the clean rice.
"Why don't we cook some today and let everyone have a taste?" Hu Jiaojiao suggested after seeing the expressions of these orcs.
They have worked so hard for so long, so naturally they should be the ones to eat the first bite.
"May I?"
"Can we eat it? This is not good..."
The orc, who had always been rough and heroic, now seemed like a young wife, timid and embarrassed.
Giving food to females first is a habit ingrained in orcs.
There is no reason for them to eat first.
"Of course." Fox smiled and looked at the clan leader.
The patriarch immediately understood and had people bring two large pots, pile them up with stones, put the pots on top, and start a fire to cook on the spot.
Hu Jiaojiao did this to make them believe that rice is edible.
Otherwise, without even having a taste, the orcs’ enthusiasm for planting will be greatly reduced.
Hu Jiaojiao used the cooking method she used in the countryside.
Cook rice and water together. When the rice is half cooked, pour out the rice and drain the water. Put it back into the pot and simmer for a while until it is cooked.
Doing this not only allows you to drink rice soup, but also to eat rice crust.
When she was a child, her favorite thing was rice balls wrapped in rice crust, which tasted so delicious.
After I grew up and left the countryside, I used electric rice cookers to cook rice and could no longer taste the rice cooked on the stove.
Hu Jiaojiao feels a little greedy when she thinks about it now.
While the meal was steaming, Hu Jiaojiao distributed the drained rice soup to everyone.
Each orc was given a small bowl, which he drank in one gulp.
They were reluctant to drink it and took a sip cautiously.
"What is this? It's so delicious."
"Why is this water so fragrant? It makes me hungry after drinking it."
The orcs who tasted the rice soup widened their eyes and praised it highly.
Looking at their exaggerated expressions, Hu Jiaojiao even suspected that these orcs were hired by her.
Even the childcare staff are not as dedicated as them.
After being used to eating greasy meat, suddenly tasting the sweet and thick rice soup really whets the taste buds.
Soon, the orc finished drinking the rice soup, and Hu Jiaojiao opened the lid of the pot.
A fresh fragrance wafted out.
Different from the strong aroma of meat, the aroma of rice has a sweet and fragrant smell that makes people want to taste it.
Hu Jiaojiao still served each orc a small portion, not even the size of a fist.
The orcs treated it as a treasure and held the bowl carefully.
The white rice is fragrant, white and tender.
Because they didn't have chopsticks, they washed their hands in the nearby river and put the rice into their mouths with their hands.
"tasty!!"
"It's a little sweet, fragrant and soft."
"It turns out that cooked rice is so delicious. If it has some pickled meat, it will definitely be even more delicious!"
The orcs had worked all day and were already hungry. When they ate the rice that they had grown with their own hands, they felt that it was a rare delicacy in the world.
There were exclamations of praise one after another.
Seeing that everyone could accept the taste of rice, Hu Jiaojiao felt relieved.
"Jiaojiao, rice is really a good thing. I'll ask them to open up more land to grow rice!"
The patriarch tasted the sweetness of rice and couldn't wait to speak.