NABC Chapter 122 Making Fermented Rice
Chapter 122 Making Fermented Rice
This time, Liu Xuewen had indeed been kept waiting for far too long, and even Song Jiaojiao felt bad about it.
"Okay, I'll go and inform them after I finish work. The rice harvest will be soon, and I don't know how many people will be able to come." Aunt Li is now a little worried about not having enough manpower.
"It's alright. If there are really not enough people, we'll just pull a few people from the sweet potato farm. The main thing is that this matter is quite urgent, and people have been waiting for me for quite some time."
"Okay, we'll do it your way. Jiaojiao, you don't know, do you? The village school has opened, and we've found two young scholars to teach us. Now it's much better; we don't see those naughty kids messing with the village chickens and ducks anymore." Aunt Li told Song Jiaojiao with a smile that the school had been officially set up.
Song Jiaojiao said with a smile, "This is a good thing. We've discovered that the child has this talent, so we must get him into school. He can come to me if he has any difficulties."
"You're a good person, Jiaojiao. Now most people in the village have improved thanks to your workshop. Sending children to school was something they wouldn't have dared to dream of before. Now, if we grit our teeth, we can even support families whose husbands have died. Don't worry," Aunt Li said with emotion, hoping that the villagers would remember Song Jiaojiao's kindness.
"I've also experienced hardship, and I know what it's like to go hungry. I'm very happy to be able to help everyone," Song Jiaojiao said with a smile, linking arms with Aunt Li. If you were to say who helped her the most back then, it would have to be Aunt Li's family.
Aunt Li patted Song Jiaojiao's hand, "Alright, as long as you know what's going on, I won't chat with you anymore, I'm going to get back to work."
Aunt Li let go of Song Jiaojiao and continued working.
Seeing that there was nothing for her to do, Song Jiaojiao went to the sugar mill and scooped out ten catties of wheat to soak overnight so that it could sprout tomorrow.
Then she went back to the room and asked Xu Fang to steam ten catties of rice. Xu Fang was shocked to hear that Song Jiaojiao wanted to steam ten catties of rice, but she didn't say much. As a servant, you just need to do what your master tells you to do and don't have such a strong curiosity.
After the rice was steamed, Song Jiaojiao asked Xu Fang to spread the rice out on a clean winnowing basket, let it cool, and then cover it with gauze to air dry.
The next morning, just as the sun was rising, the sugar mill was already busy. Song Jiaojiao had Xu Fang drain the wheat that had been soaked the night before and spread it in a winnowing basket, covering it with gauze and sprinkling water on it to keep it moist and allow it to sprout.
In this kind of weather, wheat can sprout in a day. You can use sprouted wheat, but that would be more wasteful. It's best to wait about five days for the sprouts to grow to about ten centimeters.
Song Jiaojiao was leaving some people and steamed a lot of rice, planning to make more yin rice. She also had some unopened yeast from the last purchase, which she could use to make laozao (fermented glutinous rice). It's best to use glutinous rice for laozao, but unfortunately she didn't have any at home, so she had to use regular rice instead.
Once the steamed rice has cooled to a temperature that is not too hot to touch, dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water, pour it into the warm rice and stir well. Then press the rice down firmly and poke a hole in the center to allow the yeast to drain. Note that the key to successful fermented rice is to sterilize everything that comes into contact with the rice with boiling water to prevent failure.
Once everything is ready, place the rice container in a warm place. It should be ready in about three days.
That evening, Song Jiaojiao went to check on the wheat. It had mostly sprouted. She sprinkled some water on the wheat, but it seemed that it would be difficult to finish it in three days. She could only take it one step at a time.
Song Jiaojiao soaked another fifty catties of wheat, planning to sprout more malt tomorrow. Malt is the key to the success of sweet potato candy, mainly because the sprouting time is a bit long. It sprouts much faster in hot weather than in cold weather.
The next day, many aunties came again, but there wasn't much work to do. Everyone was unsure what to do. They felt bad about getting paid for doing nothing all day and went to Aunt Li to ask her for advice.
Aunt Li had no choice but to ask Song Jiaojiao, "Jiaojiao, the workers downstairs are all asking them what kind of work they need to do. They're so anxious because they have nothing to do."
Song Jiaojiao touched her nose and said somewhat awkwardly, "It's true that I didn't think things through. I thought we could start in the next couple of days, but the malt wasn't ready. How about this, let the aunties wash the sweet potatoes first. If there are too many people, let some of them go to the sweet potato shop to help make mung bean flour. By the way, how many sweet potatoes are left in the cellar from last time?" Song Jiaojiao asked, thinking that a lot of sweet potatoes would be needed this time.
"We haven't touched it since you said you weren't going to make sweet potato noodles anymore. There's probably about 10,000 jin left. After we stopped making sweet potato noodles, Sifanglou stopped sending sweet potatoes." Aunt Li thought for a moment and estimated the amount.
Once Sifanglou had mastered the craft, they naturally stopped sending sweet potatoes. The extra month's delivery was simply because their own workshop hadn't been built yet.
Song Jiaojiao roughly calculated that 100 jin of sweet potatoes would require about 16 jin of malt. The sweet potatoes here are mostly red-fleshed, which could yield about 25 jin of sweet potato candy. Based on this calculation, the remaining sweet potatoes could last until the next sweet potato harvest.
"Okay, I understand, Auntie. You go ahead and get busy. I reckon we should be able to start making sweet potato syrup tomorrow." Song Jiaojiao thought that the malt would be almost ready to use by tomorrow evening.
Aunt Li nodded and went to arrange the work for the workers. So much time had passed, and many of the flowers that Wang Hefan brought back last time had been divided into plants in the space. Song Jiaojiao went to the barren mountain alone with a basket on her back and a hoe. Now there were more and more chickens, ducks and rabbits. Ma Tao and Xu Da built a lot of sheds on them. Usually, the manure was piled up collectively at the foot of a mountain downwind for composting. Song Jiaojiao couldn't use all the manure, so she asked the village chief to tell the villagers that anyone who needed it could come and take it.
Upon reaching the mountaintop, the lotus flowers in the pond were in full bloom, and many lotus pods were beginning to form seeds. In October, the lotus roots would be harvested to make lotus root powder. The clear pond water clearly showed many fish swimming around, and occasionally, small crayfish could be seen hiding under the lotus leaves.
There were also many ducks foraging in the pond, happily devouring small fish one after another, making the water murky wherever they went.
Song Jiaojiao didn't linger. She went to the edge of the barren mountain, to the place surrounded by a wooden fence, and began to move the flowers out of the space one by one, burying them along the wooden fence at three-meter intervals. These flowers have thorns, which can provide simple protection.
After everything was done, the sun began to set. On the top of the barren mountain, Song Jiaojiao sat in the pavilion, admiring the crimson clouds on the distant horizon. The orange-red clouds filled half the sky. Only in summer could one see such a breathtaking natural spectacle. Nature is truly a magical thing.
Only after the last cloud disappeared did Song Jiaojiao get up to go home. Being able to sit and enjoy the scenery so leisurely every day really improved her mood.