Chapter 660: Farming Plans
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The potatoes and sweet potatoes were hot when she brought them out. She blew on them and said, “Be careful, everyone. They’re still hot.”
Lin Dahua smiled. “My hands have gotten used to getting scorched. I’m not afraid of a little heat.’
At home, she had grown accustomed to using her bare hands to remove food from the pot after cooking. As a result, her hands had grown somewhat numb to high temperatures.
She took a sweet potato and blew on it. Then she peeled its skin with her bare hands, revealing the red insides that dripped with oil. “It reminds me of an egg yolk. It must be delicious.”
She took a bite as she spoke. She tasted its sweetness and smiled, saying, “Wow, it’s so good!”
Lin Dahua did not mind how hot it was and ate a few mouthfuls in a row. Everyone knew how delicious it was just by looking at her expression. The group looked hungry, but their sweet potatoes were still hot.
Dong Xiaolei took hers to the yard and said, “I’ll use the cold breeze to cool it down.”
“Yeah, that’s a great idea!”
Soon, the others also peeled their potatoes and ate them.
“It’s nice and sweet!”
“Yeah, I like this flavor a lot.’
“It’s nice to eat hot foods like these in the middle of winter.’
Everyone felt warm inside after eating the roasted potatoes. Of course, it was not that the room they sat in was cold since Su Binglan had put charcoal in the furnace to warm up the house.
She looked at everyone happily eating. She said smilingly, “After you harvest your potatoes, you can roast them like this and sell them in town. Although it might be challenging to sell to the villagers since they’ll also have potatoes, you can sell them to foreign merchants.”
The group raised their brows when they heard that.
“Why didn’t we think of that?”
After some thought, Dong Xiaolei said, “It’s the same as selling eggs. Since every household here has them, we typically go to town to sell them because foreign merchants often visit.
“Now that Su Teng Village has a dock, people from far and wide can come here. They might like eating roasted potatoes. We can make and sell some in winter for extra pocket money.”
Su Binglan looked at Dong Xiaolei appreciatively and nodded. “That makes sense. It’s always good to grow potatoes, even if you don’t plan on making and selling roasted potatoes. You can always eat them for yourselves.
“You can also make them into dried potatoes and store them for a long time.”
Everyone listened attentively to Su Binglan’s words. They knew they could always gain a lot from everything she said. They became emotional and excited, hoping for a high yield after planting the seeds in their yards.
The villagers could profit a lot in a year by doing part-time jobs and occasionally selling things in the market. The group felt excited and energized with these thoughts in mind.
They smiled as they ate the roasted potatoes. Even Su Binglan joined them, thinking her cooking was indeed delicious.
The group stayed and chatted with her all morning, and she made them plenty of delicious food. By noon, they happily went home.
Although Su Binglan told them to stay for lunch, they were too shy and ultimately went home to eat.
Meanwhile, Lin Dahua, Yao Cuihua, and Dong Xiaolei discussed their morning activities as they walked home.
“l never knew how good potatoes and sweet potatoes were. 1 hope we have high yields. Let’s save an acre of land to plant their seeds.”
“Yeah, but don’t forget about the melon and sunflower seeds. I didn’t expect them to taste so good. When they grow, we can use our free time to make and sell these things.”
The village was not far from the town, and many families had oxcarts, making traveling easier. The group was excited about earning more money during their free time.
“Let’s take Miss Su l s advice and prepare our fields for when spring arrives. Harvesting a few thousand pounds of potatoes is beneficial, especially since we’ll only use one acre of land.”
Dong Xiaolei told her mother everything when she reached home. Zhou Wen’e was thrilled, saying, “We have plenty of land, so let’s consider how to use it as efficiently as possible.”
Dong Xiaolei added, “Muss Su says we can harvest potatoes twice yearly. We can plant them in spring and harvest them during summer and autumn. I thought we should plant wheat in spring.
“After harvesting those, we can plant potatoes. However, we should also plant rice after harvesting wheat.”
Zhou Wen t e raised her brows. “We can harvest twice yearly? That’s convenient. We still have to start planting things like vegetables in spring. How about we plant wheat as usual?
“Then we’ll use half our land for potatoes and the remaining for sweet potatoes. If we have a good harvest in spring, we can plant more.”
Dong Xiaolei said thoughtfully, “That’s right, Mother. I think so, too. Let’s plant more in spring because Miss Su says the yield will be high. Then, we can plant wheat, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.
“It’ll be enough for us to eat. It’s fine if we don’t plant rice, or we can plant less rice. Also, we’ve planted rapeseed, so we can use them to extract oil. We can plant fewer peanuts and leave the remaining land for sweet potatoes and potatoes.”
Zhou Wen’e agreed, ‘You’re so smart, my dear daughter. Let’s go with your plan because we’ll need more potatoes and sweet potatoes.”
Dong Xiaolei remembered something and said, “Oh, Mother, I brought some melon seeds. Try them. We can plant these too. Miss Su says they’re like sunflower seeds. I think we can plant some in the yard.”
Zhou Wen!e was a little doubtful. “But that will be hard for us to look after because we have full-time jobs at the embroidery shop.”
Dong Xiaolei said, “Mother, I don’t think it’ll be that hard. Plus, we’ll have more harvests while earning money. We’ll be at ease with more resources.”
Zhou Wen’e agreed, “We can wake up earlier to do some work in the yard, then focus on the fields during our afternoon break.”
She knew harvesting was seasonal and would only be busy when she had to juggle her full-time job with farming. Still, she was not busy during weekdays. Just thinking about it made her feel busy.
Meanwhile, Dong Xiaolei felt energized. Even Li Mei told her family about her morning activities when she got home.
Du Xiaoshuan was excited, saying,” I bought three acres of land here. We can use it to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes..”