Chapter 1036: Advising People Not to Take an Iron Rice Bowl? Are You Crazy?

Director Qian liked it very much, but he didn't eat much. After tasting two pieces, he let Li Long pack them up. He put them into the cabinet and asked Li Long about the greenhouse.

Before the New Year, Li Long had sent Director Qian some fresh vegetables. At that time, because there were many people, Director Qian didn't ask in detail.

"The original owner of the courtyard I bought had studied this," Li Long said. "At that time, he built a glass greenhouse behind the large courtyard. It's just that he didn't finish his research before going to Shanghai to work. Later, his father sold the house to me, and I renovated the glass greenhouse, thinking it would be nice to grow some vegetables in winter.

At first, I could only grow some small cabbage and such, but later, by exploring slowly, I could grow ordinary vegetables. But to be honest, it's really troublesome. After all, you have to pull up the cotton curtains covering the glass greenhouse in the morning and put them down in the evening. You have to clear the snow when it snows, add coal to the stove every day, and pollinate the flowers when the vegetables grow and bloom..."

It's really troublesome, but it's truly rare when this stuff is really grown.

Li Long still remembers the surprised expressions of his brothers and sisters when those vegetables appeared on the family's New Year's Eve dinner.

Being able to eat fresh vegetables in the middle of winter, it's worth it even if it's a bit hard work. In a few years, when greenhouse vegetable sheds are all built, Li Long won't have to work so hard to grow them.

But for now, it seems this process will take a long time. After all, large-scale popularization of greenhouse construction in Northern Xinjiang will have to wait until the "Vegetable Basket Project" is widely known.

Of course, this great project was once, or has always been, ignored by many people. The superiority of people-oriented socialism created by the socialist system is generally enjoyed by everyone, yet its greatness is ignored.

A socialist giant baby.

Li Long had many thoughts in his mind, but he was quickly pulled back. What Director Qian said at this time was thinking about whether this greenhouse vegetable cultivation was replicable.

Li Long didn't say, because this is something for leaders to consider. This stuff needs a cost-performance ratio for input and output; if it doesn't reach a certain profit, it can't be done.

At present, ordinary people probably can't afford to buy fresh vegetables in winter very generously. After all, the cost of growing them is still quite high, unless large-scale popularization can lower the cost.

This is an aside. After all, the supply and marketing cooperative is not mainly doing this, so Director Qian just pondered for a few sentences and then began to ask Li Long about other aspects.

"How do you plan to make this jerky? Retail or wholesale? The price shouldn't be cheap, right?"

"Both," Li Long said. "A batch has already been made. Partners in two places inside the pass have ordered several hundred kilograms, saying they want to see the market reaction. I have a storefront in the county market, and there is an older sister who knows how to make this. We plan to take some time to see if we can sell this as a sideline."

"The price is indeed not low. It's twelve yuan per kilogram sold to those bosses inside the pass, but this itself is considered a high-end snack, and we use real materials, so it's understandable that the price is higher."

"Yes, after all, it's pure meat. This stuff needs several kilograms of fresh meat to produce one kilogram of jerky, right? It's not bad to be able to accurately position the market." Director Qian nodded in appreciation.

In the past, the state cooperative tried every possible way to open up the market inside the pass and sell some local specialties, even if it meant subsidizing some, but it never worked.

Now it's good. With Li Long, there are already several specialty items sold inside the pass, and Li Long himself has also created a new one, and it was sold as soon as it was made.

People really can't be compared with each other.

He had half-jokingly said to Li Xiangqian before that Li Long had great luck. At that time, it was a joke, but now it seems that maybe it's really true.

Li Long didn't stay long at Director Qian's place. Director Qian was also busy and didn't keep him.

Returning to the small car team, the jeep had been maintained, and the tank was full. After saying goodbye to Xiao Si, Li Long went to the Beiting City Supply and Marketing Cooperative to deliver things to Wei Zhuren, politely declined Wei Zhuren's invitation to stay for a meal, and then went to find Chen Hongjun.

Because he knew the location of Chen Hongjun's home, and it was almost time to get off work, Li Long thought he would just wait.

Sure enough, ten minutes after getting off work, he waited for Chen Hongjun, who came back riding a bicycle.

Chen Hongjun also saw Li Long by the jeep, smiled, got off the bike, and shook hands with Li Long vigorously:

"Xiao Li, long time no see!"

"Yes," Li Long said with a smile, "Are you busy lately, Brother Chen?"

"Not busy, I'm bored to death... Let's not talk about this first. You haven't eaten yet, right? Let's go, let's go, I'll treat you to a meal—there's definitely not enough food at home. I'll go back and tell them, and we'll go out to eat."

"Just right, I brought you some things. Let's put them at home, and then we'll go out," Li Long said.

At this time, when people cook at home, they usually cook according to the number of people, and there won't be much extra.

So if someone suddenly comes to eat at home, it is destined that one person will not have enough food or even have no food at all.

And this person is usually the hostess who cooks—it's not like later generations. In later generations, there are many takeaways, and every household has some stock in the refrigerator, and the stove is also convenient, so it will be very fast to add a dish when someone comes.

At this time, cooking is very troublesome, and the food cooked is mostly rationed. If you want to cook again, it will take a long time to knead the dough, and it will take a long time to steam rice. Ordinary families will not store dried noodles or anything.

So Chen Hongjun said there wasn't enough food at home, which was very frank, and ordinary people all understood.

And Li Long could also understand. After all, he had encountered unexpected situations, and he didn't want to be the unexpected person in the Chen family.

If the remaining food can be heated for the afternoon, but if it's not enough, wouldn't he become an annoying person?

"You just came, why bring things?" Chen Hongjun complained.

"New things I made over there, bring them over for you to taste," Li Long said with a smile, "I guarantee you haven't eaten them."

When they arrived at the Chen family, Li Long took the things out, and they were really attractive.

Not to mention the jerky, even the tomatoes and chili peppers were tempting enough.

The Chen family had always had a very good impression of Li Long. Without Li Long, they would still be living in the one-story house outside the alley, how could they have moved into this large courtyard?

Although clearing snow in the large courtyard this winter was quite troublesome, it was still much better than the one-story house.

The family has their own rooms, living comfortably, and it's private, and the space is large, how good!

So the family was very enthusiastic about Li Long's arrival, including the children who had finished school, who took the initiative to call him uncle and poured water for Li Long to drink.

Originally, Chen Hongjun's wife wanted to serve food for Li Long, but Chen Hongjun said himself that he would take Li Long out to eat and let his wife not worry about them.

"Then eat something good, don't just eat noodles, order a few dishes. Although you can't drink much at noon, it's no problem to eat a few good dishes," Chen Hongjun's wife said.

"Okay, I know," Chen Hongjun responded and took Li Long out.

"Is this jerky? It smells quite fragrant," Chen Hongjun's mother said after the people left, her eyes falling on the bag of jerky, "Come, let's taste it."

Chen Hongjun's wife focused her attention on those vegetables, thinking that being able to eat these fresh vegetables in the middle of winter was really fresh.

As for the jerky, Li Long brought quite a lot, so they could taste it slowly.

Chen Hongjun took Li Long to the restaurant he had been to before. He let Li Long sit down and went to order dishes himself.

Li Long didn't force himself to eat noodles. He could see that Chen Hongjun wanted to chat with him. If they ate noodles, there wouldn't be much time to chat.

Chen Hongjun ordered rice, braised pork, spicy chicken, and two dishes, and also ordered a bottle of wine.

"Didn't you say you wouldn't drink at noon? You still have to go to work in the afternoon, right, Brother Chen?" Li Long was a bit surprised.

"It's okay, drinking a little won't affect anything. I'm now... working is not much different from not working. There's nothing to do in this winter," Chen Hongjun took the two freshly washed cups handed over by the waiter and said, "You don't know, actually I am now... sigh, how to say it, I always feel that this job is meaningless."

Li Long actually understands. After all, having experienced so much in his previous life, how could he not know? In those news reports and anecdotes, after leaders retire, they have nothing to do, feel psychologically empty, and in the team where they are, after the cooperative is established, those who hand over their land to the cooperative have nothing to do all day long, only playing cards and mahjong. Isn't it the same?

When the cooperative first started, because mechanization was not complete, many people could still work in the cooperative—getting a dividend at the end of the year was part of the money, and working in the cooperative could also earn a share of money, how good.

But with the advancement of technology, the technology of growing cotton in the cooperative is becoming more and more advanced, and later on, there is no work to do. Some people who have worked for half a lifetime turn to find other work, such as cutting bitter beans, picking wheat, picking corn, etc., riding electric tricycles and even running more than ten kilometers to pick up the residual potatoes in the fields after others have harvested.

Now with large-scale planting and mechanized harvesting, there are actually a lot of crops left in the fields. As long as you can endure that bitterness, you can pick up a lot of things in a summer and autumn.

It's no problem to sell for a few thousand yuan. ===== CHAPTER 1037 =====