Chapter 903: Hollyhock Seeds Are the Key Point

Facing Dong Zhi Chao's "plea," Li Long shook his head and said:

"I cannot give you a definite answer. First, others are also paying three point five, so your price holds no advantage.

Second, I am unclear how much melon seed I can collect this year, and I do not yet know how much the other party needs, so I dare not make a firm promise.

Of course, we actually have other qualifications to offer. We produce not only melon seeds but also hollyhock seeds. Here in Northern Xinjiang, the sunshine duration is long and sunlight is abundant, resulting in very high-quality hollyhock seeds; see if you have any need for them?"

Last year and at the beginning of this year, when deciding to plant cash crops, Li Long had not anticipated that melon seeds could be sold out of Northern Xinjiang to the interior provinces.

Therefore, at that time, many people in the team planted melon-hollyhock, but those with good relations to the Li family did not; they all switched to planting true hollyhock seeds, including Tao Tao Da Yong.

Since Li Long had made the suggestion at the time, he felt he must promote these hollyhock seeds and ensure that those who followed him would not suffer losses.

Of course, he could also buy up all these hollyhock seeds himself at a high price, but having bought them, he would still need to sell them onward. Would it not be better to find merchants from the interior willing to buy at high prices directly?

"Hollyhock seeds?" Dong Zhi Chao heard this, shook his head, and said, "We do not lack hollyhock seeds in our region; many places in the interior plant them, and the price is not high..."

Before he could finish speaking, Ye Lanlan tugged at him; only then did Dong Zhi Chao realize his mistake, and he hurriedly added:

"However, we will see the situation at the time. If the quality of the hollyhock seeds produced here is indeed good, then I will definitely purchase them."

"I wonder what your acquisition price for hollyhock seeds is over there?"

"Two yuan for premium grade, though honestly, not many reach premium grade." Dong Zhi Chao was very knowledgeable in this regard, "Ordinary ones range from one yuan to one point five yuan—I am converting this to kilograms for you."

"Mm, alright. It will be another half month; after half a month, when both the hollyhock seeds and melon seeds are harvested, I will let you see them."

This was a signal for the guests to depart. Although Dong Zhi Chao remained somewhat unwilling, there was nothing he could do. With no goods currently available and Li Long refusing to make a firm commitment verbally, his heart remained suspended.

After leaving the purchasing station, Dong Zhi Chao and Ye Lanlan returned to the county guesthouse to continue brainstorming solutions.

"Lanlan, thanks to your reminder just now; otherwise, I would have directly rejected the hollyhock seeds, and likely the deal for melon seeds would have fallen through as well." Although Dong Zhi Chao occasionally maintained an air of superiority before Li Long, he was quite humble with Ye Lanlan, and he reflected, "But we truly do not lack hollyhock seeds."

"Let us wait and see." Ye Lanlan had matured over these past two months, and she said, "I think we should observe first; if the hollyhock seeds truly reach premium grade, then purchasing some would be fine. It would be even better if we could purchase some melon seeds alongside them.

Moreover, I have now discovered that people in our province are actually quite curious about things from Northern Xinjiang, especially local specialties; if we truly buy these hollyhock seeds, we could simply print an extra line on the packaging bags stating that these hollyhock seeds originate from Northern Xinjiang, which I believe will surely attract some curious people to taste them."

"Mm, that is a good idea; I will call the factory in a while and mention this matter." Dong Zhi Chao felt Ye Lanlan's suggestion was very useful.

Although in the eyes of most people in the province, Northern Xinjiang was poor and backward, everyone acknowledged that its local specialties were good products, with raisins being the most obvious example.

If we mark the packaging bags of these hollyhock seeds with a label indicating they are a Northern Xinjiang specialty, perhaps it really could attract many people!

Of course, they did not just sit idly waiting at the guesthouse; with half a month remaining until the melon harvest, they planned to visit several nearby counties, including the regiment farms of the Production and Construction Corps, to see if any turning point might arise.

After seeing off Dong Zhi Chao and Ye Lanlan, Li Long walked toward the front gate. Quite a few people were queued up to sell goods; this time he did not see anyone from the Tie family, and observing that Sun Jia Qiang did not seem very concerned either as he diligently assisted there, he chose not to disturb them, leaving the purchasing station to return to the big courtyard.

In the afternoon, Li Long drove the jeep to the Fourth Small Team.

His elder brother Li Jianguo had been plowing fields during this period, bustling about; operating the Dongfanghong 75 crawler tractor was when his enthusiasm was highest, so he was not present when Li Long arrived.

Thus, Li Long drove the jeep to the homes of Xie Xie Yun Dong, Tao Daqiang, Liang Liang Dacheng, Jia Weidong, and others, notifying each one by one to come to the Li family home that evening to discuss matters.

Then Li Long returned to the Li family home.

By early September, most vegetables in the garden had changed seasons. Few tomatoes remained; the reason they had not been fully picked was simply that fresh ones were needed daily for stir-frying. Most chili peppers had already been picked and dried into red chili skins. Strings of red chilies hung from the courtyard pillars and clotheslines, looking very beautiful.

The plots for sword beans and cowpeas had already been cleared, and the family had dried quite a few, which would be good for stewing with meat in winter. After Li Li Qing Xia had turned the soil and watered it, cabbage seeds were sown, and by now the cabbages had grown quite large.

Li Long entered the field, saw several small melons still remaining on a few melon vines crawling along the ditch at the southern end of the plot, went over, picked one down, held it in one hand, clenched his other hand into a fist and struck it, causing the melon to split open, releasing a rich, sweet fragrance.

Flicking out the seeds inside, he immediately began gnawing on it—this melon tasted truly excellent.

Both fragrant and sweet.

After eating two, Li Long finally stopped, walked over intending to pick a tomato, but then thought better of it. After eating such a sweet melon, eating a tomato afterward would likely leave only a sour taste.

Du Chunfang, who was tending the stove in the courtyard, seeing Li Long still searching for food, said:

"Stop looking; dinner will be ready soon. If you eat now, you won't want to eat later."

In the eyes of the elders, eating a proper meal was always more important than eating snacks.

"Mm, understood." Li Long responded, exited the vegetable garden, and said to Liang Yuemei, who was carrying a wooden shovel in from outside:

"Sister-in-law, I have told Xie Xie Yun Dong and the others; I asked them to come over tonight because I want to discuss the matter of hollyhock seeds."

"What, someone wants to buy?" Liang Yuemei had gone to the wheat threshing floor to clear the remaining wheat tails, making space for the upcoming harvest of oilseed sunflowers and hollyhock seeds. Not only had she gone, but Li Li Qing Xia was there too, and the Lu couple were also busy with this—their family had also planted hollyhock seeds.

However, Li Long had not gone to invite the Lu Yingming couple; he would wait until his elder brother Li Jianguo returned before discussing it with them.

Half an hour before the afternoon meal, Li Jianguo returned driving the tractor. He parked the tractor in the front courtyard, turned off the engine, and strode back; one could clearly see he was covered in dust and grime.

Although the Dongfanghong 75 tractor had a driving cab (cockpit), most tractor operators would leave the door open, inevitably getting covered in dust.

One could see Li Jianguo was quite happy; upon seeing Li Long, he smiled and asked:

"Is there more work again?"

Without waiting for Li Long to answer, he went to the hand-pump well, took a basin, and prepared to pump water to wash his face.

Li Long went over to help pump the water, pumping as he spoke:

"Today a customer came intending to buy melon seeds, and I introduced our hollyhock seeds to them. I thought I should come and inform everyone, so I called Brother Xie Yun Dong and the others to come over tonight so we can discuss it together."

"Alright." Li Jianguo nodded, then asked again, "Is it the same customer who bought melon seeds last time?"

"It is the one from the first batch; the price offered was not high." Li Long said, "Our flattened melon seeds are quite popular, so they wanted to buy more."

"It seems we truly did not anticipate at the beginning of the year that melon seeds would become so valuable again." After receiving the water, Li Jianguo draped the towel over his shoulder, thoroughly washed his face in the basin, and then wiped it with the towel.

Seeing the water in the basin had already turned gray, Li Long poured it out and pumped another large half-basin full.

"I have not said anything to Tie Tou's father yet; Elder Brother, please call them over in a while."

"Alright."

After dinner, Xie Xie Yun Dong and the others arrived one by one. Li Jianguo had also invited Lu Yingming over; the several men sat, stood, or squatted in the courtyard, each holding the same thing in their hands.

Salted dried fish.

Li Li Qing Xia sat beside the stove, leisurely roasting the salted dried fish over the residual fire beneath the pot. These dried fish had been sun-dried by him in summer; sometimes when the catch was small, there was leftover after one meal, and selling it was not worthwhile, so he simply rubbed them with salt, dried them, and stored them in sacks.

At this time, roasting the dried fish over the residual fire until crisp made for an excellent snack.

"The situation is as follows." Li Long said, "I have inquired; if we sell our hollyhock seeds to the roasted nut factory in Shicheng, the maximum price would be one yuan, not exceeding one point two yuan.

Of course, the acquisition price for melon seeds this year will also drop, because too many have been planted.

"Right now, I'm contacting that out-of-town client who bought melon seeds a while back. They said if our flower sunflower seeds can reach premium grade, the price is two yuan per kilogram. Even if they're only first grade, one step below, they can still sell for one yuan fifty."

"One mu of flower sunflowers yields about one hundred and fifty kilograms. At two yuan per kilogram, that's three hundred yuan in gross income. Although it doesn't compare to last year's melon seeds, it's already quite good compared to grain."

"Even if they buy at one yuan fifty, that's still over two hundred yuan. It'll work."

Hearing this, all of them began to smile.

"Then how do we reach premium grade?" Jia Weidong, who rarely spoke, asked a crucial question.

"Winnow them clean, reduce impurities, and minimize shriveled seeds," Li Long said. "The size of our melon seeds is no problem; our flower sunflowers are large, stronger than those from the interior regions. But to reach premium grade, I think it comes down to these few aspects. If we clean them thoroughly so no one eats moldy or insect-infested ones, that should be about right."

When the flower sunflower heads are growing, they attract many insects. These bugs eat the seeds on the flower heads; their teeth are hard enough to gnaw holes into the sunflower seeds, devour the kernels inside, excrete tiny granular droppings, and then crawl out to continue eating other seeds.

Current insecticides aren't very effective against these creatures. Moreover, once the sunflowers have set seed, insecticides cannot be used, since the seeds are meant for consumption and insecticides are toxic.

Therefore, harvested flower sunflower seeds usually contain a mix of shriveled seeds, seeds riddled with insect holes and covered in droppings, along with other impurities.

If oilseed sunflowers contain these impurities in small amounts, it doesn't matter much; during oil pressing, these things get expelled with the oil residue anyway.

But flower sunflowers are meant to be cracked open and eaten. If you bite into a shriveled seed, that's one thing, but if you encounter one filled with insect droppings, how disgusting would that be?

So these impurities must be removed; otherwise, if you grab a handful of seeds and find several with insect holes, it would be strange indeed if they were rated premium grade.

Moreover, removing them isn't difficult; just winnow them a few more times during threshing.

Regarding this, farmers really don't mind much; winnowing two or three extra times truly isn't a big deal.

After hearing Li Long finish speaking, everyone else laughed.

"Brother Long, are we still buying melon seeds this year?" Tao Da suddenly asked. "I see quite a few people in the team planting them."

"We will buy them," Li Long said. "Money within reach, we'll earn it too. But let's not buy just yet; those in the team who planted melon seeds will surely try selling to roasted seed factories first. We'll see what price they get then. If they sell high, we definitely won't buy; if they sell low, we'll discuss it again at that time."

He didn't mention his order for the seed-flattening machines; that couldn't be rushed yet.

As dusk approached, everyone chatted a bit more before dispersing. Li Long stopped Xie Xie Yun Dong, asking him to relay this matter to the team captain, Xu Chengjun, as well.

Xu Chengjun's own family also planted flower sunflowers. Since he had followed the village's lead, Li Long was naturally willing to help. However, some things were better not said directly in front of the captain, especially since many members of Xu Chengjun's clan had also planted melon seeds.

Having Xie Xie Yun Dong deliver the message made things easier to handle.

Li Long also needed to inform Liang Liang Wenyu's family; they had planted five mu of flower sunflowers this year, and if they wanted to fetch a good price, they needed to follow this same approach.

Over the next few days, people in the team began harvesting oilseed and flower sunflowers one after another. This harvest was entirely manual: cutting off the sunflower heads with sickles and stuffing them into urea sacks. The tractor's cargo bed was lined with woven reed mats to form a high circle, allowing it to hold more sunflower heads. Previously, thick mats woven from esparto grass were used, but now esparto grass had become scarce, so reed mats had to be used instead.

The cut sunflower heads were hauled to the wheat threshing floor. For small quantities, people simply knocked the seeds out manually with wooden sticks and then winnowed them. For larger quantities, the flower heads needed to be dried first, then crushed using a roller pulled by a tractor, after which the seeds were winnowed out.

It was slightly easier than threshing wheat.

Li Long had nothing pressing to do in the county town, so he returned to the team to help. Although he wasn't particularly fond of farm work, that didn't mean he abandoned it entirely. He could still handle pulling sunflower heads, knocking out seeds, and working the threshing floor. Although Li Jianguo had suggested he didn't need to do this, deeming it unnecessary.

But since his own land was being farmed by his elder brother, and Li Jianguo, rushing as fast as he could, had already plowed all the fields that needed plowing, plus with Li Li Qing Xia and the other three family members busy working those dozens of mu of oilseed and flower sunflowers, Li Long felt it was better for him to join in as well.

Even if he just drove the tractor for threshing, it would allow his elder brother to take turns resting.

Although Li Long wasn't very skilled at threshing, winnowing was no problem for him. Since he was the one who suggested winnowing several times, he worked very hard during the winnowing process.

Li Jianguo was indeed a master at farming; the yield of his flower sunflowers was around one hundred and seventy to one hundred and eighty kilograms per mu.

Because Li Long had already explained the requirements, the work on the threshing floor was done extremely cleanly. Before bagging all the harvested flower sunflowers, Li Long had indeed inspected them very carefully.

There were no small clods of dirt brought in from the threshing floor, no shriveled seeds, and no insect holes. Grabbing a handful of seeds at random, each kernel was plump, large, and of excellent appearance.

"If we still can't get premium grade with this, then I won't even sell their melon seeds for them!" Li Long said with a laugh.

"No need for that, no need for that," Li Jianguo waved his hand, though a look of pride still showed on his face. "There are always those who recognize quality goods."

This year, he had put considerable effort into harvesting the flower sunflowers. He had winnowed them three times alone. Actually, there were quite a few shriveled seeds among the tails of the sunflowers. In previous years, such things would have been left in the finished product, but in order to strive for that premium grade, these were separated into the tails to be fed to the sheep later.

After all, premium grade was five mao per kilogram more expensive than first grade; discarding some shriveled seeds was no big loss.

Li Long didn't go to inspect the goods Xie Xie Yun Dong and the others were collecting. The situation had already been explained to them; how they acted was their own affair. If they were lazy or careless, and their rating ended up lower, that would be their own doing.

Nevertheless, Li Long believed they would all take it seriously.

A week had passed. Taking advantage of Song Ming delivering sugar residue, Li Long simply hired his vehicle again, made a trip to Kuitun, and brought back the five ordered seed-flattening machines.

After bringing them back, he stored them in an idle room within the courtyard of his own Fourth Small Team. Li Long planned that if the team's melon seeds couldn't be sold, he could then openly start buying them up.

He hadn't intended to process all the purchased melon seeds by himself. With five machines, he would distribute them to Tao Da and the others, just like last time: they would provide the labor, and he would pay them a processing fee.

Of course, when buying melon seeds, he wouldn't offer too high a price; just a floor price, slightly higher than what the roasted seed factories offered. He believed that once the factories saw such a large volume of goods, they would definitely lower their prices and refuse to buy.

After all, the market was only so large; if they bought too much and couldn't sell it, wouldn't that be a pure loss?

Moreover, Li Long believed that neither the people within the team nor those outside who had bought seeds to plant melons would ever consider flattening the melon seeds themselves. Even though Xu Chengjun had made money last year, this year, even with members of his clan planting melons, they wouldn't do such a thing.

Mainly because it was too troublesome.

Therefore, Li Long only planned to offer a floor price. Of course, even a floor price was more profitable than planting grain.

Everyone had to plant grain anyway, since the grain tax had to be paid. But cash crops also had to be planted, as those were used to generate cash.

Both could be managed without conflict; the people of the Fourth Small Team had already distinguished this very clearly.

Bai Xiu Ming arrived on September 11th, after Teachers' Day. Teachers' Day had only been established this year, in 1985. However, at this time, students didn't yet have the concept of giving gifts to teachers; the teachers merely hoped for a day off to relax, since having their own holiday was a good thing.

Li Jianguo had already transported several dozen sacks of flower sunflower seeds to the county procurement station. After Bai Xiu Ming arrived, Li Long invited him to sit in the reception room and discussed the situation for this year.

"The melon seeds haven't been collected yet; you've arrived a bit early."

"It's fine; arriving early and getting here sooner puts my mind at ease. I heard Dong Zhi Chao also arrived quite early?"

Bai Xiu Ming's early arrival wasn't without reason. He had originally intended to come at the time Li Long suggested. He just hadn't expected his old rival to rush over so early. He worried that if Dong Zhi Chao offered generous terms that Li Long couldn't refuse, wouldn't his own supply of raw materials go to waste?

Although he trusted Li Long's character, he trusted the power of money even more; it was better for him to come and oversee things personally.

Li Long didn't expose this, smiling as he said:

"Then we'll have to wait a few more days. However, the flower sunflowers have already been harvested; you can inspect them now."

Bai Xiu Ming wasn't very interested in flower sunflowers, but since there were no melon seeds yet, looking at the flower sunflowers now was acceptable.

Li Long felt somewhat excited yet also apprehensive, wondering how much approval Bai Xiu Ming would have for these flower sunflowers? (End of Chapter)