Chapter 118: Tea, Locust Flowers, and Spring Bamboo Shoots

Tea, who among the middle-aged and elderly doesn't love this?

The Eldest Uncle was indeed moved: "How much is it to pick tea a day?"

Wu Lan didn't hide it: "150. Our tea was fertilized this year and grows well, so one can pick about five jin a day. Yours hasn't been managed for many years, so it's probably not easy to pick. Can one person pick about three jin a day?"

She was telling the truth. Tea trees need to be pruned every year and buds picked, otherwise they will grow wildly, thin and tall, swaying in the wind.

The buds will also grow thinner and thinner, and less heavy.

People standing in such tea trees can't see the top at all, and they have to pull the branches down before they can pick the tea.

Wu Lan said three jin a day, which was already a high-efficiency estimate!

Although the Eldest Uncle had abandoned it for many years, he hadn't forgotten everything, and he knew in his heart what his own tea mountain was like.

In other places, as long as the traffic is a little better, such tea gardens can be contracted in patches to those big tea merchants. But here, the tea isn't famous, the mountain roads are hard to walk, and the places are scattered...

In short, his tea garden really was no different from a wilderness.

He was still pondering whether it would work, but Mao Li refused directly: "That won't work. Dry tea in the market is only two or three hundred yuan a jin, and the good ones are only five or six hundred. It's more worry-free to buy it and drink it."

"If you hire people to pick tea, it's not enough for a jin of dry tea a day, and you have to pay one or two hundred for labor. Why bother? Our family isn't unable to afford tea."

These words were implying something, but Wu Lan breathed a sigh of relief.

If it's not cost-effective, then it's not cost-effective. After all, their family hiring people to stir-fry tea is also paying real money.

Now there are four tea pickers in the family, plus her and Wang Lifen helping out, they can produce six jin of dry tea a day.

Zhou Maozhu stir-fries tea manually, without a tea-stirring machine. To ensure the tea is fresh, they are all air-dried for a few hours and then start working in the middle of the night. Although the screening process is omitted, it's not easy day by day.

If the Eldest Uncle really wanted to stir-fry it together, wouldn't it be a loss of her family's favor?

Mao Li refused, and Wu Lan was happy in her heart.

Who knew that she wouldn't be happy for a minute before hearing the Eldest Uncle ponder for a moment: "Wu Lan, how do you sell your tea? Give me a jin too. We're family, so I'm at ease drinking it."

Wu Lan:...

She had to say the same old words again: "Eldest Uncle, my tea is very expensive."

No matter how much is supplied, tea shouldn't be so scarce that even a jin can't be squeezed out. The previous excuse wasn't appropriate.

Nothing else to say.

"That can't be—"

The Eldest Uncle just wanted to ask, but suddenly thought of the twenty-yuan-a-jin purple vetch, and after a moment of silence, he gave up.

He thought: What if it's a thousand yuan a jin? I really can't bear to buy it! That would be too awkward.

As he pondered, Mao Li and Sun Yanyan hurriedly carried the large plastic crate and ran away—

They had to run!

The Aunt, Song Hongmei, had already taken a plastic bag to the old lady's garden. They saw that lettuce, it was just that patch. There was also a patch of garlic sprouts. Logically, it wasn't rare, but this is twenty yuan a jin!

Shouldn't they hurry and get it back?

As soon as the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law went over, sure enough, Song Hongmei had already pulled two stalks of lettuce. Mao Li didn't say anything, put the crate in front, and started pulling along the vegetable ridge.

Wang Lifen's lettuce grew well this year, with layers of leaves stacked on top of each other, and flower buds were vaguely starting to form on top. Now, with just a little force, it wasn't difficult to pull at all.

The Aunt pulled three stalks of lettuce and grabbed two handfuls of garlic sprouts, and was ready to stop. Turning her head to look:

Whoa!

This mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had already pulled a small pile, and she couldn't help but be puzzled:

"Why are you pulling so much lettuce? You can't eat this stuff every meal."

The Aunt is stingy, but she is stingy with technique, unlike those who only eat the same dish every meal to save money. If she were really like that, her old Zhu would have flipped the table long ago.

Now it's the same. This lettuce grows so big, one stalk is enough for a family of three to eat for one or two meals. Plus, lettuce leaves can also be stir-fried to eat. Three stalks of lettuce, it will take seven or eight meals to consume!

Even if you eat one stalk every other day, you can eat for a week!

Besides, aren't there garlic sprouts? Stir-fried with cured meat, eggs, or anything else is fine, perfect.

But looking at Mao Li and her daughter-in-law, this posture is to empty the vegetable garden and go to the vegetable market to set up a stall!

But now every household's garden only has lettuce left, it's so cheap, is it necessary?

Feeling the Aunt's surprised gaze, Mao Li smiled: "Oh, things in the city are expensive. Mom said it's fine to pull them all, so I'll take more back. Your brother loves hometown vegetables now."

Song Hongmei is careless, but she isn't stupid.

What her brother loves to eat, it's clearly you wanting to take advantage! So she glanced at this silly mother-in-law and daughter-in-law:

"Then you guys take your time, I'll go back and tidy up the lettuce."

She turned and left the vegetable garden.

When she went back, she saw Qiao Qiao happily carrying a basket down from the back mountain. Looking down, a whole basket of snow-white and slightly cyan locust flowers!

"Aunt, here are the locust flowers."

Qiao Qiao led the plastic bag and poured the locust flowers into it, looking at the Aunt with joy.

"Oh my, my nephew still cares about me. Look at our Qiao Qiao, how good! These locust flowers are also good, they smell sweet, make steamed eggs with them tonight, and stir-fry the ones that haven't bloomed..."

Saying this, she casually pinched a few flowers and put them in her mouth, chewing them until they were sweet.

She had eaten locust flowers since she was a child, but she had never tasted this flavor!

The Aunt stopped her hands: "Tan Tan, I think your flowers are quite good, don't eat them, don't eat them, sell them, twenty yuan a jin, someone will definitely buy them."

Song Tan was helpless—she was sure someone would buy them, the problem was that the quantity was too small, three or five jin wasn't even enough for gas money.

Spiritual energy stimulation is a bit more, but there must be a basic foundation.

Otherwise, if those two locust trees bloom a hundred jin of flowers, she wouldn't be able to pass her mother's level!

Simply generously put them all in the bag:

"Aunt, you are good at cooking, take them all back and eat them. If we want to eat, there are still some on the tree."

With so many vegetables, locust flowers can still be frozen and stored after blanching. The Aunt was overjoyed!

Thinking about it, she painfully separated a small bit: "Give some to your Eldest Uncle to taste, otherwise they will grumble again."

Seeing no one around, she took out a handful of cash from her bosom, extracted five yuan with difficulty, thought about it, and stuffed another five yuan to Qiao Qiao:

"Good treasure, Aunt didn't bring you anything to eat this time, take it yourself to buy something, don't let your Eldest Aunt know."

Logically, there should be a commercial tug-of-war at this time, such as I don't want it, such as you keep it...

But Song Tan didn't, instead helping Qiao Qiao stuff the ten yuan, and then picked up a hoe from the foot of the wall:

"Aunt, the spring bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest are very tender, do you want them?"

Spring bamboo shoots, this stuff, can also be dried after blanching!

The Aunt decisively turned out a large plastic bag from her bag: "Let's go! Let's go together!"

------------------ Author's Note ------------------

There will be more later, but everyone should watch it tomorrow. It's probably very late, don't stay up late.

7017k ===== CHAPTER 119 =====

7017k