Back to the small fishing village in 1982

Chapter 1061 Another idea

Ye Yaodong shook his head. "How can I be so idle? I go out to sea every other day, and I can't finish the work at hand, and I still have to deal with kelp."

"You make it sound so easy, don't you think it's easy?"

"It also needs to be managed, and it also depends on the temperature of the sea area. It can't be raised in all places, but if it can be raised, it's simple. As long as there is a rope to hang it in the sea and a foam ball to tie it up to float, it won't be afraid of being washed away by the waves. If you are interested, I can teach you. If this is raised, it will drive the whole village and allow some villagers to make more money."

When everyone heard that they could make more money, their eyes lit up.

"Okay, okay, if this can be raised, it can also be sold for money, right?"

"We can sell it. Hang it up and dry it. Can't it be stored for a long time? And it's also convenient to transport. Unlike the seafood we catch, it's very inconvenient to transport. We can only deliver it to a few nearby towns. If we do this, can't trucks carry it all over the country?"

"Yes, yes..."

"Yes, we just caught so much, and everyone wants to dry it so that we can eat it on the boat for a few days. We don't have to worry about it going bad. It would be even better if we can sell it for money."

"Someone should want it. People in the city have to pay for the vegetables grown in the fields. The vegetables in our sea are also vegetables..."

Ye Yaodong looked at the kelp floating everywhere on the sea and came to an idea. If he couldn't handle it all, he could ask the villagers to do it, and then he could collect it and sell it in the shop.

Not only can I earn money myself, but I can also bring hope of making a living to my fellow villagers.

Although kelp is very cheap at this time, it is the lowest-end seafood and a common product. It is generally used as feed. The feed for sea cucumbers and abalone is kelp. However, few people raise abalone and sea cucumbers now. What everyone eats are pure natural and wild ones.

Therefore, no one spends the effort to grow low-end products like kelp. It just grows randomly on rocks, and no one picks it up if it falls into the sea. No one wants it, and people living by the sea are not interested in eating it.

When you want to eat some, if someone has picked some up from the sea or has dried them at the door, you can ask for two pieces. You can have them all. The villagers are happy to share.

Even if you stop at the door to take a few more glances, people will ask you if you want it and enthusiastically let you take some home to cook.

He thought about it and felt that it was indeed feasible to lead the entire fishing village to cultivate kelp. In his previous life, there were people cultivating kelp in their village, and there were also people cultivating seaweed in the offshore fields farther away, as well as people cultivating hair algae and oysters. They had boats and cultivated everything, and now it was just developing in advance.

For the seaside fishing villages with poor mountains and little land, the hope of getting rid of poverty and becoming rich lies entirely on the sea. Building fishing boats and going out to sea for fishing requires a certain amount of cost, and some fishermen who have no financial means at all do not have this capital.

There are more than 400 households in their village, and most of them can only do odd jobs to earn a little money to make a living, or they can just reclaim some land and grow some food to ensure that they will not starve to death.

Only a very small number of people can actually make money, and most of them are around him.

If these kelp seedlings caught from the sea are taken back and raised, it can be a way out for the fishing village and a way to make the whole village rich.

If this is really grown, there will be no problem selling it. The reason why people in inland areas need to eat iodized salt is because they consume too little seafood and lack iodine.

Kelp is rich in iodine, which is not easy to find in seafood. It would be convenient to transport kelp if it is dried.

Therefore, the salt eaten by people living by the sea does not contain iodine because they are worried about consuming too much iodine.

Drying kelp is much easier than drying fish. You can just spread it out and hang it anywhere.

After everyone discussed it for a while, they all looked at Ye Yaodong.

"Can it be raised, Adong?"

Ye Yaodong turned around and said, "Of course, we can find a suitable sea area and raise them. When I went out to sea last month, I occasionally saw some floating on the sea, but I didn't think of catching them at that time..."

"If you haven't been caught in the fishing net, why would you think of fishing it out? There's nothing rare about common things."

"If you want, we can use a hand net to scoop some up and dry them in the sun. I guess they grew on the rocks of some island. Now that the elders have grown up, they were washed into the sea by the waves. No one wants them."

"Yes, no one is trying to pick them up, and no one wants them, so they are floating over such a large area."

"It's up to you. If you're done with the sorting work, you can fish some out to dry. The work at hand is definitely more important. It doesn't matter whether you fish for the kelp in the sea or not, because now is not the time for kelp to grow."

Kelp grows in low-temperature seawater. If the water temperature is above 20 degrees, the kelp will not only not grow but will rot instead. Therefore, January to April each year is the best season for kelp to grow.

After the Qingming Festival, the temperature starts to rise, which is a good season for harvesting kelp.

Some of those on the ground are indeed rotten, and it is time for them to mature.

Wild kelp grows on rocks, with its roots firmly clinging to the rocks. It has grown for too long and has become a little rotten, so it is easily knocked down. It is unknown how long it has been floating.

Otherwise, it at least grows in sea areas with strong currents, small waves and high temperatures. The faster the tide, the larger the kelp.

There is indeed kelp growing on the rocks on the islands near them. Last year, he and A Qing collected a lot of it and took it back to dry. If they really want to grow it, the surrounding waters are also suitable for growing it.

In the beginning, he only thought about fishing. He didn't have the energy for breeding. However, seeing that everyone is so interested, he directly asked the village cadres to come forward and initiate collective breeding. He can then take over the profits and help the whole village become rich.

The most important thing is that the sea area near them is really suitable for aquaculture, and his shop is also on the right track. The fish raised in the village can be eaten, so there is no need to worry about sales.

The rich will help the poor to become rich, and individual wealth will help collective wealth. Everyone will become rich together and respond to the policy.

That is, the kelp now has not undergone generations of excellent cultivation, so its yield and growth may not be as good as in the future. However, everything depends on human efforts. As long as he can make a start and see some results, it will be considered a success.

Professional matters require professional talents. As long as some results can be seen, the village committee will find ways to expand it, and the government can also take the lead in inviting technical personnel to vigorously develop it. This is not something he can do.

All things are difficult at the beginning, but as long as the beginning is effective, he doesn't need to worry about the follow-up.

When everyone heard that it was not the growing season for kelp, they were confused and asked questions.

"Isn't it only during these two months every year that the most kelp is found?"

"Yes, when the temperature is high, it won't grow, so when it matures, it will be washed into the sea by the waves. Winter is the best time to pick up kelp."

"If we catch more now, will we be unable to take the tender ones back to raise them?"

"Didn't you just say that you could take it back and raise it?"

Ye Yaodong thought about what he had just said, and it seemed like he had said, "I just happened to see it, and it was so easy to say, so I said I could take it home and raise it. It can be raised, but it will rot easily in the current temperature. If you want to raise it well, you have to wait until winter. Now is the harvest season, not the time to transplant seedlings."

In winter, you can go to nearby islands to collect seedlings, then use ropes to clamp them and grow them directly on nearby islands.

"Oh, now we can only eat these."

"Let's dry them. The fishing nets have been salvaged, so why not use them? Hang them up with a rope and let them dry in the sea wind for two days. You can share some of them when the time comes, or you can take them home to make soup. They won't go bad anyway."

"Then dry it."

"There are still quite a lot of them floating in the sea. I wonder which island nearby they fell from. Should we fish them out?"

"Let's fish it out. It's not dinner time yet and everyone is in good spirits. Let's assign two people to help fish it out. It won't delay the work on the boat."

"Then let's do some harvesting... I'll ask Adong to teach me how to plant it in winter..."

"Yes, the vegetables grown in the field can't be sold for much money. Is there anyone who wants these vegetables from the sea if they are dried?"

"The vegetables grown in the fields can also be sold. People in the city don't have land, so they have to buy the vegetables they eat. We are not like us in the countryside, where vegetables are worthless and we can't even eat them all even if we grow them ourselves."

"Then there should be someone who wants this..."

"Just fish it out first. If you can reach it, just fish it out. If you can't reach it, just forget about it."

They were talking excitedly and after discussing it, they decided to assign two people to go and do the fishing. Anyway, the fishing boat was not moving very fast.

Ye Yaodong was also squatting in the corner of the pile of kelp and picking it out. If part of it was rotten, he would cut it off with scissors. If the area was large, he would throw it away. He also picked out the old and tender ones. The kelp nowadays is not as big as that in later generations, and the wild ones look particularly young.

To be honest, no one wants the natural ones now, so who would think of breeding them? The areas that are really lacking these are the inland mountainous areas. And not only these, the inland mountainous poor areas lack everything.

But people nowadays don't think that far ahead. Everyone is just focusing on their own little piece of land and has no experience. Less than 1/10 of the people in the entire village have ever been to the county town. Few people would think of raising livestock. All the fish caught from the bottom of the sea cannot be eaten up and has to be fed to livestock.

Everyone had so much confidence in him. When he said it could be sold, they immediately believed it because they saw him selling dried fish so successfully and making so much money.

Otherwise, who would believe him?

Those fish that no one collects at the seaside can be turned into treasures, and the same can certainly be said for kelp.

Everyone was picking and salvaging, working together, and chatting and talking about the things.

Father Ye was in the cockpit and saw them suddenly start to salvage the kelp. He was also a little confused. Why did they bring that thing over?

He didn't have time to ask, and only asked casually when Dongzi came over to take his place during dinner.

"Why are they picking up so much kelp?"

"When I told you it could be sold for money, you quickly salvaged it."

"Sell it for money? What can you sell it for? It's available in the sea every season."

"Of course we dry them and sell them. Dried fish sells well, so it makes no sense that kelp wouldn't sell well."

In the era of material scarcity, people wanted everything, especially things that did not require tickets, and they were snapped up like crazy.

In his previous life, he had seen a truck carrying a load of defective cloth, and the women in the entire village surrounded it and scrambled to buy it, as if it were free.

Father Ye was skeptical, "Is there really someone who wants it? It's floating on the sea, no one wants to fish it out, how can someone want it?"

"Why is there no one wanting edible food? In many places, the problem of food and clothing is still to be solved or has just been solved. Our products are extremely cheap. Things that no one wants may be snatched up in other places. Otherwise, where would there be so many dealers and smugglers?"

"How can it be compared? Those people are dealing in valuable things, but what are you dealing in?"

"What I'm dealing with are genuine seaside specialties. It's illegal for others to do that, but I'm an honest man."

"Just a little bit at a time, let's see how much you can sell it for..."

"Who sold them? Those are dried in the sun and saved for eating. This little bit is not enough for me to sell. I will do more in winter."

"So capable? Can you do everything?"

"Just wait and see. When have you ever seen me brag? I have done what I said. Look at what I am earning now."

Ye's father had no way to refute it. He had been proven right many times. Maybe it was really possible to sell it for money. Just because no one wanted it here didn't mean no one else wanted it.

After showing him the cockpit, Ye's father went downstairs to eat and took a look at the pieces of kelp that the boatmen had hung up with ropes to dry in the sun, like door curtains.

However, the kelp nowadays is not as large as it will be in the future. It is like a quilt. The width of the kelp nowadays is only about 20 to 30 centimeters. The variety has not been continuously improved, but the thickness is quite thick.

For fear that hanging it there would affect the vision, the boatmen hung it horizontally above the deck, fearing that hanging it above both sides of the ship's side would affect the view around the fishing boat from the cockpit.

"Old Three, Adong said this kelp can also be sold for money. He knows a lot now."

"He has been to many places. He has seen a lot of things in the world. Of course, he is different. We are not like him. We have never left the village in our whole life. If we go far, we will just be floating on the sea with no one around."

"Indeed, there is no place in the whole village where Adong has been and met more people than him. He can even recognize the leaders, so he must know more than us."

"If we really sell this kelp, how much can it sell for?"

Everyone hadn't had the chance to ask Ye Yaodong just now, and now they all looked at Ye's father curiously.

"How would I know? He has such positive ideas every day, and knows more about all kinds of unorthodox things than anyone else. He also subscribes to newspapers and reads them every day, so he should know something."

"We gave away things everywhere that no one wanted, but we never expected that we could sell them for money outside."

"Let's dry them first. We didn't have spareribs tonight, so we put shrimps in to cook kelp soup. It tastes pretty good, and quite fresh."

Father Ye took two bites and thought, isn’t that the same thing?
I heard that they can be sold for money, and it seems that the taste of things is different?

He complained in his heart but didn't say anything.

After dinner, everyone continued to work in an orderly manner, and those who needed to rest waited until nightfall to rest.

The sea was calm for several days in a row, and the kelp hanging on the boat was dried up wave after wave.

After everyone knew that it could be sold for money, they worked very hard to catch the kelp in the past few days. They caught all the kelp they could get, and none of the kelp brought up by the trawl net was thrown away.

So much so that large pieces were hung up after being dried, and for several days there was no end to the kelp on the deck.

When the sky started to get gloomy and it looked like it was going to rain, everyone quickly rolled up the kelp and collected it all. Three thick baskets were filled with kelp, and white frost appeared on every piece of kelp.

There will be a layer of white powder on the surface of dried kelp. Many people think that it is salt or ash, and the white powder will be washed off when soaking, but in fact it is a very precious medicinal substance called mannitol.

Don't mistake the white frost as salt precipitation or mold or deterioration.

This is a good diuretic that can reduce swelling, and it also has the effects of sobering up, losing weight, and being anti-cancer and antibacterial!
Everyone looked at the two large baskets full of kelp rolls at their feet with smiles on their faces.

"I didn't expect that I could accumulate two large baskets just by scooping up some these days. They should add up to about 100 kilograms, right?"

"It'll last a long time."

"We can't finish it all in a year, there are so many."

"Adong, if you sell these, how much can you get for them?"

Everyone has been wanting to ask this for a long time.

Ye Yaodong was also stumped by the question. He carefully said a conservative purchase price, "The dried ones should be sold for at least 70 to 80 cents per pound, so the more than 100 pounds here should be able to sell for 10 yuan each."

The fact is, he knew that in the late 80s, dried kelp was sold for 7 cents per pound outside. With the profits piling up, at least 1/10 of it would end up in the hands of the vegetable farmers.

Everyone's eyes lit up. This was more expensive than many other fish, and this was just something they just picked up from the sea when they passed by.

There are a lot of kelp in the sea area where we are operating these two days, all of which floated over from nearby islands.

"That's still pretty valuable! It's still worth seven or eight cents."

"Yeah, this is just something everyone can grab casually."

"If we can dig up the plants on the island and plant them, can we make money?"

"It should be possible, but that will have to wait until the second half of the year."

"You are stupid, why do you have to dig it up and plant it? Why not just let it grow on the island? When it's ripe, everyone can just dig it up and dry it in the sun, right?"

Ye Yaodong smiled, and his thoughts were quite beautiful.

"On the island, it grows naturally without any management. How much it grows depends on luck. It may grow this year but not next year, or it may only grow a little next year. It's all about luck. If you raise it yourself and take good care of it, the yield will definitely be higher."

"That's true..."

"Don't think too much. Winter is the best time to get kelp. After we take these two baskets of kelp back home, we can share them among everyone. Each person will only get 10 to 20 kilograms. Even if neighbors or relatives give us one or two kilograms, it won't be much."

"Okay, okay... Then we'll divide it up after we get it back."

Father Ye thought that by winter, everyone would forget about it. After all, it would be several months before Dongzi could make any more trouble.

He has a workshop, a shop and a lot of fishing boats. He is so busy that he can't handle it all. If he tries to grow kelp, it will be like a spinning top. Who will help him?
I don’t have time and I don’t know how to do anything.

"Let's carry them all into the cabin first and cover them with cloth to prevent moisture. The weather looks gloomy and it looks like it's going to rain heavily, so we don't want them to be exposed to the sun in vain. After we carry them in, we'll also set up an internet cafe. I'll also tell my in-laws to go back early."

As we were talking, the sky, which was already somewhat cloudy, became even darker, even though it was only 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Ye Yaodong also looked up at the dim sky. The air was very stuffy, and there was a feeling of calm before the storm.

"Let's not cast the nets and go back first. The waves are quite high. It looks like it's going to rain heavily. We have come too far. We had planned to go back tomorrow and drag the nets as we go back."

"That's fine. I'll talk to my in-laws and we'll go back first and see if it's raining hard. If it's not raining hard, we can put the nets down again. If it's raining hard, we can just go back with all our strength and don't have to collect them."

"Ah."

Everyone immediately took their positions and started to work. Ye Yaodong also put on the raincoats and asked everyone to put them on in case of a sudden heavy rain.

As the fishing net was just being pulled up, raindrops as big as beans began to fall down. They didn't have to make a decision themselves. God made the decision for them.

After the crackling sound of raindrops as big as beans fell, it became particularly rapid and it suddenly became a downpour, as if all the rain accumulated in the dark clouds was poured out at once.

Everyone was collecting the nets in the heavy rain. The thick rain curtain blurred everyone's vision. The waves were surging due to the rapid rain, and the fishing boats were shaken even more by the waves.

A boatman was collecting the nets. Because he was leaning against the side of the boat, the shaking fishing boat made him lose his balance and he fell on top. Fortunately, Ye Yaodong was watching the work of collecting the nets and quickly pulled him up, otherwise he would have fallen.

Unfortunately, the fish-collecting bag of the fishing net had just been hoisted up and the fishing net was still in the water. If this person fell into the water, he would definitely be entangled in the fishing net and would be washed away by the surging waves.

Ye Yaodong shouted in fear in the rain, "Be careful..."

The boatman's heartbeat also quickened. He patted his chest a few times and quickly stood a little further away.

No one knew what had happened in the pouring rain, only the two of them knew that someone had almost had a close call with death.

Ye Yaodong also hurriedly shouted to everyone else to be careful and not get too close to the edge of the boat. He was just about to tighten the fish bag and hoist it up, but there was nothing else he could do.

Everyone was alert, fearing accidents during a rainstorm.

Fortunately, there was no danger. After the goods were received, we just had to squat on the deck to sort them. At most, the fishing boat would shake and fall a few times.

After the fishing nets were pulled up, the fishing boats also accelerated their return. The Harvest was a little slower, but after more than ten minutes, it also appeared behind them.

It rained heavily for two hours, and their fishing boat also slowed down in the wind and rain for two hours. The rain gradually slowed down and became smaller, and the sky became brighter.

After the rain subsided, Father Ye thought about casting another net and heading towards the city while working, so that he could just make it in time to go ashore and sell the goods at night.

If we hurry to the city now, we may have to arrive early and wait for a long time at the gate.

Ye Yaodong didn't mind as the rain was getting lighter and lighter.

"After we sell all the goods in the city, we will go back directly and not continue to go out to sea."

"Okay, the weather doesn't look good, it's better to go back early."

"I didn't get much out of this trip, so it's not a pity to go back."

Father Ye nodded.

This trip was rare in that we only stayed for four or five days before going back. However, when we returned to the village, the ground was still dry, with no signs of rain.

Being at a distance is one thing, and unexpected events are another.

This time they still did not dry the fish. They sold all the fish that could be sold in the city at once. They were also worried that a sudden rain would cause too much trouble, so they fermented all the fish.

It is worth mentioning that as soon as he got home, A Qing said that the fish sauce that started to ferment at the end of last year has basically all been transported to the city, and various small shops have also replenished a batch of goods in recent days.

There is not a drop left in the warehouse at home, and the existing stock has only started to ferment after the New Year.

The fish sauce brought to the city can only last for more than a month, and then it will be out of stock.

As for the products that ferment after the New Year, it will take another two months to wait for them to be packaged. Shops in the city can barely wait for the new products to be fermented and packaged, while small shops will have about a month's gap.

Ye Yaodong did not expect that he could short sell within half a year, which was quite fast.

Ah Qing also recorded each batch of fish sauce that was shipped away separately, but for those in the city, he could only record the number of empty tanks that were brought back each time.

Otherwise, it wouldn't sell so quickly, and most of it would be transported to the city for storage. Her father was already lucky enough to record the sales on the same day. Some fish sauces were sold in small quantities, and her father had no way of keeping separate accounts.

As for the window period, A Qing also told him about it when he went home. In the next two days, he had instructed the delivery boy to tell each store that there would be no goods next month and they would pick up the goods the month after next.

"It would be better if we had informed everyone, otherwise people would think we were untrustworthy and stopped selling for half a year."

Lin Xiuqing said happily: "I thought it would take a whole year to sell out, but I didn't expect it to be sold out in less than half a year. I was worried that I would miss the connection."

"That's because when they're delivering goods, they occasionally shout a few times when passing by the streets, and they go into small shops to ask if they see them. Gradually, more and more small shops are selling on behalf of them, and they sell faster."

"Well, I've done the math. After deducting the deposit cost from the large vats, we earned more than 30 yuan from the 6500-plus tons of goods. That means we've almost made back our investment in just half a year. I didn't expect that the small fish sauce, which is sold so cheaply, could make back our investment so quickly. I originally thought that we might not be able to make back our investment this year after spending so much money on buying the land and building the wall."

"That's because they sold out quickly. If they were sold out by the end of the year, wouldn't they still have to wait until the end of the year to get their money back?"

"Yes, they sell quickly. It's only a few hundred dollars short of making back the investment. These are probably the raw materials for the groceries. Anyway, the gas money is included in the total monthly expenses."

"We have only made back last year's investment, so don't be too happy. We fermented more in the first half of this year, and the groceries left over from the two boats combined are more than five times that of last year. We have to invest most of the few thousand yuan we earned in the first half of the year to order larger water tanks for outdoor fermentation. We will really start making money in the second half of the year."

"Yes, yes, yes." Lin Xiuqing nodded repeatedly.

(End of this chapter)