North and South groceries

The varieties of sweet potatoes that Luo Yong brought from later generations are red-skinned and yellow-cored. After steaming, the flesh turns orange-red, the taste is soft, glutinous, sweet and slightly dense, and the yield is also very good.

This is also a new variety that gradually became popular after Luo Yong entered high school. It is somewhat different from the sweet potatoes he ate when he was a child. It is sweeter and more waxy than the sweet potatoes he ate when he was young.

Sweets are very rare these days. The yamen finished collecting sweet potatoes this morning. When cooking at noon that day, Luo Yong asked someone to pick out the rotten sweet potatoes and steam them, so that the people in the county yamen could have a taste.

The children in the county government squinted their eyes for joy as soon as they tasted the sweet potato flavor.

"Is it delicious?" Some adults who didn't eat it asked them.

"Delicious! Sweet!"

"So sweet?"

"Hmm! Sweeter than pumpkin!"

"Really? Could it be a lie?"

"Really! It's so sweet!"

Those people went to look at the sweet potatoes drying in the corridor, and they all wanted to eat them, but unfortunately, they were all reserved for next year's seeds, and they didn't dare to steam them for eating.

Fortunately, the vegetable shop has collected a lot of pumpkins recently, and today Luo Yong had someone bring some of them over, slice them and fry them in a big pot for everyone to cook.

A few pancakes with mixed noodles, a spoonful of fried pumpkin, a spoonful of cold vegetables, and a few large slices of steamed bacon. This is today's lunch. The pancakes with mixed noodles are enough. Corn mush, whoever wants to eat it, can beat it, and there is no limit.

Luo Yong also ate the same food as everyone else, a mouthful of mixed noodle pancakes and a mouthful of corn mush, with two chopsticks of vegetables from time to time, and the food was quite good.

The so-called golden melon is the old pumpkin. When Li Daozong's army passed through Changle County three years ago, Luo Yong secretly stuffed a handful of pumpkin seeds into a wooden cart transporting grain and grass. Later, these seeds fell outside Gaochang City and took root. It germinated and produced pumpkins, which were called pumpkins at that time.

The gourd had been planted and multiplied on Datang's land for two or three years, and it wasn't until this autumn that Luo Yong and the others finally opened it up to eat.

The taste of this pumpkin is sweet and soft, and it is very popular among the local people. Farmers often bring pumpkins to the city to sell, and the price is about twice that of winter melons.

Before the emergence of pumpkins, the vegetables that people often ate, except for some leafy vegetables, were gourds, cucumbers, loofahs, winter melons, and reeds. The taste is bland and not filling.

In such a big environment, a kind of sweet and glutinous gourd suddenly appeared, which is naturally very popular.

Nowadays, in Gaochang, Dunhuang, Changle, and Jinchang, gourds are relatively popular, and the people of Chang'an also grow them, but there are relatively few other places.

A few years ago, Luo Yong hid a plastic bag of corn seeds in a public toilet in Chang'an Chengdong City, which was well promoted.

Today, many people in the South China Sea and the North grow corn, and Luo Yong now eats a lot of cornmeal every day, mainly corn cakes and corn paste. The price of corn here has been lower than that of corn in the past two years.

"County magistrate, what should we do with this sweet potato vine?" After eating, a servant asked Luo Yong.

"Move to the woodshed first, I have other uses." Luo Yong replied.

In fact, these sweet potato vines can also be used to directly plant new sweet potatoes, but the season is wrong, and winter is about to begin. Sweet potatoes are heat-resistant and sun-loving crops, and it is difficult to grow them alive at this time.

Later generations seem to have a technique of storing sweet potato vines from the previous year and planting them with cuttings in the next spring, but Luo Yong doesn't know much about this technique.

The promotion and planting of sweet potatoes is very important. If you don't want to let the local people eat this food after three full years like pumpkins, you have to make great efforts to promote it.

Luo Yong intends to put these sweet potato vines in the space first, and then find a chance to take them out in the next spring.

"Go and see in the shop. If anyone has harvested sweet potatoes in the past two days, they will take back the sweet potato vines and say that I want them." Luo Yong thought for a while, and then said to the handyman.

"Here." The handyman lowered his hands and bowed.

"It's not in vain. Take some bacon from the warehouse and exchange it with them."

Meat prices are very expensive at this time of year, and bacon is considered a good thing at this time, especially the bacon made by their workshop in the county, which tastes very good.

"You have to grow a piece of bacon?" the handyman confirmed.

"Two." Luo Yong said, "Tell them that it's time to collect taxes, and the government officials are busy, and they can't spare any manpower for a while, so let them put the sweet potatoes they collected on the porch to dry for a while. , store them in a cool place in the house, and after a while, I will send people to teach them how to store them."

"Here."

The handyman got Luo Yong's order, so he went to the warehouse to get the bacon.

In normal times, he would not be able to do this kind of work, but now it is the season of collecting autumn taxes, and all the officials in the yamen are very busy.

And because of the white stacked flowers, there have been a lot of merchants coming and going with them in Changle County recently. The guards not only have to patrol the city, but also often have to take turns to go to the countryside, and the manpower is quite tight.

The handyman came to the warehouse and told an official who was counting the warehouse about it, and the official let him in to choose bacon with him.

Because this bacon is to be given to the chiefs. Although Changle County is not big, there are quite a lot of chiefs. The bacon is big or small, so we have to pick some of the same size and give it away. One family is too big, and that family is too small, which makes people unhappy for no reason.

Every two strips of bacon are selected. After they are selected, they are slightly bundled with blue-dyed twine, tied with a slipknot, and neatly placed in a basket.

Not long after, the handyman came out of the county government office with a load of bacon, and walked through the streets and alleys to send messages to the security chiefs in the city to deliver the bacon.

Recently, Changle County is quite lively, there are Hu merchants passing by, some merchants who came to collect white jasmine flowers, and many Yiwu people from Gaochang who came to them to buy daisy flower seeds.

In Yiwu Gaochang, there are not many people planting white daisy at the moment, and now the transportation is convenient, and they heard that the price of daisy is high, so many people from both sides came to see what happened.

Some of these people are rich and some are poor. Some go to wine shops and guesthouses to sell generous food, and some wear poor clothes and sit on the street eating the dry food they brought from their homes.

In addition, some people came from Zhangye, Liangzhou, traveling thousands of miles just to take a wooden carriage, ran to the wasteland between Dunhuang and Gaochang, and took a look at the legendary bridge.

There are more people riding on wooden rail carriages, and the income is naturally higher, but the wear and tear of the wooden rails is also serious.

It is expected that after the winter of this year, the wooden track from Changle County to Jinchang City will be carefully inspected and repaired from beginning to end.

Luo Yong is also quite busy these days, and this afternoon he arranged the work at hand, so he had some free time, so he went to Peng Er's weaving workshop.

As soon as I arrived at the entrance of the workshop, I met several stewards who were leading people to transport the carloads of white folded flowers into the workshop. After entering the workshop, I saw a steward who often followed Luo Erniang, Directing a few strong women to unload, Luo Yong beckoned her to come over.

"What is the county magistrate looking for?"

The manager was busy, and a woman beside him patted her arm to remind her. When she looked back, she saw that Luo Yong was looking for her, so she passed away with a smile.

"Which village is my sister in today?" Luo Yong asked her.

So the steward told which village Luo Erniang went to today, and then talked about their arrangements for the past few days, and also talked about their life in the countryside. The villagers respected Luo Erniang very much and treated them very thoughtfully. , Let Luo Yong not worry about Yun Yun.

Luo Yong nodded, he knew that Erniang was doing well in the country, and those who came back from the patrol team also said the same.

"Are you going out of the city today?" Luo Yong asked her again.

"After unloading these goods, I will go out." Those local merchants who received white flowers from other places also worked hard, and they jumped at every opportunity. Although Erniang and the others had the advantage, they were hard to beat. With four opponents, now is the critical time to buy Baijihua, so I dare not slack off.

"Shan, be careful on the road." Luo Yong took out a paper bag from his arms as he spoke: "This is for my sister, please help me carry it."

"Here." Even though the steward put away the paper bag, he didn't ask any more questions.

Luo Erniang is living a good life in the countryside these days, eating well and living well, but she is not idle.

The work of picking white jasmine flowers requires the most manpower. The villages where they live are the main families, and often the whole family goes to the field to pick cotton.

Erniang didn't just sit in the house and point out the country, she also went to the fields to collect goods every day, at most she was too busy to find a shady place to sit and rest.

On this day, they were still busy for a whole day, and they didn't go back until it was getting dark. After eating, they washed up a little, and a group of women sat in the house to settle accounts and talk.

Not long after, the team that brought goods into the city today also returned, and the steward who led the team handed a paper package to Erniang, saying that the county magistrate Luo asked her to bring it.

Erniang happily took the paper bag, put it on the kang table, opened it, and saw that it was two slender sweet potatoes no bigger than a palm.

The two sweet potatoes were slightly damaged, and they probably wouldn't be able to survive the next spring, so Luo Yong asked someone to bring them over for her to try.

This sweet potato Erniang has seen it before. When Apu and the others first arrived in Changle County, she went to join in the fun.

Later, Luo used people to germinate those sweet potatoes to grow sweet potato vines, and distributed them among the workers in the workshop. She also knew that, and she often went to see them during the germinating days.

"Is this the sweet potato?"

"I heard from those Kunlun people that this food is really delicious, very sweet."

"It tastes best when baked."

"I'm going to get the brazier now."

"It's too stuffy in the house, let's go to the yard to bake."

"Hush, keep your voice down, don't disturb the master."

"..."

So this group of older ladies and younger ladies took the firewood and lit the fire, and then the sweet potatoes were roasted in the yard outside the house.

Those two sweet potatoes, which are not too big or too small, must not be enough for so many of them. They can grow it in their own home.