Survive through the ancient apocalypse

"Hey, what's this?" Mr. Ye saw Ye Mingze free the chestnuts in the basket, and he noticed it at a glance.

"Grandpa, this one, we just discovered it today, I call it Chestnut, and I'll let my uncle and the others make it for you to try." Ye Mingze called Father Ye to help.First remove the outer layer of thorny shell, take out the round chestnut, and then peel off part of the flesh.

Recently, during the busy farming season, the two families cooked meals together, and today it happened to be the turn of my mother and uncle.

"Mother, you steam these chestnuts first, grind them into powder, and then mix them into noodles to make pancakes. You can steam, boil or stir-fry the rest of the chestnuts, um, like frying peanuts and melon seeds. , better add some sugar."

Recently, the life of the Ye family has been getting better and better, there is no shortage of oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and sugar.Ye Mingze wants to eat candied chestnuts.

The aunt put down the work in her hands, and unceremoniously took over half of the basket of chestnuts: "I'll get the shelled ones, and the second brother and sister will make pancakes! Mingze, don't worry, my aunt will definitely not do anything for you!"

"Hehe, I know that you are good at making roasted seeds and nuts. If you do it, I am too happy. How can I dislike it? You are busy, I will wash it."

Ye Mingze has good physical strength, rests for a while, and is full of energy.The little ones didn't want to get up when they touched the bed, and they were pulled up for dinner by their own mother, and they even had a little temper.

During the busy farming period, all the food is available, and there is no need to fight for the children's table.

Mr. Ye picked up a pancake, and the whole family started to move immediately.The pancakes provided today taste different from the past, with a sweet taste, like pastry, and everyone can't stop eating it.

The pancakes that were expected to be left suddenly disappeared, and the girls and boys clamored for more.Liu's and Jiang's looked at each other, they made a few more today, how could they not have enough food?

"Okay, it's gone. Hurry down and eat fried chestnuts! There's a big pot there." Wen's heart ached when he saw that he had eaten so much.

When the children heard that there was still food to eat, they stopped making noise and obediently waited for the feeding.

They tasted steamed, boiled and stir-fried, and the girls and boys soon found that the taste of sugar-fried chestnuts was the best, and a pair of hands stretched out for the plate.

Seeing that everyone likes chestnuts, Ye Mingze was in a good mood, and ordered his younger sister to serve Jiang Jingzhi a plate, fried in sugar, of course.

"Grandpa, there are quite a few more on the mountain, at least a few thousand catties can be collected, can the family still have staff?"

This year I am busy coping with the drought, followed by the autumn harvest. The family has only gone to sea a few times in the past few months. Recently, during the busy farming season, I am busy going to sea to make money, and my uncles have no time.Seafood income is the bulk of the family's income, and it can be kept as long as it can. With such a large amount of chestnuts, it is naturally impossible for the family to give up.

Mr. Ye frowned and pondered: "Mingze, if you ask your second granddaughter-in-law to send out a few people, and then call your second and third brothers' house, this thing can now be kept secret. After a long time, everyone must know it. Pick it up early and feel at ease. It's cheap. Others are not as good as your own brothers."

"Well, I see, let me tell you about Jingzhi."

When the Ye family knew that Jiang Jingzhi's dowry included a dozen servants and [-] acres of land, they were envious for a while.Especially for a few daughters-in-law, it would be nice if their dowry could add up to more than five taels, unlike Jiang Jingzhi, who put it on the bright side, at least a few hundred taels.The gap is not insignificant.

Jiang Jingzhi produced five people, and Ye Jiaman could produce nine people, including the four Ye Zewen brothers, plus the second and third grandfathers, a total of nearly 30 people, marching mightily towards the Ziqing Mountains.Fortunately, they went early and did not attract the attention of the villagers.

After a busy day, everyone brought back more than 4000 catties of chestnuts in the dark.There was still less than half of the mountain left, and after a few days, everyone went up the mountain again, this time the four Ye Zewen brothers did not follow.

After two trips, a total of nearly seven thousand catties was harvested.This harvest can be equivalent to the production of twenty or thirty mu of land.The second grandfather and the third grandfather couldn't help showing joy on their faces.Each of their two families has a population of more than twenty, but the land property is only half of that of the Ye family. The living conditions are not very good, so there are no scholars for them.

After some discussion, the three brothers, Grandpa Ye, finally decided to divide according to the number of people who contributed.This is Grandpa Ye taking care of his two younger brothers. After all, without them, the Ye family would just make a few extra trips.

Each family received at least two thousand catties, equivalent to the income of seven or eight mu of land.It's just a one-shot deal.

Unlike dried fruits such as hazelnuts and pine nuts, chestnuts can be eaten as a staple food.I believe that at this time next year, the people of Yejia Village will go to pick chestnuts in droves.You said that place is remote and they can't find it?They won't ask if they can't find it?Asked, can you not tell?How many people are there in Mr. Ye's three families?You can't go against the whole village, can you?

During the interval between two chestnut pickings, Ye Mingze tried to make dried fruit jam.He remembered the recipe for this thing, but he didn't remember the proportions of the various materials.According to the memory in his mind, he configured as many configurations as possible in different proportions, but most of them failed.Success doesn't taste the same either.

According to the preferences of the girls, Ye Mingze selected several recipes and made them in large batches.Preserved fruit and the like are very popular with children. Since they know that fruit can make such delicious things, they often bring home various fruits.Ye's snacks are becoming more and more abundant.

Ye Mingze originally just wanted to solve the problem of fruit storage, but who knows, the fruit at home is getting more and more, and eventually even children from other families in the village bring fresh fruit to Ye's house to exchange for finished products.

In the end, Ye Mingze discussed with his grandfather and decided to exchange the finished product for fresh fruit.Of course, the Ye family didn't do it for nothing, and withheld part of the profits.After each room got a lot of preserved fruit, Ye Zecheng sold the surplus to Yangshan County.

Except for Ye Mingze, Ye Zecheng has more business acumen in the Ye family.Forget about Ye Mingze, his family will not agree with him to do business.In this way, Ye Zecheng is more suitable.

Most of the fresh fruits in the season are very cheap, and many of them can only be sold for two or three catties for a penny.After making candied fruits, they can be sold for ten or twenty yuan a catty.At first glance, the profit is very high, but in fact the profit is not as big as imagined.If there is a lot of water, it takes more than ten catties of fruit to produce one catty of preserved fruit.Coupled with the need to add auxiliary materials such as sugar, and the labor has to be counted, it is not bad to be able to double the income.

At the beginning, it was just bartering, but after Ye Zecheng got acquainted with several snack and dried fruit shops in the county, the amount needed gradually increased.

Recently, several daughters-in-law and maids in the family are busy making preserved fruits, and the production gradually cannot keep up with the sales.Here, fruits can only be eaten in autumn, and the production of natural preserved fruits is also restricted accordingly.

After Ye Mingze arrived here, he earned several hundred taels, but it didn't bring much benefit to his family.Making preserved fruit this time can be regarded as a way for him to make money for his family.In order to maximize profits, Ye Mingze proposed to buy directly from nearby villages.The fruiting period is only two or three months, and if you miss it, you will have to wait until next year.

In this way, the Ye family not only made money for themselves, but also brought many benefits to the nearby villages.In previous years, most of these fruits rotted in the mountains and forests, and each family left enough to eat for themselves and no longer cared about it.This year is different, every household, as long as there is something idle, even the elderly and children are involved.Don't look at the cheapness of fresh fruit, it can't stand the quantity of it.

In previous years, it was so cheap that it was hard to sell. This year, you don’t have to worry about sales, so why don’t you work hard?

When the harvest from the nearby villages arrived, the Ye family obviously didn't have enough manpower.Mr. Ye asked Wen to come forward and invited the daughters-in-law of his two younger brothers' families to come over to help, to do some unskilled work, washing and cutting, and each person was paid fifteen yuan a day.The two families readily accepted.Don't look at how few 450 Wen a day, [-] Wen in a month, and a family of five or six people, it takes a few taels of silver, so it's no wonder you don't like it.

Jiang Jingzhi's body was recovering well, and he felt a little irritable after staying alone in the room for a long time.Ye Mingze asked him to do half a day's work every morning, of course he could only do some light work.

Jiang Jingzhi has been recuperating from his illness, and he doesn't even have many chances to see Ye's family, let alone the second grandma's family.Several daughters-in-law and maids secretly looked at him, thinking that Jiang Jingzhi hadn't noticed.

"Mingze's daughter-in-law is so handsome! She's no worse than the young masters in the city."

"Come on, your information is outdated! He is the young master, bigger than those young men in the city!"

"Well, what do you know? Say it!"  …

The voices of the daughter-in-law and the girl's discussion came to the ears intermittently, Jiang Jingzhi smiled unknowingly.When he was in the Hou Mansion, no one dared to gossip in front of him, this feeling is really fresh.

The Ye family only had one daughter-in-law, Jiang Jingzhi, and the two families of the second grandmother also had one.When the three touched each other, the two spontaneously gathered on both sides of him.Both of them usually go to the ground, their bodies are very strong, and they are completely different from Jiang Jingzhi.

In the Daxing Dynasty, except for those who were trained to marry from an early age, other male daughter-in-laws were no different from ordinary men.Apart from having different knowledge, the three of them can still chat.

Ye Mingze liked this very much.He didn't want to see a group of old men who were no different from women dangling in front of his eyes.That was nothing short of visual pollution to him.

Soon into October, it is time to harvest corn and rice.The people of Yejia Village are busy again, and the autumn harvest has officially come to an end.Every household starts to calculate the harvest for the year, and the expenses for the coming year have to be planned in advance.

In October, there are only a few kinds of fruits left to pick, and Ye's small preserved fruit workshop has temporarily come to an end.The second grandma and her family took the money and left cheerfully.

Ye Mingze roughly checked the account book, and in just one month, he collected a total of almost 30 catties of fresh fruit.According to one penny per three catties, the cost of fresh fruit is 100 taels, and the labor cost is 150 taels.

About 300 catties of finished dried fruit were obtained. Based on the wholesale price of 150 Wen per catty, the silver was about [-] taels. After deducting the cost, the profit was about [-] taels.