Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 403 Expanding the Replacement Category

Then in another ceramic pot, add a certain amount of water and maltose to dissolve, then add orange peel. Cook the orange peel over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the syrup is thick and the orange peel is evenly coated with syrup, then turn off the heat.

Pour the cooked orange syrup onto wax paper and let it cool naturally until the syrup solidifies. Then cut it into small cubes. This orange candy has a rich flavor and is very delicious.

Of course, the orange pulp and buds are not wasted. Similar to the orange peel, the orange pulp is also made into orange candy. Of course, the pulp does not need to be blanched.

This kind of orange pulp candy has a light sweetness of maltose on the outside. When you bite it open, you will find the orange pulp inside is sweet with a slight sourness. The taste is quite special, it is a good blend of fruit and sugar, and it is very delicious.

When all the candies were almost done, Hua Lei took out a stack of wax paper, cut it into squares of appropriate sizes, and asked the children to wash their hands and help start wrapping the candies.

Sesame candies, pine nut candies, dragon beard candies...all wrapped up one by one. Then he took out a small cloth bag and packed a big bag for each child, asking them to take it home to eat. Of course, he also told them that they could only eat two a day and remember to brush their teeth and rinse their mouths.

Seeing Hualei patiently leading a group of children to make maltose, Rong Jin's mouth curled up slightly. The children had lunch in the house and played until the evening before reluctantly leaving. If it weren't for Rong Jin's stern face, Rong Jue and Rong Zhen would have wished they didn't go home at night and squeezed into the same room with Xiao Yuan.

Hua Lei didn't care. It would be no problem if the little ones stayed at home. However, when she saw Rong Jin's expression, she shut her mouth. It was better not to challenge his authority as the eldest brother.

After the children from the Marquis's Mansion returned, Hua Lei cleaned up, had dinner, and went to the study. She still had a lot of account books to look at.

Since the puddles in the South City area were renovated, Hualei’s vegetables have also been affected to some extent. Fortunately, Hualei adjusted its direction in time and planted a lot of vegetables that can be used for dyeing, so it is still okay.

As for other vegetables that cannot be dyed, the flower buds were not grown in large quantities except to ensure supply to a few restaurants and the dining hall of the Imperial College. Instead, the scale of cultivation was quietly increased.

Because of Hualei's position as the head of the Agricultural Bureau, she could get a 20% discount when purchasing various vegetable seeds and young chickens, ducks, geese and pigs.

Vegetable seeds are usually kept by the farm itself, so there is no need to buy them, unless they are new varieties, but the purchase will not be large. So there is no profit to be made here.

But farming is different. People who don't farm may not know about it and think that there is not much profit to be made. But Hualei farms these by himself, and the number of farmed crops is large, so he knows the tricks clearly. With this 20% discount, as long as Hualei buys more, he will benefit more.

So, Hualei reduced the planting of some vegetables and used the replaced straw fans to build many mud-walled thatched sheds on the farm, which served as chicken coops and duck houses, thus expanding the scale of breeding.

In addition to exchanging cheap items such as tofu, dried tofu, and toilet paper with the villagers, they also rarely included living animals such as chickens, ducks, geese, and fish in the exchange team.

For example, a bundle of firewood costs four to five cents in the market, a live chicken costs fifteen cents per catty, and a live chicken weighs three and a half catties. So the villagers can use ten bundles of firewood to exchange for a chicken at the village.

By analogy, chickens, ducks, geese, and fish can all be exchanged. Of course, what the villagers can exchange is not necessarily firewood, but also dyes needed by flower buds, mushroom roots and soil, etc.

Even the cured chicken, cured duck, sausage, meat floss and flower buds on the farm were calculated by Uncle Fu and Brother Xiao Kong. They listed a detailed exchange method and put it on the farm to exchange with the villagers.

At first, Uncle Fu and Brother Xiao Kong thought this was not feasible, after all, the villagers would raise chickens, ducks, geese, etc. at home, and it was unlikely that they would come to the farm to exchange them. However, under Hualei's insistence, they still implemented this method.

Unexpectedly, many people came to exchange live chickens and ducks. Especially before the Chinese New Year, there were more villagers who came to exchange. Because Hualei found that the number of chickens and ducks raised by villagers at home was generally small, and they were raised only for laying eggs.

In order to keep the chickens laying eggs for their grandchildren to eat, they were usually reluctant to kill them. But the exchange on the farm was different. As long as the family worked together for a day, they could bring back ten bundles of firewood from the mountain for free.

When they get it to Yuanying Village, they can immediately exchange it for a lively chicken or duck, and after taking it home and slaughtering it, they can improve the family's food, which they are very happy about. Moreover, the monkey spirit's flower buds have accurately grasped the villagers' love of comparison and greed for small bargains.

So every day a fixed number of dozens of chickens and ducks will be taken out and locked up in one place. When you come to exchange them, you can pick any one from the chicken coop.

In fact, the chickens in the chicken coop are all about the same size, but when they are allowed to choose by themselves, these villagers think that this method is very cost-effective, and they always feel that they have picked the biggest one.

Moreover, there are many relatively poor people living in Nancheng District, and many people who rent houses. It is even less likely that people who rent houses can raise many chickens and ducks, so there are more people who exchange live chickens and ducks in Yuanying Manor.

Moreover, Hualei has thoughtfully launched the service of exchanging chickens and ducks of any size. For example, if you have a live chicken weighing one pound, you can exchange it for two bundles of firewood and take it home, then continue to raise it for a while and then slaughter and eat it.

Because everyone who raises chickens knows that chickens under one pound are the most difficult to raise, with a low survival rate and are prone to premature death. But when they reach one pound, the most difficult days are over, and it becomes easier to raise them.

Therefore, in August and September, there were a lot of people coming to exchange these half-grown chickens, ducks and geese. Many villagers came with dozens of bundles of firewood to exchange for a batch of chickens and ducks.

During the Chinese New Year, chickens and ducks weighing more than 3-4 catties are often exchanged for food that can be slaughtered directly. Some people even exchange 15-20 bundles of firewood for a roast duck to bring home, which is a rare opportunity to change the taste of the family and add a delicious dish.

Of course, the pork on the farm can also be exchanged. The pork can be chopped into pieces after being slaughtered. You can choose the size you want. Retired soldiers who have fought in the battlefield and killed people will show no mercy when chopping the meat.

What if the villagers feel that they have been cheated because they are missing a piece of raw pork the size of braised pork? It doesn’t matter. We can just make it up to you with tofu, blood, tofu and toilet paper, isn’t that enough?