Uncle Zhang's eldest daughter-in-law, Mrs. Qian, first saw Song Qiuzheng coming to her home, called her mother-in-law, and then walked out of the vegetable garden to greet her.
"Girl Aqiu, come in and sit down!"
"Grandma Zhang, Aunt Dakui, Aunt Daquan, where are weeding?" Song Qiu smiled and called someone to say hello, and sat down on the stool brought by Qian.
Madam Zhang still had mud on her hands, so she asked her second daughter-in-law to wash her hands and bring out a bowl of water for Song Qiu to drink.
Song Qiu hurriedly waved his hands and said no, and after a few words of greetings about the Zhang family's rabbits, he got down to business, "Grandma, I want to pack a meal for the workers at noon to avoid the trouble of running around.
My workshop is right next to yours, which is quite convenient. The pots and stoves in the workshop are no longer usable. Can I use your pots and stoves?
Let’s make a lunch meal. Let’s see who among your family is free to help make this meal. I will send you the vegetables and grains you need every day, and the cook will be paid twenty cents a day. Grandma, what do you think?”
It is indeed a bit easy to just cook one meal and pay twenty cents a day like everyone else in the workshop.
But borrowing other people's pots and stoves, using other people's firewood, these are all included in the calculation. If you calculate carefully, it's almost the same.
Mrs. Zhang heard that it was such a good thing, how could she not be unreasonable?
They have a large family, and when they have free time, they just cook a lunch for about twenty people. They can cook two pots of vegetables and one pot of porridge. It’s not a problem. They still have twenty coins a day. What’s wrong?
He immediately responded, "Okay, girl Aqiu, you want my house, don't worry, your Aunt Dakui is ready for tea and rice, I will cook this meal for her, I promise to make it for you every day!"
They were all from the same village and knew everything about the Zhang family, so Song Qiu had nothing to worry about.
Besides, there is no such thing as stealing vegetables and food. The village chief's house is not far away.
Who in their village would not listen to Mr. Tang?
After deciding on the cooking matter, Song Qiu returned to the workshop and told everyone that he would pack a meal for lunch from tomorrow, so he wouldn't bother running home to eat every day.
When everyone heard this, they were very happy to have a meal for lunch and save some money for the family.
On the contrary, the two little wives who came a little late because they ate a little late at home today blushed a little, and then started to do things even more hurriedly.
Song Qiu looked around and saw that all the processes were done well. This morning, the slurry water in the long bucket was only a finger high. It is probably not full today.
Before it started to settle, Song Qiu took Man Ju and others to scoop out all the slurry water in two long buckets, put it in the remaining long bucket at one place, covered it with oil paper cloth, and let it go.
Leave it alone for one night. Come tomorrow morning and pour out the water on top, then put fresh water inside and continue soaking.
This time there was a long bucket missing. Song Qiu first used a large wooden basin to take it. When the wooden basin was full, he poured it into the long bucket next to it.
It was not until dark that the work was stopped, and the slurry collected together would only fill a long bucket.
During the Song and Autumn Period, I went to Liu Caigui's house again to see if the remaining two long barrels were ready.
Carpenters are booming in the second half of the year, so there are many people looking for Carpenter Liu to build furniture, cupboards, etc. He has a good reputation in several nearby villages.
Nowadays, I have a lot of work, I have two sons, and my daughter-in-law also helps out, so I am overwhelmed every day.
However, Song Qiu still had to hurry up with the work here. The long barrels he sent over first were just extra points.
Seeing Song Qiu coming over, Liu Caigui said: "Everything will be ready tomorrow afternoon and sent to the workshop. Don't worry, Aqiu. You are in a hurry here, I'll take care of it!"
Not to mention that he earned a lot of money by building an inn for Song Qiu, so he would not neglect Song Qiu.
Of course, in his heart, there are two groups of relatives and friends. They are all from the same village, so he will not slow down his own family first.
Because the carpentry work was too busy, there was no one in the workshop, so the place was given to the Luo family next door, Aunt Caihua, who has the same name as his daughter-in-law Huang Caihua.
Song Qiu listened, nodded his thanks, said thank you for your hard work, and handed over the money.
For people from the same village to make this thing, Liu Caigui only charged the craftsmanship fee, and did not charge for the wood like those from other villages.
Early the next morning, Song Qiu made breakfast in the kitchen of his home, and went to the workshop with old Yuan.
Zhang Lihua and Aling went to the inn to do some work early.
Song Qiu thought that she had almost harvested the sweet potatoes. She had to go to the town to free up her hands. She gave Du Chuanfu the drawings she drew last night and asked him to go to the town to find a blacksmith to make them today. In two days,
Just in time to get it together.
When we arrived at the workshop, all the workers were already here. With the experience of yesterday's day's work, no one had to say anything, and they spontaneously started doing their own work.
Song Qiu checked the slurry water that had been soaked all night, and worked together with Man Ju to pour out the precipitated water, stir the powder at the bottom, and then poured clean water into it and allowed it to settle.
Change the water several times, and the starch will be better and whiter.
Manju and the others saw with their own eyes that a layer of smooth powdery paste had settled into the water, which was similar to the glutinous rice balls made during the Chinese New Year. They thought that this was what Aqiu wanted.
I don’t know what kind of food it is. Could it be that it is kneaded in sugar water and eaten like glutinous rice balls?
But what's the point of not tying it up in a cloth bag and hanging it to drain, but also soaking it in water?
If you don’t understand, don’t ask, just wait and see.
But I finally understood what the painstaking process of peeling and grating these sweet potatoes meant.
Not long after, people from other villages came into the village carrying burdens and asked to come to the workshop.
Seeing the workers inside, people were washing sweet potatoes and grinding mills. I didn't know what they were doing, but I also knew that this was some kind of workshop run by the Song family in Songshan Village.
"Are you here, Aunt Song? We are here to sell sweet potatoes, why don't you accept them now?" Someone shouted into the yard.
Song Qiu had already seen the group of people outside the hospital. They were probably from the same village. They gathered the sweet potatoes and arranged to pick them up together.
There are quite a few people.
She quickly agreed and followed Old Yuan to greet people in. Old Yuan was the one who read the scales and she listened to the number and paid the bill.
Seeing people queuing up and looking towards the work place, Song Qiu frowned.
I originally thought that since the yard is large, it would be convenient to do everything in the yard without having to carry it back and forth.
But being looked at like this, even though it didn't mean that she was spying on her method of making starch, it was like watching a monkey show, which was not good either.
Song Qiu thought about moving it later, but the grinder was too heavy, so he left it where it was. He also left washing and cutting the sweet potatoes in place, and moved the last step of scooping out the pulp to the backyard.
"Hey! Eldest niece, are all the sweet potatoes in your house washed?"
Just as she was thinking about it, the sound of her breasts filled her ears. Song Qiu looked over and saw the baskets picked by the people at the head of the queue were being weighed. Her breasts were pointing at the baskets and asking the woman.
She took a look and saw that the sweet potatoes had indeed been washed. There was no mud at all and they were clean.