Chapter 288 Pickling Kimchi
The weather was getting colder and colder, and the cabbages in the fields would be frozen if they were not harvested. That afternoon, Shen Xiangwan brought back the snowflake salt she had requested. She went to find Zhao Dashan again and asked him to help find people to harvest the cabbages. The next day, just after daybreak, the villagers were busy in the fields. Yuanyue, following Shen Xiangwan's instructions, also went to the fields early.

Yuan Ying stopped everyone before the ointment and brewing workshops started working, and told them that they did not need to work today. All of them had to help pickle the cabbage in the open space outside. At the same time, they were divided into three groups. One group was responsible for cleaning, one group was responsible for pickling, and the remaining group was responsible for covering the ceramic jars with a layer of oilcloth and sending them to the warehouse behind the main house for storage.

"Wanwan, is that so?"

After sending the children to school at noon, Shen Xiangwan personally taught everyone how to pickle kimchi. Under her guidance, the person in charge of cleaning cut the huge cabbage in half, and the person pickling put the cabbage into a huge ceramic jar, stacking them layer by layer of cabbage and salt. Each layer must be pressed tightly and compacted. Finally, the jar is sealed. It must be airtight. After the first jar of kimchi made by them independently was finished, Aunt Wang called Shen Xiangwan worriedly and said that if there was no problem, they could seal the jar.

"Right, that is it."

After going over to check, Shen Xiangwan nodded in affirmation: "I have asked people to divide the salt separately. Next, just follow these steps to pickle them. No matter how much cabbage we harvest from the field today, I hope everyone can pickle them all."

"it is good."

Led by Aunt Wang, hundreds of people responded in unison. Soon they divided the work among themselves and quickly got busy. Seeing how they were working enthusiastically, Shen Xiangwan couldn't help but smile and joined them in pickling.

The cabbages in the field cannot be harvested in one day. They have to continue pickling them for the next few days. Shen Xiangwan, who has a rare few days of free time, is so busy that her back and waist ache. She has to go back to the space to take a bath every night. Wei Chengyi feels so distressed that he not only dares not to bother her anymore, but also personally gives her a massage to relax her every night.

"Wanwan, can you sell us some of your cabbage?"

Aunt Wang found Shen Xiangwan a little embarrassedly. They usually couldn't eat any vegetables in winter. After knowing that kimchi could be stored for a long time, she had some ideas. To be precise, it was not only her, but many people in the village had ideas. Every household made money this year. If she was willing to sell, they would be willing to buy some and pickle them themselves.

"How much do you need?"

Looking up at her, Shen Xiangwan continued to smear chili powder on the cabbage. Now she was making spicy cabbage. Because she was not sure whether everyone would like it, she only planned to make a few thousand kilograms, and the rest would all be kimchi.

"We and the second and third brothers' families need 2,000 kilograms, and the rest of the families need about 4,000 kilograms, so the total is about 10,000 kilograms."

Although this number is not small, it is pitifully small for a village with more than 200 households. It is not that people do not want to buy more, but mainly because salt is too expensive and many people cannot bear to buy it.

"Okay, I'll talk to Yuanyue later and ask her to send you 10,000 kilograms directly. You can divide it among yourselves. I'll charge you one penny per kilogram."

Shen Xiangwan agreed after a brief hesitation. In fact, it would be fine to give these things to them directly, and she didn't lack the money. However, there were many cases of people repaying kindness with resentment, and she didn't want them to reach that point one day. Only by collecting some money appropriately could their relationship last.

"One penny per pound, aren't you losing out too much?"

Hearing this, Aunt Wang was still a little worried. Vegetables in winter are not cheap and you can’t buy them even if you have money. One cent per pound is too cheap.

"Do I look like someone who would make a loss?"

Shen Xiangwan smiled slightly. She knew that if she took these cabbages and sold them outside, they would definitely fetch more than a penny per pound, but she didn't really want to make money from selling vegetables, so the amount of money was not important.

"Okay, then I won't be polite to you."

Seeing this, Aunt Wang stopped worrying and continued to ask, "Wanwan, how much salt do you need to pickle the kimchi? I'll ask the eldest brother to go to the county town to buy some later."

Don't blame her for not knowing the ratio of vegetables to salt after several days of pickling. The main thing is how much salt to put in each jar of vegetables. Shen Xiangwan had someone weigh it out separately, and they just rubbed it on the cabbage, not knowing the specific ratio at all. "It takes half a pound of salt to pickle ten pounds of kimchi. How about I give it to you? I'll charge you ten cents per pound."

"No, no, we can just go to the county town and buy it ourselves."

This time, Aunt Wang was determined not to take advantage of her again. She waved her hands repeatedly to decline her kindness. They used white snowflake salt, how could it be worth only ten coins per pound? You know, the lowest quality coarse salt on the market costs dozens of coins per pound. Let alone cabbage, she couldn't take advantage of her salt again.

"hehe···"

Shen Xiangwan couldn't help laughing when she saw this. Since the deal had been settled, Aunt Wang didn't stay any longer and turned around to continue helping to pickle the cabbage.

Not only the village, but the army was also rushing to harvest cabbages. They only stored a portion of them in the cellar, and the rest, like Shen Xiangwan, were all made into kimchi. The army should not be short of vegetables to eat next year.

It took more than ten days to harvest the cabbages from more than 2,000 acres of land. Since the seeds Shen Xiangwan used were of high quality and high yield, even though the sandy soil was relatively thin and difficult to retain water and fertilizer, the yield per acre reached 3,000 to 4,000 kilograms. In total, millions of kilograms were harvested, and the huge ceramic jars for pickling kimchi filled one warehouse after another.

In order to prevent the land from being insufficiently fertile next year, after the cabbage harvest, Zhao Dashan led the strong laborers in the village to plow the land and apply fertilizer. Fortunately, the manure they had fermented was already usable and could be poured directly into the plowed ditch. There was no need to go to the mountains to collect humus, which was not a difficult task.

"You're back."

In mid-December, dozens of horsemen accompanied by more than a dozen carriages drove into the village. After Shen Xiangwan received the news, the first person he saw when he went out was Wei Chengyi, who was leading the group and riding on a tall horse. The corners of her lips unconsciously curved into a brilliant arc. Although they would meet in the space almost every night, the meaning of him being at home or not was completely different.

"Late night."

Seeing her from afar, Wei Chengyi flew up and landed in front of her in the blink of an eye: "I'm back."

"Well, do you want me to welcome you with drums and gongs?"

Looking up, Shen Xiangwan's eyes were full of teasing and mockery.

"Naughty!"

Wei Chengyi, who was originally a little excited, was stunned for a moment, then he couldn't help laughing and took the initiative to reach out and hold her hand.

"If I wasn't naughty, you would cry."

Blinking, Shen Xiangwan said meaningfully.

"···"

Hearing this, Wei Chengyi wanted to cry but had no tears. He could only tighten his clasped hands with hers and sigh helplessly in his heart. Who made him end up with such a naughty wife?

【End of this chapter】

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