Chapter 204 What is Spicy Polygonum plus Mulberry?
On this day, Su Bai and Zhao Xinqing made progress under the division of labor.
Su Bai completed the laying of twenty newly cut bamboo water pipes. The overall progress has reached fifty-three. In one or two days, this water pipe will be completed and put into use!
Zhao Xinqing took the snack food and plowed an entire acre of land.
There is another acre, and I can see that it will be completed at the same time as the water diversion pipe.
Seeing that it was past three o'clock in the afternoon and there was still some time, the two of them discussed it and put the snack into the alfalfa bush to let her relieve herself from the fatigue of the whole day.
The two went up the mountain again, picked some mushrooms, and then went to the mulberry forest.
Under the mulberry tree, there were scattered bits and pieces of ripe mulberries.
Zhao Xinqing looked at these mulberries with some regret:
"The branches have begun to fall..."
"What a pity..."
"After we have eaten enough mulberries, we can pick some more and take them back to make dried mulberries."
Su Bai nodded, and while eating mulberries with Zhao Xinqing on the spot to replenish electrolytes and trace elements, he said:
"Tonight, I will go back and weave two big baskets out of bamboo to make a pole."
"We can make all these mulberries into dried mulberries and preserve them."
"Watching them fall to the ground and rot is really a waste."
Zhao Xinqing nodded repeatedly:
"I have had this idea for a long time, but our transportation capacity has never been reached, and we still have things to do, so there is no..."
Halfway through her words, Zhao Xinqing's eyes were attracted by a clump of weeds at Su Bai's feet.
"Huh? What is this..." Zhao Xinqing's beautiful eyes flashed, and she quickly put down the mulberry in her hand, squatted on the ground and carefully studied the weeds at Su Bai's feet.
Barrage:
[Let me see, which little unlucky little plant Dr. Zhao is interested in? 】
[Dr. Zhao: Jiejiejiejie! Bring it to you! 】
[In the eyes of Zhao Xinqing, a doctor of botany, even a weed on the roadside can be of great use!]
[No, this is the most common weed? What use can this thing have???]
[They are not lacking in meat or vegetarian food now. Shouldn’t they take it back to the snack foodies to eat weeds? 】
Su Bai also followed Zhao Xinqing to observe the weeds.
The leaves are dark green, with fine hairs on them, and dots of purple-red round spots on the surface.
"What is this?" Su Bai asked.
Zhao Xinqing's face gradually became happy, her beautiful eyes smiled into two crescent moons, and she said:
"This is Polygonum!"
Su Bai: "...Oh!"
Barrage:
【Oh! Never heard of it!】
[I know! This grass sounds very spicy when you hear it! It must be used as a seasoning!]
[Traditional Chinese medicine students come to register! Polygonum spp. can be used as medicine!]
But Zhao Xinqing continued to explain:
"Polygonum vulgaris can be used to make distiller's yeast."
"We have a lot of mulberries."
“It’s easy to make mulberry wine!”
Su Bai's eyes lit up:
"Oh? Do you make wine?"
“This is indeed one of the best ways to transform and preserve grain and fruits!”
Because of the fermentation during the brewing process and the bactericidal effect of alcohol, the wine can be stored for a long time.
Some commentators hesitated and said:
[emmmmm… Although I don’t quite understand it, can distiller’s yeast be made from Polygonum vulgare alone? 】
[How do I remember the production process of something like distiller’s yeast? It’s relatively complicated?]
[And...it seems that grains need to be involved, right? You can't possibly use the newly sprouted rice to make wine together, right?]
Zhao Xinqing chuckled and said:
"That's right. Polygonum is only one of the ingredients of distiller's yeast. The main ingredient of distiller's yeast is Aspergillus, and this species usually appears on moldy grains."
"But the grains we have are not just rice."
"I know where to find it!"
As she said that, Zhao Xinqing started directly, plucked a lot of Polygonum on the ground, spread them flatly in Su Bai's basket, filled the gaps in the basket, and then piled a lot of mulberries inside.
Even Zhao Xinqing's own fish skin bag was stuffed with mulberries.
Then the two of them went to the red pine forest, collected pine resin with five bamboo tubes, and turned back down the mountain.
Arriving at the alfalfa bush at the foot of the mountain, Zhao Xinqing asked Su Bai to fetch the snacks, while she plunged into the alfalfa bush, looking for something on the ground.
After this search, I found it directly at 5:30 in the evening, when the sun was almost setting, Zhao Xinqing walked out of the alfalfa bush with a satisfied smile.
In her palm lay many seeds of alfalfa.
The difference is that these alfalfa seeds are not healthy seeds that can be eaten, but fell to the ground, received some moisture, and were not exposed to sunlight, so they became moldy.
The surface of the seeds is almost covered with dense white mycelium.
Zhao Xinqing opened her palms, put them under the camera, and explained:
"This is Aspergillus."
"Although alfalfa seeds are not a mainstream cereal, they also contain a large amount of starch and sugar, and Aspergillus can also be grown on them!"
"With these things, we can start making jiu koji!"
"When the koji is finished, we can brew mulberry wine!"
"Now, all the mulberries can be used."
After the two returned to the camp, it was already six o'clock in the evening. The snow leopard appeared out of nowhere and squatted next to the catnip, bored. It seemed that today's mint had been sucked out.
Zhao Xinqing casually threw a large piece of arapaima meat to the snow leopard that had not had time to be smoked. Then she ignored the teasing of the snow leopard and lowered her head to make the wine.
She first washed the polygonum and bamboo leaves, ground them with stones into a fine green slurry, and evenly mixed the alfalfa seeds carrying Aspergillus into them.
The mixture was directly put into a small bamboo tube by Zhao Xinqing, covered with a lid, and placed in a cool corner under the rock wall.
"In this way, after waiting for two or three days, you can get a lot of distiller's yeast."
"What's left can be dried in the sun and used to make sweet potato wine and rice wine later."
When the wine koji is ready, Su Bai has already woven a bamboo basket next to it.
Zhao Xinqing spread the mulberries picked today evenly on the bamboo basket, set up the bamboo basket, and placed two charcoal fires underneath.
"Bake it like this overnight, and you can get a lot of dried mulberries tomorrow."
"The storage time of dehydrated mulberries will be greatly extended."
It's a busy night.
It wasn't until 7:30 in the evening, when the two began to feel sleepy, that a bamboo pole was made, further increasing the carrying capacity of the two.
Only then did Su Bai and Zhao Xinqing have time to sit by the fire and take a rest, eating fish soup from a bamboo tube while feeling sleepy.
At this moment, a group of barrages suddenly began to flood the screen on the live broadcast tablet:
[The official live broadcast started early today! 】
[It is said that there is a major update regarding the list rules!]
Looking at these barrages, Su Bai raised his eyebrows: "Oh? Come and help me see how the program team plans to update this list?"