allonlinenovel Chapter 57 How about we plant some more sweet potatoes?
Chapter 57 How about we plant some more sweet potatoes?
After they got to the field, his wife Liu Feng'er led the ox ahead, while Shen Qingchuan followed behind, holding the plow, turning the soil back and forth time and time again.
The couple were both patient and meticulous people; the fields they cultivated were loose, soft, and had fine soil.
Shen Xiaotang carried a small bamboo basket and led her younger sister to a nearby ditch to cut some wild grass to feed the cattle.
After working for half a day, the couple took several breaks, not because they were tired and didn't want to work, but because they were afraid the ox would be too tired to handle it.
"Father, Mother, please sit down and rest. I'll feed the cows. Xiaoyu, give the water from the bamboo tube to Father and Mother."
"Okay." Xiaoyu obediently took out the bamboo tube and handed it to her mother first.
"Mother, drink... water."
Madam Liu patted her youngest daughter's head, took the bamboo tube, and said with a smile, "Yu'er is such a good girl."
Shen Xiaotang was about to feed the cows with some wild grass when her father stopped her and took it from her.
"Dad isn't tired. You should leave the work of feeding the cows to Dad. You're still young, so you need to stay away from the cows and not get gored by them."
If a cow sees a stranger and goes berserk, it might even attack the daughter; then it will be too late to regret it.
"Okay, Daddy will feed you."
Shen Xiaotang didn't argue with her father. She looked up at the four acres of dry land and thought to herself that with so much turmeric as seeds, she couldn't actually plant much land. It seemed a bit wasteful to use the rest to plant rice.
Or, how about we plant some more sweet potatoes?
On her two trips to town, she discovered that there were no roasted sweet potatoes for sale. If they grew sweet potatoes, they could set up a stall in town to sell roasted sweet potatoes in the future.
Sweet potatoes are highly productive and resistant to both drought and flooding!
"Dad, how about we skip rice this season and plant corn instead? We can use the remaining land to plant half an acre of turmeric and one and a half acres of sweet potatoes, what do you think?"
Shen Qingchuan was slightly taken aback, somewhat puzzled.
"Why does Tang'er want to plant corn and sweet potatoes? Did you come up with a good idea?"
Shen Xiaotang immediately voiced her thoughts.
“Father, our family is small, just you and Mother. Xiaoyu and I are small and can’t eat much. After paying taxes for one season’s harvest, it’s barely enough for us to eat for half a year. We don’t need to use all our resources to grow crops. Every household has grain. Low grain prices hurt farmers. Grain shops sell for high prices, but we can’t get a good price.”
Yes!
A mu of land can only yield one or two hundred jin. In a good year with favorable weather, fertile land can yield up to two hundred jin, but dry land cannot.
Even if there are setbacks now, and the peak years come later, it's not like you'll be lucky every year, and you'll still have to pay taxes.
The imperial court implemented the "Two-Tax System," which required a tax of two dou of rice per mu of land, with each dou of rice weighing twelve and a half jin.
After paying taxes and keeping enough food for sustenance, the rest couldn't be sold for much money.
Gathering his thoughts, Shen Qingchuan asked again, "Tang'er is right, there is a reason why low grain prices hurt farmers. Many people do plant corn in the second half of the season, but what's the reason for planting sweet potatoes? Some villagers in the surrounding villages also grow sweet potatoes, but few people eat them. Most of them are used to feed livestock. Our family only has one pig, and cutting some pig feed is enough for us."
Shen Xiaotang looked around and, seeing that no villagers were passing by, said, "We can make a stove to roast sweet potatoes and sell them fresh in town."
Shen Qingchuan and Liu were both surprised after hearing this.
Liu looked puzzled. "Roasted sweet potatoes? Will they even sell?"
"Yes, everyone thinks that steamed cornbread made from sweet potato flour is too sticky and difficult to handle. They would rather eat brown rice than sweet potato flour. Some people even roast it over a fire while cooking. But nobody in town roasts it and sells it. Can we really sell something that we can roast at home?"
Before the family split up, Shen Qingchuan went to town every day to deliver tofu and eggs, and occasionally stayed to help people repair houses. He knew the town very well, and he felt that selling roasted sweet potatoes would be a bit difficult!
Shen Xiaotang continued to persuade her parents, patiently explaining the situation.
"Mom and Dad, I know your concerns, but the sweet potatoes I want to grow are different from what everyone else grows. The ones that everyone grows for eating or for livestock are white-fleshed, but I want to grow red-fleshed ones. Although red-fleshed ones don't yield as much as white-fleshed ones, they taste fragrant and sweet when roasted, and they're soft, sticky, and look beautiful in their bright orange color."
After hearing his daughter's explanation, he finally understood that she wanted to plant the red-hearted variety.
Indeed, most families that grow sweet potatoes grow the white-fleshed variety because it is more productive; the red-fleshed variety is quite rare!
My daughter is a woman of her own mind. Whether it's dividing the family property or dealing with ginger, listening to her always yields good results.
If we listen to our daughter and plant red-fleshed sweet potatoes, roast them in town and sell them, we might actually make some money.
At worst, if they can't sell them, the family of four will just eat sweet potato flour buns for one season!
After much deliberation, Shen Qingchuan finally made a decision.
"Alright, Tang'er said to plant red-fleshed sweet potatoes, so let's plant them!"
Seeing that her husband supported their daughter, Liu had no objections. Her daughter was well-behaved, sensible, and capable. Whatever she wanted to do, it was all for the good of their family.
A family should support each other!
Shen Xiaotang was overjoyed to see that her parents had agreed, and immediately began to give them instructions.
“Father and Mother, we should plant turmeric in the very center, surround it with sweet potatoes, and cover the corn seeds on the outside so that no one finds out that we are planting turmeric or roasting sweet potatoes. We must not be foolish enough to tell others, otherwise someone will follow suit and we will not be able to do this.”
None of the methods she came up with were long-term solutions; they could only earn her enough money for one or two seasons.
If the family wants to save money, they need to find a long-term solution that can generate stable and continuous income after moving to town.
Shen Qingchuan and Liu immediately nodded in agreement.
"Alright, as long as our parents don't tell anyone, it'll be just our family that knows."
Seeing that the sun was getting strong, the couple plowed two more rounds, and prepared to plow the remaining half for the rest of the day. They then led the ox, took their farm tools, and their two daughters home.
After lunch, Shen Xiaotang took out the turmeric she had stored for several months; some of it had already sprouted.
She carefully piled the turmeric in a corner of the yard and sprinkled some water on it.
Shen Qingchuan and his wife Liu went out to plow the fields, leaving their two daughters at home to rest.
The next day, after the fields were plowed and the oxen were returned, Liu stayed home to collect corn seeds, with Xiaoyu helping her. Shen Qingchuan took his eldest daughter to town to look for red-core sweet potato seedlings, intending to buy some to plant at home.
I searched almost the entire town before finally finding a place that sold red-core sweet potato seedlings. There were only enough seedlings for a little over an acre of land, not even an acre and a half.
Shen Xiaotang was overjoyed and immediately asked her father to cover all the expenses.
It only cost ten coins!
The father and daughter bought some salt and two pounds of fatty meat, and headed home together out of town.
Shen Qingchuan saw his daughter's lips curling up in a happy smile the whole way, and he was also in a good mood because of her.
"Tang'er, are you so happy to have bought red-core sweet potato seedlings?"
Shen Xiaotang smiled faintly and said, "Of course, because there is only one store selling them in the whole town, which means very few people grow them. Once we grow them, we can take them to town to roast and sell. Even if other people want to imitate us and sell them, they don't have that many red-core sweet potatoes. With no one competing for business, how can I not be happy?"
After all, things are valued for their scarcity; if everyone who tries it thinks it tastes good, then naturally someone will buy it.
Whether they sell a lot or a little, it's still better than them just staying at home and farming four acres of land!