RPAGF Chapter 35 Making Persimmon Cakes
Chapter 35 Making Persimmon Cakes
After finishing their meal, the group peeled persimmons in the yard, neatly placing them in a winnowing basket, waiting for the sun to come out tomorrow so they could dry them.
After all the persimmons were peeled, everyone was so tired they could barely stand up straight. By then, the moon was already high in the sky, so everyone washed up and went to bed.
Despite being very tired and it being late, Song Jiaojiao was still too excited to sleep. Thinking about the heavy persimmons and the sweet dried persimmons made her even more sleepy, which made her, who wasn't particularly sleepy to begin with, even more so.
Remembering that he had dug up two persimmon trees, he simply went into his space, planted the persimmon trees, harvested a batch of vegetables from the space, yawned as he left the space, and went to sleep. Even at night, he dreamed of eating an endless supply of dried persimmons.
The next day, Song Jiaojiao woke up before dawn, made breakfast, and then called Wang Hefan to get up and eat. By the time they finished eating, the sun had just risen. She reminded Mu Qing to take the persimmons out to dry, and then set off with Wang Hefan.
Song Jiaojiao and Wang Hefan walked for almost half an hour before arriving at the place Wang Hefan had mentioned. Looking at the large area of persimmon trees in front of them, each tree was laden with fruit. Perhaps because the sunlight wasn't very good, the persimmons here weren't as red as those on the barren mountain, but that didn't affect their ability to make dried persimmons at all.
Neither of them spoke, and they started picking persimmons with their heads down. Wang Hefan picked the ones on the higher ones, while Song Jiaojiao picked the ones on the lower ones.
There were just too many. Song Jiaojiao would put them into her spatial storage whenever Wang Hefan wasn't looking. By the time Wang Hefan finished picking from one tree, Song Jiaojiao had almost finished picking all the persimmons from the lower branches. Wang Hefan looked at the basket, which was only half full, and wondered why his mother's basket wasn't even full, since there were quite a few persimmons from the lower branches.
Without thinking too much, Wang Hefan put the persimmons into his cloth bag and continued to attack the next tree. When Song Jiaojiao saw this, she also poured the persimmons from her basket into the bag. However, even though there seemed to be a lot of persimmons, she didn't fill the bag.
At this point, Song Jiaojiao couldn't care less about anything else and picked an easy-to-climb tree to continue picking persimmons.
After the two finished picking all the persimmons, they filled the four bags they had brought. Wang Hefan looked at the two baskets and four bags in front of him and pondered. According to his calculations, he should have filled at least twice the current amount. How come it was only half full?
Seeing Wang Hefan staring intently at the bag, Song Jiaojiao quickly and guiltily said, "Hefan, with so much, we'll probably have to make two trips. Hurry up, stop daydreaming. If we go back now, we'll have to come back again later."
Hearing this, Wang Hefan had no choice but to put his doubts aside, and he and Song Jiaojiao hid the persimmons they couldn't take, then each carried a basket down the mountain.
When I got home, my aunts had already cooked the rice and were just waiting for the stir-fried dishes to be ready so we could eat.
Seeing Song Jiaojiao and Wang Hefan each carrying a basket of fruit, everyone was puzzled. There were quite a lot of fruit, but it was so spicy that it made their mouths numb. They wondered what the mother and son were doing bringing so much back.
Before the aunties could ask any questions, Song Jiaojiao and Wang Hefan put down their baskets, grabbed their carrying poles, and hurriedly went out, not even having time to drink water. The aunties looked at each other, their faces full of confusion.
By the time Song Jiaojiao and Wang Hefan brought back the remaining fruit, it was already past noon. The two put down the fruit, drank a large bowl of water, and then quietly began to eat the lunch that had been left for them.
Watching the two wolf down their food, everyone tacitly remained silent until they finished their meal, at which point they voiced their questions.
"Jiaojiao, why are you picking so many thorny fruits?" Aunt Lin spoke first, and then everyone stared at Song Jiaojiao, waiting for her answer.
Looking at the aunties surrounding her, Song Jiaojiao smiled and said, "Of course it's for eating..."
Before Song Jiaojiao could finish speaking, Aunt Li's voice came, "Jiaojiao, this fruit looks very pretty and there are many fruits, but you can't eat it."
As soon as Aunt Li finished speaking, the other women chimed in, “Yes, a few years ago I also saw that this fruit looked really good, so I thought I’d pick one to try, but it was so astringent that I couldn’t eat it at all.”
"Exactly, exactly. Last year, my son insisted on trying it. After taking one bite, his mouth was watering so much that it took him a long time to recover."
"Alright, alright, let's hear what Jiaojiao has to say first." Aunt Lin spoke up to quiet everyone down, thinking about the chestnuts and wood ear mushrooms at home, which everyone said were inedible, but Jiaojiao said they were safe to eat. Maybe Jiaojiao knows how to eat them this time too.
"Persimmons picked straight from the tree are indeed inedible, but they can be eaten after processing. For softer persimmons like these, soaking them in warm water for a few days will effectively remove the astringency."
Another method is to peel the persimmons and sun-dry them until they are dry and soft. At this point, the persimmons are especially sweet. However, it's important to note that they must be sun-dried continuously, otherwise they will spoil easily.” Song Jiaojiao demonstrated, holding up a persimmon and pointing to the peeled persimmons on the winnowing basket in the yard.
"Here, that's it. I peeled it last night. When it's ready, I'll bring some to all the aunties to try."
Hearing Song Jiaojiao's explanation, everyone was skeptical but didn't say anything, thinking they would find out later. Seeing the persimmons almost filling the yard, everyone offered to stay and help. Firstly, they wanted to see how to prepare the persimmons, and secondly, there was really nothing much going on at home, and they felt bad that Song Jiaojiao was so unhelpful with her meals.
Hearing her aunts' words, Song Jiaojiao readily agreed. While she was emptying the persimmons, she took out all the persimmons from her spatial storage when no one was looking. There were so many persimmons that it would take them until dark if they were the only ones working on it. With her aunts' help, they would probably finish quickly.
Wang Hefan stared silently at the many persimmons in the yard. Could it be that his bags were just too big to hold?
Everyone worked methodically, chatting as they peeled the persimmons, and before they knew it, they had finished them all.
Seeing that the aunties had worked hard all afternoon, Song Jiaojiao hurriedly wanted them to stay for a meal, but none of them stayed. So Song Jiaojiao took out the dried wood ear mushrooms and taro she had dried some time ago and gave each of them some.
Looking at the yard full of peeled persimmons, there was almost no room to step. But thinking that as long as the weather was good, she could eat delicious dried persimmons in a week at most, and she could take the dried persimmons to ask if anyone would buy them, Song Jiaojiao couldn't help but smile.
Song Jiaojiao went to the main room to check on the grain. Seeing that almost half of the grain had been consumed, she thought that she would have to go to town to buy more grain in a few days. She also needed to buy some meat. If she wanted to do business with the restaurant, she would have to buy some offal to braise and bring with her. Otherwise, if she went empty-handed, she was afraid she would be beaten up.