Go back to the valley to farm

Chapter 465 Saltgrass
Chapter 460 Six Saltgrass

Nian: "Hahaha, Bell, your eyes are still limited to survival in the wilderness. Haven't you discovered that Jungle is a real foodie? When other teams are still satisfied with raw fish, grilled fish, and cassava, he Every meal needs seasoning! Now that we have vegetable oil and salt, I believe there will be a lot of oriental delicacies in the next show!"

Lu En: "That's right, hahaha, even their dried fish is baked with cattails, why do I feel a little hungry..."

Nian: "There are also coconut crabs boiled in coconut milk. They haven't gotten tired of eating them all day. I also miss my mother's meals..."

Bell: "Hey, hello, two, we are still doing the show, haven't you noticed? I have pointed out from the beginning, China's efficiency! This time, it is the efficiency of energy use!"

Nian: "Ah, speaking of this, we would like to thank the Chinese team. What stands out is their efficient use of fuel, which protects the natural resources on our country's islands."

"Whether it's the long stove or the dead leaf ditch on both sides for heat preservation, the utilization rate of energy is maximized, and there are always several things that use energy at the same time. Concentrating the sea water, roasting the shredded coconut, drying firewood, refining knives..."

Lu En: "And the pair of baskets newly made by Jungle, uh, in my eyes, they are already handicrafts..."

Bell: "No, no, don't you see the burnt edge pattern on the side of the blade? After the show is over, I must ask Jungle to give me this knife. This is a real work of art..."

Luen: "In the end, Jungle seems to have obtained three chemical reagents, one from seaweed, one from shells, and one from a mixture of seaweed and shells. I guess this is related to tomorrow's salt refining. I have never looked forward to tomorrow so much. Tomorrow, Jungle will definitely show us his Chinese magic..."

That night, the two took a walk by the beach, and by the way, talked about what they were going to do tomorrow.

Li Junge, carrying a basket and tweezers, picked up shells on the beach like a shoveler, and said while picking up: "The ancients gave the ashes of shells a very special name, called mirage ash. They didn't know this. In fact, it is the same as the lime burned from limestone, it is calcium oxide. Do you use alkali to make soap?"

A Yin laughed and said: "When you go back, break the soap locust shell to break up the bubbles. I usually use that, and rarely use caustic soda and other things, because it will produce bubbles in the soap body. Lime water is also not good, because the organic Calcium is insoluble in water."

Li Junge said: "If you want soda, I can make it for you. There is already big soda, and it's not impossible to make baking soda."

Ayin smiled and said: "No need to be so troublesome. I will requisition large and small washbasins tomorrow, and then find a section with a suitable temperature on the dragon kiln. It will not delay your big event."

Li Junge said with a smile: "No matter who we do it, as long as it can improve our lives, it is a big deal. I will just make a few more pots later."

Talking and chatting, the two walked to the place where the coconut crab was caught that day.

From a distance, Li Junge asked A Yin to take out the sling and get ready.

As a result, no strange crabs were found, but there were obvious traces of creatures crawling in the pile of coconut shells.

Li Junge smiled and said, "I hope there will be drama in the cage."

Dig off the dirt and weeds on the trap, and sure enough, there is a strange crab in one side of the two cages.

Li Junge restored the two cages, and the two began to walk back.

A Yin said: "The two big claws of the strange crab will be pierced by no matter how hard the bamboo cage is, right? Are you not afraid that they will run away tomorrow?"

Li Junge said: "Arthropods have no IQ. I studied this thing for a long time yesterday and finally found a similar version."

After speaking, he picked up a conch and picked out a hermit crab from the bamboo stick inside. "Look, I just said that strange crab looks familiar, doesn't it look like?"

Ayin looked at the hermit crab, which was smaller than a melon seed, and said, "Hahaha, except for the size, it's really similar."

Li Junge smiled and said: "So, they have no motivation to escape. For example, if we live in a lakeside villa in Lijiagou, do you still have the mind to build a shed? I made such a comfortable nest for the strange crabs. That's enough, as long as they feel safe inside, they won't do damage."

A Yin said with a smile: "This is to be born in sorrow and die in peace."

Li Junge smiled and said: "No, no, this is a sacrifice to seek benevolence, no regrets!"

A Yin said: "You have such a mouth, the strange crab used to eat coconuts well, but in a blink of an eye, you begged for benevolence!"

Li Junge smiled and said: "So Zhuangzi sees it thoroughly. In the fable he wrote, the big tortoise in Chu State once said that it is not worthwhile for me to send my shell to the ancestral temple. I would rather" Trailing in the mud'! Hahahaha..."

Back at the camp, Li Junge smiled and said, "Ayin, rest first! Have a delicious meal of crab meat tomorrow morning, and start our chemical production! I'll make another pair of buckets and a few pots!"

……

Waking up the next day, Li Junge and A Yin went to check on Fang Qi.

A Yin laughed and said, "Er Pi, it's like farming when you do this."

Li Junge said with a smile: "Don't tell me, the method mentioned in Lao Song's "Heavenly Creation of Things" is called 'planting salt'! And it is written in the book that 'each farming household has its own area, and it does not invade each other.' People really serve them like crops."

A Yin laughed and said, "Based on what you say, can salt grow on the ground by itself?"

Li Junge gently pushed aside the ashes, and found a small crystal from inside: "Hehehe, didn't this grow out? In the book, this thing is called 'salt grass'! Thatch grass, didn't it grow by itself?"

A Yin clapped his hands and laughed: "Wow! Really! Lao Song is really amazing!"

Li Junge said: "It's not that Lao Song is powerful. Well, although he is also very powerful, he is only a recorder. He is still a witness in many cases. The truly powerful practitioners are the working people in ancient my country!"

After washing up, Li Junge started cooking. He took out a strange crab from the trap and cooked another pot of strange crab soup with coconut milk.

I didn't dare to cook too much, so I washed the pot after eating.This pot will come in handy today.

Take the time to boil the oil, then collect the shredded coconut on the dragon kiln, and respread the shredded coconut left over from soaking coconut milk last night on the dragon kiln.

This matter was handed over to Ayin, and Li Junge began to wash the two water tanks that had just been vacated.

After cleaning the water tank, he placed it next to the square bed, and Li Junge began to weave a big bamboo hat out of bamboo.

Spread coconut brown silk in the bamboo hat, and weave a big bamboo hat to sandwich the brown silk in the middle, thus obtaining a large filter with a diameter of one meter.I also built a solid frame with bamboo poles, placed the big bamboo hat on it, and then made a pair of buckets, picked up sea water, and filled most of the tank.

It was still some time before collecting salt and watering the brine, Li Junge made three more dustpans, and took the residual mortar from the lime water made yesterday with a bamboo knife to wipe the dustpans and scrape them flat. This thing was also mentioned in "Tiangong Kaiwu", called "Salt Plate"

A Yin boiled the remaining oil and got two thick bamboo tubes. The oil refining project of the two of them was officially completed. During the whole process, they got about twenty catties of cooking oil and two or three catties of waste oil that had been tempered with knives.

Li Junge went to filter out the knife-hardening oil for A Yin through a small coconut shredded funnel, and put it into a thick bamboo tube.

Ayin started to boil the saponin husk water that had been soaked overnight.

Li Junge took a flint hammer and smashed the soaked saponin beans on a hard stone plate with a thickness of six to seven centimeters.

The hard stone plate was specially repaired by Li Junge. He tied two wooden nails with thin vines, drew a circle with a radius of [-] cm, and then beat it roughly into a circle with a flint chisel.

Only smash at the center of the circle, and then grind at the center of the circle, and collect the ground bean pulp residue into the newly made toner resin bucket.

After the beans were smashed, the center of the stone plate went down by a centimeter or two, forming a small nest.

Add water to the bucket, knead it repeatedly, make a large bamboo colander, filter the soy milk into the basin, and then grind the remaining bean dregs in the small nest of the disc, then put it into a basin, scoop two scoops Knead and wash the soy milk, filter the soy milk again, and repeat it many times until the saponin beans are fully utilized.

On Ayin's side, the process of making soap has already started.

After the soap locust water is boiled, Ayin determines the concentration according to the smoothness of the hand feeling, let it cool until it feels lukewarm to the touch, then filter it into a small washbasin, and keep it warm behind the dragon kiln.

Pour out a small pot of waste coconut oil and heat it up a bit, but it is still lukewarm. A Yin put the pot behind the dragon kiln and began to add saponin water to the coconut oil, stirring constantly with the bamboo spatula.

The mixture began to emit heat and gradually became viscous, turning into a light milky yellow color. When the slurry on the bamboo spatula dripped into the pot, it did not disappear immediately, but piled up on top, and that was almost the case.

Pour the pulp into a bamboo tube with an inner diameter of about five centimeters, plug the opening of the bamboo tube, bury the bamboo tube in the middle of the leaf insulation ditch, and let the mixture saponify slowly by itself.

Then I started to make the next pot, filled five tubes in total, the saponin water was not used up, but the fat was used up.

This can't be wasted, A Yin took out the clean clothes and drove Li Junge to the stream to take a bath.

Li Junge came back after going there for half an hour, and said, "It's so refreshing, hahaha, at least rub off half a catty of sludge!"

A Yin pursed her lips and smiled, took Li Junge's dirty clothes, and went to the stream to take a bath, wash her hair and wash the changed clothes.

It was already two or three o'clock in the afternoon, and Li Junge went to check the grass ash in the square again. The salt grass had grown long and could be collected.

The salt obtained now is called gray salt. Plant ash has replaced the sodium ions in the saline soil, and most of the magnesium and calcium ions are in the soil.

He took a basin and scooped some gray salt into the big bamboo hat filter, and dragged the empty water tank under the bamboo hat. Li Junge began to scoop sea water to pour the grass ash. The clear salt water flowed down from the bottom of the filter and flowed into the water tank below.

After watering most of the tank, Li Junge dragged the filter to the top of the vacated empty tank. Repeatedly, the concentration of seawater gradually increased, and finally turned into a concentrated brine close to the saturation concentration.

Then Li Junge began to add sodium hydroxide solution obtained by mixing lime water and sodium carbonate solution into the clear concentrated brine, and the magnesium ions in the concentrated brine began to react with hydroxide ions to form a magnesium hydroxide suspension.

After the two have reacted for a while, then add sodium carbonate solution obtained by burning seaweed ash to the solution, and the concentrated brine suddenly becomes more turbid. This is because the calcium ions in the concentrated brine encounter carbonate ions and become Calcium carbonate precipitates.

After waiting for a while, after the reaction was sufficient and the calcium carbonate was completely formed, Li Junge removed the straw ash from the filter and filtered out the solution again. Most of the residual calcium and magnesium ions in the concentrated brine were removed again.

(End of this chapter)