Riding the wind of rebirth

People in Zhouzhi generally prefer to drink green tea, and the production of Xilong Green Tea has not yet increased. It is currently "specially supplied to Zhouzhi", and basically only Zhouzhi and his relatives, friends, teachers, and local talents can drink it.

Recently, Lao Lu discovered a strange tea tree on the tea mountain. The color of the leaves on one of the branches was not the dark green color of ordinary tea leaves, but yellow-green, and looked a bit golden.

After playing a lot with people from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhou Zhi also knew the special value of this type of mutant plants, so he mentioned it to the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Li Lu told him that this phenomenon is called "branch mutation", which is a special mutation phenomenon that starts from "bud mutation".

It is difficult to preserve the genes of this mutated trait through seeds, but the traits of this special branch can be preserved through asexual reproduction. The main way is to expand the propagation through grafting, cuttings, high-branch layering, etc.

For example, citrus can be said to be the most chaotic hybrid variety in artificial breeding. So far, more than 2,000 varieties have been hybridized. However, there are several strange exceptions among them - navel orange and seedless orange.

These types of citrus have no pits, and even if they did, it would be impossible to propagate new navel oranges and seedless oranges through the pits, so they are expanded through branch grafting.

There is an ancient text that says "Oranges grown in the north of the Huai River become sour oranges." The sour orange tree has a well-developed root system and strong branches, making it the most suitable rootstock. After cultivating the sour orange tree for one year, cut off the branches, make an opening at the junction of the cortex and the wood, and insert the branches cut from the navel orange, and you can turn a sour orange tree into a navel orange.

For other plants such as roses and peonies, there are similar methods for propagating mutant plants.

Zhou Zhi thought of the Zhenlong pomelo in his hometown. It seemed that it was originally a branch on a Shatian pomelo tree, and now it has gradually bred into a variety.

The same is true for the cherry trees in Lianhe Township. In addition to propagation by cuttings, another important measure is to use old cherry trees as rootstocks to propagate cherries by grafting.

Grafting propagation has a huge advantage over seed development, which is that it can greatly advance the fruit-bearing period. For example, a cherry tree grown from seeds takes at least five years to start bearing fruit, while grafted cherries only take two years.

So Zhou Zhi told Lu Qiao about this method and asked her to tell her father to use the rootstock grafting method to propagate the branches of the tea tree. Now there are six tea trees.

As for when we can drink tea made from this golden tea leaves, only God knows.

So Zhou Zhi is still drinking his own Xilong Lvhao.

Mai Xiaomiao likes to drink fruit tea and milk tea, and has now become an expert in making both. He has also tried adding raisins, longan meat, and dried rose petals to milk tea and simmering them over low heat. The milk tea he makes is even more fragrant than the previous milk tea with only "beard".

The scenery by the lake is very beautiful near dusk. When the sky becomes magnificent, the water and the woods become lively.

Many birds flew back and chirped among the shady branches and leaves, and many ripples appeared on the water surface. It was time for the fish to feed.

The ripples made the purple and red reflections of the setting sun on the water surface appear bizarre. From time to time, a bird would fly to the water surface, touch it, and then soar up again. If a kingfisher did this, there would usually be a small fish in its mouth.

“Camera, camera!” Li Lao Da shouted, “Why don’t you take a picture of this scene?!”

"Here you go." Zhou Zhi took out the camera from the bag beside him and handed it to Li Laosan.

"You play..." Li Laosan still wanted to be modest. "We've taken enough photos." Zhou Zhi no longer had any interest in photography: "I'd better go cook."

The big carps are kept and the small ones are released. Basically, each carp weighs 200 to 300 grams. They are quite plump and the female fish even has a bag of fish eggs.

After marinating the fish, coat it with batter, fry it in oil until crispy, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, and it's a delicious dish.

The vegetables brought were long-storage green peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes. The latter two were grown from seedlings covered with plastic film, a month earlier than normal planting.

However, Lao Chi Ri feels that the taste is still slightly worse than that produced by normal growing methods. The advantage is that it allows the villagers to enjoy the fruits and vegetables harvested a month earlier.

The green energy project has brought profound changes to Lianhe Township. Previously, three quarters of the township’s land could not be cultivated normally. In order to offset the risk of poor harvests due to drought, villagers used extensive techniques to grow pumpkins, corn, and potatoes, which were stable in drought and flood but had very low value.

Whether it will be a good harvest or a poor harvest depends entirely on God's will.

With controllable and reasonably allocated water sources, 40% of the three-quarters of the rough crop land was turned into intensive crop land, and the remaining 20% ​​became vegetable fields. After these lands became mature soil after two years, the remaining lands were planted with several kinds of forage grasses that can improve soil fertility due to manpower problems. This not only fertilizes the soil but also produces fodder, in preparation for becoming an orchard in the future.

So this year, people in the village suddenly went from eating pumpkins and potatoes as both meals and dishes to having so much vegetables that they couldn't finish eating them.

Li Laosan likes to eat tomatoes as fruits. He has already picked up one and said, "The tomatoes here are the best tasting tomatoes I have ever tasted!"

This is quite true. Apart from places like Turpan in northern Xinjiang, only areas with relatively high altitudes in the country have such conditions. There is sufficient sunshine, a sufficient temperature difference between day and night, and the aromatic substances and sugars in fruits and vegetables are fully accumulated, making them very delicious.

Now that the road has been repaired, it has become very convenient to go to Jiukou Township or even Meigu to buy things. This season is the time when fruits and vegetables are fragrant in Liangshan Prefecture. Grapes, cherries, peaches, apricots, plums, as well as water chestnuts and water caltrops have all come out one after another, and I brought a lot of them here this time.

The small fish is fried food, and there is grilled meat wrapped in deer ears and leeks, plus the staple food is roasted purple potatoes, which can easily cause a sore throat.

Fortunately, there are peach gum and bamboo bird's nests boiled in bamboo tubes, plus drinks boiled from Houttuynia cordata and thatch roots, which are very suitable for clearing away heat and removing internal heat.

Then something weird happened. Li Laosan didn't like the cold-mixed Houttuynia cordata, but he liked the stew made from Houttuynia cordata and Imperata root, which most outsiders were not willing to accept.

"This taste is actually a bit like our Guangdong herbal tea." Li Laosan explained to Zhou Zhi: "It tastes a bit like chicken bone grass tea."

"I see. You Hong Kong people really like to eat without bitterness." Zhou Zhi was happy: "The herbal tea is the proof."

"I'd rather drink flower and fruit tea." Mai Xiaomiao shook his cup: "Grandpa Chi Ri made it for me. It tastes better than the medicinal soup made from pork elbow."

Lao Chi Ri dotes on Mai Xiaomiao very much. Seeing that she often stays up late in front of the computer, he specially prepares some flower and fruit tea for her to drink, which can soothe the liver and improve eyesight. It is made with herbs such as chrysanthemum, wolfberry, cassia seed, and monk fruit. It tastes sweet and delicious.

He always makes you willingly obey, even if it means drinking medicine. This is the ability of the Great Bimo. (End of this chapter)