spend time

Chapter 234 Harvest ()

The newly harvested corn still has some moisture, and it has a faint sweet taste in the mouth when chewed raw.

Cui Du moved a bamboo basket of corn to the kitchen.

Jiang Shaohua was a little reluctant to give up: "It's better to keep them for food seed! Don't taste them!"

Cui Du laughed: "This year, the farm has planted a thousand acres of corn, and the harvested corn is used as grain seeds, which is enough to promote in Nanyang County. We only use one basket of corn tonight, and it will not affect the overall situation. The princess can try something new. What does the food taste like? Chen Changshi and Feng Changshi are all here, and they all want to taste it."

Jiang Shaohua also smiled: "Okay, everyone can taste it. Just this basket, the rest of the corn can't be touched."

Cui Du readily agreed.

Wait, why did the princess follow her into the kitchen?

"The kitchen is very smoky, Princess, please don't come in." Cui Du said with a smile, "You have been busy all day, so go and rest first."

Jiang Shaohua said, "I want to see how this corn is made into food."

Cui Du laughed again.

The princess is the most generous lord in the world, and all the civil and military officials, guards and maids of the Nanyang Palace know this very well. This was the first time that he saw the calm and unhurried princess so nervous and concerned.

The princess insisted on staying in the kitchen, but Cui Du refused to persuade her. He called a few cooks and asked them to tear open the outer skin of the corn cob and peel off the corn kernels.

The cooks were quick with their hands and feet, and quickly peeled out a large pot of corn kernels.

Looking at Cui Du again, his movements were not slow at all, and he peeled out half of the basin alone. Afterwards, rinse with water three times to wash the fresh corn kernels cleanly.

Afterwards, grind the corn kernels with a stone mill.

There was originally a stone grinder in the kitchen. Jiang Shaohua saw the excitement and fun and started to push the stone grinder himself. While Cui Du was putting corn into his eye, he held a water ladle in his other hand and poured some water from time to time.

"After the corn is dried, put it in a dry grain store. It can be stored for a year or two. When you eat it, take some and grind it into powder with a stone mill. The next step is almost the same as flour."

Cui Du was busy with his hands, and his mouth was not idle: "Today, I just add water and grind it together because the fresh corn has a lot of water and cannot be ground into powder, so I just add water and grind it into corn paste."

Jiang Shaohua is so powerful that he can push the stone mill as easily as a child brushing a wooden sword: "How do pancakes made from corn flour compare to flour pancakes?"

"The taste is definitely a bit rough," Cui Du said honestly, "but I'm very hungry."

that's enough. In times of famine, people would eat even leaves and grass. As long as they had food to fill their stomachs, the delicate and rough taste was secondary.

Jiang Shaohua hummed and continued to grind.

Most of the corn was ground into polenta. Stew the fish in a large iron pot. When the fish is half-cooked and the iron pot is hot, roll the corn paste into pancakes and stick them on the iron pot.

In another large pot, big bones were boiling, and some corn chopped into small pieces was put in the soup.

Finally, Cui Du also made a stir-fry with fresh corn kernels and cooked a pot of corn paste.

A strong aroma wafted from the kitchen.

Chen and Feng, the two elders, smelled the aroma and entered the kitchen.

They originally didn't want to disturb Mr. Cui and the princess's alone time. However, I was thinking about how to make food from the new grain, so I couldn't help it.

Cui Du turned around and saw the two chief historians, and said with a smile: "Chen Changshi and Feng Changshi came just in time. The corn cakes are already cooked. Let's try them first."

A pot of corn cakes, yellow and golden, has been poured twice with fish soup, revealing a delicious fragrance. The princess had already eaten one with gusto.

When you take a bite, the texture is indeed rough, extra chewy and delicious. Chen Changshi ate half of the corn tortilla and relaxed his brows: "This new grain tastes pretty good."

"It's more than good. In my opinion, it's very delicious." Feng Wenming was more down-to-earth, imitating the princess, dipping a corn tortilla into the fish soup and boasting while eating: "Okay, okay, this corn is very good! "

Cui Du smiled and said, "It's inconvenient to eat like this. I'll put out all the food and go to the dining hall to eat slowly. There's also corn bone soup and fried corn!"

Everyone nodded happily.

There were two round tables in the dining hall. Jiang Shaohua and the two chief ministers sat at one table. Cui Du, a great hero, also sat at this table with a calm expression. Song Yuan, as the second hero of the search for grain seeds, also sat down calmly. .

The rest of the people who belonged to the official residences all sat at another table.

Everyone tried the food made from the new grains and had mixed reactions.

Like Chenmu, I feel that the tortillas are chewy and hungry. It's best to drink hot polenta if you don't have good teeth.

Chen Jinyu and Ma Yaozong like to eat corn cooked with big bones. Lu Cong prefers corn kernels stir-fried with vegetables.

Only Yang Cheng was used to eating fine food, so he felt a little uncomfortable eating corn at this time. I reluctantly took a few bites, echoed the praises of others, and then quietly put down my chopsticks.

"This corn is really good." Jiang Shaohua was very satisfied with every food and praised with a smile: "It's also simple to make and easy to promote."

Chen Zhuo stroked his beard and smiled: "We will know the corn yield per mu of field in a few days."

……

The weather will be good for the next few days.

In fact, it has not rained in Nanyang County for a long time. Dry weather is best for drying grain. After three days, the corn was slightly changed in color and the moisture was dried.

Next, it’s time to shuck the corn.

Cui Du had previously drawn a drawing for Shen Mu. Shen Mu took the drawing back to the workshop and led the craftsmen to make a bunch of corn-shelling equipment within three days.

Shucking corn is a chore.

Jiang Shaohua is the most respected princess and does everything personally. People in official residences are well-educated. The guards also joined in the work one after another. After so many people worked for four or five days, they finally shucked all the corn.

The corn cobs are dried and sent to the kitchen where they can be used to light the fire.

The corn kernels should continue to be dried in the sun until they are completely dry, and then they can be put into the grain store.

Before stocking up on grain, the yield per acre of field must be measured. Cui Du had already made preparations. He reserved ten acres of corn for each harvest, weighed them separately, and recorded them one by one.

Jiang Shaohua looked attentively.

The yields of these ten acres of fields vary. The most weighed 1,600 catties, and the least weighed only 1,200 catties. If you average it out, it's about 1,400 pounds.

"This is the first year of trial planting corn, and the yield is not as good as expected." Cui Du was a little regretful: "I originally thought that we could harvest at least two thousand catties per mu of field."

When he said this, everyone turned their attention to him.

If one acre of land is planted with wheat and millet, four hundred kilograms of grain will be harvested. Planting one acre of corn can yield more than a thousand kilograms of grain, quadrupling the output.

Four times!

This means that the same field planted with corn can feed four times the population.

What a merit!