Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 342 Is feeding pigs with pig manure good?!

Liu Huasheng glanced at Li Wen and said, "We didn't buy it. The joint defense team downstairs bought one for their birthday and shared it with everyone in the station. It's really not good."

Xiao Wei said, "The main thing is that there are comparisons. Actually, he uses honeycomb cakes in other places as well, and I think his business is pretty good."

Li Wenhe had finished making the cake and was packaging it. He said, "It used to be that everywhere except in eastern Guangdong, people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang made old-fashioned cakes. But that's not working anymore. It's getting harder and harder for them to do business. They only know how to lower prices and don't bother to learn the techniques to make good products." After packaging the cake, he handed it to Liu Huasheng, who took it and said, "I'm leaving now. When Tiezi comes back, let's get together sometime and have a drink over here."

Xiao Wei asked, "When will Tiezi and the others finish their studies?"

Liu Huasheng put on his hat and said, "It's supposed to be six months, but this is the first batch, and it's not over yet, so it's hard to say."

Xiao Wei said, "When I go back to Fengtian, I'll call you and Lao Xia, and we'll go see Tiezi. I have a restaurant in Fengtian, let's go there for a drink." Liu Huasheng said, "Okay, I'll call you then." He picked up the cake and left.

Li Wen jumped up and down a few times and said, "I'm so happy! We finally got rid of that Wen thing, haha, let's have a piece of cake." She went to get the cake and spread cream on it. Xiao Wei said, "Eating this every day, be careful you don't turn into a little fat pig."

Li Wen shook her head and said, "I can eat whatever I want and not gain weight. Besides, I'd still be cute even if I got fat. What? You disagree?"

As Li Wenhe tidied up the workbench, Xiao Wei said, "I feel like we used connections to get him removed, like we can't beat him. It's unsettling." Li Wenhe replied, "It's not like you hired him. It just means he has problems with his work and his character."

Xiao Wei could roughly guess why. Xiao Wen definitely didn't invite any government agencies to dinner for his business opening. This era was different from later times. Back then, social etiquette was very important. If you invited me, I might not go, but if you didn't invite me at all, well...

Even opening a grocery store requires inviting the local industry and commerce bureau and police station for a beating. Billiards halls, karaoke bars, and dance halls, on the other hand, don't need to invite them; they just need to pay protection money monthly.

After leaving the cake shop, Xiaowei glanced at the pastry shop. The sales of steamed buns, flower rolls, and sugar triangles were quite good, but the sales of twisted dough sticks were a little worse. It seemed that the sales of twisted dough sticks would increase in winter and during the New Year, and would decrease when the weather got warmer. He didn't know why.

Li Bing was helping a few older women make steamed buns. Sales of the buns and dumplings were so-so. Xiao Wei thought it might be because they were a bit pricey. There was no way around it; if you wanted something with fillings to taste good, you couldn't be cheap. It was a selling point, after all, restaurants needed them too. Actually, the main reason was the times. People these days were good at and enjoyed doing things themselves. If they wanted dumplings, they just bought meat, chopped the filling, and made them—unlike steamed buns, which required proofing the dough.

Upon entering the restaurant, Sister Zhang and Xie Na were cutting ingredients, while Chef Zhai was frying them in oil. It seemed there would be tables available for lunch, and two waiters were also busy assisting.

When Sister Zhang saw Xiao Wei come in, her eyes lit up. She brandished the gleaming kitchen knife in her hand and asked, "You're back? When did you go to Fengtian?"

Xie Na glanced at Xiao Wei, then at the cleaver in Zhang Jie's hand, and said, "So, if he says he's not going, you just chop him up?"

Sister Zhang made a cut on the fish she was holding and said, "Chop it up, let's make dumplings."

Xiao Wei looked at the fish and said, "Hey, Brother Zhai, do you think it would be okay to use fish meat to make dumplings or buns?"

Sister Zhang said, "It'll work. Just add a little mutton to enhance the flavor, and some chopped green onions, ginger, and pepper. I guarantee you'll eat it all up."

Xiao Wei looked at Sister Zhang and asked, "You've done this before, Sister Zhang?"

Sister Zhang cheerfully cleaned the fish, saying, "I've wrapped them before! I've wrapped them with all kinds of fillings—potatoes, tofu, glass noodles, and onions."

Everyone looked at her with eyes of worship and reverence.

Master Zhai thought for a moment and asked, "Is it delicious?"

Sister Zhang said, "It's alright, the onion filling isn't very good, but the others are fine. My daughter even loves the potato filling. As for the fish and lamb filling, it's the best, so delicious!"

Brother Zhai took the pot off the stove, nodded and said, "Pretty much. The character for 'fresh' is just fish plus lamb, so it must be fresh."

Xiao Wei said, "Why don't we give it a try? I always feel like our dumplings are missing something. If it works out, we'll stick to this filling from now on."

Sister Zhang thought for a moment and said, "It's feasible, but it's too much trouble. You have to remove the bones from the fish, and sea fish won't do; you have to use river fish because they have too many bones. How much would it be worth?"

Xie Na said, "Let the fishmonger clean it for us. We only want the meat. Let them remove all the bones and raise the price a bit."

Xiao Wei said, "Let's make some to see if it tastes good. Okay, I'll go back and ask the cafeteria over there to make some. Let's give it a try."

Liu Hongliang leaned over the doorway and called, "Xiaowei, Xiaowei, come here." Xiaowei glanced at Liu Hongliang, walked over, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Liu Hongliang said, "I called Professor He, and guess what he said?"

Xiao Wei asked, "How so?"

Liu Hongliang walked towards the table, and Xiao Wei followed. Liu Hongliang sat down and said, "Professor He said that pig manure can be composted. After fermentation, it is very effective in fertilizing the land and can also produce biogas. You know what that means? It can also be used to feed pigs. He said that processing the pig manure and mixing it into the feed can save feed and make the pigs fatter. It is also nutritious and easy to digest."

Xiao Wei stared at Liu Hongliang, stunned, and after a long pause, asked, "So, you're feeding the pigs with pig manure again?"

Liu Hongliang nodded.

Xiao Wei asked, "You're not kidding?"

Liu Hongliang shook his head: "I'm not joking, that's exactly what Professor He said."

Xiao Wei was a little stunned and said, "So that means raising pigs is basically free? You feed them pig manure, they poop and you feed them again, you just need to give them some water. A pig eats three pounds of food and poops out six or seven pounds. If it can't finish eating, it'll have leftovers?"

Liu Hongliang laughed and said, "No, it's mixed into the feed. At most, 20% pig manure is mixed into one pound of feed."

Xiao Wei clapped his hands and said, "Go and learn it. Learn the whole technology of processing pig manure. You go."

Liu Hongliang nodded and said, "Okay, I'm really interested, but I'm not going to learn it and then find someone to do it." Xiao Wei nodded and, after calming down, said, "Tell me in detail what Professor He said."

Liu Hongliang said, "Professor He said that pig manure has a strong self-decomposition ability. If it is used directly as fertilizer, it will kill the soil and affect the harvest. It must be fermented. The fermentation process can not only improve the activity of pig manure, which means that parasites and harmful bacteria are killed, but also remove the odor. Then it is especially good to use it as fertilizer, which can increase soil activity, remove compaction, and increase yield."

The fermentation process produces biogas, which can be used for cooking. If you want to use pig manure as feed, it must be processed from fresh manure, either dried or into silage. I don't really know much about it, but I've heard it works for cattle, pigs, and sheep, and is most effective for fish.

Then there's composting, which uses aerobic composting to improve the structure of pig manure, making it suitable for fertilizing the land. That's too much to say. Let me think... Oh, and there's also raising earthworms and maggots in the manure. After that, the manure can be used to fertilize the land, and the earthworms and maggots can be processed into some kind of high-protein feed. Okay, I'll go find Professor He to learn from him, and we'll experiment at our pig farm in Fengtian. Is that alright?

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "Okay, go to the Fengtian pig farm for a few days and invite Professor He over. Find out how much it costs. We can't use him for free; we have to pay tuition, and we have to pay in advance so he'll be willing to teach."

Sister Zhang came out of the kitchen, brandishing a gleaming cleaver, and pointed it at Xiao Wei: "What, going to Fengtian?"

(End of this chapter)